Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 89

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 89

[Tayuya]

She frowned as she looked over her notes. Balance Breaker, the Genjutsu she'd worked up to increase her teammates' capabilities, was problematic. It worked well enough, but after some time working on it, no one in the team was used to it yet and the progress was so slow that she was half tempted to see if a good smack would help them along.

It was a shame Eiji didn't approve of that plan, really.

Tayuya guessed that part of the problem was that she hadn't been able to place herself under the Genjutsu, which would have given her a better insight. That had led to her approaching their leader for some help. She had basically taken classes from him already, what was some more help, right? He'd looked happy with that, so that was good.

Thus, she had placed the Genjutsu on him and he'd given her his thoughts on the matter, in writing even, which allowed her to go over the information even when he was otherwise occupied. Like right that moment, when he'd taken his dog for a walk, apparently. He'd given them some bullshit training excuse, but Tayuya was almost sure they were doing anything but. Not that she'd say that to Eiji's face.

She was a lot of things, but stupid wasn't one of them.

Anyway, apparently the problem wasn't so much with what the Genjutsu did to people, but an unintentional side-effect. Apparently, the way she'd tailored it, it felt pretty damn weird for the targets. That was the short of it, at least from what she gathered of Eiji's words. Now, how was she to tweak that out of the technique?

That was the fucking question, wasn't it?

Her team leader had offered to help her iron out that detail, but she'd refused. This was a technique that she'd made herself, after all. Granted, Eiji had taught her a lot and almost coached her through the whole process, but she'd been the one to work it out in the end. She wanted this to be hers and she would make it so, damn it.

'To think there would come a day I would care about making my shitty teammates feel better,' She thought, amused. It wasn't quite as it sounded, but it was ultimately true, and she found the idea quite humorous. She also found herself, as it was becoming usual, comparing the two people that had guided her through her ninja career.

In a fraction of the time that Orochimaru had, Eiji had completely overthrown him as the best to follow. Not only were the punishments much lighter, but it was also much more productive. Also, he encouraged them to work together. Normally, Tayuya would have laughed at that, but she sure appreciated it when she was the one that was being helped.

So, she guessed she could help out everyone else a bit too. Wouldn't want everyone to decide to leave her out, that's for sure. Everyone was progressing by leaps and bounds, even if some showed it more than others. Wind bitch and the fatass had barely changed anything in their skillset. Hell, even the four-eyes hadn't worked on anything too new. However, they were definitely much better than when they had started.

Tayuya felt no small measure of pride in the fact that she was the only one to add something new to their repertoire. Well, she and the dog, but adding that made it sound so much less impressive, so she wouldn't if she didn't have to. Yuki didn't even count anyway, she was with Eiji all the time and he'd been the one to help her add that.

She conveniently ignored the fact that he'd helped her too.

'Now, how do I fucking do this?' She grumbled to herself, focusing back on her notes.