Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

56

Chapter 56

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

Chapter 56

Konoha was preparing for the Crush. It was an obvious assumption, I knew, but a week before the Exams, I started seeing it. I could see Chuunins' eyes darting around, occasionally they would look tense. Jounin were much better at hiding it, but I was looking for it, so I could see how they were always ready for whatever might happen at a moment's notice.

The most obvious clue, however, came from Anko. Not because I saw any tell on her, but, ironically, because I saw very little of her to begin with. A few weeks before the finals she started missing our training sessions. Granted, she brought up good excuses, telling me that I could basically train by myself unless there was anything that I thought I would need her for. At that point, she was more of a supervisor than an actual teacher.

Another, more inconspicuous tell was the fact that there was an increasingly high number of Mist and Stone ninja roaming through the city. It was, honestly, very concerning to see them. Kiri might have been our allies, even if it wasn't a formal arrangement, but people were used to bringing their guard up in the face of foreign shinobi. And that wasn't even mentioning Iwa, the tension whenever a group of those walked by could have been cut with a kunai.

I had relayed to the higher ups as much information as I could gather, slipping some of my foreknowledge in my reports with the excuse that I had managed to piece something together with Shade or that he had managed to remember some small piece that lead to that. I had also written to both Hiruzen and, during my nightly activities, Danzo about everything that my little Mind-Council had managed to strategize. What we thought Orochimaru might do, what we thought would be a good way to prepare, everything. I didn't know how much they would listen to me, but I had done my absolute best to contribute to the effort that was being made.

I had half expected the Finals to be cancelled or something. However, I knew that wouldn't happen. Not only would it have made the Leaf look weak in the eyes of basically everyone, but it would also mean ignoring a clear situation where we had the upper hand against Orochimaru. At least as far as everyone was aware. I was, despite all my dread and fear of the Crush, kind of glad that the Exams were still being held. After all, I wanted the snake bastard out of the way as soon as possible and this was our best bet for that.

All that was done while I also prepared for the event myself. I was glad that the higher ups knew that I knew what was up, since I was the one that interrogated Kabuto. Otherwise, I would have worried about what they might have thought of how much I trained, and how driven I was. That time made all my years of training look like warm up.

It was a pity that my time of relaxation after the aforementioned interrogation didn't last more than a few days. I hadn't been able to keep that up, unfortunately. Despite the changes, despite all that I had done, it wasn't enough for me. It would never be enough until things had already happened.

Due to this, I dived into my training for the Finals, preparing myself, grinding skills and stats, working on my new original techniques. I had even started to think about how to apply my already Maxed skills and jutsu in new ways. I had done my own strategizing about what to do in case something unexpected happened too.

Expecting the unexpected was sound advice but much more difficult to actually do than one would think.

After all, if you didn't expect it, how did you prepare for it? I had already thought of everything I could, interrogated Shade and Hachi as much as I could, Hiruzen and Danzo probably doing the same and with much more success. So… what was there to prepare for? Well… I had some ideas.