Game of Shadows - 118 (Patreon)

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 118

“Things have been quiet,” Eiji mused out loud, walking leisurely and looking around only half paying attention. “Too quiet, really,” He added, blowing a breath out of his mouth a moment later. He felt tired just thinking about it, really.

“Kinda jinxing us there,” Tayuya said, her genjutsu voice straining. It shifted tones and went slower or faster due to the half distracted state of the caster. “Fearless Leader,” She added. Oddly, the nickname came a lot clearer than her other words. His guess was that it was because she was more used to saying people’s names than she was anything else, really. As good a guess as any, he supposed.

“Maybe,” Eiji agreed with a shrug, turning to see Jirobo send a rock flying towards Kabuto, who happened to be on the team leader’s other side. The rock flew by, the wind of it gracing Eiji’s hair. “Close, that one,” He commented, blinking to his side where the projectile had passed by.

“Calculated,” Jirobo said. Although, his voice told another story altogether, really.

“That so?” Eiji asked, raising an eyebrow at the Squad members around.

“The exercise seems to be going well,” Hachi informed him, since she was the one that had been keeping track of things with his threads. Meanwhile, he’d mostly just relaxed as he played the part of the obstacle he’d set himself up to be.

What was the exercise? It was a simple free for all. However, the very specific rules Eiji had set for it were equally as simple, even if they made the whole thing quite harder for his team. They couldn’t team up with anyone else. They couldn’t focus on one single person for too long until there were only two people left. And finally, don’t hit Eiji.

That last one proved to be something of a pain in the ass for everyone except himself, it seemed. Especially since he started just lazily walking around in the middle of the battlefield and all but sightseeing while the fight went on. It meant that they had an obstacle that moved randomly and at differing speeds. Not an easy thing to avoid, especially when he was neither an ally nor a foe. Those either could be trusted to dodge or they didn’t care to hit, respectively. However, Eiji’s role was different. He wouldn’t dodge, he’d let himself be hit and then punish them for breaking the rule.

Good practice in case they had to fight in a place with civilians or otherwise protecting a moving target, or something along those lines. He was doing his best to come up with different exercises. Sometimes, their aims weren’t all that well thought out, sometimes they didn’t even have a defined purpose. However, he wanted to keep things unexpected, come up with different ways for them to train, so that they’d better adapt when the time came that they met something that changed the rules of the battlefield.

That was something that was bound to happen, after all, especially if they remained by his side.

“Kumo hasn’t done anything on Iwa’s side since that day,” Kage commented, following where Eiji’s thoughts were coming from before. “Which isn’t too surprising, all things considered. They are either taking their time to think things through, or they are in the middle of some negotiations.”

“As for Akatsuki,” Hachi continued then, still keeping an eye on the Squad. “That’s more concerning. We have barely heard anything about them in a while. That can only mean they are biding their time for something, and that can’t be good.”

Those were things they’d already considered. However, the topics were still coming up again and again, just in case they thought of something new. Which they usually did, of course. Several ideas had popped up as to what Kumo and the Akatsuki could be doing or planning. It had even been a concern that Obito might have been controlling the formers into causing the mess they were dealing with. That was one of many scenarios they’d considered so far…

One of Tayuya’s Doki stomped dangerously close to Eiji and he was quite sure that she’d just gotten lucky that he wasn’t hit. He turned slowly, to regard her with a half-smile. She looked a little pale, but otherwise she kept going as if that were completely planned.

“Fu,” Hachi told him.

“I saw that!” Eiji called, making the Jinchuriki freeze. Immediately, Hachi started telling him what she saw. “Fu, Kabuto, first strike.”

The fight continued then, but the aforementioned had to be more careful. Otherwise, they risked having the next training session go harder on them than it should be. Like Jirobo, who had weighing seals on him courtesy of Eiji. That was one of the basic seals he’d bothered learning that didn’t directly relate to his one fuinjutsu project. After all, those would be very useful for training.

“Princess is the one doing the best right now, it seems,” Eiji commented, loud enough for everyone to hear. It was on purpose, after all. Everytime one of them seemed to be doing better than the rest, he’d announce it. Even if they couldn’t team up, they could find ways to still focus one party more than the rest. It also kept the fight from becoming too stale.

