Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 93

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 93

[Yugito Nii]

Matatabi's chakra flowed through and out of her. The pressure of the Chakra Beast's presence weighing on everyone around her. She felt powerful, like every time she did this, which made it a shame that she couldn't use that power nearly enough. Most of the time, that is, because at that moment she still felt useless.

The Chakra Beasts, despite being much more than the rampaging monsters most of the Nations thought they were, still were hard to deal with at the best of times. Even in Kumo, where Jinchuriki were respected, they were also feared just because of the power they held. After all, just the fact that they were Jinchuriki already bumped them up in the power scale to Jounin level at the least.

And yet, she'd been able to do next to nothing against Akatsuki.

A glorified puppet breaker, that's what she'd been. Granted, she hadn't been able to do much, even when accessing Matatabi's chakra. After all, if she let loose in that battlefield, she'd have affected her teammates too. Just the chakra poisoning would have taken them out of commission, most likely. Maybe it would have won them the battle faster, but if Eiji had instilled anything in her was that the safety of the team came first.

'For all the good it did to him,' Yugito thought derisively.

Thus, there she was, in a now familiar Training Grounds in Iwa, with her team, training. Business as usual, at that point. She'd fallen into that routine with frightening speed, if she was honest. It was sort of... nice, to have people working with her that were perfectly fine with what she was. Besides B-sensei, at least.

They were kids, the lot of them, but they were still... more. She guessed it had something to do with living through more than the average person. Even the dog had a story to tell. Through Eiji, of course, but the point stood.

"I think that's enough," She announced, when she noticed that Temari was having trouble keeping up. She guessed it made sense. Jirobo and Tayuya had experienced the Cursed Mark, which she understood had similar side effects to chakra poisoning. Kabuto had been trained to withstand torture. And Yuki...

"That boy still intrigues me to no end," Matatabi interrupted in Yugito's mind, the Beast's voice a mix of frustration and curiosity.

What was that about? Well, apparently, Eiji gave off the feeling of a Jinchuriki, which made no sense to either of the parts that made the Two Tails Jinchuriki. How was it possible? She'd have thought that Konoha had stolen a beast from somewhere, but it couldn't be. Not only was it impossible to do without someone knowing, but Matatabi couldn't identify the chakra signature of the Beast inside Eiji. Only thing the Two Tails could tell was that it vaguely resembled the Eight Tails's, but that was about it.

"Keep up, Bimbo," Tayuya snarled with much more malice than usual. Yugito supposed she was frustrated and angry. The ex-Sound Kunoichi was certainly not one to control her emotions well, and it showed.

"I'm trying," Temari ground out, frustration clear in her voice and her expression. She looked a breath away from snapping at someone, anyone. Tayuya wisely decided to keep her mouth shut, but the sneer in her face remained.

"That you can withstand chakra poisoning better doesn't mean you can keep going, Tayuya," Kabuto commented before Yugito could do so herself. The two of them seemed to be the only ones that remained unaffected... Outwardly, at least.

"It'd work against us if you let yourself be poisoned more than intended," The Jinchuriki added then.

They had all agreed to train to withstand chakra poisoning, build resistance to it. All in the spirit of their ability to do so, or lack thereof, being a hindrance in the future. Yugito wondered about the merit of such training, considering that she was likely to be pulled back to Kumo soon, since the mission was essentially finished. Still, she went along with it. After all, who knew what the future held for them?