Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 127

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 127

Eiji's mind was almost completely filled with thoughts about Akatsuki those days.

It was ironic, how each step he took towards dealing with them permanently made him worry and fear even more. He was getting closer and closer, but that only meant that his enemies would go even more difficult to take out. Pain would get his puppets set up once more and Eiji would have no idea which was which. Konan might be desperate enough to pull out her nuke option the next time they faced each other. Obito might do something drastic now that Eiji was making himself more of a nuisance than the Uchiha probably expected him to be.

And Zetsu... Well, Eiji didn't know much about him, of course. However, he had little doubts that the plant guy was as dangerous as the rest, if not more so. He had vague notes about him being very connected to the absolute shitshow that was the ending of the series. However, he didn't know precisely why or how he was involved. That made him even more dangerous than the rest. Better the devil you know and all that, after all.

To make things worse, he had no control over when he'd get to fight them. Things would be much easier if he could just go and find the remaining Akatsuki members. However, that wasn't the case. He was stuck just waiting for them, sitting on his ass until they decided to show their faces somewhere. Furthermore, he had to pray that he'd get to be close enough to reach them, which was difficult.

He could already see them attacking outside of his range. Big as his range might be too, considering that Eiji had proved he could dash all the way to a different Elemental Nation. He probably wouldn't go to such extremes again unless he absolutely needed to, like with Naruto, but Akatsuki couldn't know that for sure, and that was what was important. Anything that might buy him more time would be welcome.

Eiji needed time to get around his new... situation with his arm, or lack thereof. He needed time for his allies to try and get information about Akatsuki. He needed time to prepare his team. His enemies wouldn't stay still during that time, but the peaceful passage of it would still offer a measure of relief.

"Not as bad as I expected," Kabuto said then, snapping Eiji out of his thoughts, as he finished his examination. The younger boy took a deep breath in and then let it out.

"But worse than we hoped, I'm guessing," he said, offering a weak reassuring smile towards the mednin. It wasn't Kabuto's fault that he was getting worse and worse the more fights he went through.

"Ten more years off of your future," the ex-spy told him bluntly, because there was no point beating around the bush. Eiji nodded at that, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a moment. "If you'd just let me start working on something to improve your condition-"

"Focus on getting better, Kabuto," Eiji told him, opening his eyes again. "Once Akatsuki is dealt with, we can focus on whatever we want. Hell, I might just outright retire after that. I want all efforts put into ending this shitshow so we can finally breathe easily."

"I understand," the silver-haired boy acknowledged, even if he looked like he wanted to argue that quite a bit. Eiji appreciated it, but there was really no point in starting to look for a solution to lengthen back his lifespan. For all he knew, Eiji wouldn't even survive long enough to use it. Akatsuki could end him in a number of ways. He needed all efforts to be put towards that and nothing else.

"Anything else to say?" Eiji asked, bringing his arm up and passing his fingers through his hair. "I have a date to get to."

"I can work up a puppet arm to... replace yours. You can learn how to control it easily enough, I think. At least considering your progress regarding everything else," Kabuto told him with a wry smile. "I'll fill it with wires, I assure you. It won't help you cast Jutsu though. There are techniques that allow you to do so with only one arm, but I'm not familiar with those and neither are the rest of the team."