“Fuck,” Kurotsuchi cursed as a boulder was sent her way from one side and Kabuto, meanwhile, prepared his puppet hands to shoot at her at the first opportunity. She was doing really well though, since the only concern she really had in regards to her techniques was not hitting Eiji himself. The rest of them were fair game, which was a boon for her, since she did especially well when she had to target big zones.

“Or maybe it’s Tayuya?” Eiji mused, tilting his head towards his girlfriend. “Hm… difficult to tell,” He added. Which was actually the truth, since the redhead also did quite well when having to target several people. She wasn’t very good at taking them out, since they usually broke out of her illusions before it could get to that point, but she sure could cause chaos regardless.

“Damn it, Eiji!” She complained as a scowl formed on her face.

He simply chuckled to himself, starting to walk again and whistling.

[}-o-{]

“I half think this is a test of some kind,” Fu said, eyes narrowed suspiciously as she looked around. Eiji had to admit, he was supremely amused by the fact that his team seemed unable to fathom him giving them a whole day to do whatever and rest. Amused and a little apologetic, but mainly the former.

“Not even half, I’m sure this is an exercise,” Jirobo commented, making the jinchuriki’s face pale slightly. “Maybe he wants to see if we’ve let all the training affect us? See how we hold up?”

“Not a bad guess,” Kabuto answered with a nod and Eiji could almost see the gears turning in his head. “Maybe he wants to see what we do? How effectively we use our resting time? If we do something productive anyway?”

“You guys know that I’m here, right?” Eiji asked, looking at the group.

“Do you think it could be to see if we train even when he gives us free time?” Kurotsuchi asked, getting a shiver from all of them. “Please tell me it’s not that,” She added, looking at everyone but Eiji.

“Guys…”

“This is Fearless Leader though, he said he’d give us a break and that’s what he’ll do,” Tayuya told them, rolling her eyes. Finally a voice of reason, as expected from his girlfriend. Honestly, one would think- “He’ll obviously let us relax until we let our guard down and hit us with a surprise exercise.”

Eiji stood there, speechless, for a long moment.

“You guys suck,” He muttered to himself, rolling his eyes. “See if I give you a break again,” He added before taking his guitar from a storage seal. Pulling at the strings to test the thing, he started playing immediately after.

“Can I say how unfair it is that you got so good so fast?” Fu asked then, sitting down in front of him. She settled with her legs crossed, swaying from side to side as his music came to be.

“Well, considering all the shit I get thrown my way,” Eiji said, his fingers dancing over the strings. “I guess my good luck had to go somewhere, right?” He reasoned with a grin.

“Too right,” Tayuya muttered as she sat behind him, leaning her back against his and bringing her flute to her lips. Eventually, she found a moment in his song to join in with her own tunes. “Still ways away from working on songs together, it seems,” She added, when it became apparent that it sounded terrible.

“In fairness, I might be getting better, but I’m nowhere near your level,” Eiji told her with a smile, leaning his head back slightly. “We’ll get there, maybe.”

“Don’t sound so confident, Fearless Leader,” Tayuya said, rolling her eyes. “What’s everyone else gonna do?”

“I’ll meditate,” Jirobo answered, something steely forming in his eyes. “It’s as good a way to pass the time as any, I think, and I might get some more work done with my mindscape.”

“Don’t work too much, it’s a break, after all,” Eiji reminded him, getting a nod in response.

“I’ll listen to you guys playing,” Fu replied for her part, beaming at Eiji as he continued doing just that.

Instead of saying anything, Kabuto simply walked to his side and placed a hand on Eiji’s shoulder. Tayuya didn’t stop playing, but he felt her tense slightly as it happened, even though the medic had been careful not to touch her. There was silence then, with only the guitar and the flute trying and failing to play a song together.

Eiji felt all eyes on him, even those of Tayuya who was facing away, as Kabuto’s hand lit up with the green energy of medical jutsu. The familiar sense of such techniques washed over him as his teammate and second in command checked him over and gave some light treatment. It didn’t last long, as usual, and soon enough Kabuto pulled away.

