Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 55

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

Chapter 55

[Kakashi Hatake]

The sound of lightning reached his ears as he looked at his student rush towards a rock and thrust his hand forward. The weaponized limb buried itself on the boulder and Kakashi took a moment to assess the situation. Sasuke, first of all, looked relatively fine. His breathing was ragged and his fingers were bleeding a little. However, over all, it was much better than how he had suffered at the beginning of their training.

The destruction on his path had been minimal. The lightning had flashed and thundered a lot, but that was expected from someone that had only actually known the technique for less than a month. The way he had used it, it was more of a normal attack than an assassination technique, but that was fine. If he was honest, Kakashi wished his student would not take one of those missions for a while. He hadn't even wanted to teach the technique to the Uchiha, but with the threat that loomed over the village...

Then he took in the actual damage Sasuke had done to the rock. It wasn't the best, but the thing had cracked and he had managed to bury the whole length of his fingers in the thing. Not a whole lot of process from how they had started, but he had focused more on reducing the damage his student received from his own attack than increasing what he delivered.

Kakashi was pleasantly surprised when, once again, his student proved to have a much more... stable mind, for lack of a better word, than what he had expected. When he had been told that the last loyal Uchiha would be in his team, he had dreaded it, almost wishing to send him to the Genin Corps like he had many others. After all, everyone knew what had happened to his Clan, and there was no way that someone with that blood in their veins would not seek revenge.

He had been right, but also wrong. The kid did want to kill his brother for what he had done to his own clan, but at least he wasn't absolutely consumed by that goal. There were theories about why that was, but Kakashi was just thankful that he didn't have to teach an unhinged avenger.

"It's not enough, is it?" His student asked, looking at his own hand and flexing his bleeding fingers slowly. His expression twisted in a grimace before he turned his head towards Kakashi, who considered the question for a moment.

"Enough for what?" He asked, with a lazy tilt of his head. Since the first day, the Jounin had received different answers for such questions. Most of the time the boy was referring to Itachi. Some others, it was Naruto, who seemed to have some weird friend/rivalry going on with the Uchiha. They were competitive, but not overly so. No, both of them seemed to have someone else in that spot. And that someone was the last answer.

"To beat Eiji," Sasuke clarified.

"No, it's not," Kakashi replied honestly, watching his student's reaction carefully. Months ago, he would have expected anger from such an answer, maybe some shouts, or at least a scowl. Instead, what he got was a deep breath in and a sigh as Sasuke turned his attention back to his training. "By the way, one more try and we are going to the hospital so you have that hand checked. After that, you have a session with the Yamanaka."

That earned him a frown. The Uchiha had, like many others, a dislike for having people in their mind. He did, at least, take the training he had to go through, which was a relief for Kakashi and many in the Shinobi Council. Having such an important Rookie influenced by Orochimaru of all people was something nobody wanted to happen.

"I won't catch up with either of them, will I?" His student asked and, this time, Kakashi actually paused to consider the question. He knew who he meant now, at least. The problem was the actual question though. After all...