Game of Shadows - 138 (Patreon)

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 138

Eiji stood by himself in the middle of a Training Ground that had seen him grow from his very first day as a Genin. The Forest of Death extended around him, as ominous and threatening as it had ever been. Its many dangerous creatures, some of which would give even Chunin shinobi a hard time, lurked in the shadows of the trees for the slightest moment of weakness.

For Eiji though, it almost felt like home. There was no danger in the trees or the many poisonous plants around. The most any creature dared to do was walk close enough for him to see them, but they steered very clear of him otherwise. None of them wanted to die the swift death he promised just by standing there.

The boy wasn’t paying much attention to any of those things though. Instead, he looked at his reflection on the small lake he’d found himself at. His hand came up to his eye, scarred over and permanently ever so slightly shut. Then, his gaze moved towards the pale lines drawn on that very arm, the only one he still had, marks of the weapon he now wielded and that had added to the name he made for himself around the Nations.

After that, his gaze trailed to his other side, focusing on the biggest mark of all. His arm, now a wooden thing that he likely would have to live with. Kabuto had searched and double-searched, with help from Tsunade herself and Shizune, the woman’s student. They’d found absolutely nothing, even with Danzo’s information regarding treatments and experiments. Even Hashirama cells didn’t sound like they would work. There was just something preventing him from having a second arm again.

If Eiji was honest, he didn’t care as much as he had back when it had first happened. Sure, it sucked, and it was a depressing thing to think about. However, that was just it, as time passed, he didn’t think about it as much. He was getting used to it and soon, he really wouldn’t care, even if he thought about it. Then, he would move on and that would be it.

He was fine with that.

Nobody seemed to care overly much either, aside from what the lack of an arm might make him feel. People were just worried about what it might mean for him. Otherwise, they weren’t at all bothered or uncomfortable or anything regarding his arm.

Eiji supposed that made sense. In the world they lived in, it wasn’t weird for someone to lose a limb at some point through their career. Granted, it was usually seen in older people, but it really wasn’t that rare to come across someone around his age that was in much the same situation. Just the other day, in the hospital, he’d seen a Genin younger than him that had lost an eye.

That had kind of put things into perspective.

Letting his hand fall to his side again, Eiji gazed further into the lake. It almost looked peaceful, but he could feel the creatures under the surface, waiting for something unfortunate enough to come too close, be it under the water or out of it. ‘Kind of like how the world is right now,’ he mused with a slight smile.

There was peace, he knew, but it was oh so very fragile. That didn’t matter though. He’d keep it and force others to keep it until they wanted peace. And if that didn’t work, then he’d enforce the thing until his dying day and beyond. He had plans, after all, plans that would make sure all the work he’d put in and all that he’d sacrificed was pretty damn worth it.

He was pulled from those thoughts by an innocent question asked by the Chakra Beast that resided in him. With a chuckle, he let his mind fall into the Mindscape as one of the twins immediately took over. A few seconds later, he stood in the same place he’d been at before but also completely different, as the eight-legged eight-eyed wolf made her way to him.

“Hey there, girl,” he greeted, placing a hand on her neck and softly rubbing it, much to her joy. “Have you been good for your brother Kage and your sister Hachi?” he asked, drawing a snort from the latter, who stood some distance away while he heard Kage grumble as he continued keeping an eye on the outside world.

Tsuchigumo, for her part, adorably barked as she nodded her confirmation with utmost seriousness. Then she barked a few more things and stomped on the ground, making her message clear to him. Not that it was necessary, really, since he’d already had a very good  – and also correct, as it turned out – guess as to what she wanted.

“Sure, we can play for a bit,” he replied, grinning at the Chakra Beast as he continued petting her. “What will it be? Tag? Hide and Seek?”

The response he got was a bark and Tsuchigumo’s snout poking his chest before the Chakra Beast dashed away. ‘Tag it is, huh?’ he thought with a slight grin before he started running after her. He could have Flickered or used his control over the Mindscape to make things easier, true. However, where was the fun in that? It was much better, much more entertaining, to just travel through the forest. It was a beautiful place, especially since his Mindscape’s was now filled with mostly harmless animals, compared to its counterpart in the outside world.

