Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 58

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

Chapter 58

The night before the finals was... something.

I barely managed to get out of bed that day, if I was honest. Not that I had slept much through the night, since my mind was plagued with thoughts of what was coming. Worrying over what could happen to any of my friends through that shit storm.

I knew I sounded like a broken record, even in my own mind I could tell. My own mind even told me, figuratively and literally since Shade and Hachi loved to tell me that I was thinking too much about it. I just couldn't stop myself from doing that. It was one of my problems, I guessed, worrying too much.

Eventually though, the time came to get up and stop just twisting and turning on the bed.

"Naruto! Time for breakfast!" I called out as I moved down the stairs. It was slightly amusing, to be calling up my first competitor for the Finals like that. It was also my routine, however.

It was even more amusing that the rest of that morning went as all of them usually went. Naruto grumbled against his pillow until I kicked him off the bed. I dragged him to the bathroom and threatened not to leave any food for him if he didn't hurry up. I forced him into helping me with the dishes and so on.

The series of habits was broken when both of us went to our rooms to get ready to go to the arena where the Finals would be held. Putting on the clothes Danzo had gotten me was... weird. Mostly because it fit perfectly and I wasn't sure if I wanted to know how they had managed that.

I wanted to think that Root had someone in the organization that could tell measurements with just a look or something of the sort. That was the story I was sticking to, at least. The other options were increasingly more unsettling and, honestly, I had better things to be worrying about than that.

Walking out, I was greatly amused by Naruto's surprised and awed expression as he met me at the entrance of our house. It was nice to know that the outfit was as cool as I thought it was. It was good to know that it was a hit, at least with the blonde.

"Oh, man. Now I wish I had decided to change my clothes," Naruto complained, looking down at his black and burnt orange outfit, with his jacket open to show the bright orange shirt underneath. "Why didn't I think of that?" He whined to the heavens.

"Well... not much you can do with your... preferences," I commented, looking down at his clothes.

"Can you stop dissing the orange?!"

"I mean, it isn't so bad but still..." I looked down again with an unsure expression. Internally, I was holding back laughter since I was mostly just teasing him. He actually didn't look that bad, really. It was just an old joke I was still running with, at that point.

"I swear to the Ramen Gods, I'll make you all pay for dissing the orange," Naruto grumbled as he walked beside me through the front door. Then, once alone, I chuckled to myself.

A few seconds later, the smile fell off my face and my expression became void of emotion. The weight of my worries returned with a vengeance once there was nothing to distract me from them. It was a shame that Naruto had agreed to meet up with Sasuke to go together to the Finals. A team thing was what I had gathered from the blonde's words. Still, it was nice to know that Sasuke was much more connected with the people around him than his canon counterpart had been. I was almost sure that there wouldn't be any shenanigans regarding him and Orochimaru with all the changes that had occurred.

'Another change though,' I thought to myself. 'Sasuke isn't going with Kakashi... maybe because he didn't have last minute training or anything of the sort, what with the extra month?'