Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor The Gamer. I own nothing, really.
Chapter 29
"You don't seem happy, Anko-sensei," I pointed out as respectfully as possible. Yes, my teacher and I kept a rather unprofessional relationship with each other, but there was no need to act as such in public. She already had to deal with enough shit as it was. She didn't need to add having a student that 'didn't respect her' to the list.
"You have no idea, brat," She grumbled as her grip on the mission scroll tightened. "This is not a C-rank. This is a B-rank."
At that, I took a moment to think. C-ranks had been easy so far. Granted, I hadn't actually had to fight bandits, which were as dangerous as the missions could get, but I was pretty sure that I could fight any normal Genin by myself. I would even go as far as saying that I could hold my ground against a low Chuunin. And that was what normal B-ranks were about, as far as I was aware.
"This is not a normal B-rank, is it?" I asked, dread slipping into my voice. Her bitter chuckle certainly didn't reassure me.
"We can't talk about this so publicly," She said instead of answering and I nodded. The worst thing was, she didn't like it and we had still gotten it. That meant one thing. We had to go on this mission.
This was bad.
Mentally, I started going over my new skills and the recently maxed ones.
[Advanced Chakra Control Exercises – Max
Increases the chakra control of the user according to level.]
Chakra Control now sat at a respectable B, which made me both proud and confused. The second one was because I had absolutely no idea how to increase it to A, let alone S or further (if such levels even existed). As far as I knew, I was at the peak of Chakra Control exercises. Maybe Elemental Manipulation? They were close enough to Chakra Control to me, but I could be completely wrong.
[Lightning Release: Lightning Flicker – Max
D-rank technique with which the user infuses lightning on their legs to propel themselves in one direction.
Range – 40 meters
Consumption – 10 Chakra Points.]
I'll freely admit that the Lightning Flicker was my favorite jutsu. Moving at such speeds was absolutely exhilarating to me. And I was immensely happy to have it maxed and be free to dash all over the place with lightning on my feet.
[Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Strike – Lvl 18
D-rank technique with which the user creates a wave of electricity from their hands.]
Hand Seals – 1
Consumption – 11 Chakra Points.]
Electromagnetic Strike was also coming along nicely, actually. And I was really looking forward to using it more now that I could be anywhere in the battlefield at any point with the Flicker at the ready. Using jutsu was a lot easier when you could take your opponent by surprise with a dash and shooting from the side.
[Fire Release: Embers – Lvl Max
E-rank technique with which the user launches a small fireball at a target.
Increased chances of the target continued burning by 30%.
Consumption – 5 Chakra Points.]
It was no surprise that Embers had been maxed before Electromagnetic Strike, obviously. They were a whole rank apart and it showed. Still, it was a very good jutsu to have at the ready if I had to face a Wind Release user. And not having to use hand seals increased its potential a whole lot, like with all jutsu really.
There was also the fact that I would be taught the Fireball jutsu, which is to say the more powerful version of Embers, soon. Apparently, 'soon' was after this mission. I had expected this to be another C-rank, but it seemed that my luck was on the low side today.
There were also a bunch of skills that had gained one or two levels, that was true, but most of them weren't worth mentioning. I had found myself caring less and less about skill progressing when it wasn't maxing them. However, there was a remarkable thing to be pointed out on the list and that was the skill I had gained during my training session with Cat, or Yuugao as I had been made aware of after reading my notebooks.
[Basic Kenjutsu – Lvl 5
Increases the skill of the user when fighting with a sword according to skill level.]
If I had to guess, this skill would follow the same development that Taijutsu had, and I was completely fine with that. It was nice to know how a skill would evolve with time.
[Eiji Satou
Main Title: Anko Mitarashi's Apprentice
Secondary Title: Shadow of the Shinobi
Energy Points: 740/740
Chakra Points: 555/555
Strength: 37
Dexterity: 43
Constitution: 37
Chakra: 37
Chakra control: B]
'I may need to change Shadow of the Shinobi for Genin of Konoha for this mission,' I thought warily to myself. After all, I wasn't going to do anything outside of the mission this time. It would suck too, since the latter's bonuses were very low compared to the former's. I took a moment to amuse myself once more at the 555 value of my chakra. It didn't help much with my nerves though.
"Ok, so," Anko started, her voice sounding nervous and tired. I actually had to stop and wonder if I had ever heard speak like that. I doubted it. "This isn't a B-rank. I wouldn't have a problem taking you on one of those. No, this is an A-rank mission, actually."
I tensed up and a smirk that held none of the usual pride or mocker showed on her face.
