Game of Shadows - 139 (Patreon)

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 139

‘I wonder if I had sights like this around in my old life,’ Eiji wondered idly as he looked around. The mountain peaks extended as far as the eye could see, with the blue sky hanging over them only interrupted by the occasional cloud. He remembered seeing mountains, for sure, but he didn’t think he’d ever seen ones so… Specifically shaped. The mountains around Kumogakure seemed to be a bunch of massive cone-shaped rocks that had been dropped on the planet. It was both very interesting and slightly ridiculous in certain places where it was specifically unnatural.

“You have to cook more, Eiji,” Tayuya commented, her mouth half full. Leaning against her back the smallest bit from where they were sitting, at the top of one of the peaks, he chuckled to himself. “This is amazing,” she added after audibly gulping down.

“I already cook a whole lot,” he pointed out with a slight smile. “When do I not? When one of you feels like cooking, that’s almost never. When we go out on dates? That’s kind of the point of most of them, isn’t it?” he asked, tilting his head so that he lightly hit the side of hers. “I’m glad you like it though.”

“Like it, he says,” she muttered under her breath. “Could have convinced me to date you just with this.”

“So it wasn’t only because of my food? Nice,” Eiji replied with a grin that only widened at her scoff.

“Stop fishing for compliments, Eiji,” she told him. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“Alas, my own girlfriend has nothing good to say about me. However shall I cope?” he lamented, drawing an unintelligible grumbling from her. “But I’m glad you liked the food.”

“Idiot,” she told him and he could almost see her pouting as she leaned her head over his shoulder before he did the same. “You know I’m damn lucky, right?”

“I don’t know,” he replied, still smiling, if softer. “I feel pretty lucky myself.”

“Idiot,” Tayuya repeated, her voice lower. “I’m serious,” she added, making his grin all but disappear as he paid even closer attention to what she said. “I’m… I wasn’t a good person before. I’m still not a nice person now. And I’m… I’m a freak.”

“Pretty sure all of us are freaks, honestly,” he attempted to reassure her, but from what he picked up through his wires, it didn’t really help all that much. There was a scowl on his girlfriend’s face and he was starting to think this was actually something that upset her quite a bit.

“Don’t get me wrong, I know what you are saying,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “But what Orochimaru did to me, to me and Jirobo…”

“You mean the Cursed Mark? I’ve been Marked before, Tayuya, I don’t care about that,” he told her quite decisively. When she said nothing, only tensing against his back, he continued. “I don’t care about it. Hell, your Cursed Mark form doesn’t even look all that bad… Have you looked at me?”

“The fuck are you talking about, Eiji?” she asked, sounding taken aback by his question.

“That’s about how I feel, Tayuya,” he told her, rolling his eyes. “I’m literally disfigured, what with this scar all over my face,” he listed, waving his hand over his eye even if she was looking away from him. “Nevermind the marks over my arm. And that’s not even looking at my other arm, or lack thereof.”

“Eiji, stop being stupid, you know I don’t care about any of that,” she scoffed.

“Then why do you think I care about the Cursed Mark?” he asked her.

“I just… I…”

“You are beautiful, Tayuya,” he whispered, leaning as much as he could against. “And I’ll tell you all the times I need to so you’ll believe me.”

“... Thank you,” she mumbled, in a way that he almost missed, even with as close as he was to her. With a slight smile, he kissed the side of her head, and he was damn glad for his Web Sense. Otherwise, he might have missed the adorable smile that sprouted on her face. “You are still a fucking dumbass though,” she couldn’t help but add.

To that, Eiji just chuckled.

“Now that’s more like the Tayuya I know and love,” he said, looking up at the sky. The redhead didn’t say anything to that for a long moment, but Eiji contented himself with the blush on her face.

“You are an idiot,” she told him with a small voice. To be honest, he probably was, but what did it matter? He couldn’t bring himself to care overly much, if he was honest. He was happy, he had a wonderful girlfriend and the world was at peace with his friends safe. What more could he possibly want? “I love you too,” she mumbled, pushing against his back even as she seemed to try and curl herself into a ball.

