(December, year 54 AK)
Yuta felt a big strain on his chakra and mind while holding onto his genjutsu.
'Why is this so hard? I had used this genjutsu that time against my combat evaluation examiner before I became Genin, and I had much less chakra and skills back then, and that examiner also probably was a Jonin. Then why it's so hard now?' Yuta thought as the sweet starts forming on his forehead under the huge pressure and the chakra drain.
'This Keisuke guy must have a good genjutsu resistance or something. Or maybe it's the influence of an extreme mental state after losing a teammate?' Yuta analyzed, 'Whatever the cause, it makes it difficult to establish and maintain a genjutsu over him, but if it's just the Shadow Cloak then I'll manage...'
Keisuke dodged the fireballs again and was about to continue his attack on Itachi, as Itachi moved his hands, redirecting the shurikens hidden in fireballs through the metal wires that still connected to them.
Keisuke, being under the influence of Shadow Cloak genjutsu this time, didn't notice the approaching shurikens that appeared out of fireballs. But he did notice the distinct moves of Itachi's hands and he immediately jumped back as hard as he could, creating a small explosion where he stood, sending bunch of dirt and rocks flying in all directions, escaping the shurikens that he didn't see just in time.
As Keisuke was flying back, being still in the air, Yuta felt how his connection to the genjutsu disappeared abruptly, telling him that his genjutsu was broken.
'Damn it...' Yuta thought regretfully, 'He noticed something and broke my genjutsu so fast... It would be harder than I thought...'
"Nice trick." Keisuke stated calmly as he landed and moved to attack Itachi again right away.
'I won't be able to fool him with Shadow Cloak like that, If I continue to use it to hide Itachi's attacks. He is watching Itachi closely and will just notice something off right away again. I have to use it to hide myself and to try to attack him from behind, maybe...'
'Why do I feel like it's a bad idea?' Yuta thought, 'Well, with his level of strength, if my sneak attack fails, he would just kill me outright, I won't be able to escape quick enough...'
...
'Whatever, it's not like I have any other way of defeating him.' Yuta thought and casted the Shadow Cloak genjutsu on Keisuke once again.
This time Yuta used it to make Keisuke unable to notice himself, and as his genjutsu stabilized, Yuta clenched his teeth from the intense strain on his chakra and mind, as he slowly moved out from his hiding place and started to approach Keisuke, circling him from behind with a kunai in his hand.
Yuta thought about throwing the kunai but decided not to. Keisuke was moving fast all the time, and it would be easy to miss. Besides, Yuta understood how his own genjutsu works and knew, that if he throws a kunai, he suspected that Keisuke's trained reflexes will kick in and he would be able to dodge it, even if he would be unable to recognize it properly with his affected by genjutsu senses.
It could work against Chunins and Genins, but against a full-fledged Jonin, Yuta believed that it most likely won't work, and Keisuke would still be able to dodge the thrown kunai, even if it was obscured by the Shadow Cloak genjutsu.
Shadow Cloak doesn't make the object invisible, it only makes the target to be unable to recognize and comprehend it, making the target to dismiss the object from their mind as something insignificant and as if it was just a part of the environment.
Yuta still thought that there was a small chance that the thrown kunai could slip past Keisuke's defenses, but he believed that he would have better chances if he slowly approached Keisuike himself and stabbed him in a close range.
Itachi, while fighting Keisuke, was obviously able to see Yuta, but he didn't even look in Yuta's direction to not tip off Keisuke.
As Yuta came closer, he waited for an opportunity and it didn't take long, at some point Keisuke moved closer to Yuta, and Yuta immediately launched an attack on him, aiming his kunai at Keisuke's heart from behind.
The next moment Yuta felt as if he was being hit by a train, he didn't even see what happened. At some point Keisuke noticed that there was something off and immediately broke the genjutsu and hit Yuta with a kick to the ribs hard, sending him flying.