"Let's see," She started, letting out a hollow chuckle and opening the scroll on her hands. "We have to track a pair of shinobi that seem to be carrying some 'suspicious' weapons," She explained, making the '' with her fingers. "One of which is a narrow longsword with a long thin wire attached to the base of the hilt and the other consists of a big scroll with a handle and an edge to the side that's filled with tags."
I paled.
"Yeah, kiddo," She said, her shoulders dropping and a defeated expression taking over her face. "We are tracking a pair of ninja that seem to be carrying two of the Seven Swords of the Mist."
Silence followed the statement.
The absolute lack of sound around us was baffling, although it may have been just me that perceived it that way. My mind had been sent into disarray, after all. It may have been too overwhelming to even process what my ears were telling it.
Regardless of that, I simply stood there, my eyes barely registering Anko's grim expression. A long and slow breath brought a semblance of clarity to me as I simply turned and walked towards the closest thing that could pass for a seat. It turned out to be a rock slightly too low to be used as an actual chair. I didn't much care about that at the time though.
Wearily, I rested my elbows on my knees and interlocked my fingers together before leaning my forehead against them. This left my eyes guarded from the sunlight as my hands formed a sort of tent over them, effectively providing a measure of isolation from the world.
Like that, I just let my mind drift away from me. From me and my still chaotic emotions.
I needed to think this over.
"Why are we going on this mission?" I asked out loud, not bothering to look up. My voice devoid of any nervousness or fear, contrary to what I actually felt.
For a long moment, I didn't receive an answer. I had just started thinking that I would get one at all when Anko spoke. The words reaching my ears with the same numb tune that mine had had.
"Because you are a monster, Eiji," I grimaced, the words almost physically paining me. "You are a monster and you have friends from families that are too important. That's not a bad combination, per se. But it's brought a lot of attention to you… But you already know that."
I didn't try to protest her statement. I didn't look up. I didn't even twitch.
There was no point, really.
"You have two very big pairs of eyes set on you, Eiji."
'Hiruzen and Danzo, I bet,' A voice in my mind whispered to me, almost mockingly.
"The Hokage is one of them, isn't he?" I asked unnecessarily. I had a role to play, after all.
"Yeah. And the other is… not as friendly," I wanted to laugh at that. Yeah, Danzo could be called that, I guessed. An understatement if I ever heard one though. "Anyway, like I said, this wouldn't really be bad… but your luck didn't favour you this time, kiddo," I almost grimaced again at the sadness in her tone. "It's seriously one of the worst times to have that kind of attention. And it's showing, evidently."
A corner of my mind was surprised, this was probably the longest Anko had ever spoken seriously to me.
"There are lots of reasons for this, most of which I don't even know and most others I can't tell you."
"Is there anything you can tell me?" I asked, doing my best to keep any anger, bitterness or fear out of my voice.
"We've taken a side in the Mist Civil War," I could almost hear my brain shouting 'not no, but fuck no!' in my head as I clenched my eyes shut as if that would help me process all the shit that was being thrown my way. "This mission is really important to cement the future alliance that the Leaf will gain if our side wins."
"And they are giving it to a Tokubetsu Jounin and a Genin?" This time the bitterness was very much present in my words.
"I can't answer that without giving away some things that I am prohibited from talking about," I almost snapped at that, instead my brow furrowed and my right eye twitched. "What I can say is that we have two weeks to do this, and in case of failure the mission will be given to someone else."
"Then we can just-"
"I seriously expect that you don't suggest we purposely fail the mission, Eiji," I flinched at the steel in her voice. "In a normal case that would be a very dark mark in your record. But this isn't a normal case. You could have repercussions for life if it got out that you did. Nevermind what would happen to me."
I withheld a sigh at that.
"And the team that would get the mission afterwards would be Team 7."
My breath got caught on my throat and my blood might as well have turned to ice. My mind went into overdrive at that, desperately trying to reach a semblance of understanding over what the fuck was going on here.
"This mission is really important to cement the future alliance that the Leaf will gain if our side wins."
Those words were the first to click in my brain. Cement the future alliance. That didn't make any sense. Whatever support the Leaf offered was surely enough for the alliance to be made. And that didn't have anything to do with this mission either. Yes, returning the Swords to the Mist would be very good, but me or Team 7 didn't have to do anything.
That was until I remembered that Danzo was practically grooming me and that Hiruzen saw a possible successor in Naruto. The 'future' part of the statement Anko had made became much clearer after that realization. They wanted one of us to hold some weight in it so that the alliance wouldn't waver when the Leaf got a new Hokage.
