(6th of August, year 55 AK)
Hikari's stance becomes stiff as Yuta felt how his Shadow Chains genjutsu took effect.
But, instead of panic or something like that, Yuta saw the same smug and calm expression on Hikari's face. Her eyes were looking at Yuta with an expression as if to ask 'That's it?'.
'She must be bluffing, I'm not going to waste this opportunity in hesitation.' Yuta thought as he pulled a kunai, while controlling his Shadow Mirage genjutsu to make six copies of himself that would act like him, just in case.
Yuta immediately ran at Hikari with a kunai, his six illusions did the same thing and were running by his side.
Next instant Yuta felt how his Shadow Cloak genjutsu being broken again, but that didn't slow him down even for an instant. He noticed that her eyes now are following him, the real him, so he stopped wasting effort on controlling his illusions and they disappeared as he was closing the distance rapidly.
All his preparations with Shadow Cloak and Shadow Mirage turned completely useless.
Yuta, without slowing down, double-checked his Shadow Chains genjutsu through the connection with it as its caster. The jutsu held firmly, there wasn't any flaw in it that he could spot, it grips her chakra network as it supposed to.
But seeing her smug expression as if she had already won the fight, he poured even more chakra into his Shadow Chains genjutsu, effectively going all-in. He reinforced it to the absolute limit of his ability, chakra strength and chakra control. At this moment he believed that even that Stone ninja Jonin wouldn't be able to break free from it that easily, and Hikari has much less chakra than that guy had, making it absolutely impossible for her to shake it off.
Up until now, during his previous fight against Kota, and in this fight against Hikari, Yuta only spent about 25G of chakra, and before he cast his Shadow Chains he still had about 55G remaining, since all his subtle-type genjutsu doesn't need much chakra, especially when being cast on ninjas with less total chakra than him, and he almost didn't use chakra to enhance his moves for close combat, so up to this point he still had most of his chakra intact.
But just right now he had spent 20G on one cast of Shadow Chains initially, while normally casting it on an opponent with about 4C of chakra like Hikari would only cost him 10G tops, so he overdid it from the start. Then he poured 15G more into it, making it as strong as he possibly could and as his skills allowed, leaving him with only about 20G of chakra left. In one burst, on a single jutsu, he had spent more chakra than during all the time before that, during both his fights combined.
Spending such a huge amount of chakra all at once left Yuta strained and his breathing intensified instantly, he felt a strong sense of tiredness all over his body and mind, but that was expected and it didn't slow him down as he was almost reached her with his kunai ready to strike. Victory was already certain in his mind, he couldn't lose this now, or so he believed.
While checking on his Shadow Chains genjutsu through the chakra link he saw how black chains were firmly tied Hikari up, he didn't believe even for a second that she could break free on her own, and especially not in time since he was already almost at a striking range.
The time in Yuta's perception had slowed down, or so he felt since he was so concentrated on his next move, and as he made another step, he made a stabbing motion towards Hikari's neck, intending to stop at the last moment of course.
Next instant, as his kunai was already closing in to Hikari's neck, Yuta noticed how her smug expression slightly changed, she suddenly smirked. Yuta knew that smirk, that same smirk that she makes almost every time she was about to win a fight. Yuta didn't want to believe that it was possible, he still clings to the idea that she was bluffing until the very end, and so his kunai didn't slow down in the slightest.
The time in Yuta's perception slowed down even more, and then, as his kunai was about to finally reach her neck and claim the victory, he suddenly saw something that he previously believed was impossible. Or rather not saw but felt through the connection with his Shadow Chains genjutsu.
The black chains that were wrapped around Hikari were suddenly being cut in multiple places by some unknown force with no prior signs of anything out of place happening. The one instant his chains were firmly holding her in place, and in the next instant they were already being cut in many places, and his genjutsu were falling apart alongside with them.
The black chains in his jutsu are just an illusory component that helps to convince the mind of the target that the body is firmly restricted. But even then, with chains being just a helping illusion and not an actual restriction, with them being cut like that, genjutsu becomes about a dozen times weaker.
Yuta didn't had time to react to any of it as he felt how Hikari's chakra flow slowed down momentarily and then strongly surged through her chakra pathways in the next instant, she did it much faster and stronger than before, and his Shadow Chains genjutsu that he had poured most of his chakra into, that was already being weakened many times with the loss of the illusory component - chains, it was being torn apart through a simple dispelling technique just like that.
And before his kunai could touch her neck, Hikari spring into action and intercepted his hand by the wrist just in time. Her smug expression intensified.
'Well, shit...' Yuta only was able to think as even the Calm State wasn't able to fully suppress the intensity of his current predicament.
Yuta, as he was not a close combat taijutsu type ninja, had a major weakness when it comes to taijutsu, and against someone like Hikari who specializes in taijutsu and speed, being caught off guard like that while being too close to her, he had absolutely no chance resisting, not at all.