Sentimental value or not, Eiji would admit that the Forest of Death wasn’t a very nice place to just enjoy the sights. Or maybe it was better to say that it had a very particular appeal, just as the one in his mind did, he supposed. At that moment though, he wasn’t too focused on that. He had a little rascal to find and tag, after all.

[}-o-{]

“You know not all of you guys need to come with us, right?” Eiji asked, looking at the squad.

“And let you go alone towards the big bad ninja? Not on your life, Fearless Leader,” Fu denied instantly, looking more amused than anything. “Besides, I wanna travel some more, I have to wonder what kind of sights we’ll see over there. I can’t wait.”

“And stay here to do what, exactly?” was Jirobo’s response as he shrugged.

“Same,” Temari replied with a wry smile. “I kind of have to stick with you, don’t I? What’d I do staying here?”

“You really know how to make someone feel fucking loved, Bimbo Number One,” Tayuya commented dryly. “Why do we put up with these pieces of shit again, Fearless Leader?”

“Because we are weird and can’t seem to find half-decent friends?” he theorized, drawing a hum from the redhead.

“Makes sense.”

“That hurts, right here,” Fu exaggeratedly exclaimed, placing a hand on her chest. “Also, you are one to talk.”

“I did say we are weird,” Eiji pointed out with a grin.

“Ah, that’s true,” the green-haired girl acknowledged. “Guess it’s fine then.”

“If you are all quite done,” Kabuto commented with an unimpressed expression. “Should we get going?” he asked, getting an agreeing bark from Yuki, who would be joining the team once more now that things were much, much calmer and safer. Not really safe, but safer, at least.

“Yeah, can we get going already?” Shirakumo asked excitedly from where she sat on his shoulder. Apparently, Kumohoshi had decided that a good payment for having had to put up with keeping Itachi in their realm as long as they had and all was that he’d have to babysit the young spider from time to time. Not on those particular words, of course, at least not when around the aforementioned child arachnid, but that was the gist of it.

Eiji had no problems whatsoever with that arrangement, honestly. Shirakumo would have some though, once Tayuya started pranking her with genjutsu, the spider’s ultimate nemesis. That would make for a fun time when it started happening. Eiji couldn’t decide if he was going to be entertained or if he’d get a headache. Probably both, if he had to bet.

“Ok, ok, we are going,” Eiji replied, rolling his eyes. “If everyone’s ready, then let’s go, yeah?” he said, drawing nods from the Squad. “Good,” he added, before starting to move.

“Eiji?” Shirakumo asked hesitantly.

“Yeah?”

“Why aren’t you Flickering?” she questioned, sounding very confused.

“Where’d be the fun in that? I wanna take my time, enjoy the sights and such. It might be a while before we get to see so much forest again, you know?” he replied with.

“So… we are walking all the way there?”

“I mean, not all the way, but if the sights are good, why not?” Eiji answered this time, a grin tugging at his lips. He felt the team behind him contain their laughs as best they could. “Why?”

“But mom said we’d be traveling places!” the spider whined.

“We are, it’s just that we are doing so by walking,” Eiji told her slowly, as if she were the one that didn’t make sense. “Are you ok? Have you been training too much against genjutsu, Shira-chan?”

“But I’ll have to go back to the Spider Realm before we get anywhere at this pace, Eiji!” the arachnid complained, stomping on his shoulder with her not-so-little leg. “Come on! Don’t be mean!”

“Ha!” Tayuya gave in first, snickering at the poor spider’s dismay. “I guess that’s enough stupid messing around, Fearless Leader,” she told him, making him shake his head and grin.

“We will be stopping sometimes, I hope you know, Shirakumo,” he warned.

“Fine, but I wanna see something more than a path and trees, please,” she grumbled, which only made the Squad chuckle. “You are all stupid.”

