Game of Shadows - 36 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.

Chapter 36

The first stage of the Chuunin exams itself was unchanged, strangely enough. I was kind of expecting something different, what with all the changes I had apparently caused in canon. It was still a welcome thing though. I was growing tired of being surprised by things at every turn, even if I was getting used to the deviations. Like when Kabuto kept to himself instead of pulling the information cards from canon.

All this meant that, as we were told where to sit, obviously separated from our teammates, I was simply there waiting to have permission to start writing my answers. After all, if I didn’t know the answers to the questions, I would be surprised. And even if I was, I had a very solid plan to find the planted Chuunin and get the information anyway.

And so, the First Test began.

Turning the sheet around, I looked at the questions and smiled. With a slight shake of my head, I started writing. They were beyond a normal Genin’s knowledge, that was for sure. I would go as far as saying that they were hard for a Chuunin, even. But considering the real point of the test, it made sense. Regardless of that, I had done a whole lot of self-study with library books and books I had gotten from Danzo, not to mention things that Anko taught me every so often during our training sessions, and so, it was pretty easy to answer the questions.

Still, I could still gather information during this part, even if it wasn’t the information I was expected to. Or who knows, maybe it was meant to be done for the reason I had come up with.

‘Living Thread, Web Sense,’ I called out mentally, not even stopping my writing. Slowly, I moved a wire that was still inside the pouch on my hips. Good thing the jutsu didn’t need skin contact to be used, just close proximity. First, I wrapped one end to one of my pants’ belt loops. From there, I moved the free end down to the floor, carefully keeping the thread glued to the chair to hide it better.

Time passed, and eventually, I could sense the whole room with my through my wire. It wasn’t like I needed to move the wire much, really. With 20 meters of range, I barely needed to move the wire at all, but I wanted to have a good view of the outside of the room too, just in case.

Done with my sheet, I leaned back and looked straight at the proctor. My focus though, was on what I was receiving from my jutsu. Ino was already copying the things she had gotten with her jutsu. Shikamaru was writing his and Chouji’s exam. Hinata, obviously, was having a pretty easy time. Kiba had Akamaru spying for him where he was sitting on top of his head. Shino was gathering the answers with his bugs.

Tenten was using wires and mirrors. How she set them up, I had absolutely no idea, but I would bet on her setting those with some distraction or another during the time we had to wait. Rock Lee was using her mirrors too. Neji didn’t even need them.

Kankuro didn’t go to the bathroom this time, although his trick didn’t really need that anyway. He had added a new examiner in the shape of one of his puppets, which I guessed he could share sight with in some way. Same with Gaara and his sand eye technique. They probably worked in a similar way to my Web Sense, although instead of adding a new sense, they worked with a preexisting one. ‘Maybe I should have started with that?’ I mused. Temari though, probably didn’t need help at all. What with her being said to be almost as smart as Shikamaru.

Sasuke was copying someone else with his Sharingan, which… ‘Wait,’ I paused with a frown. ‘When did he unlock it? Didn’t he unlock it during the Wave mission? But it changed since there was no Zabuza and Haku so… when did he unlock it?’ And how hadn’t I known, was another question. ‘Did they purposely hide that from me? A surprise of some kind?’ It was a possibility, but I guessed I would find out eventually.

Sakura, for her part, obviously didn’t need help with a knowledge based test.

Naruto surprised me though. The blonde had set up seals on the underside of several people’s desks. Which I guessed he could use to know what they were writing. That begged the question though, would he give his speech and end up motivating some people to stay and take the last question?

Pushing thoughts for which I had no answers to aside, I tried to gather information on people I didn’t know much about.

The results on that front were… frustrating.

Haku had used his Bloodline Limit to make a version of Tenten’s idea, apparently, making Ice Mirrors for himself and his teammates. And as for the concerning Iwa and Kumo teams… they answered without cheating, as far as I could sense. And that was bullshit, if anyone asked me. If one or two of them could do so, it would be fine. After all, Sakura, Shikamaru, Temari and I could answer without help, so it stood to reason that some of them could too. But all of them? Yeah, I wasn’t buying that.

And then there was… Orochimaru. I didn’t remember if the girl from Kusagakure was replaced with the Snake Bastard before the first test or before the second. If it was the first, my jutsu didn’t pick up on that, which sucked. I would have certainly tried to do something if I could at least pick up on his presence. Maybe it would have been for nothing, maybe it wouldn’t have changed anything. But the man was a threat to everyone I cared about, and I would certainly take some risks if it meant ruining his plans.

