(late March, year 54 AK)
As Yuta's uncontrollable flight after Shisui's powerful kick was stopped by someone and he regained his balance and stood on the ground, he briefly looked back and saw that it was Hikari who saved him.
"Thanks." Yuta said as he turned his attention back to Shisui, who was currently engaged in a close combat with Itachi.
"Don't drag me down." Hikari replied sharply, as she moved away from Yuta and ran in Shisui's direction.
'I start to think that I was right earlier, she doesn't like me for some reason...' Yuta thought as he hurriedly ran after Hikari, trying to think of the ways he could contribute to this fight.
...
After some time, the three new Genins were laying on the ground, breathing heavily and looking like they were beaten up thoroughly, because that was exactly what happened here.
Previously, as the fight continued for a while, Hikari displayed an exceptional taijutsu skills, she was fast and strong and fought fiercely, while Itachi was slightly weaker in taijutsu, but he displayed great skills with the Fire Style ninjutsu and shurikenjutsu, even combining the two.
While Yuta, well, he assisted the two with shurikenjutsu from a distance, with occasional brief engagement in close combat and supported the team to the best of his abilities, and at some point when Shisui used regular genjutsu without activating his Sharingan against the three of them, Yuta was the first one to properly resist and dispel it from himself and he also helped Hikari to dispel it too while Itachi broken out of genjutsu on his own, but well, Yuta's contribution to this fight was still the lowest.
Yuta was the weakest link during this fight and both Itachi and Hikari had to cover up and protect him multiple times to not let Shisui to take him out, as his speed and taijutsu skills were the lowest in the group with a substantial gap between him and the others even when he used chakra to boost it. But still, with his calculated actions and timely assists he managed to create multiple opportunities for Hikari and Itachi to land a hit on Shisui during the fight, and also Yuta almost scored a hit on Shisui himself multiple times, still, Shisui was able to dodge or block all of it in the end.
'Damn... And that was even without him using his Sharingan or his signature jutsu of Body Flicker... Shisui is a monster...' Yuta thought tiredly, as he was laying on the ground face-down.
"Hey... Yuta..." Hikari said with some effort while breathing heavily, "You said... You are good... At genjutsu... Why... Why didn't you used it in a fight?"
"Huh... Against... Against Shisui-sensei?" Yuta mumbled fighting back the exhaustion and trying to stabilize his heavy breathing, "No point... Zero chances... It'll work..."
"Tsk..." Hikari replied by clicking her tongue angerly.
"Shisui-sensei is incredible!" Itachi stated while looking at the sky with an unfocused look.
"That he is..." Yuta commented as he turned on his back with some effort and faced the sky as well, lying beside Itachi.
"I'll beat him up one day." Hikari stated with absolute certainty in a casual tone, as if talking about the weather, as she turned and faced the sky as well.
"Well, what can I say, not bad at all for a three early graduate Genins." Shisui said casually with a smile as he walked closer, ignoring what Hikari said earlier, "Especially you Hikari, you aren't from any clan, and with just two years of academy to get to this level... This is quite impressive, although your genjutsu resistance skills is lacking."
"I already know that." Hikari replied a bit harshly. She was clearly upset by the fact that Itachi and Yuta broke the genjutsu easily during the fight, while she herself struggled with it and required external help to get free from it.
As three Genins recovered a little bit after a few minutes, they stood up with some effort, while Shisui continued his analysis.
"Itachi, your taijutsu and ninjutsu was quite good, but you often forget that you aren't fighting alone, because of that you miss on some opportunities to assist your teammates and get better chances at winning the fight, you have to pay more attention to the teamwork."
"Yes, I understand, Shisui-sensei." Itachi calmly replied.
"As for the teamwork, Yuta, you did great, you never missed the opportunity to assist your team in the best way possible, that was quite impressive to have such an insight into a proper teamwork during your first fight side by side with your new teammates."
"His teamwork is good for nothing if he can't to properly keep up with us." Hikari interjected before Yuta could reply, glaring daggers at Yuta.
"That is partially true." Shisui calmly said, "But Yuta's skillset lies elsewhere."
"Yea, genjutsu, right?" Hikari said, "But what good is it for, when he didn't use it even once?"
"And that was a correct decision in this situation, it wouldn't have worked on me at all and it would've been just a waste of chakra, but you'll see soon enough that genjutsu could be terrifying if used properly." Shisui replied.
"I'm surely hope that he won't drag us down." Hikari said with some annoyance in her voice.
'Yea, I'm almost certain that she doesn't like me at all...' Yuta thought absentmindedly.
