(June 30th, year 54 AK)
Yuta entered the training grounds and approached Itachi and Hikari, who were already there. It was quite nostalgic for Yuta to see them again after more than seven years of training, but he made an effort to act as his usual self and greeted them casually.
Shortly after Shisui showed up and after a brief greeting, he said, "It was just a bit more than two months since our last teamwork training, but all three of you had improved since then, so I won't go easy on you as I did back then. Your goal, as always, is to defeat me, or at least to score a hit. Everything goes."
After hearing that, Yuta concentrated his chakra senses on Shisui. Since his chakra and skills had grown considerably after the last time Yuta tried to get a hang of the extent of Shisui's chakra, he was curious if he would be able to get past the Shisui's chakra disguise technique now.
As he did that, he quickly realized, that he had no problem to sense past the disguise now, but what he sensed next had made him doubt his senses for a moment, as he was able to estimate Shisui's chakra, he felt it was about two times of what he has himself, about 10C.
...
'This isn't right... Ah, I see now, it must be a shadow clone, not the real Shisui.' Yuta thought in a realization, 'Or maybe he just exhausted most of his chakra before coming here, if so, he might regret it later. After all, with him having just this amount of chakra right now, I should be able to get a hold on him with my Shadow Chains now, although just barely for a split-second, but since I have Itachi and Hikari here, it should be enough to score a hit on him this time.'
...
'Although, if Shisui decide to get serious, he could pull an "Itachi vs Kurenai" trick on me, after all, he also has MS and a great genjutsu skills, same as Itachi had in the original story during his clash with Kurenai, so this move is a gamble... Well, you'll never know until you try, right?'
"You have time until night to beat me. We start now." Shisui said after a brief pause, and immediately flickered away and Yuta lost the track of his chakra.
'It's impressive how well he can conceal his presence like that.' Yuta thought.
"So, what's the plan, the usual?" Yuta asked as Shisui disappeared.
He was implying the usual tactics the three of them were using last time in a fight against Shisui during their last teamwork training, means that Hikari engages head-on, Itachi uses medium-ranged shurikenjutsu and ninjutsu attacks and closes in whenever there is an opening, and Yuta playing support with shurikenjutsu, creating opportunities for Hikari and Itachi.
The last time such tactic was working better than anything else, although it still wasn't enough back then to even score a single hit on Shisui, but now, with how much Itachi had improved after awakening the Sharingan, and with his own significantly improved genjutsu skills, Yuta figured that they have a solid chance, especially since Shisui's chakra is only 10C right now, it was low enough to be just barely in Yuta's reach to get a hold of it with his Shadow Chains genjutsu.
...
"Yes, let's start with that and see how it goes." Itachi calmly replied as he activated his Sharingan and looked around for Shisui's trail.
"Fine by me." Hikari replied enthusiastically as she unsheathed her tanto sword.
Then Itachi led the three of them into the patch of forest to the side of the training grounds. It wasn't a large forest, just about eight hundred meters wide (half a mile), but it was plenty to hide and move around, with all the trees and plants everywhere the visibility inside of it was very limited.
As Yuta followed Itachi and Hikari closely behind, he thought, 'Now that I think about it, could it be that Shisui had created a shadow clone with this exact amount of chakra to be our opponent on purpose? Could it be that he saw through my increased chakra and estimated my limits of the Shadow Chains jutsu, creating that shadow clone to test me with it? After all he probably saw me using the jutsu back then.'
'To think that he was able to perfectly analyze and estimate it's limits in just one glance, it is beyond impressive, it is outright terrifying, I don't want to be his enemy, ever...'
...
'No, I probably just imagining it. It must be just a coincidence. I should focus on the task at hand instead of overthinking things.'
Itachi was moving in the lead through the forest and Hikari was closely by his side, while Yuta was slightly behind them, that's when the big fireball suddenly targeted the group from above.
It was moving fast, almost as fast as the Water Style ninjutsu that Ao had used against them during the last mission, but this time Yuta had much more chakra and after more than seven years of constant training his skills had improved, his senses and environmental awareness had improved as well, so this time Yuta was able to react and jump to the side on his own, although only by using the chakra to boost his speed to the limits to be able to react in time.