‘It was not to be,’ I thought with a sigh.

Still, I kept an eye on my teammates at all times. If I could get the smallest excuse to point fingers at them, I would. But the two of them were too goddamn good at faking being normal, if a bit on the old side, Genin.

Bored already, I cancelled both jutsu and leaned forward, resting my cheek on my palm. There was no need to keep wasting chakra, especially with what was to come. I had already gathered the info that I could. Now, I just had to wait for the test to be over.

As I did, I let my mind wander towards the changes in canon and what they could possibly mean.

The Mist ninja being here was a surprise. But not that much of a surprise. I could take a guess that the delay in the Exams was for them to make it. I wondered if the Civil War was officially over. These were rebels in their team, so it stood to reason that they had won. Unofficially though, the war was probably still ongoing, with remnants of the other faction still trying to take back what they had lost. It was something that could be predicted easily.

This, while good for the Leaf, meant an approaching headache for me. After all, it meant that Yagura was probably dead already, and that had to mean something regarding Akatsuki. I had re-read everything regarding the Mist in my notebooks when I was told we were aiding a side of the Civil War. My knowledge hadn’t been the best with a lot of things though, so I wasn’t sure if Akatsuki had gotten the Three-Tails directly at the end of the Civil War or if they had gotten it after it reformed.

Hell, maybe Yagura wasn’t even dead and was instead imprisoned somewhere. And wasn’t that an entirely different situation to be concerned about?

Iwa and Kumo were the concerning ones though. Because there was a very real chance that one of them was allied with Orochimaru. There was, however, a chance that they weren’t. Suna had an agreement with Konoha, that was what the other Nations knew. Whether they knew of how strained things were between the two had grown through the years was a mystery, but it was better to assume they knew.

In any case, the situation with the Mist probably worried the other villages. After all, it threatened the balance that the Nations had if two of them started working together. And there was no way that Kiri wouldn’t form an alliance with Konoha. There was nothing official yet, but if they didn’t eventually, I would have been very surprised.

And that might have been a factor to the other two being here even if they weren’t in league with Orochimaru. To keep an eye on everyone else and make a statement, to prove their strength. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those in the teams they sent weren’t actually Genin but Chuunin in disguise. I would have suspected Jounin too, but that would have been more of an insult to everyone else’s intelligence if they thought that would fly by the others.

All these spoke of trouble for my friends and I. The Forest of Death would be even more dangerous than I had expected it to be, even with me acknowledging that it would be different from canon. ‘This is so troublesome,’ I thought to myself, biting my thumbnail in annoyance.

It said something about me that I could see different reasons why these changes were very bad and couldn’t think of one way this could be good. I blamed Danzo.

[}-o-{]

Kabuto PoV

I was growing both annoyed and worried.

‘Why is he looking at us like that?’ I couldn’t help but wonder, feeling the red-eyed gaze of my ‘teammate’ fixed on the back of my head. ‘Did Yoroi mess up?’

The introductions had gone well. The Satou had been understandably surprised by their… everything, really. From their age to their skill sets. But after that, everything went well. Both Yoroi and I had even gotten a good look at his repertoire.

But ever since we made our way for the actual Exams… he had been watching the two of us like a hawk. ‘Yoroi definitely gave something away,’ I seethed as I finished the sheet of questions, feigning relief at being done. As if there was any difficulty to the test.

If Satou thought he could catch a mistake from me of all people, he was very wrong. After all, I had been spying right under the noses of everyone in Konoha for years. If even Danzo, the man that had had me trained, couldn’t find me in his own territory, this Genin had absolutely no chance whatsoever, no matter how prodigious he was.

This, however, posed a problem.

‘I really hope this won’t continue through the Forest,’ I thought to myself, internally grimacing. There couldn’t be failure in the Forest or everyone involved would be as good as dead, except Orochimaru.

‘I’m going to fucking kill Yoroi.’

[}-o-{]

Eiji PoV

Eventually, the time for the last question came and I was… not really surprised when Naruto didn’t give his speech. Instead, he sat there looking pretty happy with himself. He should be, I had checked and all his answers were right.

This got me thinking about Naruto’s changes from his canon self.

I had to admit, when my presence ended up with the blonde not having the Shadow Clone jutsu in his repertoire, I had been worried and afraid for him. After all, it was his signature move. But this seal oriented Naruto was doing pretty well for himself. I would go as far as saying that he was better off like this.

