(October, year 52 AK)
"Shisui-senpai, your specialty is genjutsu?" Yuta was surprised hearing that, "But aren't you're known for your proficiency with the Shunshin (Body Flicker) jutsu?"
"Let me show you." Shisui said and closed his eyes as he performed three hand seals in quick succession. As he did so, he opened his red eyes with the Sharingan pattern visible in them and quickly ran around Yuta, creating multiple afterimages of himself, and Yuta immediately found himself surrounded by a dozen copies of Shisui facing him, he was so excited to see this signature jutsu of Shisui up close that he was almost forgot to maintain the concentration on his water-walking.
"Can you tell..." One of the afterimages said, "... where is the real me?" Another afterimage of Shisui completed the sentence.
Yuta observed the afterimages, there was absolutely no difference between them, then he looked at the surface of water where they were standing, but there were no ripples on the surface at all, and all the afterimages looked real to Yuta. And the Sharingan in their eyes, Yuta could feel a cold and oppressive aura coming from those eyes, piercing through him, leaving the feeling that he was being seen through and there was nothing that he could hide from those eyes.
"Of course I can't. If that was so easy, you won't be famous for this jutsu." Yuta replied. And although he trusts Shisui and knows that there was no reason for it, he still felt threatened by the demonstration and felt the urge to rise his guard, his instincts were screaming at him that he was in danger and Yuta had to put a great deal of effort to suppress it.
"Now pay attention." One of the afterimages said, and all of them pulled out a shuriken and thrown it into the water between them and Yuta.
As a dozen shurikens splashed into the water all around Yuta, he saw that all of them were real shurikens and not just some illusion, then Yuta quickly noticed how the splashes of water droplets flew in all directions, most of it landed on him, but some of them hit the afterimages and flew through them unobstructed, as if they were mere illusions and nothing more.
As that happened, Yuta quickly glanced around and confirmed that the droplets passed through all the afterimages, as if the real Shisui wasn't even here.
"Huh, how is this possible..." Yuta blurted out in surprise, "How this jutsu even works..."
"It's not just the Shunshin jutsu." one of the afterimages said, and another one continued, "With the use of Shunshin jutsu I'm able to flicker between multiple positions quickly, and with the help of my Sharingan I can keep up with the speed and stay aware of my surroundings, without the Sharingan it would be impossible to accomplish."
"But that's not all that is there to it." Another afterimage continued, "It won't be possible to sustain such a jutsu with so many afterimages by just continuously switching places between them. You see..."
As one afterimage stops talking, the one that was directly behind Yuta, said "The essence of this technique lies in genjutsu." As Yuta turned around, he saw only one Shisui standing there, and at some point, all other afterimages vanished without him realizing the exact moment when it happened.
"Genjutsu..." Yuta repeated thoughtfully, "How does it work exactly... Wait a second! Is it even alright for you to tell me this? Aren't shinobi supposed to keep their jutsu a secret and never reveal it this easily?"
"Ha ha, it's fine." Shisui laughed casually, "Will you look at that, there is actually something, that remains a secret even for you."
"I never claimed that I know everything." Yuta replied while being a bit annoyed.
"Is that so? Then how about this?" The pattern in Shisui's eyes spined and changed from three tomoe into a black shuriken-like pattern.
Yuta felt how invisible cold oppression that he felt coming from Shisui's eyes intensified manyfold, his footing on the water surface became shaky and a cold sweet emerged on his forehead, and if before his instincts was screaming to him that he was in danger, now his instincts are short-circuit and he felt that his death is certain and there is nothing he could do about it. Feeling such intense pressure and emotions, Yuta had a very hard time to just keep standing and to not panic.
As he looked into Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan, he remembered the special ability it possesses, the Kotoamatsukami, the ultimate genjutsu that could alter the target's mind and instill any commands that the target will follow as if it was theirs own will, without even realizing that they were being under someone's control.
As the realization hit him, Yuta's pupils constricted as another streak of fear hit him and he flinched, but then he quickly calmed down, he was sure that Shisui won't use it on him like that, he believed in his own judgement about this, although it was still very hard for him psychologically to be under such intense mental pressure.
"Judging by your reaction you do know about my Mangekyo Sharingan as well, don't you?" Shisui said calmly.
"You said you won't pry any further into my secrets!" Yuta replied with a strained voice, feeling how pressure from the Shisui's Mangekyo Sharingan intensified even more.
As Yuta said it, his mind was churning, trying to analyze the situation.
'Was it all for nothing? With how sharp Shisui is, he could figure out a lot just by some subtle body movements in response to a few words here and there. If he figures out too much, what would he do? Maybe he really would straight up use his Kotoamatsukami on me! This becomes too dangerous, I should retreat! But what should I do after that?!'