[}-o-{]

“You are all great!” Shirakumo exclaimed as she turned her “head” around by twisting her body to one side or the other with her legs, trying to take them whole team. Apparently, she’d found their last spar to be exceedingly entertaining.

“Had fun, did you, Whitey?” Tayuya asked, giving the small arachnid a grin. “Understandable, we are goddamn awesome like that, aren’t we?”

“Yes!” the spider agreed, not even caring about the nickname for once. “I didn’t know your music could change like that! And it still sounded great. And you!” She continued gushing, jumping to latch onto Kabuto. “The thing with the arms, that’s amazing. It’s like you have a small army of floating spiders, that was awesome!”

“Guess it would be for you,” the mednin commented, smiling almost softly at the spider. “Not so bothered by the stop now, huh?”

“Not at all!” Shirakumo agreed, making them all roll their eyes. The spider had complained to no end when Eiji had called for a stop so they could get some training done and sleep for the night instead of just keeping going. Well, it was good to know how to bribe her now, at least. Put up a bit of a show and she’d be fine.

“Shirakumo, come on, Yugito should be back with something to eat soon, so we need to prepare for the night,” Eiji told the spider who gave a whining “Eiji!” as he gave her a flat look. “Then we eat and sleep for the night. No buts and no complaints, come on.”

“But Eiji, can I ask Fu to-”

“You can’t. Either you prepare for the night or you are going back to the Spider Realm for it, like your mother told you,” he said decisively. Shirakumo said nothing then, staring intently at him in silence. He could almost see her trying to narrow her eyes and pout at him. Fortunately, she couldn’t really do that, otherwise he might have caved.

“Fine… Stupid Eiji…” she mumbled, moving away to start preparing a web for her to sleep on for the night. He’d have let her do whatever, but Kumohoshi had given him clear instructions of how to take care of her daughter if he was going to have her for an extended period of time. She was a scary spider, so he’d prefer not to antagonize her unnecessarily.

“Looked like you had a hard time there, Fearless Leader,” Tayuya commented, grinning from ear to ear as she moved to stand next to him. “Has you almost wrapped around her creepy little leg, huh?”

“More or less,” he agreed with a slight grin.

“You are fucking hopeless,” his girlfriend told him, chuckling.

“Seems like you’ll have to be the disciplinarian, Tayuya,” Yugito commented jokingly. “God have mercy on those poor children.”

“They’ll turn out fucking awesome, just you wait.”

“God have mercy on us, more like,” Jirobo said, with a grimace. “Can you imagine what their children would be like?” They all took a moment to think about that before shivering.

“The hell’s up with that reaction?!”

“Eiji, please don’t let Tayuya do all the parenting.”

“The fuck?!”

“I’ll do my best,” Eiji replied with a wry smile, earning himself a glare from his girlfriend. It lasted until he gave her a kiss, before it turned into her usual scowl. “I’m sure they’ll be great.”

“Fucking idiot,” she grumbled, in a way amusingly similar to how Shirakumo had talked a moment before.

“Scary, but great,” Fu added sagely, getting nods from everyone else.

“Oh, fuck you all.”

[}-o-{]

“And that’s that,” Eiji said, having taken Shirakumo back to the Spider Realm after the time they’d set with Kumohoshi was over. Just in time too, although that was because they’d timed things that way. Their little trip was over, having reached their first destination. “The place looks cool, at least.”

“About the only cool thing they’ll have in this shithole, I bet,” Tayuya commented, and he didn’t necessarily disagree with her. He was expecting this stop to be a pain in the ass, but it was a necessary thing. “On with it, right?”

“Yeah,” Eiji said, nodding. “Please keep your mouth under control. I don’t wanna have to fight our way out of here,” he asked with a grimace.

“I can keep my trap shut, you know?”

“You can?” the rest of the Squad almost chorused, making the redhead’s eye twitch.

