Game of Shadows - 136 (Patreon)

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 136

[Nagato]

“And what is it that you’d like to talk about?” he asked the boy that had made his dream possible and completely ruined all his plans at the same time. The boy had made him and his group of S ranked ninja look like amateurs. Sometimes the world they lived in was really strange, Nagato had long since realized, but life loved to remind him of that.

“Everyone still wants your head, Nagato, don’t know if you’d realized,” the boy commented, turning to gaze towards the horizon. And yes, he had, in fact, realized that was the case. However, there wasn’t much he could do about it then, was there? “So, I’m here to have a chat about how you are gonna become a productive member of society again instead of a terrorist.”

That gave Nagato pause. Fortunately, it wasn’t him being weird, apparently, because Konan looked downright shocked. How did the boy expect to pull that off, he had to wonder. Sure, he had a lot of pull with the Nations but still…

“If you want to not have to hide for the rest of your life or be thrown in a prison or be outright killed, then I have a plan for you,” Satou told him, the lazy smile on his face at odds with the seriousness of what he was saying. “The choice is yours,” he added, his lips tugging up in what Nagato could only assume was some kind of inside joke of his. “I can’t push the decision off forever though, the Kages will be on my ass to do something about you eventually, and you do have two of the Tailed Beasts hostage somewhere.”

“And I’m guessing whatever plan you have involves giving those back?” Nagato asked, but it was literally a given that he would have to. No, he wasn’t really wondering about that, he was just talking for talking’s sake. He needed time to consider whatever options he had. What did he want for his future? What did he want for Konan’s future?

“I’m not even gonna answer that,” Satou answered with a chuckle. “If you need time, then sure. I can wait for a bit. I’m in no rush to get out of here. I like this country.”

There was a moment of silence then, as the boy looked at nothing off into the distance and Konan and Nagato stared at him. Could there really be a good option for them now? Was there any way for them to enjoy the peace the world had finally reached, however momentarily? He hadn’t thought it was possible before, even when he thought his plans might stand a chance. Now though…

“What is it you have in mind?” Nagato asked, drawing a hum from Satou.

“Well, first of all, you will return the Tailed Beasts to the Villages you took them from,” the Weaver told him, picking up a rock from next to him and bringing it up to look at it. “From there… Well, I have an idea that I think you might like,” he started, and if he didn’t already have Nagato’s full attention, he did then. “How would you like to contribute to peace?”

“I’m listening,” the man replied instantly, drawing a chuckle from the boy.

“The Land of Rain has been so devastated by war times for a reason,” Satou told them, as if they didn’t already know that. “It’s in the middle of three big Nations, Wind, Rock and Fire. Hell, it’s in a very convenient – or inconvenient, depending – place for Lightning or Water to get around.”

“You are not telling us anything new, Weaver,” Nagato replied bitterly, but his tone didn’t affect the boy in any way. “Is there a point to all of this?”

“Yes, actually, there is,” Satoy told him with a sad, understanding smile. “If it’s in the best spot to get around from one big Nation to the other… Then it means it’s in the best spot to reach all the big Nations itself.”

Nagato blinked at that. He knew that, of course. It was one of the advantages of having the Land of Rain as his base of operation, he’d found. However, he didn’t… ‘Oh,’ he thought intelligently as he realized what Satou's plan was.

“You realized, huh?” the Weaver asked with a grin. “Just because there’s peace now doesn’t mean our job is done. Me and my group will still have to smack more than one person over the head. We’ll need to move around, to remind people that we are still around, still looking.”

“And you want to set your headquarters on the Land of Rain,” Nagato finished. “A place in the middle of it all, where you can travel through while on your way to everywhere else.”

“Basically,” Satou agreed with a nod. “If you agree to this, I’ll have you become the one to look after the place, holding the fort for me. You’ll still be a wanted person everywhere else even after you give back the Beasts, so if you go out of the nation, then you’ll have everyone but us gunning for you. However, my influence should be enough to keep people from actually coming here looking for you.”

“And Konan?” Nagato asked, because that was the most important part for him at the moment.

“We can shove most of the stuff you guys did on yourself,” the Weaver explained, likely having expected that line of questioning. “If I put her on my team, nobody will complain too much. My squad isn’t formed by what one would call innocent butterflies, after all. You are a bit more complicated because you were the leader of Akatsuki. As far as everyone knows, she was just one more minion, even if she was your right hand.”

As far as everyone knew, that was the truth. Satou knew better though, it seemed. ‘What a scary kid,’ Nagato thought, both impressed and disturbed. No wonder the boy had the Nations wary of him before he was even an adult. The Akatsuki leader had to wonder what he would be like in a few more years when he reached his peak. It was both a humbling and a terrifying prospect.

