Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 84

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 84

The trip was... normal.

Eiji had half expected something to happen as his team moved through the Land of Fire towards the Land of Earth. He was sure some group would attack them, Tayuya would be especially troublesome and cause a fight or even that an Akatsuki member would find them first, intent on stopping their mission before it even started. Instead, nothing at all happened.

He was getting a little too paranoid, it seemed.

It had Eiji almost nostalgic, remembering that one first C rank mission he'd gone on with Anko. Nothing impressive had happened for a while before they'd found that one injured pair of ninja, and even then it wasn't all that. How he missed those days. They were much simpler than what his life had become after less than a year.

'Less than a year,' He thought ruefully. 'It took less than a year for everything to go to shit. Why am I not surprised?'

Regardless, he would take what he could, grateful that the group of misfits he'd gathered around himself was working somewhat well and had some time to get used to one another. He'd half expected them to be troublesome, especially Tayuya. However, they were surprisingly serious though... If one ignored the looks both females were sending one another, and so long as they didn't start fighting or yelling at each other, he'd gladly do so.

'I'm so glad I don't have to go through the Land of Rain though,' Eiji thought, once more, trying to focus on the path he was taking. Nobody knew that Akatsuki's arguably strongest members were in that small country, it seemed. That had almost spelled Eiji's doom, really, since everyone seemed to believe the Land of Rain was the best place to move through if one tried to go to either the Land of Wind or the Land of Earth.

For once, Eiji was glad that Iwa wanted him there as fast as possible. That had allowed him to argue that, even if it was the safest - and hadn't that been a fun way to express it? - it probably wasn't the fastest. Then, there'd been a bit of an argument, but eventually the higher ups had agreed that it was better to go through the Land of Neck... He was still getting over that name too.

Hunting Akatsuki, he might be, but he was nowhere near prepared to go after Konan and fucking Pain. He needed to prepare for that, probably max out the Jutsu he hadn't even gotten to try out yet. He needed to train his team so that they might hold their ground against the Paths. He needed to make sure he could attack Konan, with her paper body thing.

There was a lot he had to do to even think about charging at them, that was for sure.

[}-o-{]

"Bimbo, I swear to God, if you skip me one more time-"

"Well, I won't skip you... This one reversed the playing direction, right?" Temari asked innocently, knowing very well what the card did.

"Pretty sure it does," Jirobo nodded. Eiji could see the corner of his mouth twitching at the same time Tayuya's eye did. He should have known better than to let those two sit next to each other.

"Bimbo..." The flute player growled.

"Don't worry, Tayuya," Eiji told the girl with a smile. Better to defuse the situation before it escalated. 'Maybe Uno wasn't the best of ideas.'

"You think?" Kage asked sarcastically in his mind.

Thus, Eiji skipped Jirobo, giving poor Tayuya a chance to finally play.