Granted, if we were to add the Shadow Clones to his skillset he would be a force to be reckoned with. But if I had to choose between canon Naruto and this one? This one won hands down.

The original had a clever head, some tools and a one-man-army technique. But that army’s specs weren’t all that, to be honest. Now, though? Naruto had a clever head, a lot of tools and even more tricks that he could pull off with seals.

It may not sound like much, when said like that. But the point was made when you looked at the part that said ‘clever head’. A smart person with lots of options was a very scary thing to go against. It gave him a thousand ways to mess with his opponent.

‘And we should thank our lucky stars that he can’t, for the life of him, use Genjutsu,’ I thought, shuddering at the very idea.

Pushing scary possibilities aside, I looked dispassionately as more and more Genin raised their heads and gave up. I could have taken Naruto’s place in the plot and given a speech of my own to motivate people to stay… but what was the point of that? Personally, I thought this was what should have happened. Yeah, Naruto’s speech was cool and all… but if those people were already having doubts here, then they didn’t make the cut to begin with. The only reason to make more people stay in the exam would be to have easier targets in the forest. But honestly, I wasn’t afraid of anybody in these exams.

No, my only fear was Orochimaru.

Everyone else I could deal with, even Gaara. Granted, I probably couldn’t win against the Suna Jinchuuriki, but I could certainly escape him, which was enough for me not to fear him. So, I wasn’t too worried about the Second Test itself. I was more worried about Sannin that could drop on top of my head…

‘And even then,’ I thought, gulping down my nervousness as my eyes lost focus on my surroundings and instead locked on a blue screen that only I could see.

[Inner Strength

Increased resistance to outside influence on the user’s mind and body. (not applied to Genjutsu)]

Inner Strength was the first Perk I ever got. I didn’t even remember exactly when it happened, but I had got it through Meditation. It was my ace in the hole, in case everything else failed and encountering Orochimaru became inevitable. I didn’t know if it would work if the bastard used his Cursed Mark on me, but, at that point, it would be my only hope.

‘With these teammates,’ I considered, holding back a grimace. ‘I really hope it works, because I can’t see a way out of this that doesn’t involve killing them after our first step into the Forest.’

Much to my dismay, I had come back to that ‘plan’ more and more after the reveal of Kabuto and Yoroi. Granted, I could ditch them, but how did I go about explaining that I just up and left my teammates during the Second Test? At least, if I killed them, I could spin a story about how they were spies. It wouldn’t even be a complete lie. Accusing them with them alive opened the possibility of an investigation that might show how I didn’t have any proof. Yes, Yamanaka’s were a thing but I would never allow one of them inside my head, and I was sure at least Kabuto should have a way around that.

But the killing plan’s weak point was that I immediately failed the test if I didn’t have my teammates. And, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that big of a drawback. After all, the Exams would fly straight out of the window without even having a chance to be finished, if the Snake Bastard got his way.

But there was also Gaara to be considered. Or, more specifically, what Gaara could do to one of my friends if they were set against each other during preliminaries. No, I had to be there, if only to Flicker someone out of a sand death trap.

So, in the end… I was trapped with those two. ‘And it sucks,’ This time I did grimace.

“... You’ve just passed the First Test,” I blinked as Ibiki finished the announcement, breaking me from my thoughts. Then, I almost sighed when I realized that we still had to hear the whole explanation for the exam. Still, I used that time to prepare myself for the Forest of Death. As much as I knew what was coming and could theorize the changes and such… there was very little that I could do to prepare.

As the door opened and in came… ‘Raidou was his name, right?’ I wondered, surprised to see that Anko wasn’t the examiner for the Second Test. ‘Although, I shouldn’t be, considering that she is my sensei and all that,’ A part of me pointed out.

“I’m Raidou Namiashi, the proctor for the Second Test,” The man introduced himself. “Now, if you would follow me, I’ll explain it to you on our way to where it’ll be held.”

‘Definitely less impressive than Anko’s entrance,’ I mused, smirking to myself. My sensei would certainly be proud of that thought.

‘Was that part of the exam in canon?’ I wondered, as Raidou explained how they would let us inside the training grounds at different entrances and through the span of an hour. It almost felt like they were directly targeting me with that, since I had been planning on just Flickering towards one of the entrances just as we were let in and taking out a team.