“Well, I’ll be reading, I guess,” The ex-spy said, voice calm and casual despite the atmosphere. “Might brainstorm some puppet ideas while I’m at it, I guess. I’ll see.”

“Bet you miss Yuki, huh?” Eiji pointed out, getting a wry smile from the medic. Both of them knew that was the truth. Sadly, the ninken wasn’t quite strong enough, even after training. Furthermore, with Eiji’s Senjutsu getting better and better, it was unlikely that she could help all that much in regards to tracking either.

She’d do well enough to keep company with whoever of his friends stayed in Konoha though.

“Or maybe he misses his girlfriend,” Tayuya said with her Genjutsu voice, drawing a twitch from Kabuto’s eye.

Before some more banter could be thrown around, however, something came in to interrupt. That something being a messenger bird sweeping down with a scroll in its claws. Eiji looked at it for a long moment while the trained animal stared right back. With a sigh, he sealed the guitar once more and picked up the message. Like every other time, he opened it filled with dread.

Messenger birds rarely held good news, after all. They’d bring information about a mission that he’d rather not be doing. They’d tell him about new orders or change of plans. They’d have new developments in places of interest. Rarely did they say something that he thought would be good.

They didn’t tell him he could go back home. They didn’t tell him things were over and he could relax. They didn’t offer reassurances or anything of the sort. That was just not how they worked, it seemed.

‘One day, I’ll be perfectly fine with one of these coming to me,’ Eiji thought to himself as he started reading. He grimaced at the content. As it was, he’d received a somewhat scolding message already about what had happened with Kumo. Not really telling him he’d done wrong, but it was mostly complaining about the amount of work that had added.

He was fairly sure that message had been written by Tsunade.

This one letter contained a completely different meaning. ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ He thought to himself, his face twisting in a long suffering grimace. ‘Why does this kind of shit happen to me?’

“No rest for the reliable,” Hachi told him, the unfeeling witch that she was. “I can hear your thoughts, Eiji,” She grumbled.

“Copied,” Kage said then, when he was done writing down the message in the mindscape, and Eiji sighed, closing the scroll and closing his eyes momentarily to gather his thoughts. “This will be… something.”

“Eiji?” Kabuto called. “Something the matter?”

“Kabuto, if I could take only one person from the team with me somewhere. Who would you choose?” Eiji replied with, completely ignoring the question. He didn’t look up, but he saw the gears in Kabuto’s head shift through Web Sense.

“Tayuya,” The med nin answered eventually and Eiji nodded. That was about what he’d thought too. “You have all the power you can need, her illusions would be more useful to you than anything the rest of us can offer, unless you need one of us for a specific task.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Eiji said, nodding again and taking a deep breath in.

“So, where are we going, Fearless Leader?”

“You guys are going to be actually patrolling the border. I’ll leave the spiders. There’ll only be a single clone though, to inform me if anything happens. That’ll be all,” He told them, his mind too focused to properly address any questions the others had. “Remember to keep the Princess out of trouble. Jirobo, you are the one better oriented to covering for others, so you’ll be with her at all times.”

“Understood,” The ex-Sound nin replied simply, which was great. Eiji didn’t need to be distracted at that moment. The others seemed to have realized that too, because nobody else talked.

The team leader, meanwhile, kept his eyes closed as he tried to process this piece of news. It wasn’t particularly worrying as much as it was… Well, it was worrying, but not in the sense that he was scared about it. It was more that he was nervous for what it would bring. This could go brilliantly or it could make everything crumble like a house of cards.

‘This isn’t supposed to happen for at least a year, goddamnit,’ He cursed internally, a scowl making its way to his face. He knew he was unnerving the rest of his team, but he couldn’t quite keep things to himself. Things were changing, but that wasn’t anything new. That fact still managed to rattle him everytime it became glaringly obvious.

It’d be much easier if things were nothing like his knowledge said, at least then he’d be able to ignore it. However, when things were just similar enough, it became frustrating. His mind would overwork itself trying to deduce what would happen according to what he knew. Foreknowledge was a curse, he’d come to realize, because at one point it became a burden more than a benefit.

