(June, year 54 AK)
As Yuta ran through the forest, struggling a little to keep up with the others, he continued to think about what he was about to face likely sooner than later.
'The idea of killing people is still somewhat repulsive to me, since I came from the world that was relatively peaceful, and the concept of killing people was absolutely forbidden to even think about for someone like me back then. But it sure is different now. If you end up in Rome, then you better act like Romans do, and all that I guess.'
'With my time-travel ability I surely would be able to go a fully pacifist route if I truly wish so, there surely a way to live a life in this world and achieve everything I want without killing, but such approach will be much more challenging since it would be almost impossible to be a ninja in the ninja village while absolutely refusing to kill people. And I'm not going to handicap myself like that just to uphold the morals and standards from my previous life.'
'Someone might say that it's incoherent and inconsistent for me to change my morals and standards when it suits me like that, but I call that being flexible and able to adapt, I believe there is nothing wrong with that.'
And although Yuta felt how fatigue keeps accumulating, he didn't pay it any attention and kept thinking about different things while being unbothered by his muscles that were aching more and more and by his body that becomes gradually heavier. He knew that his body would be able to keep running like that for a few more hours, just enough so the sun would set, and it would get completely dark, so they would have to stop for the night.
And as for the unpleasant feelings and pain in his muscles, Yuta completely ignored all of that as he would ignore a stamina bar in a videogame, knowing that it would last just enough.
'Damn, I must be physically weakest person here, and by a wide margin at that...' Yuta thought as he noticed that he was the only person struggling with keeping the pace, 'Well, doesn't matter, I'm trained enough to withstand this journey, and in the real fight I won't be relying on my physique and taijutsu at all, so it doesn't matter if I end up fighting while physically exhausted. And I can't wait to be able to test out my new sound based genjutsus in the actual fight.'
The group of seven ninjas was moving through the forest to the east at a fast speed.
Although Yuta didn't notice, but Shinji and the other Chunins glanced at him multiple times through the journey.
At first, they were worried seeing how Yuta was clearly struggling to keep up the fast pace that they were going, but as time passed and as Yuta kept going despite clearly being exhausted, enduring it as a seasoned ninja would, the look in their eyes gradually changed to an approving one.
Unknowingly, Yuta gained a little bit of recognition from the senior ninjas there, as someone who knows how to endure the hardships to not slow down the others.
As it was getting progressively darker, after a few hours of running Shisui stopped the group to camp for the night. And although they are still in the Land of Fire and not that far from the village, since there is an enemy group that is trying to infiltrate the Land of Fire, Shisui decided to stay alert and assign shifts for them to stay awake and watch over the others through the night.
It would be dark for six hours, so Shisui assigned three shifts for two hours each, so everyone will get at least four hours of sleep. They didn't make a fire or cook food, resorting to food pills instead.
First shift was Shisui and Shinji, second was Yohei and Itachi, and third was Hikari and Isao, while Yuta, unexpectedly to him, was told to rest for the whole six hours, since tomorrow they will be moving fast all day and he will need all the strength he could master.
And although that might seem unfair to others, in this group of mostly experienced ninjas no one even bathed an eye to this arrangement, as if it was only natural. Even Hikari didn't react at all after hearing that Yuta got the privilege to sleep through the night without the need to take a shift like everyone else.
After hearing Shisui's arrangement and that he was free to sleep through the night, Yuta found a suitable spot on the ground, put his pouch down and used it as a pillow as he laid down. Overtaken by the exhaustion, he fell asleep in the matter of a single digit of seconds as he closes his eyes.
...
"Yuta, wake up."
Yuta opened his eyes instantly and looked around, it was still dark, but it was getting lighter a little bit by the second, Yuta looked up and saw Shisui, standing beside him, others were already awake and readying up to move out.
'Damn, I could've sworn that I only closed my eyes for a second, but it's already early morning, no arguing with that. If I didn't know already that I can't time-travel forward in time, I would've believed that it was exactly what happened here...' Yuta complained in his thoughts jokingly.
Yuta quickly stood up, put back his pouch and tidied his clothes, and checked up on his ninja tools.
"Okay, we are moving out." Shisui commanded and they started moving.
As they ran at high speed, Yuta took a food pill and swallowed it to sustain himself through the journey.
'Ninja life sucks, who would've known, huh...' Yuta thought as he felt his still sore and slightly stiff muscles as he picked up the pace, while wishing he could eat some grilled beef at Yakiniqu-Q, take a shower, and sleep in a warm and comfortable bed instead of a cold, hard and damp forest floor.
The sun was gradually rising, and it was getting brighter. After about six hours of running at a high speed Yuta felt that the exhaustion is piling up again, but knowing that they are moving to the eastern borders, Yuta estimated that it was about four more hours at this pace to reach their destination, and he was certain that his body will last at least this much, so he just ignored the exhaustion and continued moving as if nothing was wrong.
After a few more hours Shinji and the other two Chunins were glancing at Yuta with a bit of approval for his character due to him enduring the journey silently despite obvious signs of extreme exhaustion, although Yuta didn't notice that.
Itachi and Hikari, on the other hand, was keeping up without much problem.
Then Shisui stopped the group at some point.
"Let's take a short break, we are almost at the area where the border patrol that encountered the enemies are operating. From this point forward it would be a chance of encountering the enemy at any moment." Shisui said as he looked at his teammates.
Yuta immediately sat down where he was standing, so he could rest his legs a little. He was breathing heavily and sweating a lot, but the look in his eyes was still clear and unbothered, and he looked around, paying attention to his surroundings, while his expression remained calm collected, despite the exhaustion.
Itachi and Hikari sat down beside him as well.
"Are you good? Will you be able to fight in your condition?" Hikari asked as she looked at Yuta with some concern.
"I'm fine." Yuta replied firmly. At first he wanted to make some joke and maybe have some banter with Hikari as he usually does, but remembering that they are having company here, he refrained from doing that, since he already appeared as the weaker link in the group and he didn't wanted to decrease everyone's opinion of him even further by joking around, so instead he decided to act formal and professional.
If it was just Shisui, Itachi and Hikari, then Yuta wouldn't mind such things that much, but in front of an elite Chunins he felt a little restrained.
"Are you sure you are fine, kid?" Shinji asked as he came closer and sized up Yuta with an evaluating look, "If you truly would have to fight soon, what could you even do in that state? You won't be able to recover that much with just a short break."
'I can't really tell if he is worrying about me or is he worried that I would get in the way...' Yuta thought as he looked back at Shinji.
"I'll be fine, I'm not used to engage in a taijutsu at all, I'm a genjutsu specialist." Yuta replied calmly and formally, without showing much emotion, "My physique was always quite weak compared to others, and it doesn't matter much if I'm physically exhausted or not - my combat capabilities won't be affected by it that much. But I have decent chakra reserves, and my genjutsu is decent as well."
--- AN ---
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Thanks to Loalola, Krishna_Rajbanshi_5171, Elijah_Thomas_1921, Krishna_Razz, Zen_Slacker and Eyes_Of_The_Void for the power stones. (Might've missed someone, since this is a scheduled chapter)