“You pieces of shit-”

“That’s great,” Eiji interrupted, deciding to cut things there before they got out of hand. “Everyone is going to be on their best behavior, unless they really push your buttons. I don’t like the idea of having to actually fight here, but I will if I have to. My team isn’t made of pushovers and they need to know that,” he told the Squad, drawing grins from everyone and a bark from Yuki, who was walking beside him. He placed a hand on top of the ninken’s head. “Good.”

With his piece said, he started walking along the rocky path that snaked its way around a mountain. They’d been following it for a while, but there were buildings now within sight. Structures that hugged the peaks around them like rings around fingers, connected by bridges all over the place in a strange type of spider’s web. Shirakumo had certainly appreciated that analogy when she’d gotten a look at the place before she was taken back home.

Soon, they reached one of Kumogakure’s entrance gates.

Eiji didn’t stop at it though. Instead, he gave the ninja behind the desk a look. When he noticed that the guy paled and started sweating, he just gave him a slight smile and just moved on. He said nothing when several ninja appeared all around them, following their every move from places outside the civilian’s view. They could do that if they wanted, so long as they didn’t get in the Squad’s way.

“This way,” Kabuto said, taking the front of the team. Eiji didn’t even bother asking how he knew his way around the village. That was a stupid question, after all. Instead, he just nodded with a half-smile before just taking a step back and letting the guy lead the way. Yugito could have done that just as well, but Kabuto was the second-in-command, after all. Besides, seeing the woman grudgingly respect the fact that Kabuto knew her village about as well as she did was a nice plus.

Eventually, they found themselves crossing a bridge towards one of the biggest buildings in the village.

“Welcome to Kumogakure, Eiji Satou, Suicide Squad,” a woman with dark skin, green eyes and gray hair pulled into a bun greeted them right outside the building. It was kind of amusing, to be greeted with that name, but it seemed to have stuck for a number of reasons. One, because of the original one, regarding the type of missions they took. Two, because going against them was now thought to be suicide too. A little dramatic, but maybe not all that inaccurate, Eiji guessed. “We’ve been expecting you for some time now.”

“As per the agreement,” Eiji said, keeping his expression calm and nodding at the woman. He saw her eyes dart to the side though, towards where Kabuto stood, and he was sure the man was probably smirking at her.

He had almost forgotten, if he was completely honest, but his mednin had done a number on Kumogakure’s ninja back when they were being idiots and attacking Iwa. Part of the agreement for peace had been that Kabuto repaired the damage he had done. At the time, it had been barely something of note in the face of actual peace and still having to deal with Akatsuki. Now though, it had become some sort of priority. For them, rather than Eiji, but the point stood.

He might have tried to forget just out of pettiness, but honestly, they were the ones that practically mocked his efforts to deal with Akatsuki. As far as he was concerned, Eiji was allowed at least that much. However, he guessed it wasn’t too nice to take out his anger against whoever was leading such idiotic movement on the poor troops.

“If you’ll follow me, A-sama is waiting for you,” the woman said, turning on her heels and walking inside the building.

“Who put that stick up her- Oh, right, mouth shut,” Tayuya muttered next to him. It had been on purpose, he bet, because it had been done just loud enough for the woman to hear them. Regardless of that, the… secretary, Eiji guessed, was professional enough to ignore her. Props to her, not many people were able to completely tune out his abrasive girlfriend.

“Eiji Satou,” the Raikage greeted him as they entered the office. The rest of the Squad went unacknowledged but if that bothered them, they didn’t say anything. Eiji was almost surprised that there were no comments from Tayuya, in all honesty. “Took your time, it seems.”

“You know better, but I thought I’d make it extra clear to your people that I’m not one to cross,” he replied bluntly, making the man’s eye twitch. “Thought letting you stew on it for a bit might burn the message in your thick heads.”

“Are you testing my patience? Because it’s certainly effective,” A growled, scowl in place.

“You think I care enough to insult you or your people? I’m being serious,” Eiji told the man. “This is a message. If you do something stupid again, staying like this will be the least important thing that could happen to you.”

“... Noted,” the man muttered through his teeth.

