Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 86

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 86

"Nothing, again," Tayuya hissed. "When I find these fuckers, I'll put them in a Genjutsu so bad they'll-" From there, Eiji simply tuned out. Maybe he should have told her to keep it down. There were Iwa nin around to witness her outburst and 'manners', after all. However, neither he nor the locals were very concerned with her fool mouth at the moment.

The boy's red eyes scanned through his surroundings. Not only that though, he tried his best to catch something with Web Sense too. He found nothing though. Nothing but the crater that had been left behind by the explosion that had rang the alarm through Han's defenses.

As Tayuya put it, this kind of thing had happened a lot since they arrived. What is more, from the reports he'd read, this had been going on for a while already. What Deidara and Sasori were trying to achieve with this, he didn't know.

Were they trying to bait them out to leave Han by himself? That had been covered, since only Eiji and Tayuya had moved to answer the alarm, leaving the rest with orders to stall and call for reinforcements if anything happened. He also made sure to rotate who moved out. The only constant being that Temari and himself were never in the same group, since they needed to be in charge of one each.

Were they trying to check what the defenses were? That didn't make sense either. They had to know how things were by now. It even showed in the 'attacks' they made.

'They are distracting us, but from what?' Eiji thought with a frown.

"Let's go back," He told the redhead. "If you would let us know if you find something, that would be appreciated," He directed to one of the Iwa nin currently investigating the scene. The only sign that he was heard was a slight grunt, but Eiji simply nodded at that and started moving. At least they were actually working with him, which was all he needed. He wouldn't and couldn't ask for them to like it.

"This is getting really fucking annoying," Tayuya grumbled next to him as they walked back to Han's place where everyone else was waiting. "What the hell are they trying to do?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Eiji mused out loud, long past the point of caring about how the girl spoke. "Once we arrive, I'll be meditating for a bit. I really want to piece this puzzle together before something happens."

"Are you asking me to play my flute? Because you could be more polite about it. Isn't that the shit you are always on about?" The girl asked with a sneer. Eiji simply gave her a lazy smile.

"Well, since you don't care about manners, I guessed I wouldn't either. At least when dealing with you," He shot back before turning to the front. "But yes, that would be appreciated."

Eiji didn't have many clear memories of his past life anymore, but he was pretty sure that listening to music had always helped him concentrate. Or, at least, it would allow him to tune out his surroundings, which might as well be the same thing. He really needed it at the moment, especially if he wanted to think through the current problem.

It wasn't like he was completely against what was happening. The longer the Akatsuki pair took to make their move, the more he could train his team and, more importantly, himself. Senjutsu kept steadily, if slowly, improving and his next original jutsu was almost ready to be used. He just couldn't help but continue making tweaks to it. It had to be as perfect and powerful as he could possibly make it.

He took a deep breath in.

"Good. I was just about to tell you to calm down," Hachi told him and Eiji suppressed a wry smile. He was getting better at keeping his mind calm and pushing away thoughts that could disturb Tsuchigumo. The Beast herself sent a wave of appreciation his way. If only for that, he would try harder.