Storing away the container that had once held his food, he shifted until Tayuya was sitting against his chest instead of his back.

“Nobody is watching our back like this,” she grumbled in a whisper, but he just chuckled. Mostly because she was making no movement to pull away. If anything, she was pressing herself against him even more.

“That’s what Web Sense is for,” he reassured her, even if he knew she was offering only token resistance. “Thanks for saying yes to me when I just asked you out so randomly.”

“Thanks for asking me out,” she mumbled, looking down at her half-finished food before continuing eating. “The food’s getting cold, stupid boyfriend.”

“Sorry about that,” he said half-heartedly. “It’s just that my beautiful girlfriend is too adorable, I couldn’t help myself. Besides, she was being silly.”

“You are silly.”

“Yeah, I guess I am,” he agreed easily. “I blame my girlfriend.”

“Idiot.”

[}-o-{]

Eiji sat across one of the only people in the world that might stand a chance against him and maybe even could beat him… probably. Maybe it was arrogant of him to think so, but after everything, he thought it was an accurate assessment. Regardless of all that though, he was also not all that concerned with this meeting, despite the look of things.

For sure, people would surely get at least a little nervous if they were to see the training ground they were at. With Eiji going full power Tsuchigumo Chakra Beast Mode. The blue chakra covered him entirely, with all eight spider legs poking out of his back and pointing forward and a pair of horns that had only appeared when all legs were out pointing up from his forehead. The mode truly had taken quite a bit from his Cursed Mark form, it seemed, not that he was overly surprised.

In front of him, meanwhile, sat Killer B in his own full Tailed Beast Mode. The tentacle-like tails of the Eight Tails pointing forward and touching their tips with the spider legs of Tsuchigumo. The two chakra beasts were having their equivalent of a conversation and Eiji and B were just… there for emotional support, the teenager guessed.

Not that Tsuchigumo needed much of that, in all honesty. He was getting some secondhand view of how the “conversation” was going with the Eight Tails and she was basically her excited puppy self while talking to her senior about anything and everything. Interestingly enough, she didn’t seem to see the other chakra beast as a parent, despite being made out of their chakra. If anything, she saw them like she did every other Tailed Beast, an uncle of sorts.

Eiji could honestly say he didn’t know how to feel about being considered the only parent figure in Tsuchigumo’s life. ‘I’m kinda young to be a father, right? Should I talk this out with Tayuya?’ he mused with a wry grin. That would be a fun conversation, that was for sure. He was sure that if he had been eating, he would have choked at Tsuchigumo’s sudden “Mum?” thought. Yeah, no, that was a conversation for another time, definitely.

It was, fortunately, very easy to redirect the chakra beast’s attention back to the Eight Tails. She was having a great time interacting with them, as she often did with the other chakra beasts. Granted, she didn’t talk a whole lot with the Two Tails or the Seven Tails, but they’d share short “conversations” from time to time. ‘Maybe I should organize some of these meetings with them, so she can enjoy herself,’ Eiji thought idly.

It made some sense that Tsuchigumo would enjoy such things. After all, she was basically trapped in his mind with only Hachi, Kage and him. No offense to the Orochimaru lookalikes, but that was a very limited pool for social interaction, not to mention they were all sort of… odd.

“No offense taken,” Kage waved off then.

“Not like we can argue against that without blatantly lying,” Hachi added dryly.

Tsuchigumo sent them a thought that roughly translated to “I still love you, guys”, the adorable little thing that she was. Honestly, how was Eiji supposed to not want to do stuff to try and spoil her. He was half sure the reason his mindscape was now filled with all sorts of animals was because the twins felt about the same way he did.

“You’ve got no proof,” Kage argued, damning himself more than anything else. “Damnit.”

Eiji could almost see Hachi rolling her eyes at her brother.

He focused back in the present, half paying attention to how things went with Tsuchigumo. He didn’t really need to listen in though, much of what she said bleed through their bond anyway. She was basically telling the Eight Tails a little about anything and everything. From how she’d formed, the confusion she’d felt and how Eiji had helped her.

