(December, year 53 AK)

  Half a year has passed with Yuta being so engrossed into the development of his own original genjutsu technique, so he didn’t even notice.

  At first Yuta wanted to achieve the effect of becoming entirely invisible for the enemy with this technique, but with Shisui’s helpful guidance he quickly realized that it would be much more effective if he switches to more subtle approach, as directly becoming invisible would immediately alert the enemy and either the enemy would find the way to dispel the genjutsu or to protect himself from the invisible enemy somehow, either way this is not an effective approach for the genjutsu.

  With that Yuta focused on the ways to influence the target’s perception to make himself less noticeable and divert the target’s attention to something else subtly, so the target wouldn’t notice that they are being under a genjutsu right away, providing Yuta with an opportunity to sneak up on them and finish the job.

  With this concept of a jutsu, Yuta wanted to eventually achieve the end result, when after he cast this jutsu on the enemy, the enemy would ignore his presence entirely, not even registering him as a person and perceiving him more like he was just a part of the environment.

  With Shisui’s help Yuta quickly found the right ways how to influence the chakra network and affect the target’s senses to achieve some of the desired effects, although it was still a long way to go to reach the perfect genjutsu effect that Yuta has in mind. Still, for the past half a year Yuta was working to put those already discovered and working aspects of this jutsu into a proper technique that could be used in the field.

  And for the past couple days Yuta and Shisui have been testing the final technique that Yuta created.

  Yuta was standing near the lake on his usual training spot with a focused expression, his hands were clasped into a hand seal, Shisui stood in a few meters in front of him.

  After a few seconds, Yuta broke the hand seal and pulled out a kunai from his pouch, he was trying to move slowly and smoothly, with a fluid motion of his wrist Yuta thrown his kunai directed at Shisui’s head.

  At the last moment Shisui caught the kunai with his hand and spun it around his index finger with a thoughtful expression, while dispelling the genjutsu he was affected with earlier.

  “It still isn’t working...” Yuta said, being a little dejected.

  “No, actually it’s much better now.” Shisui said thoughtfully, “This genjutsu has potential. Even now, as long as you don’t attract too much attention to yourself, the enemy won’t notice you at all. It could easily work on most Chunins as it is now, especially on those who don’t know about this jutsu.”

  “So, I could defeat a Chunin with this genjutsu?” Yuta asked expectantly.

  “Certainly, most of the Chunins could be easily taken by surprise with it.” Shisui concluded, “But this jutsu has more potential to it than that, you should continue improving it.”

  “Of course, that’s the plan.” Yuta replied, being excited that Shisui has spoken so highly of this jutsu.

  “Did you decide on a name for the jutsu yet?”

  “Name, huh...” Yuta was lost in thought.

  ‘Maybe Erase Presence or False Perception? Those are sure cool names for a jutsu like that, and they reflect its essence, but the jutsu name shouldn’t give away clues of its inner workings and how to fight against it... It should reflect the inability of the enemy to notice me until it’s too late, but not hint on the perception-altering... And it would be a good thing if it sounded scarry and mysterious, to further distract the enemy and play mind games with them...’

  ...

  “Shadow Cloak jutsu, how about that?” Yuta asked thoughtfully.

  “It’s fitting.” Shisui nodded approvingly, “Demonstrating this original jutsu should be enough for an early graduation approval. You’ve said before that you wanted to be on the Itachi’s team, right? Do you have some plan in mind of how to make that happen, or maybe you’ve already predicted that you will end up on his team?”

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  “Ah, no, I don’t actually have a plan, and I don’t know if I would be on his team...” Yuta said with a complicated expression.

  ‘I did say that, but how can I make that happen?’ Yuta thought, ‘It’s not like I could barge into the Hokage’s office and ask Hiruzen to put me on Itachi’s team...’

  “I see.” Shisui said calmly.

  “Hey, Shisui, could you find anything about using sound for a genjutsu for me? I want to implement sound for my genjutsu as a medium, but I'm at a loss of where even I suppose to start with this.”

  “Sure, I’ll see what I could find.” Shisui replied and left shortly after that.

  ...

  ‘Developing a new jutsu is sure are time consuming process, huh...’ Yuta thought on his way back home, ‘I had multiple ideas for cool genjutsu, but now I’m completely preoccupied with just one of them, and it’s not like the work on its development will end anytime soon, it’s more like an endless project where there is always something that I could improve...’

  ...

