B-Rank Mission Without Koichi
After losing to Itachi in a genjutsu duel and thinking a bit about how genjutsu specialists are scary enemies, Yuta remembered that he wanted to discuss something else with him.
"Let's do it one more time" Yuta said looking at Itachi.
"Sure" Itachi replied slightly surprised.
Yuta started trying to invade Itachi's chakra system centers to influence his visuals and hearing but does so without actually trying and going very easy, at a same time he sensed the foreign chakra invade his chakra system and didn't resist at all. After Itachi successfully cast a genjutsu on Yuta he understands what Yuta was trying to do and allowed him to succeed in casting genjutsu on himself.
When both of them are under a genjutsu of each other Yuta said through his visual and sound genjutsu to Itachi, "I wanted to discuss one more thing with you."
"I see, what is it then?" Itachi replied through his genjutsu on Yuta the same way.
'Damned it's complicated. I would prefer to speak freely with just using a privacy seal because conveying every word through a genjutsu is something else entirely, it's like making a video with my will and imagination and send it to Itachi instead of simply saying it myself… Well, at least it's a good training I guess and it's much harder to spy upon…'
"It's about my Kekkei Genkai or whatever that my ability to foresee the future is" Yuta said through the genjutsu, "I saw something in particular that will happen in the near future. It would be the Kumogakure delegation that will cause trouble for the village, I don't think we would be able to prevent that on our own though. But as you already informed your father once before, maybe you could do that this time too, and maybe he would be able to protect the village."
"I understand, tell me more about what you saw." Itachi said through the genjutsu becoming serious after Yuta mention the new prophecy after all this time.
'If Fugaku can prevent this Kumo scheme and get the merits for it in the eyes of the village, it would be the best outcome possible.' Yuta thought.
"I saw how Kumo delegation leader sneak inside the Hyuga compound and get killed by Hiashi, the Hyuga clan leader, but that was what his intention was from the start." Yuta said through the genjutsu, "The whole Kumo delegation made a scene right the next moment and demanded Hiashi Hyuga's body as compensation, and the village agrees to that. We will lose the Hyuga clan leader if we don't do anything."
'Well, that was not entirely truth, but with this set of information it would work better I think.'
"We can't allow that to happen!" Itachi's illusion said with determination, "Do you know any other specific details about the situation?"
"No, I'm afraid not" Yuta replied, "It should happen maybe in a few months, maybe more than that."
"I see, well then, I will think about how to convey this intel to my father, I'm leaving if that's all." Itachi's illusion said seems in a hurry.
After that both genjutsu was dispelled and before leaving Itachi said casually before leaving, "It seems this round is also mine."
After Itachi left Yuta sat on the grass and thought about how this situation would turn out.
'Just in case if Fugaku becomes too suspicious and starts digging, I should be on guard for some time now, to always be ready to escape any sudden assaults with time-travel. I doubt it will turn out that badly, but I can't be sure, better be safe than sorry. It would be stupid to die by being cut off-guard in this early stage of my new life…'
After those three days passed quickly with a few more genjutsu duels with Itachi. Itachi was coming for a half an hour of genjutsu spars with Yuta during his training routine, Itachi taught Yuta how to perform a genjutsu to influence chakra sensing and block the chakra disruption after that, the techniques is quite hard, but Yuta was able to grasp the essence of it.
The whole technique is quite scarry and Yuta was already convinced about that after being subjected to it multiple times, but it still has one major weakness as he noticed after some time – the genjutsu is easy to dispel by someone else. That means that if Yuta will cast it on the one enemy that has comrades around, the comrades would be able to disrupt the genjutsu easily by physical contact and injecting their own chakra into the affected person.
The shadow clones can do that too, but it needs to be done quickly, as the genjutsu specialist can affect person's chakra in a way that will disrupt the shadow clone jutsu and clones will dispel.
'I think there are only two real ways to defend against this genjutsu technique, it's either to disrupt the chakra as frequently as possible, or to be a genjutsu specialist with higher chakra control than the enemy. And frequent chakra disruption defense has major flaw – I won't be able to perform any ninjutsu while doing it and it will be quite distracting too.
I wonder how Kage level S-rank shinobi that doesn't specialize in it protect themselves against strong genjutsus…'
The time came, and the team-two gathered at the training grounds and went to the Hokage Tower for their first mission without Koichi.
When they came to the mission hall receptionist and Itachi identified his team and said that they want to get a B-rank mission, the middle-aged Chunin at the reception hesitate and said with a worry, "You will be going on your first mission without your Jonin sensei, shouldn't you take an easier mission instead?"