From there, the much younger chakra beast went on to talk about all the things she’d done since she came to be. It was sort of adorable, to “hear” her babbling like an excited child talking about their day. He was pretty sure half of it was done so enthusiastically it was just incoherent ranting. Still, Eiji was happy to see that the Eight Tails happily humored the young one, offering comments here and there but otherwise letting Tsuchigumo talk away.

He did take a moment to wonder how the rest of the team was doing. Most of them were doing their own thing while they basically waited for Kabuto to finish repairing what he’d done to Kumo’s forces. As it turned out, it was a lot easier to twist people’s bodies for the mednin than it was to put them back how they originally were, so it was taking some time despite the fight that caused the whole thing having taken place in a few hours tops.

Thus, they’d gone on to do whatever whenever the man was working on that. At that moment, as far as Eiji could tell, Tayuya and Jirobo were both working on their mindscapes to better use their Cursed Marks. Which reminded Eiji that he’d have to look into that so as to make things easier for them. Or, at the very least, take away the sliver of Orochimaru from there. No Horcruxes for the Voldemort wannabe.

Yugito was catching up with her people, from what he knew. Then there were Temari, Fu and Yuki, who had all gone to see what they could find to resupply the Squad and generally take a look around the village. With some luck, the blonde and the dog would be enough to keep the Jinchuriki out of trouble. Not that Fu was particularly trouble prone but… Well, she was enthusiastic and Kumogakure was already… They weren’t fans of the Squad, to put it simply.

Fortunately for them, the residents of the Cloud seemed to steer clear of them, which Eiji greatly appreciated.

[}-o-{]

“Your people suck, Bimbo Number Two,” Tayuya commented once the Squad finally was able to leave Kumogakure. “Not a nice bone in their body, honestly.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” the jinchuriki said, her eye twitching.

“They were kind of mean the whole time,” Fu commented, her hands behind her back as she walked backwards in front of the team. “Not our fault that they were stupid and won stupid prizes,” she added. Somehow, those words didn’t seem to make Yugito feel better.

Shocker.

“They were honestly worse than Iwa was the first time we had to go there,” Jirobo pointed out then.

“I got a bunch of death threats, even though I was there to heal them,” Kabuto commented casually, his lips pulling up into a smile. Eiji, for his part, just shook his head at his team’s antics. They just couldn’t help themselves, it seemed.

Yuki barked something.

“True, they even included us, and we weren’t even there for that fight,” Temari said, agreeing with the ninken. This proved to be too much for poor Yugito, who groaned out loud.

“You guys suck, you know?” she grumbled, looking away from them. “I’m almost glad that we are moving away too, just so you’ll shut up about it. I didn’t see you complaining when I told you guys about places to visit and such.”

“The food and the sights were great, yeah,” Eiji agreed.

“Thank you.”

“The people still left something to be desired though,” he added, drawing snorts, chuckles and laughter from the rest of the Squad. Except Yugito, who seemed just about ready to explode. “Did you have fun, Shirakumo?” he asked the white spider on his shoulder then, to change topics before he had to deal with a very angry jinchuriki.

“It was nice, but I’m looking forward to the next one, I’ve never been on a boat before,” his summon commenced excitedly, bouncing up and down on her legs as if that would speed up their traveling. “Mum said she’s happy I’m enjoying myself and that some of the clan members wouldn’t mind coming over for a fight or two,” she added then, turning to look at him.

“I guess we can add them to our spars… Not sure how safe that’d be for them, but we can set some limitations and such. Or maybe we can deal with some idiots on the way to Kiri and leave it to them. There’s always a bandit group or such around, aren’t there?” Eiji mused mostly to himself.

“We can find some of those,” Kabuto said with a thoughtful nod. He hadn’t been entirely serious about that, but Eiji wasn’t going to comment. It would be fun to smack some idiots around in a fight that didn’t have high stakes, he supposed. “You sure Kumo won’t get angry at us though?”