"Your tricks won't work on me, kid." Keisuke commented and continued his fight against Itachi.
Yuta hit the ground hard and then rolled uncontrollably a bit more.
As Yuta stopped rolling, he felt that there was something deeply wrong inside of him and he wasn't able to breathe at all, and he felt how his consciousness started to fade.
'Damn it...' He thought, as he tried to understand the condition he was in. He thought that he was probably dying and his ribs were likely broken and had pierced his lungs and maybe even his heart, 'Well, at least I'll recover my wasted paper tag bombs...' was his last thought as he, with his fading consciousness, activated the time-travel right away.
...
Next instant Yuta found himself observing the mansion's entrance area from the mansion's roof, he returned back and now he is in the middle of his watch shift over the mansion, it was the evening before the night when the attack happens.
Yuta's mind was blank as he was watching the area, but deep inside he felt how irritation was building up slowly.
'Again, damn it... I was killed again...' Yuta thought tiredly with annoyance.
'Fine, whatever!' Yuta thought, 'You can kill me once, twice, a thousand times... But I'll still win in the end!'
With such thought Yuta continued his useless watch shift as he knew for a fact that nothing would happen during this time.
When it became dark and his shift ended and Itachi came to take over, Yuta went inside the mansion.
"Hey, did something happen?" Shisui asked Yuta while suddenly appearing beside him as Yuta was walking thought the mansion.
"No, not really." Yuta calmly answered as he looked at Shisui, feeling a bit frustrated by the fact that Shisui didn't intervened a single time in those two timelines where Yuta died.
'Why did he appear here suddenly? He didn't approach me here at this time before. Did he noticed something from how I look?' Yuta thought surprised.
'Now that I think about it, why didn't Shisui intervene during the fight? If he looked over us during the fight, then he should be able to save me in time, if not during the first time with Maki, then at least during the second time with Keisuke, right? Did something happen?'
"Hey Shisui..." Yuta said quietly as he looked around to make sure that no one is listening, "I believe that we will be attacked tonight."
"By whom?" Shisui quickly asked as he became serious.
"Stone ninjas, four in total, there will be a Jonin among them." Yuta replied.
"I see." Shisui said and didn't ask further.
Later on, Yuta went to sleep but he had a hard time falling asleep this time.
'Now that I think about it, those Stone ninjas probably created some sort of a distraction and lured Shisui away from the mansion, so when they attacked, Shisui wasn't there.' Yuta thought, 'But now that I warned Shisui, it would be hard for them to lure him away from the mansion this time. Or am I overthinking things?'
After a while, Yuta finally was able to fall asleep.
What felt like a next instant, Yuta was woken up by a knocking on the door of his room, as he opened his eyes, Yuta saw that it was already bright outside and it was already morning.
"Hey, Yuta, breakfast is ready." Yuta heard Hikari's voice from outside his door.
"Coming." He replied in a bewilderment.
Yuta slowly stood up and walked to the window, he looked outside.
'Yea, it's morning alright...' He thought, 'So, if I warn Shisui, the Stone ninjas don't attack during the night? It's getting complicated...'
...
'Should I time-travel again and not warn Shisui?' Yuta contemplated, 'Who knows when and how those Stone ninjas would attack now, that I had spooked them by warning Shisui, maybe it would be for the best if I do time-travel and fight them at night again...'
'That Keisuke guy is tuff, but I don't believe that the three of us won't be able to deal with him. And if it comes to that, I don't believe that they are capable of stalling Shisui for long with whatever tricks they had used to lure him away or whatever, so in the worst-case scenario – I just have to stall for a bit and not die stupidly like the last two times and Shisui should come back rather sooner than later.'
With that thought, Yuta went into his mindscape and activated the time-travel once again.
And just like that, once again Yuta found himself observing the mansion's entrance area from the roof, it was evening again he still has to look over the area for another four hours before Itachi would take over.
'This is getting repetitive...' Yuta thought.
--- AN ---
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