“So, the only option is to work for you?” Konan asked, speaking for the first time so far. She didn’t precisely sound apprehensive or angry, but there was certainly a negative tinge in her voice. Nagato could relate, but they’d burnt too many bridges already. Maybe there were other options, but he’d bet those were increasingly worse from the one they were being offered.

“You make it sound like a terrible thing,” Satou replied with a wry smile. “If you are so against it, you can look for your own options, there are a few. However, I can only look the other way so much and for so long. If you aren’t gonna take me up on my offer, then be very, very careful. That’s all I can offer you two. Think it over,” he told them, standing up, giving them a nod and then proceeding to Flicker away.

Nagato and his oldest living friend shared a look. That is, before the woman noticed a scroll that had been left where the Weaver had been sitting. Before he could say anything, he saw Konan pick it up and stare at the reading on the outside.

“Olive branch,” she read out loud, looking at him for a moment before opening it slowly. He’d have been worried, but he kind of got why she was so unconcerned with the thing. If the Weaver wanted them dead, then they certainly would be already. There was no need for subterfuge of the sort.

A second later, Konan activated the seal inside and they saw…

“Guess that answers the question,” Nagato said, looking at the corpses that had appeared on the ground. “We are officially members of… What’s his group called again?”

“The Suicide Squad,” Konan provided, giving a sad smile towards Yahiko’s body. “And I guess we are.”

[}-o-{]

[Yugito Nii]

She stared, very conflicted, at the message she had just received from home. It was simple enough, for the most part. It told her to remain on the team for the foreseeable future, that she was to work with the Suicide Squad as one more member of the group. However, that wasn’t the problem.

No, the problem was the very subtle hints that she was to ingratiate herself with the group. There was only one reason to put that there, and that was because Kumo would want to use that to their advantage at some point. They wouldn’t feel the need to add that, in the way they had, if they had just wanted to be “friendly” with the superpowered squad.

Yugito didn’t think she could do that though, not for that reason. She’d already been burned by the results of such an approach. Maybe it was treasonous of her to think in such a way, but she thought her home was going about this the wrong way. They were still looking for a way to benefit over everyone else, like they always had.

She’d once taken pride in that, thinking that it set them apart. It had meant that they were always striving for more, never content with complacency. However… What was the need for that now? When everyone was at peace, what need did they have to come out on top? There was no danger for them to prepare for. If anything, they were the danger for everyone else.

It set things into perspective for Yugito, as she considered that for a moment.

“I won’t support this,” Matatabi told her, and she felt a weight settle in her stomach. “Satou is working to help my kin. He’s improving our situation and helping us. He carries one of our own, a new kin that speaks highly of him. If you work against him, I’ll work against you,” Yugito’s partner, her friend, threatened and she gulped.

She didn’t know if she was more hurt or scared by those words, but she was fairly sure it was a close thing. To hear someone that had almost always had her back speak in such a way to her. To hear someone that could literally sabotage everything she did from the inside say such things to her…

So, Yugito was presented with a decision. Did she follow her orders, as she usually did? Or did she work around them, praying that she’d never be told to work against her new team? Maybe it was wishful thinking to think it’d never come to that but one could dream, right?

She sighed.

“Eiji?” she called, and the boy opened one eye from where he sat, back to back with his girlfriend as usual. What was a little bit unusual was that they were sitting under Jirobo’s cover instead of out in the rain. A silver lining, Yugito guessed. The conversation was going to be awkward enough as it was.

“So, I’m guessing that message had something I’m not gonna like in it?” he asked, almost bored as he read her like an open book. Sometimes, he found entirely new ways to scare the shit out of Yugito, and it was getting very frustrating and very terrifying with each one. How was it that he could read her like an open book when she’d specialized in sabotage and espionage?

“I told him,” Kabuto answered her unasked question from the side and Yugito could almost hear the smirk on the mednin’s face. Well, that explained it. As if the boy wasn’t frightening enough, he’d build a team that multiplied it even further. The only remotely reassuring thing Yugito had going for her was that she was part of that monster squad.

Now, everyone else? They were just unlucky, she supposed.

“Yes,” she admitted, both because there was no point in denying it and because she’d been intent on revealing that anyway. “They want me to get close to you. I think they want to have the option of using that against you at some point.”

“Fucking Kumo always having to be the greediest fuckers around,” Tayuya spat out, still facing away from her, but Yugito could picture the scowl on her face. The worst part was that she couldn’t even really try to deny that, or argue in her nation’s favor. She kind of agreed in that instance, insulting as it was.