"Hey, I'm still here..." Yuta said, being a little annoyed of being discussed like that.
'What a drag...' he thought.
"You are a team now, you have to get along you two." Shisui stated switching to a more serious voice to emphasize the point.
"I don't have any problem with him, as long as he is not getting in the way." Hikari stated a little bit more friendly than before.
"We'll be fine, Shisui-sensei, our teamwork wasn't bad earlier, right?" Yuta said being mostly unbothered by Hikari's words.
"If you say so." Shisui thoughtfully as he looked at Hikari and Yuta, then continued, "Alright, you three did well and you pass the test, this will be all for the day, I see you all here tomorrow morning for your first mission." Shisui said and flickered away, leaving three exhausted and beaten up Genins behind.
"Hm, that went well, I think?" Yuta said as he went to pick up his shurikens and kunai.
"Well, see you guys tomorrow then." Itachi said and was about to leave.
"Hey, Yuta, you better train harder to not drag us down, you hear me?" Hikari said loudly with a death-stare.
"It's not like I can magically get stronger overnight even if you said so..." Yuta replied with some annoyance slipping into his voice as he picked up one of his shurikens.
"What did you just say to me?"
As Itachi overheard the heated conversation, he stopped and turned around, watching the scene with slightly furrowed brows.
Yuta continued to go around the clearing and picking up his ninja tools, unbothered and completely ignored Hikari.
"A proper lesson is necessary I see, fine then, I don't mind going for the round-two..." Hikari said menacingly as she started to walk in Yuta's direction, while Itachi sighed tiredly looking at her. Still, he didn't say anything to stop her either.
'Sigh, what a drag... Fine then, whatever, I should still be able to squeeze enough chakra for a jutsu or two...' Yuta thought with exasperation.
As Hikari came closer to Yuta, she suddenly started running at him at full speed, launching a punch while Yuta was still facing the opposite direction.
Since all that Hikari was able to see was Yuta's back, she didn't see how Yuta formed hand seals when she came closer.
As Hikari launched a proper punch aimed at Yuta's back, she saw in astonishment how her fist went through Yuta without any resistance as if Yuta was completely intangible.
Hikari quickly suppressed her shock and figured that it should be just a simple Clone jutsu, she quickly looked around but only saw one Yuta in front of her, she looked down to see Yuta's feet to find the signs that it was just a clone, but as she did that, she wasn't able to find any clues that it was just a clone without any mass.
"How is this possible..." Hikari mumbled as she recovered her balance after an unsuccessful punch and jumped back, her posture tensing up significantly and her expression became serious. She observed Yuta, being tense and on guard, as Yuta slowly turned around and looked her in the eyes with annoyed expression.
"Why did you attack me?" Yuta asked angerly.
"How did you become intangible? What jutsu is that?" Hikari asked loudly, there is no more annoyance or anger in her tone, only tension and seriousness.
"How did I do that, huh..." Yuta slowly replied, as if being deep in thought, "Maybe he will explain it."
"Who are you talking about?" Hikari asked tensely.
"Yuta already left." Itachi said calmly as he walked to Hikari and patted her shoulder, dispelling the genjutsu.
"What the..." Hikari said as her vision slightly changed as Itachi dispelled a genjutsu that she wasn't aware of, and the next moment she realized that it was in fact just a clone, and all the signs of it being a clone was now evident to her, and as she realized that, the clone disappeared.
"When did he... Ah, I see, I didn't saw him forming hand seals while his back was facing me, it was then that he casted a genjutsu on me that hidden him from my senses, and then he replaced himself with a clone, but why I wasn't able to see the signs of him being a clone..." Hikari mumbled as she was analyzing what happened, "Must be also the effects of the same genjutsu then. Tsk. You've escaped this time." Hikari said, being annoyed, but also there was a slight smile on her face, that didn't promise anything good...
...
Yuta, who observed the scene from a far distance for a few seconds, turned around and left.
'It seems that I managed to successfully modify my Shadow Cloak genjutsu on the fly to add some voice replicas that Hikari would hear, in sync with my clone that was imitating speech, since Clone jutsu wasn't able to produce sound. It bought me enough time to get away far enough, huh...' Yuta thought on his way home.
...
'Yea, she is definitely doesn't like me at all...'
--- AN ---
Thanks to Krishna_Razz, waltersaaron16, Loalola, Daoist9Sa84q, passatempo, GokageSensumo, Eyes_Of_The_Void and Ulysses_28 for the power stones. That a lot of power stones for a day, and a lot of new names too, thanks!