“That sounds like a distinct possibility,” Temari replied with a nod and Eiji wondered how hard it was to keep a straight face while saying that. “They did get angry at us for stopping their invasion of Iwa.”

Finally having had enough, Yugito let out a half-groan half-wail before she Flickered away.

“Wow, that’s fucking rude,” Tayuya said, making Eiji roll his eyes.

“Honestly, you guys…”

[}-o-{]

Eiji sat at the top of a stone pillar as he watched his summons absolutely demolish the bandit camp Kabuto had managed to find. The rest of the Squad had wanted to participate but they’d agreed that they were a little out of the common criminal’s league. Just a little bit though.

Hell, dropping Kumohoshi on top of the poor bastards was overkill as it was, quite honestly. However, the spider chief had readily agreed to participate when asked. If Eiji had to bet, she was quite enjoying herself at the moment. He could relate. There were few things more satisfying than smacking idiots around.

Granted, he wasn’t keen on saying that out loud much, else his team get angry at him.

All that led to the Squad putting off their own fighting for the moment. Maybe once they made it to Kirigakure, he’d ask Mei if she could find some people to spar with them. Surely that would be good for both sides, right? Besides, she’d seemed agreeable enough during their meeting before stuff went to hell.

“I think you might have gone a little overboard, Eiji,” Temari commented, as they saw Kumohoshi play some type of volleyball with the bandits, smacking them towards her underlings before they were smacked right back at her by said spiders. It was kind of a… surreal sight, actually.

“You think?” he asked.

“Just a little bit,” Jirobo agreed.

“Ah well, that should teach them,” Eiji said blandly. “I think you’ll have to find more targets, Kabuto, Yugito. I’m not sure this will be enough for them. And besides… Maybe we can take turns, what do you think?”

“You have the best ideas, Fearless Leader,” Fu replied instantly, grinning widely. Well, she was all for it, expectedly, but the rest of the Squad looked at the least mildly interested. Yeah, being a criminal in the Elemental Nations was about to become real troublesome, Eiji guessed.

Well, they had it coming, he supposed. Too bad.

For the moment though…

“I guess we’ll just have to make do with spars amongst ourselves,” he commented then with a grin. He didn’t turn away from the bandit camp, but he didn’t need to in order to see his team rapidly pale and turn towards him. “I’m sure I can keep you guys entertained for the moment.”

“Ah, em, Fearless Leader, there’s no need for that,” Fu tried to wave off. It was a valiant effort, truly.

“We know you are still resting from all the mess with Akatsuki and such,” Jirobo offered, to support his teammate. “There’s no need to push yourself, Eiji.”

“Don’t worry about it, guys,” he said, turning towards them with his grin widening. “I wouldn’t want you to get bored, after all.”

“Oh fuck it all. You couldn’t keep your traps shut for a bit, could you?” Tayuya cursed under her breath. “And then I’m the one that can’t just keep silent, am I? Dumbasses.”

[}-o-{]

“This is not how I was expecting things to go when I learned that we’d get to Kiri on a boat,” Eiji mused out loud idly, the waves rocking the boat they were on gently. Off to the side, he saw Fu doing her absolute best to keep her laughter under control and failing spectacularly. Yugito, for her part, looked as pleased as a person could be. “Certainly an experience, wouldn’t you say?”

“Shut the fuck up, Fearless Leader,” Tayuya muttered. Next to her, Temari heaved over the railing.

“Sea sickness,” Eiji said dryly. “Who would have thought, huh?”

“For the love of God, Eiji,” the Suna nin muttered. “Shut up.”

“I’m just trying to wrap my head around this new development, is all. You can ignore me,” he waved off with a wry grin. He looked to the other side of the railing, were Jirobo was sitting with his back against the railing, visibly taking deep breaths in while Kabuto placed a hand on his head. The guy had taken to the boat especially badly. So much so that their mednin had to do something about it. Next to Jirobo, Yuki laid herself, resting her head on his lap for support. “The mighty Suicide Squad, taken down by a piece of wood and metal and the waves.”

