Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 64

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

Chapter 64

[Naruto Uzumaki]

He wondered, then and there, as he watched the man with a huge sword fighting the woman they had been trying to contain, if there was any way he could have been more useful. Naruto was proud of his seals, he really was. However, at that moment, he felt absolutely useless, even as he continued drawing weight seals to place on her.

'Why am I not that strong?' He wondered, anguished as he looked around. All of his friends looked terrible. Not only were they exhausted due to their continued efforts to stop this woman, but they also were dealing with the effects of that accursed chakra.

'The same chakra I'm supposed to have,' Naruto thought with a grimace. He'd made a sort of deal with the Fox during his time training, that much was true. The demon would give him chakra from time to time when he asked for it, after all, it benefitted both of them if he was strong.

That, however, had led to Jiraiya and himself finding out the effects that too much chakra had on him. Apparently, the Fox could influence him more and more as he accepted more chakra. So, their little deal could get out of hand really quick, they'd realized.

A deal with the devil, indeed.

'How'd they do it?' Naruto asked himself as he looked at the blonde woman for a moment. She looked nothing like what Jiraiya had told him about his own usage of the chakra. He'd described Naruto as a crazed beast more than a human. The Kumo ninja looked to be perfectly in control to him, so...

How?

Angrily, he sent another kunai with a newly drawn seal so that it was as close to the fight as possible, without it being in range of the attacks that could break it that is. This was all he could do and it frustrated him like nothing he'd felt before. It reminded him of those times, back in the Academy, when he was just another useless student. When everyone was ahead of him...

He hated it.

Naruto almost twitched, when his anger resulted in a tickle of the Fox's chakra flowing through him. Apparently, the demon had decided that even when not asked to, he would have fun. The Uzumaki didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He was certainly leaning towards the latter though.

It didn't help that Shino was pumping him more than the others with the red chakra of the woman. It felt just like the Fox's but also nothing like it. It inspired the same disgust though, the same anger, the same boundless energy that urged him to do something. That something was never good though.

Naruto bit his lip as he saw the woman connect a hit to the swordsman's torso, five cuts appearing on his clothing and skin courtesy of her weaponized nails. Maybe he could use the Fox's chakra? Maybe he could try to be like her? Wasn't he supposed to be like her?

"What matters is who you are and what you do," He remembered then. That's what Eiji had told him when they'd had their chat regarding the Fox. Eiji, who was supposed to be... fighting the guy that looked stronger than the woman they were facing...

'Oi, Fox,' Naruto called out, as he'd learned to do during his training time. 'Help out here and don't mess with me,' He told it, his eyes staring at the woman who seemed to start gaining ground in her battle with the swordsman. 'Do that, and I'll make sure to change the sewer into something much nicer.'

It was slow at first, but he'd done it enough times to recognize when the Fox's chakra started coursing through him. The red energy started appearing outside of him, just like it did with the woman. With that, Naruto stood, forgetting about the paper, the ink, the brush, all thoughts of seals pushed aside.