  A week after that Yuta heard the news during the academy’s classes that the delegation from the Cloud village came to negotiate on the peace treaty between Leaf and Cloud. The Third Great Shinobi War was technically ended before the Nine-Tails incident, when Minato singlehandedly defeated Stone village’s army and also stopped Cloud’s A and B duo. But still, the official peace treaty between Leaf and Cloud was never signed, and there are still some small skirmishes on the borders between the two villages.

  ‘It’s the time for that Hyuga incident, isn’t it... Cloud shinobi, huh, it’s time to throw a wrench into their plans, and by wrench, I mean Shisui...’

  ...

  “So, you are telling me that those Kumogakure ninjas are planning to kidnap the Hyuga clan patriarch’s child, and when they fail and have their head ninja killed, they would threaten the village and demand Hyuga clan patriarch’s dead body as a compensation?” Shisui asked with concern.

  After the academy Yuta went to the training grounds as usual and waited for Shisui to show up and immediately told him what he knew about the Hyuga incident.

  “Yes, something like that.” Yuta replied with certainty.

  “Don’t tell me that Lord Hokage will agree to such ridiculous demands!” Shisui said loudly with disbelief.

  “Yes, he will.” Yuta said confidently and nodded.

  ...

  “Thank you for telling me all this, I won’t let that to happen.” Shisui declared and puffed in a cloud of smoke. He had undone his Shadow Clone jutsu, as he was just a shadow clone, to send these memories to the original Shisui immediately.

  “That should do it...” Yuta said with a sense of accomplishment and went back to training without worrying about the matter any longer.

  ...

  For the next two days Shisui didn’t send his shadow clone to help Yuta train, and on the third day at the academy, Yuta heard the news that was circulating like a wildfire through the entire academy.

  The Leaf shinobi was enraged about the Cloud delegation’s actions, apparently the Cloud’s head ninja tried to kidnap the Hyuga clan’s heiress last night, and he was intercepted and defeated in a timely manner by the famous Uchiha clan’s shinobi, Shisui of the Body Flicker, who had noticed something suspicious earlier and followed the Cloud’s head ninja last night.

  The Cloud delegation’s head ninja was captured alive and handed over to the Anbu, and now the Hokage and the Cloud delegation were renegotiating on the peace treaty and the compensation that the Cloud village should provide for their misconduct.

  Although Yuta overheard that many people who were talking about this incident voiced a strong desire for the Cloud ninja to be killed for what they’ve done, by the end of the academy classes another news hit the academy, apparently, Cloud delegation leader was released and the peace treaty with the Cloud was signed.

  Everyone was a bit dissatisfied with such a soft approach of the Hokage, Yuta felt it in the air, but no one actually dared to say anything against the Hokage’s decision on the matter.

  ...

  Later that day in the Hokage’s office.

  “Sigh, this matter is finally over.” Hiruzen said tiredly, then smiled with approval, “Shisui, you did well last night, if not for your timely action, I can’t even imagine what would’ve happened.”

  “I did what I had to.” Shisui calmly replied, while deep inside he remembered the scenario that Yuta told him of how this event was originally supposed to go. After recalling that the Lord Hokage he trusted so much would’ve given up on the life of his own shinobi, and the Hyuga clan’s patriarch at that, when he did nothing wrong, Shisui felt disappointed in him for the first time.

  “You did a great service to the village.” Hiruzen said and sighed tiredly and continued in a more serious tone, “A year ago Uchiha clan uncovered the treason of Orochimaru and killed him, and now you prevented the war with the Cloud village, the Uchiha clan’s reputation and influence are growing fast, too fast in fact, and there are many people that are very concerned about this matter.”

  As Hiruzen were spoken about Orochimaru, a bit of hatred and grieve slipped into his expression, but unlike of what Shisui thought, Hiruzen was feeling hate not towards the betrayal of Orochimaru but towards Fugaku, who had killed Orochimaru. Orochimaru was his student, and it was his duty to handle the matter with his betrayal, but Hiruzen would never voice such a thing and would keep it to himself.

  And although on the outside Hiruzen was grateful to Fugaku for uncovering the Orochimaru’s betrayal and killing him, but deep inside Hiruzen hated Fugaku for what he did. Hiruzen had suspicions about Orochimaru for a long time but refused to believe that Orochimaru was too far gone, he thought that it wasn’t too late for him to redeem himself, but now he was dead.

  “There was dissatisfaction among the Uchiha clansmen as well.” Shisui commented calmly, “And now that their confidence has been boosted, it would only increase...”