‘That would have been too easy, huh?’ I thought as I picked up our scroll, a Heaven Scroll. The other two didn’t even try to take it. They just passively walked behind me, letting me do as I wished. Previously, they had said some crap about how I was their first real chance of passing the exams and on and on they had gone. I half-listened, really, since I knew they were lying through their teeth. ‘Wonder if I would have noticed that they are bad guys.’

Soon enough, the three of us were standing in front of one of the gates. The Forest of Death had become a place that I liked to visit to the point where I couldn’t wait to have free access to it to make some drawings. Now though…

Now, it looked as menacing as the name sounded.

“So, plan?” I asked the other two after stepping into the training ground, not really expecting anything. Honestly, I hoped they wouldn’t give any ideas, because I knew I couldn’t trust anything that they said.

“Tracking is not… really in our skillset,” Kabuto said, scratching the back of his head embarrassedly. It really annoyed me how well the guy acted. “So, I guess we’ll follow your lead here?”

Yoroi simply nodded. ‘Can you be anymore of an extra?’ I thought, suppressing a sigh. ‘Great, now I’ll be paranoid that every group we find has Orochimaru, isn’t that just peachy?’ Because, if they didn’t care where we went or where we looked, it meant that Orochimaru would come for us instead of them guiding me towards him. I was damned anyway, it seemed, not that I expected anything else, really.

“Ok then...” I replied with a nod and a deep breath in. ‘What are the chances of anything good happening in this forest?’ Shaking those thoughts from my head, I decided to focus. ‘No escaping the shitstorm that’s coming, Eiji,’ I told myself. ‘Let’s get this over with.’ “Follow me,” I said simply, not even turning to see my teammates as I started Tree Hopping towards the center of the Forest, the Tower.

‘Living Thread, Web Sense,’ I called out mentally, as we moved, snapping ninja wire in every direction and getting a pretty good mental image all around. The forest was big, but there were enough teams that I was confident I would find someone sooner or later. Either that or a trail, I only needed to stay focused looking for a hint. ‘Shame that I’ll probably still not see Orochimaru coming.’

I had tried, during the last six months, to come up with a jutsu that could help me with the Snake Sage. In the end, I came up short. He just had too much experience, too many jutsu and too much of everything, basically. If I had to go against someone like Kakashi, or Kurenai, or Maito Gai… Any of them, I could find a weak spot somewhere. But Orochimaru was a well rounded character, a well rounded character that was far out of my league. There weren’t weaknesses that I could think of, which meant that the only way I could fight him was if I was as strong or stronger than him…

And, yeah, that wasn’t the case.

Yet.

“Eiji...” Kabuto called behind me, almost making me stop moving.

“Yeah?”

“Do you hear that?”

I blinked before frowning. My threads hadn’t found anything in their range yet. My ears didn’t pick up on anything either, besides the normal sounds of the forest. ‘What is he talking about?’ And then, I tensed up. ‘He knows something is coming. He doesn’t have to actually hear anything.’

That or he had better hearing than me, which was a possibility. If he could boost his resistance and regeneration with medical jutsu, who was to say that he couldn’t enhance his senses to be like an Inuzuka?  ‘Gotta work on my Iryojutsu once this mess is over.’

“No, I don-”

And then I heard it. Faintly, in the distance, the sound of trees falling. It didn’t stay like that for long though. It grew louder and louder, closer and closer. I could only smile bitterly once my Web Sense picked up on what it was.

A gigantic snake.

“Eiji!” Kabuto seemed pretty dedicated to his role in this, but I ignored him as Orochimaru’s summon drew a line between me and my teammates. With a twist, its tail smacked them across the forest.

Instantly, I deactivated my weights and called for all my Energy Skills. ‘Here’s hoping,’ I thought to myself as I used a Flicker away from the creature.

But I didn’t even get to the point where I would stop my dash. Midway through the jutsu, a foot kicked me right on the ribs, sending me flying against a tree.

“We can’t have that, can we, Eiji-kun,” A voice said, and as I skidded down the bark until I hit the ground, I desperately tried to get some more air in my lungs.

“Who are you?” I gasped out, looking at the shape standing on a branch in front of me.

“I am-”

‘Body Flicker,’ I called out again, dashing away. This time, a hand grasped me midair by the neck and held me up.

“That was quite rude,” He said, a disgusting smile that I could have lived without seeing firmly on his face. “Do you know what happens to rude boys?”

