Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 139

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

Cover Art: Kissuli.

Chapter 139

'I wonder if I had sights like this around in my old life,' Eiji wondered idly as he looked around. The mountain peaks extended as far as the eye could see, with the blue sky hanging over them only interrupted by the occasional cloud. He remembered seeing mountains, for sure, but he didn't think he'd ever seen ones so... Specifically shaped. The mountains around Kumogakure seemed to be a bunch of massive cone-shaped rocks that had been dropped on the planet. It was both very interesting and slightly ridiculous in certain places where it was specifically unnatural.

"You have to cook more, Eiji," Tayuya commented, her mouth half full. Leaning against her back the smallest bit from where they were sitting, at the top of one of the peaks, he chuckled to himself. "This is amazing," she added after audibly gulping down.

"I already cook a whole lot," he pointed out with a slight smile. "When do I not? When one of you feels like cooking, that's almost never. When we go out on dates? That's kind of the point of most of them, isn't it?" he asked, tilting his head so that he lightly hit the side of hers. "I'm glad you like it though."

"Like it, he says," she muttered under her breath. "Could have convinced me to date you just with this."

"So it wasn't only because of my food? Nice," Eiji replied with a grin that only widened at her scoff.

"Stop fishing for compliments, Eiji," she told him. "It doesn't suit you."

"Alas, my own girlfriend has nothing good to say about me. However shall I cope?" he lamented, drawing an unintelligible grumbling from her. "But I'm glad you liked the food."

"Idiot," she told him and he could almost see her pouting as she leaned her head over his shoulder before he did the same. "You know I'm damn lucky, right?"

"I don't know," he replied, still smiling, if softer. "I feel pretty lucky myself."

"Idiot," Tayuya repeated, her voice lower. "I'm serious," she added, making his grin all but disappear as he paid even closer attention to what she said. "I'm... I wasn't a good person before. I'm still not a nice person now. And I'm... I'm a freak."

"Pretty sure all of us are freaks, honestly," he attempted to reassure her, but from what he picked up through his wires, it didn't really help all that much. There was a scowl on his girlfriend's face and he was starting to think this was actually something that upset her quite a bit.

"Don't get me wrong, I know what you are saying," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But what Orochimaru did to me, to me and Jirobo..."

"You mean the Cursed Mark? I've been Marked before, Tayuya, I don't care about that," he told her quite decisively. When she said nothing, only tensing against his back, he continued. "I don't care about it. Hell, your Cursed Mark form doesn't even look all that bad... Have you looked at me?"

"The fuck are you talking about, Eiji?" she asked, sounding taken aback by his question.

"That's about how I feel, Tayuya," he told her, rolling his eyes. "I'm literally disfigured, what with this scar all over my face," he listed, waving his hand over his eye even if she was looking away from him. "Nevermind the marks over my arm. And that's not even looking at my other arm, or lack thereof."

"Eiji, stop being stupid, you know I don't care about any of that," she scoffed.

"Then why do you think I care about the Cursed Mark?" he asked her.