Yugito had had time to put things into perspective and think when she’d been trapped in Konoha. She’d had time to go over her life and what she wanted for it. She’d also been able to look back at her village and see more than the things she loved in it. She saw more than B-sensei’s teachings and general kindness. She saw more than A-sama’s leadership and the respect the man had earned from her.

She saw everyone else. It was true that Kumogakure approached Jinchuriki’s in a much different fashion than other villages. However, it was ironically similar in some ways too. Its people weren’t afraid of them, or disgusted, or discriminatory. However, Kumo couldn’t help but see them as what they were, forces of nature. As such, they were watched with awe but also wariness. It didn’t quite reach the level of other places, but it was still there, simmering under the surface, as if they were just waiting for one of them to do something crazy or drastic.

The more Yugito thought about that, the more she hated it. She didn’t want to be that to the people around her. As she pondered on it, she realized that it made her feel… lonely. The reason she hadn’t noticed until then was, probably, because it was all that she knew. There was nothing else to compare it to besides her relationship with B-sensei.

Now though, now she had an entire group of people that made her feel like she actually belonged. A team that treated her like an equal and only demanded the same treatment back. And Yugito found herself liking that more than she thought she would.

Kumogakure would always be her home and she loved it regardless of anything else.

However, the Suicide Squad was her team now too.

She’d have to find a balance, but Yugito thought it would be worth the trouble.

“You aren’t going to do that,” Eiji said, and it wasn’t a question or an order. It was an observation of fact, as if he could see it on her face, read it in her mind, that she wouldn’t. This time, the statement seemed to draw a surprised look from Kabuto off to the side, which meant that this was Eiji’s insight.

With that though, Yugito was also suddenly very aware of the entire team silently listening to the conversation and looking at her. She hadn’t been thinking very well since she received the message, it seemed. She gulped, suddenly very aware that she was likely in a dangerous situation if she was deemed… unworthy.

“You are a ninja of Kumogakure before a member of this team, I’m sure,” Eiji said, regarding her with a half-lidded eye, as if having a spy and saboteur in his team was beneath his notice. “I hope you know, Yugito, that there’s only one second chance given in this team. If you screw up, you are done.”

He didn’t specify further from there, leaving Yugito to wonder what “being done” meant in this instance. Would he or the team kill her? Would they send her away, back to Kumo? Would they go after Kumo because of her orders and actions? She didn’t know which one was more scary, in all honesty.

Suddenly, the blood red eye peeking at her from the scarred side of his face seemed very, very scary.

“I understand,” she said, as firmly as she could, which ended up being a tone barely above a whisper and with very little force behind it. To that, their leader nodded slightly before closing his eye.

“Good.”

[}-o-{]

[Eiji Satou]

“I’ve already sent word to Iwa and Kiri that you’ll work with them to give back the Tailed Beasts,” he told Nagato and Konan once they approached the border of the Land of Rain. The Rinnegan user nodded slightly through his puppet, since he was staying in a base they’d be working on for the entire team to use whenever they passed through. Which was basically them repurposing Akatsuki’s base, really. “Don’t screw it up, you won’t get another chance from anybody.”

“We won’t.”

“Good, I’m sure you can take care of yourselves if anything happens. If they are the ones to screw up, I’ll just have to deal with whatever you leave of them. I’ll know if somebody is lying to me though, so… Yeah,” he explained to them, leaving the last part unsaid. It wasn’t like they needed to know more, really. They were smart enough to know what that meant.

“We’ll see it done,” Konan replied with a nod. They were surprisingly mellow after being “accepted” into the Squad. Eiji had expected more stiffness or awkwardness or something. He guessed the little present he’d given them was more effective than he’d thought, or maybe he’d been better positioned than he thought beforehand.

Regardless of what it was, he was grateful for it.

“Good,” he said, nodding back before turning to look towards where the team was waiting for them to get moving. “We’ll be off then. See you later and be ready for training whenever I get around coming here. Everyone in this team trains together, so you better believe that’ll include you guys.”

“We’ll keep it in mind,” Nagato told him through his puppet.

“Ok then, let’s go,” he told the team, who nodded as one. A second later, they were already Flickering through the landscape. It was a shame to speed up their way out of the Land of Rain, but the place was wearing on Yugito and a few other members on the team were getting tired of it too. It was a shame, but they’d come back, which was what Eiji told himself so that he wouldn’t feel too bad. Besides, he also wanted to visit some of his friends in the Land of Fire, so there was that.

That didn’t mean they wouldn’t be making some stops to enjoy sights and just relax on the way though. Team Eight would still be there whenever they arrived, he’d made sure of that through Tsunade. At most he’d have to wait for a few days in case they were sent out on a short mission.