“I need… a moment,” Eiji said, taking deep breaths to try and keep his calm. Resting his head back on Tayuya’s shoulder, he took in her music as she started playing again. “Thank you,” He whispered, letting the song lull him into a sense of calm. He got no response, but he didn’t need one.

He let the momentary peace take over him before he dove into his mindscape. When he opened his eyes again, it was to the sight of Tsuchigumo looked up at him adorably from his lap in her puppy size. He smiled slightly at her before starting to pet her.

“Take your time,” Kage told him from the side. “Hachi will be taking over in case there’s anything that needs your attention.”

“Thank you,” Eiji replied, his grin widening the smallest bit. “Both of you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“So, about you, little lady,” Eiji said then, turning towards the chakra beast that resided inside him. “How about the two of us take a stroll around here? We have ambient music and all,” He added, since Tayuya’s song followed him even in his mindscape. As if he’d ignore such a gesture for all the calm and peace in the world.

Tsuchigumo barked her agreemed easily enough, jumping off of him and started to trot in a circle around him. As he stood up, he saw the chakra beast grow in size until she was at that of a big dog. Tall enough for him to plant a hand between her eight eyes and walk comfortably.

“So, how’s it been inside here? Anything to report? The twins are behaving themselves, aren’t they?” He asked as they started moving through the streets of his mindscape. Tsuchigumo barked, her message coming across easily enough since she could all but telegraph her thoughts to him. “Kage is being a meanie, huh? I’m not surprised.”

“I’ll have you know,” The Orochimaru look alike protested with his eyes narrowed at the eight-legged wolf. “That she’s only upset that I had to take a break from playing the other day. She knows we can’t always be there, since we have to help you and rest.”

Tsuchigumo barked her reply and if a wolf could pout, she definitely was at that moment.

“Didn’t even let her cuddle with you while you did other things?” Eiji voiced, shaking his head and clicking his tongue. “Shame on you, Kage, shame on you. I thought we were past your days of being a monster.”

“Oh, for crying out loud,” Kage all but whined, throwing his arms up in the air.

“He’s being a baby again, huh?” Hachi’s voice reached them then, drawing incoherent sputtering from her twin.

“He is,” Eiji agreed. “I think he’s missed his dose of Tsuchi.”

“Indeed.”

“No, wai- Fuck!”

[}-o-{]

“Going better,” Tayuya commented as they played. She’d picked a single song and was determined to have them both play it. Eiji couldn’t say he minded that decision all that much. Who was he kidding? He liked the idea as much as his girlfriend seemed to.

It was a little weird though, he’d admit, to hear Tayuya always play the same thing. He was used to her changing the tune all the time to one thing or another. ‘I’ll just have to get good enough that she doesn’t have to do that,’ Eiji thought to himself.

“Thanks,” He said, his lips pulling into a smile. “You think I could try singing on top of playing? You can do it too, but Genjutsu singing sounds like cheating, more than even me using Living Thread on this.”

She huffed.

“I guess you can try, but once we are done with this. One thing at a time, Fearless Leader,” She told him from where she sat on top of a boulder. As for him, he was sitting on a tree branch close by. “Any idea how long it’ll take them to get here?”

“Shouldn’t be that long,” He answered with the slightest of shrugs, since he didn’t want to disturb himself too much. “Honestly, I’m not too eager for them to get here.”

[Guitar Mastery has gone up a level.]

“I’ll be sure to tell her,” Tayuya said, to which he smirked at the same time as he dismissed the screen.

“Go ahead,” Eiji told her with a chuckle that made him mess up a note. “It’s not like we are super friends or anything. We have our jobs and we get it done. We don’t have to like each other,” He added, almost absently as he focused back on the guitar.

“Deny it all you want, Fearless Leader, you like her. You do the same thing with Red Nose, annoy each other even though you respect each other. I’d even go as far as calling you friends,” Tayuya explained, and he grimaced. She wasn’t precisely wrong, but considering himself friends with Onoki sounded wrong.