Once upon a time, Eiji might have cared enough to put some respect into his tone and word his message quite differently. That was before the powers that be had shown themselves to be capable of being absolute morons if left to their own devices. Granted, not all of them were like that, but it was a possibility. As such, he’d decided that respect was for those that earned it.

A might have made some decent decisions, but overall, Eiji was unimpressed. Yugito’s message, on top of other things, made it clear that while A was different from whatever moron had decided it was a good idea to try to attack Iwa, he was still about the same, if smarter. As such, his levels of respect had been dropped back to the ground as far as Kumo’s leaders were concerned.

“Good to see you understand,” Eiji replied, sighing as he brought a hand up to run his fingers through his hair. He pretended not to notice the slight shifting of the ninja that were “hidden” and guarding the room. “Now, we’ll be off to do our part of the agreement. Kumo makes for awesome sights, but I don’t think we’ll be staying for long.”

“I’ll have someone guide you to where you need-”

“No need, Raikage-sama,” Kabuto interrupted with his usual “kind” smile. “We know the way to the hospital the injured are stationed at. If that’s all, we can be on our way.”

Eiji almost laughed at the way A’s face twitched as he suppressed his emotions. A great actor, the man was not, but at least he had a good enough hold on his temper to not do something stupid, even in the face of such blatant taunt. Kabuto was a magnificent bastard though, Eiji would definitely be giving him the compliment he deserved after they left the building.

“Dismissed,” A hissed at them and Eiji nodded, turning and walking out the door.

“See you around, Goatman,” Tayuya called as they left the room, Yuki accompanying that with a bark, for good measure. “Man, why’d you tell me to keep silent if you were going to be like that? That’s just mean, Eiji, I expect to be compensated for my loss. Such a wasted opportunity there, what kind of boyfriend are you?”

“One that knows you’d have gotten carried away if I let you be, so I decided to preemptively make sure that you wouldn’t,” Eiji replied as they walked back out of the building. “I’m petty enough to have done that on purpose, but I was reasonably sure that he wouldn’t do anything. If I’d let you be though… Yeah…”

“Doesn’t change what I said,” Tayuya hissed at him, narrowing her eyes.

“Sure thing,” he agreed with a roll of his eyes. “What do you want to do? I’m sure Yugito can point us to a place for a date.”

“You sure about that?” Tayuya asked, giving the blond woman a side-eye. “You think she’s gone on many dates? Good ones at that? Because I fucking doubt it.”

“Excuse me?” Yugito asked, clearly very offended by the statement.

“You are fucking excused, Bimbo Number Two, but I stand by what I said,” Tayuya said, making Eiji deflate as he walked.

“You’ve made weird choices in your life, Eiji,” Jirobo pointed out and he could only sigh. “Strange and inexplicable life choices.”

“Don’t I know it, Jirobo, don’t I fucking know it,” he agreed with appreciatively petting Yuki when the ninken rubbed her head to his side comfortingly. “Thanks, girl. You are the only semi-normal thing in this team. You and maybe Jirobo and Temari.”

“And that’s so very sad, isn’t it?” Fu commented, a grin on her face that was quite at odds with her statement.

“Indeed,” Eiji agreed.

“You know I’m hearing you, right?” Temari asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Your point?” Tayuya said, returning the gesture to the blonde. “And I can hear you too, Fearless Leader. You better have a good date in mind.”

“Of course, dear,” he replied, making the girl stumble on her own feet. He grinned at her expression as she tried and failed to say something, her mouth opening and closing without making a sound and her face turning as red as her hair. “I’m sure I can manage that.”

Her expression turned into a scowl as the team started laughing at her reaction.

They all dutifully ignored the desk that flew out of the Raikage’s window when they’d already crossed the bridge that went away from the building.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, there’s our stop for the moment.

Honestly, I’m having fun with this more Slice of Life chapters we are going through now that the plot is done, which is making me think that I should focus on stories like that instead of action driven ones. Between GoM and this, I’m pretty sure I’m more of a SoL writer. Guess I’ll see what I do with that information.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: What do you think the next chapter has in store for us?

See you.