Just with his weak physique he wouldn't be able to react and avoid that attack at all, but with his improved chakra and chakra control he was able to boost his body to a much greater extent than before, and with his improved chakra, his chakra senses and general awareness of everything around him was on a completely different level than before.
Even with his eyes and body being unable to notice in time and react to the attack this fast, his heightened senses and chakra boost of his body was able to close the gap and allowed him to successfully avoid the attack in time.
But in the middle of the jump Yuta quickly realized, that just like the last time with Hikari, this attack was aimed to separate the group. Yuta was behind and the only way to avoid this attack from above, was to jump back, while Itachi and Hikari, Yuta noticed, were avoiding it by jumping to the sides. All three of them would be briefly separated, Yuta realized.
...
Yuta remembered what Shisui said before - "I don't like how all three of you had separated and fought your own battles..."
'So that must be his plan then.' Yuta realized as he landed on the ground. The big fire ball hit the ground where he and his teammates were just a moment before, now the fire was obstructing Yuta's vision and had separated his team, 'He wants us to learn to stay together and not get separated in situations like these...'
'Well, too bad, I didn't have a choice but to jump backwards. Hikari probably doesn't have anything to block that fire attack either, so she jumped to the side as well. Itachi has Fire Style, it's not the most effective way to block another Fire Style ninjutsu, but he should've been able to cancel it out using his own Fire Style ninjutsu of the same strength. Now that his strength had increased significantly after awakening the Sharingan, he should be able to release an attack of equal power to that fireball just in time to cancel it out.'
...
'Ah, I see now. This is not actually Itachi's fault that we acted this way and got separated. That attack was on the edge of my ability to dodge, and I acted immediately, I didn't have time to think. Even if Itachi was able to produce the Fire Style ninjutsu of equal strength in time, I was already starting to dodge it, so he probably calculated that since I was already moving away from the group, it would be better to not waste chakra and also dodge it instead of blocking it with the ninjutsu of his own.'
'In simple terms, this error is the teamwork problem in its root. We must regroup before it's too late...'
Those thoughts flashed through Yuta's mind in a split-second, he briefly glanced between his left and right, the huge fire was still going out in front of him. He was deciding with whom he should try to regroup first, Hikari to his left, or Itachi to his right.
But before he was able to make even a single step, shurikens started flying in his direction one by one, forcing him to avoid them in small jumps backwards, further separating him from his teammates.
Yuta pulled out a kunai in preparation to deflect the next shuriken instead of jumping even further away from his group, but as he moved his kunai to deflect the incoming shuriken, he felt that he was missing something here. Then, when the shuriken was about to collide with his kunai, Yuta saw it, the shuriken had slightly changed its trajectory mid-flight.
'Wires! It's connected with ninja wires!' Yuta quickly realized, but it was already too late to adjust the position of his kunai in time.
The shuriken's trajectory slightly curved around his kunai and hit Yuta on the right shoulder. The shuriken, although was flying quite fast, it hadn't much strength to it, and the shuriken only pierced Yuta's shoulder slightly, not going very deep, so the wound could be considered superficial.
But the next instant, Yuta had puffed in a small cloud of smoke, revealing a wooden log instead.
'Damn, that was close! I barely made it...' Yuta thought as he stood behind a nearby tree, 'Although judging by how the shuriken had stricken my substitution, Shisui was quite careful not to injure me too much. In a real fight that shuriken should've gone very deep, ruining my entire shoulder and disabling my right arm completely, but it seems that it's only supposed to make a slight injury instead.'
...
'That was quite nice of him, but isn't he underestimating me too much? No, before the last time-loop training I wouldn't be able to react in time like that at all, so he probably was sure that it would hit, that's why he reduced the power of that shuriken...' Yuta thought as he was looking around, trying to find Shisui before he attacks again.
--- AN ---
Sorry for the slow updates lately, I'll try to improve.
If you like the story, please consider writing a comment, a review, voting with power stones, or check out my Patreon.
11 advanced chapters are currently available (patreon.com/SycoreNovels).
Thanks to Krishna_Razz, Loalola, Elijah_Thomas_1921, yuezfn, spirouFR, Jayroy_63, Anshuman_Nirwan_0743, Zen_Slacker, Aiden_Helmick, Denuncia for the power stones.