“Whatever you say,” He replied dismissively as he focused on the music once more.

“You are going to die early, aren’t you?” Tayuya asked then, and the music stopped, both his and hers. “We all know you are,” She added, making it clear that it wasn’t really a question.

“I am,” Eiji admitted, shoulders slumping as he stored the guitar in a seal. “The technique I use to regenerate… It’s eating away at my lifespan bit by bit.”

“How much?” She asked, voice steady, calm.

“I’ve lost around ten years, according to Kabuto,” Eiji answered, feeling reassurance coming from his mindscape’s residents. “Being optimistic, I might lose another five before we are done with Akatsuki.”

“And being pessimistic?”

“Twenty or so, if I don’t die fighting, that is.”

“Not as bad as I expected,” Tayuya said, still sounding perfectly fine with things. One look at her spoke something else to him. He could see it, even if it wasn’t readily apparent. “I lost like a quarter of mine to the Cursed Mark.”

That wasn’t what he expected her to say.

“Orochimaru had a method to speed up using the second stage of the Mark,” Tayuya explained, something that he’d already known. “It’s… not good on the body, let’s say. All our team was affected by that, some more than others. I lost that much, Jirobo took to it much better. According to the snake, he likely didn’t lose much, if he did at all. Four Eyes says it was just a handful of years at most, which might as well be nothing.”

“Fairly sure there are ways we can get some of those years back,” Eiji told her, both to reassure himself and her, really.

“You think so?”

“If there aren’t, I’ll find one,” He said, resolutely looking off into the distance. “I’ll have all the time in the world to do so when we deal with Akatsuki and get some peace. Kabuto is a fairly talented medic and Konoha has Tsunade. Hell, I’ll rope in Orochimaru himself, if I have to. And I’m sure we can find some other people to help. I’m in no rush to die.”

“Could have fooled me,” His girlfriend said, although he could hear the slightest of smiles on her voice. “You mean that, don’t you?”

“I sure do,” Eiji told her with a weak chuckle. “We’ll live long enough for you to get tired of me, I can assure you.”

“Idiot,” She mumbled, her voice barely reaching him. “You could get tired of me too.”

“I guess we’ll see,” He said with a shrug.

“Do you have any plans for the future?” Tayuya asked then, making him blink.

“Well, after we’ve dealt with all the shit going on… Not really. I want a nice, quiet job somewhere in Konoha. At most, I can see myself being a Jounin-sensei or something. I don’t want to keep this up unless I absolutely have to,” He explained, half thought up plans coming out of his mouth. It sounded more like a dream than anything else, but it was what he wanted.

“Hm, I guess that’d be nice,” Tayuya replied.

“What about you?”

“Never really thought about it,” She admitted, not even the slightest bit of shame or disappointment or anything in her voice. “I lived my days one at a time through all my life, still do. I guess I’ll keep doing it. It’s worked out decently well so far.”

“Decently well?”

“Yes,” She answered, a grin on her face. “How about-?”

Whatever she was going to ask was interrupted as shapes appeared in the horizon. Evidently, their wait was over. Ninja rushed towards them, but they remained sitting where they were. Eventually, the person that they had to escort arrived.

“Well, brat, can’t say it’s good to see you,” Tsunade told them, before a smirk formed on her face. “Your worse half even less so.”

“Same, Old Hag,” Tayuya shot back instantly.

“We missed you too, Fifth,” Eiji said, giving her a grin as the woman grimaced. “Did you have to be late to your first act as Hokage though?”

“I’ll have you know I’m perfectly on time, brat,” The blonde argued, narrowing her eyes at him. “I guess it’d be better if we get going, the sooner this Summit is over, the better.”

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, quite the ending to a chapter that started pretty tame, right? At least that’s what I think.

I also think everyone and their mothers saw much of that ending coming. I got like a hundred reviews of people that caught on to that. I actually expected more of a dramatic way for it to come up but… My muse does as my muse wants, you know? I guess she likes anticlimactic scenes.

Still, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Are you a morning person? As anyone from my Discord can attest to, I’m definitely not one.

See you.