“I know who you are,” I spat out, forcing the words through my constricted throat. His eyes under his disguise grew interested, the strength of his grasp lessening the smallest bit. ‘Lightning Flicker,’ I called out, kicking with both my feet towards his chest.

The fake Kusagakure ninja dissolved into a mass of mud around my legs and a second later I was smacked once more, almost burying me into the earth. Immediately afterwards, he stood over me, a foot on each side of my chest. He was close, really close. As if daring me to do something, as if mocking that I couldn’t touch him.

“You said something about knowing who I am?” He asked me, his tone losing some of that happy/creepy tone he had. ‘Huh, did I annoy you, Snake Bastard?’

“Yeah, I did,” I muttered, staring right into his eyes. They were what I expected them to be now though, yellow, slitted snake eyes. “You are one ugly motherfucker.”

I smirked, a snap was heard, and ninja wires closed in around him. Those little pauses he gave me to talk were really useful. ‘God bless villains’ love for their own voices,’ I thought to myself. I didn’t get him with the threads though, only managing to get him to move away from me. Temporarily, of course.

With Living Thread still active, I moved mine around myself, almost like a web-like shield. Slowly, I pulled myself off the ground with a groan. In front of me stood the disguised Sanin, looking bemusedly at my attempt of protection.

“Do you think you are safe behind that-” Orochimaru was interrupted as the cackling of lighting hit his hand when he went to touch it. I had instantly used Stunning Thread. The bastard didn’t grow annoyed or anything though, he simply smiled condescendingly.

“How cute,” He said, before doing two hand seals and creating a wave of mud behind himself, sending it straight at me. For my part, I grimaced, knowing what was coming. ‘Lightning Flicker.’

Once more, while I could move away, I was interrupted middash, this time with a punch to the jaw. He didn’t stop there, another fist connected with my gut, pushing the air out of my lungs again.

‘No chance at all, like expected,’ I thought bitterly through the pain, as Orochimaru kicked me on the back, sending me rolling on the ground.

“Are you done with your pitiful attempt at fighting?”

“Who the fuck are you?” I spat out, wearily pushing myself up. It wouldn’t do to attract more attention to myself by knowing more than I should. ‘I’ve been acting a whole lot during this stupid Exams.’

“Oh, now you are interested?” He mocked with a lazy smirk.

“You are not a Genin,” I pointed out.

“A bit full of yourself, aren’t you?”

“I’m awesome like that-” I choked as his hand wrapped around my neck again, pushing me against a tree. I felt the need to wretch there and then when the bastard pushed his face right up to mine, and used his stupidly long tongue to lip my cheek.

“You certainly are,” He whispered. “To survive with only a shredded arm and a cut on your cheek.”

Blood left my face as I realized what he was talking about. He had licked right where I had been cut during the Swords mission. ‘He knows?’

“You did so splendidly well too.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I asked, dread filling my chest. “You messed with my mission,” I accused.

“I did,” He grinned, his lips stretching inhumanly wide.

“Why?”

“Because, I needed to test you,” He let out a laugh that chilled my bones. “I needed to know if you were worth changing my plans,” He explained, although to anyone else it wouldn’t have made sense. “And you so are...”

Then, he went silent, smiling in place. A second later, he opened his mouth, two fangs standing out from his other teeth.

And I felt… resigned as I felt them piercing the skin on my left shoulder. As I felt the burning of the Cursed Mark forming on me. The Bastard’s technique sends a shot of pain through my body making me whimper pathetically.

‘So much for changes...’ I thought to myself as he let go and I fell to my knees. ‘So much for growing stronger...’

It couldn’t be helped. Even if I knew he was out of my league. I still felt that I stood a chance, somewhere in my psyche. I had grown confident, it seemed. It was one of the reasons I had chosen to try and fight, after all.

[New Skill Acquired: Cursed Seal: First Stage Lvl 1]

I pushed through the pain as I dismissed the screen. It wouldn’t do to pass out here and now. I needed to stay conscious. After all, arrogance wasn’t the only reason.

A smile formed on my face.

“Oh? Why are you smiling, Eiji-kun?” The true monster asked.

“You are late, sensei.”

“Sorry about that, brat.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

There’s a lot in this chapter that has me nervous, but lots of people have been telling me to have some faith in my writing so… I’m gonna do some of that.

Random Question: Which is your favorite Cursed Seal transformation? Mine is Kidomaru’s. Most of the others just look… weird, to me at least.

See you.