'With how the events progressing, I don't have much choice on the matter and eventually I always will come into contact with Shisui, and how sharp he is, he always will figure out too much eventually, like he did just now, and no matter how many times I restart this chain of events with time-travel, I have a feeling that it will always come to this eventually. Unless I start to act as a shinobi and hide my own emotions well enough around him, it will always end up like this...'
'What to do... I was really enjoying talking with Shisui casually and openly, I really don't want to lose it all... But it seems that I must...'
...
Shisui observed Yuta with his Mangekyo Sharingan without missing the slightest changes in him. The moment he turned his Sharingan into Mangekyo Sharingan, he noticed how Yuta became tense and how he was fighting back the fear, but that reaction was completely normal and expected by Shisui, it was normal reaction to the Mangekyo Sharingan pressure.
What wasn't normal, is the second streak of fear on the verge of panic that Yuta experienced shortly after, by his body reaction Shisui could tell that Yuta realized what exactly his Mangekyo represents, he even felt that Yuta knew the exact ability his Mangekyo had.
Finding out about that, Shisui felt very conflicted, he wanted to trust Yuta, he really did, but Yuta holds too many secrets of such a critical value. It wasn't new for Shisui, he knew for a while that Yuta knows much more than he tells, and Shisui suspected for a while that Yuta holds many secrets of critical importance, the current confirmation that he also knew of his Mangekyo Sharingan was just a minor detail in a big pictue at this point.
Since that was the case, for a while now, Shisui wanted to test Yuta, he wanted to understand what a person he really is.
Even if it meant going back on his word about that he won't pry any further into Yuta's secrets, even if it meant he would harm him in the process, he had to make sure and confirm if he could trust Yuta completely. As it turns out, there is just too much at stake, for Shisui to put his complete trust into Yuta without this.
And for that, Shisui pressured Yuta with his Sharingan and even revealed his Mangekyo Sharingan, and questioned Yuta under pressure, trying to come to a certain decision about if he can trust Yuta completely, anything less than that won't suffice with how serious the secrets are that Yuta holds.
Then Shisui saw how Yuta's fear subsided, for a moment Yuta appeared deep in thoughts, as if he was hesitating about something, and then Shisui noticed, how Yuta's expression changed from conflicted one to the one of an intense regret and reluctant acceptance, Yuta's eyes dimmed, as if he lost something important.
Shisui, seeing such changes in Yuta's expression, felt like he was returned a few years back to that day, when he betrayed his friend and comrade, letting him die because of his brief hesitation in the middle of a battle, that was the day he awakened his Mangekyo Sharingan. After that day, Shisui vowed to never betray his comrades ever again.
And now, seeing the intense regret in the Yuta's dimmed eyes through his Mangekyo Sharingan, he felt as if he once again stood still, hesitating and betraying his comrade once again, same as on that day many years ago. Yuta's emotions were like an open book for Shisui, nothing could hide from his Mangekyo Sharingan, and those emotions, Shisui knew they were genuine.
And Shisui also felt something more than that, all his intuition was telling him, that if he hesitates even for a moment longer, then something irreversible will happen, although Shisui didn't know what was the meaning of this feeling he has, he chose to believe in it.
He chose to put his complete trust in Yuta after all. He won't betray his comrades, newer again!
...
'... But it seems that I must...' Yuta completed his thought regretfully, as he was about to enter his mindscape, return into the past and apply a completely different approach, intending to learn to hide his emotions and act subtle and secretive during all his future interactions with Shisui, and probably with Itachi and everyone else as well, 'A shame, Shisui was the closest thing to a friend that I had in this world so far...'
But before Yuta was able to act on his decision, the intense pressure he felt on him disappeared, and Shisui's eyes came back to normal, and Yuta was able to regain his footing and restore his balance, even a little longer and he would've fell into the water under that pressure.
"I'm sorry for that..." Shisui lowered his head apologetically.
--- AN ---
Phew... Don't ask me, I have no idea from where all this tense and emotional stuff came from, all I wanted to write today in this chapter was about some cool advanced genjutsu Shisui would teach Yuta, or something like that, believe it... But somehow it all escalated into this... Sometimes even I don't know how the story would progress in the next moment...
The next chapter will come 48 hours after this one, as I will be taking a day off.
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Thanks to Loalola, ParadoX691, waltersaaron16, Daoistbm0BeO, Dylan_Cardenas_843, Jayroy_63 and creationking for the power stones! It's Friday and it's already 50 stones, it's more than we had by the end of the last week and much more than we had a week before that, it seems the fic is steadily growing an audience, it's nice to see that people read my work, thanks!