“Maaaan, I missed the trees, the green, the life,” Fu exclaimed as she flew around with her chakra wings, taking in the forest around them. She wasn’t the only one that liked the change in scenery, if the grin on some people’s face was anything to go by. To be fair, it’d been a while since they’d seen a place so rich in greenery, between Iwa’s rocky landscapes, Suna’s endless sea of sand and Ame’s eternal rain.

Eiji would admit that it was nice to see the sunlight slip between the leaves of the high up branches of the trees. It was a sight that he hadn’t realized he was missing until he came across it once more, he mused. It was also home, he thought with a wide grin.

‘Home sweet home.’

[}-o-{]

“It’s good to have you back, Eiji,” Shino told him, pushing his glasses up. “Why? Because it’s been too long since the last time we saw each other.”

“Why do you speak so fucking weird?” Tayuya asked, smooth as sandpaper.

“Why do you curse all the time?” Shino shot back, drawing a narrow-eyed glare from his girlfriend. That was when Eiji decided to intervene.

“It’s good to be back. Also, congratulations on the promotion. Sorry for missing it,” he said, giving his friend an apologetic smile. Things had kept moving while he was traveling around the world and hunting Akatsuki. It seemed that Shino had been promoted, and as Kurenai had told him while gushing about her team, Hinata and Kiba weren’t that far off from it themselves. Apparently, the guy had done really goddamn well in a mission that had turned out to be higher ranked than expected.

“We understand that you’ve been busy with important missions,” Shino told him, waving the whole thing off like the chill guy he was. “If anything, we are sorry that we weren’t able to help at all. Why? Because that’s what we were supposed to do, as friends.”

“Don’t worry about it, man,” Eiji reassured with a grin. “I had a more than capable team at my back, even if they are a fucking mess.”

“We are right here, you know?” Jirobo asked from his side, making him chuckle.

“You are going to deny it?”

“No, but it’s just hurtful to hear,” Temari commented wryly. “Especially when you put us in the same bag as Tayuya.”

“The hell did you say, Bimbo Number One?”

“This is fun!” Fu called from somewhere in front of him and Eiji turned to look at her. He was just in time to see her smack Kiba into the ground, literally bitchslaping him with a wide grin on her face. “Man, you give the best gifts, Fearless Leader!” she exclaimed them, looking like a happy camper. ‘Well, as long as she has fun,’ Eiji thought to himself.

He’d have felt bad for Kiba, but he was the one that asked for some training so… Well, he’d brought this upon himself. It was also his own fault that his partner wasn’t there to help him, since Akamaru was too busy fighting Yuki, who had wasted no time in rejoining their group. It’d be nice to have her around some more. The ninken had also seemingly been working by herself while they were away, or so Hana had told him before drifting off to talk with Kabuto.

Apparently, Yuki had approached some of the veteran ninken at the vet that couldn’t really go out into the field anymore and asked them to teach her all that they could. The old war dogs had been more than agreeable to that arrangement and wasted no time in turning his partner into a weapon. It was quite impressive, even if she was far from reaching the level of the rest of the team. She had gotten far enough that he wouldn’t be worried for her unless they came across an S ranked ninja or something, and even then, it depended on what the enemy was capable of, really.

“Glad you are having fun, Fu!” Eiji called with a grin, before blinking as Jirobo pushed a bag of popcorn into his hands. “Oh, when did you guys get this?”

“Yugito made a dash for some snacks. Said she could use some for the show, to make it a tradition or something,” the man said, pointing over his shoulder towards the jinchuriki who waved his thanks off before he could voice them.

Things had been a little awkward with the woman since the thing with her message from home and all, but Eiji was sure that would pass. Kumogakure might be a den of greedy little shits, but they weren’t absolute morons. At least not with A at the head of it all. So, he felt pretty secure in the fact that there wouldn’t be trouble to deal with in that regard for some time, if ever.

“Good idea, thanks,” Eiji said, regardless of her gestures. To that, the woman huffed, but there was no mistaking the slight smile on her face. “Well, guess we might as well enjoy some Kiba suffering for the moment, huh?” he mused as he picked up a handful of popcorn from his bag and looked at the spectacle going on. “For old time’s sake, you know?”

“He is a bit obnoxious even if he’s a lot more manageable now,” Shino agreed with his own snack in hand.

“He’s not bad,” Hinata defended weakly, if it could be called a defense.

“This sounds like a story I gotta hear,” Tayuya pointed out, a mean gleam in her eye that was quite adorable, honestly. Poor Kiba didn’t know what was coming his way. “Tell me more, Fearless Leader.”

“Well, you see, the first time I spoke with Kiba, if it could be called that, was back at the Academy…”

[} Chapter End {]

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