Game of Shadow

Chapter 45

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

Chapter 45

"Good luck, buddy," I said, patting him on the back. Before, I would have doubted Chouji's chances against the elder Suna brother. Now though? With the surprises that my friends seemed to be pulling out of nowhere? I didn't know. It wasn't a bad thing when I wasn't fearing for their lives. Not that Kankuro was precisely a safe opponent to have, but I didn't think there was much chance of him killing someone fast enough that no Jounin would be able to stop him or help.

"Kick his ass, Chouji!" "You can do it!" Naruto and Ino shouted as the Akimichi made his way to the arena. I grinned as I saw his back straighten as he kept moving forward.

"Thoughts?" I asked.

"Difficult to tell," Shika shrugged. "We don't know anything about the other guy. Do you?"

"Nope," I denied. Sometimes it worried me how easily lying had come to be for me, after years of doing it.

"How many times will you have that conversation?" Naruto groaned. "Chouji'll kick his sorry ass and that'll be it for make-up dude," Anko and I chuckled at the 'make-up' part but otherwise, everyone shook their heads at the blonde.

'He isn't wrong though,' I thought to myself. It was difficult to try and guess how a fight would go here. It wasn't like in my old world, where you could check if someone was bigger, had more muscle or things like that. Here, looks were deceiving. The smaller guy could be twice as strong as the big one. A fat dude could be faster than a thin one. There was really very little to take from looks alone.

There was something that I could see though.

"Does the thing on the guy's back look like it has," I muttered, my eyes narrowing as I put up my act with practiced ease. "hair? It looks just like his too," I pointed out.

"That's true," Ino said, taking a better look herself. "Weird too."

"Begin!" Gekko called out.

Immediately, Chouji performed his Human Boulder technique, his body growing in size and then tucking himself into a ball before rolling at his opponent. I had been hit by that once and I had forever been grateful for the fact that I was easily fast enough to dodge. It packed a lot more strength than one would expect.

Unfortunately, Kankuro was also fast enough to dodge.

I was slightly surprised when Chouji didn't continue rolling. Instead, he cancelled the jutsu right before he hit a wall and turned around. Just in time to see his opponent tilt his head at him with an amused expression.

"You are not fat enough, kid!" The Suna nin shouted and I shook my head together with the rest of the group.

Our Akimichi friend, meanwhile, scowled at the other boy. Chouji wasn't as enraged as I had noted him to be at such insults, but he still hated to be called fat. It usually made him, at the very least, stop pulling his punches. If Kankuro wanted to use anger against my friend, he would have another thing coming.

Again, Chouji used the same technique.

"At least try something different, fatso!"

And try something different he did, actually. Our friend's attack had the same success it had previously had, but Chouji had obviously seen that coming. He stopped mid-spin right after passing where Kankuro had been standing before dodging. His body returned to normal instantly, leaving it spinning in the air and then he turned, still without touching the floor, sending another attack.

This time, he expanded his arm only. A partial size increase that I didn't know he was capable of. If my notes were right, he couldn't do that until later, but it seemed that I had changed that too, unsurprisingly. His augmented punch got Kankuro right after he had regained his footing from his dodge, sending the Suna nin straight into a wall.