Yuta only could fight against such opponents by maintaining his distance and by using all sorts of tricks, tactics, and especially his genjutsu. And right now, as he was standing at a striking range and his hand was already being close to Hikari's neck, being caught off guard at such a moment without any time to use any of his jutsu, the game was basically over, as over as it gets.
So, when Hikari suddenly broke free from his Shadow Chains genjutsu and started to move, Yuta was already done for, unable to react in time and get away from her, so his hand was being easily caught by the wrist and stopped.
Although all of that happened in an instant, Yuta's calmed mind was already processed everything, and although he wasn't able to understand how it even came to this, he already calculated that he was screwed beyond reason and can't possibly continue this fight from his current position.
So, he did the only thing that remained for him to do, or so he tried at least.
Yuta opened his mouth to announce that he surrenders, but even that didn't go as planned.
The next moment Yuta felt a pull and how his feet were lifted from the ground, and then the world made a quick and sudden spin in his vision as Yuta felt how all of the air were being knocked out of him the second time as he landed with his back to the ground with a lot of force behind it.
He was being disoriented for a moment, so he didn't see how Hikari took away his kunai, and then heavily landed on his chest with a knee while pressing his own kunai to his neck.
Yuta felt that if there were even a tiny bit more force in that knee that landed on his chest, his ribs would have been broken for sure.
As Yuta's vision stopped spinning, he saw a smug grin on Hikari's face right above him.
"The fight is over! The winner is Hikari!" The proctor announced loudly.
"Could you at least now stop using that disgusting technique of yours?" Hikari asked with a bit of dissatisfaction as she pulled away the kunai and stood up and reached out with her hand offering him help to get up.
"And let you enjoy it even more? Pass." Yuta said calmly as if nothing happened as he reached out and grabbed her hand and was pulled back up.
In his unnaturally calm mind, the only calculation that happened at that moment, is that by doing so and not refusing her hand he would win a few more points with the higher-ups while showing his camaraderie spirit and no grudges being held over a fellow ninja of the Leaf.
But in reality, with his Calm State running the show, he didn't feel a thing. Only a slight dissatisfaction about his plans for this fight being unable to survive the reality, that's all.
Yes, he lost this fight, but he didn't feel any emotions about it right now, just some general mild dissatisfaction that somehow made it through his Calm State. But he knew that the moment he would release the Calm State, he might even crash out, so he held it active.
"Sigh. You are no fun like this. You are ruining my mood." Hikari commented after she pulled him back up.
"What even was that? How did you do that?" Yuta asked.
"And why would I tell you?" She replied with smugness.
"Because if there is some major flaw in my techniques, it would endanger the whole squad." Yuta replied calmly as he quickly calculated the best argument to make her give away the trick. And as soon as Yuta learns the trick, he would be able to come up with countermeasures against it and re-do this fight with time-travel, or so he thought.
"Relax. Your genjutsu doesn't have any flaws. It's something only I could do." And then she smirked as she said next, "But I'm not telling you how exactly I did it. From now on I'm the strongest among the two of us. It's time for you to accept reality. I won."
"Yea, whatever..." Yuta replied and went back to the participants balcony. He was intent to watch the fight between Itachi and Hikari before he'll decide what to do next.
As he walked, he thought about his chances of winning against Hikari if he were to time-travel, but the picture wasn't pretty for him. He realized that even knowing how Hikari will fight against him and knowing about her ability to somehow detect him though genjutsu and the ability to even break his Shadow Chains jutsu, this knowledge doesn't give him much advantage.
Until he finds out how she did it, he can't win against her. All his cards were beaten, he can't use any of them against her, it just doesn't work.
'Something isn't right...' Yuta thought as he was walking up the stairs, with Hikari following him a bit behind.
--- AN ---
Well, I was stalling for a while with the conclusion of this fight, knowing that many readers wouldn't like it this way. But there was nothing I could do about that. It has to be this way. It was destined to be this way the moment I came up with the idea for this entire fanfic and started writing it.
There absolutely will be more hardship, seatbacks and losses on Yuta's path until he reaches the top. This is not a wish-fulfillment kind of story, and if some readers can't handle this much, I'll understand, but I absolutely will not compromise my original vision for this story and will continue writing it the way I want it to be. I don't see a point in writing the story if I constantly think about what the majority of readers would like or dislike, I need to have some integrity and consistency here, and I'll write the way I like the story to be, because I don't see any reason for me to continue writing if I can't do it the way I want, even if some readers will dislike it.
I hope most of my readers among those that like OP MC and wish-fulfillment stories would understand.
If you like the story, please write a comment, a review or vote with power stones, it helps a lot.
Join Discord for updates and notifications or just to chat. (link in the fanfic's description)
27 advanced chapters are currently available on p@treon, /SycoreNovels
Thanks to Krishna_Razz, Denuncia, FebriGonzales for the power stones.