The mission hall was spacious with many shinobi who are going through accepting and reporting missions, as well as there is a dozen or so receptionists who work in the mission hall. Some of the shinobi that were close to team-two start paying attention to them after hearing their conversation, displaying a wide range of emotions from pride and surprise to envy and disapproval.
But there was a lot more of the shinobi that looking in a positive way at the team-two, as the Chunin exams held recently and the team was taken all the top places in it, so now they are being frequently recognized by the shinobi in the village and sometimes even by the normal people.
It's apparent that the receptionist is just worrying about the young talents of the village and nothing more.
"Koichi sensei was confident on letting us operate on our own." Itachi calmly stated, not paying attention to the curious shinobi around, "Please give me the list of the available missions of the B-rank." Itachi stated with confidence.
"Fine" Receptionist sighed dejectedly, then he went to the shelves behind him and after a minute of searching through the shelves he returned to the desk and gave Itachi two folders with mission files.
After a few minutes of searching Itachi pulled one file from the folder and stated that he wanted to take that mission.
When the receptionist saw the mission file that Itachi chose, his forehead starts to sweat, he said with even more hesitation, "Are you sure about that, it can be really dangerous, isn't that too much for your fresh team?"
"I'm sure this mission is perfect for my team's skillset." Itachi stated with determination.
"Fine" The receptionist sighed even harder than the last time, "But you have to be extremely careful through this mission, there is too many risks involved!"
"I understand that" Itachi said getting the scroll from the receptionist with the detailed information on a mission. While the team was leaving the Hokage Tower the receptionist and many shinobi looked at them with pity and regret, thinking about the same thing – how young and talented shinobi being too hasty in becoming famous for their own good.
The team went straight to the village gates for going on a mission straight away.
"Is everyone having all the needed supplies for the up to two weeks-long mission?" Itachi asked while the team was going through the gates and registering to leave the village. After getting affirmative response from Hikari and Yuta, the team left the village and went into the north-west direction in their usual formation, Hikari was in front, Itachi in the rear and Yuta in the middle.
After a whole day of traveling, the team established a camp for the night, Yuta set up a protective fuinjutsu perimeter with his seals and the team sat in the small cave, the sun was almost set, and it was getting dark. Itachi lighted the glowstick and opened the scroll with the mission details to go through it before discussing the mission.
"What is our mission?" Hikari exclaimed with curiosity and annoyance, "It was the whole day, can you tell us already what it is? The receptionist was really worried so I'm excited to hear what our mission is, is it some sort of assassination inside the other major shinobi village's lands?"
After that Itachi closed the scroll and put it away.
"It's the protection mission in the Land of Grass." Itachi stated calmly.
"What? How that can be? But it's the B-rank mission, right? So, there must be some fights involved, right?" Hikari blurted out a lot of questions with the expression of being betrayed.
"Yes, it involves the Iwagakure shinobi supposed attack that will happen soon on the certain small-time noble in the Land of Grass." Itachi sighed after seeing Hikari being so impatient, "The noble's name is Yuichi Nakamura that leaves in the small town in the middle of the Land of Grass. The mission details stated that he is the supporter of Konoha in the Land of Grass, and the village received the information that Iwagakure will try to eliminate Yuichi soon. Our mission is obviously to not let that happen."
"That is fine, I guess." Hikari said slightly dejected, "But how long we will be stationed there waiting?"
"That is also why I choose this mission." Itachi said, "It stated in the mission description that if attack happens, it will happen in between three to seven days, that means that if attack wouldn't happen in the weeks-time then it would mean that Iwa canceled the plans, or the intel was incorrect from the beginning, and we will be free to return back to the village."
"One more thing" Itachi said becoming serious, "The mission objectives states that we should guard the target in the open, we are not allowed to hide and conceal ourselves."
'Wait a minute, this means…' Yuta's mind starts working fast, realizing the implications.
"That means that there will be another Konoha team that will stay in the dark!" Yuta exclaimed in realization.
Itachi simply nods, confirming Yuta's theory.
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[AN: You are right Yuta, better be safe, the novel will end prematurely if you get yourself killed after all…
Also, I want to say that the genjutsu is so unexplored area of the Narutoverse and I'm being very excited to see how everything will build up and turn out in the higher level of genjutsu usage by Yuta.
8 chapters in advance on patreon /SycoreNovels
Any support will be appreciated!
Thanks for the power stones you giving this novel, maybe we can get into the power rating one day!]