Fu lost her battle, expectedly, and laughed harder than she probably ever had. Certainly more than he’d ever heard her do so, which almost made him chuckle. He valued his life too much to do that though, but he’d let the Jinchuriki do so in his stead. The situation deserved nothing less, quite honestly.

“I’m gonna kill her,” Tayuya muttered under her breath next to her.

“Same,” Temari agreed before retching once more.

“How the mighty have fallen,” Yugito commented, her voice raised just so in order to be heard by the suffering trio.

“Wait until the next spar, Bimbo Number Two, I’ll-,” Tayuya threatened before being interrupted by her own body. Idly, Eiji continued holding her hair back.

“Classy,” Eiji mused, sending Fu into another fit. “You know, when I pictured doing this, it was quite a ways away in the future and the situation was very different,” he pointed out, doing critical damage to poor Fu.

“My God, Fearless Leader,” the jinchuriki said in between bouts of laughter that she could no longer control. “Stop, please. I can’t- It hurts.”

“Fucking idiot,” Tayuya cursed and Eiji wondered who that was directed to. “It doesn’t hurt enough, absolute dumbass,” she added, clarifying things for a bit. That is, until she kicked his shin. “And you shut up already, Eiji, or I swear to fucking God.”

“Yes, dear,” he replied, making her face go red before she had to turn fully back out of the railing and down to the waves. Thus, Eiji pondered on how he should deal with the smell, because he loved Tayuya and all, but still…

[}-o-{]

“Land, sweet, firm land,” Tayuya exclaimed, literally throwing herself to the ground once they reached solid ground. Eiji had no doubt that Jirobo would have reacted much the same if he had enough energy for that. As it was, the big guy simply let himself fall face first to the ground like he was a sack of potatoes.

“So dramatic,” Yugito said, rolling her eyes at the duo. Temari, at least, had managed to keep some of her dignity and simply sighed in relief as she took her first step back on land. Fu, for her part, was giggling behind her hand, something that had been a common sight since the trip on the boat started.

To their credit, all three of them had gotten their bearings somewhere in the middle of the trip, but it had still been far from a pleasant experience for them. Eiji would have to remember that. Either Kabuto would find a way to keep them nice and happy with a boat trip, or he would need to make a separate team just for missions that involved getting to islands and such.

“May I remind you guys that the Mizukage is right there?” Kabuto said dryly getting only some of the Squad members to straighten their act the smallest bit. Like Jirobo, who dragged himself to a standing position. Tayuya was too busy kissing the ground though, making Eiji wonder if he should be jealous.

“Let them be,” the leader told his second-in-command with a wave of his hand. “You can’t tell me it’s not amusing,” he added with a smirk before taking a step towards the village leader. “I apologize for them but the boat trip was… an experience, you could say.”

“So I see,” Mei replied, and Eiji almost didn’t catch the twitch of her lips. “Completely understandable. They wouldn't be the first to react badly to that when coming here and they certainly won’t be the last.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Eiji commented with a grin. “Wouldn’t want our reputation ruined by such a first impression.”

“I’m not sure you could ruin your reputation at all, Satou,” Mei pointed out with a half-smile. “It would take quite something, after the kind of feats you and your team have pulled.”

“Eiji, please, and thanks, that’s good to know,” he replied with a soft chuckle.

“Stop flirting with the Mizukage, Fearless Leader,” Tayuya grumbled to which he laughed harder.

“Why though? I thought you were having a moment with the ground,” he pointed out, drawing a laugh from Fu and a chuckle from most of the rest of the team. His girlfriend though, turned a very adorable shade of red, sending a glare his way that told him that his humor wasn’t appreciated. “With the nonsense out of the way,” he continued, turning towards Mei who seemed to realize that the jokes were over. “I guess we have much to talk about, don’t we?”

“We do,” the Kage agreed.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I’m sure some people will be disappointed with the Killer B scene but… Honestly, I really don’t want to write the character. So, sorry for everyone that was looking forward to that.

I hope you still enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: This epilogue arc is kind of longer than I expected it would be. How many chapters do you think might be left?

See you.