"We've taken a side in the Mist Civil War."
That other statement seemed to click as I went through my 'training' with Danzo. My mind then was hit with a memory of a particular and at the time weird paper asking me for my opinion over a nation asking for support in a war. 'Surely not,' I thought to myself, dread filling my insides to the brim. However…
That didn't matter.
None of it did.
What did it matter if my answer that assignment had been used to cause this or if it had been just a coincidence? Even the reason why I was being sent on this mission didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was that I had to go on it and I had to succeed. No way I was leaving Team 7 to go on this mission. Kakashi was probably better than Anko, true, and I was barely better than the three of the Genin together. However, there was also the fact that the Chuunin Exams were around the corner. If Team 7 had to take the mission after two weeks… there was no telling what that could cause.
My family wouldn't be in any danger if I had anything to say in the matter.
I could worry about everything else after dealing with this.
I let my hands fall down and looked up at the sky for a second. It was clear, the air hitting me with the softest of winds was warm. It was a very nice, calm day, actually. The complete opposite to what was going on in my life and my mind.
"So, how are we doing this?" I asked as my red eyes found Anko's form in front of me. Her eyes trained onto me with an intensity that at any other time would have made me uncomfortable. Now though, I had worse things to worry about.
[}-o-{]
Silence permeated our table as Anko and I sat in a little town's restaurant. Ever since that day back in Konoha, we had gone about our days with few words passed between us. Not for any anger or frustration really, but more out of how seriously we were taking the mission.
We were both in more civilian friendly clothes, which made for an interesting sight, actually. I barely used such clothes anymore and I had never seen Anko in anything but her shinobi outfit. I had taken off my coat and put on a red long sleeve shirt that hid the sealed bandages on my arms well. I quietly thanked Kami that I had had the foresight to ask Naruto to apply seals to some other clothes for cases like this. I also had to leave behind my pouches and such, forcing me to use my cargo pants pockets to hold what I could from my normal equipment. My inventory also had some other things just in case, but I could only lament the need to hide that from the world if at all possible.
My sensei for her part, had taken off her coat and mesh suit. Instead, she wore a simple tan crop top. She also had a black purse to carry her shinobi equipment.
I leaned back on my chair and let out a long sigh.
The search was going… not so well. We had a trail, yes, and a reasonably good one too. But we had two weeks to do this, and that worried me. Each day that passed was like a weight seal more on me. We were already halfway through the first week and I didn't feel like we were much closer than we had been at the start.
"Time to continue," Anko said and we both stood up. Her cocky smirk, even though it had dimmed a bit during the mission, changed into a small smile. I could almost believe that she was a normal woman. Meanwhile, on my end, my neutral expression changed into a smiling one as I prepared myself to deal with the town's children and see if they had overheard anything from their parents or seen something while playing in the woods. "You have a scary good impression of a normal kid, I gotta say."
'That's because I used to use it a lot a couple of years back,' I thought to myself as I shot a brief smirk. It wasn't a nice memory by any means, but it was what it was. And at least it was coming in handy now.
"Good luck, Anko."
"Good luck, kiddo."
And with that, we went our separate ways.
It was the same throughout our search. Stop in a town, walk around and see if someone might know something. If a stranger wouldn't get the information, then we Transform and keep digging. Tracking someone though, was easier said than done. Especially when they were ninja, since everyone and their mother could use a Transformation jutsu.
And thus, we had our work cut out for us. Their swords were obviously hiden, and their appearance changed. How did we go about it? Well, we had to get a bit creative. We knew they were two, at least, and we also knew a bit of their personalities. So, we had to keep an ear out for anyone new visiting the towns or someone displaying a weird change in personality for if they impersonated a local. That's how we got to add a few things to the information we had on them.
Mainly that they sucked at keeping themselves under cover.
This was good and bad. Good because, well, it obviously made our work of finding them easier. Bad because while they were very bad at it, that had also led to them developing a specifically annoying skill. They were very good at moving around. The two sword wielders were always running from one place to the other, which made our job understandably harder.
We could only hope that we would catch up before the two weeks were up.
"... The guy was very weird though," The dirty blond boy in front of me said absentmindedly as we sat out while the other kids played some sport native to the Naruto world that I had never bothered learning. We were on the edge of the town on a clearing next to the woods that seemed to be a common place for kids to play in. The boy next to me had tired out after a while and I had soon after followed his example to see if I could get something out of him.
It turns out I was right.
"Said something about an annoying bitch following him and his partner," I had to make a conscious effort not to narrow my eyes at that suspiciously and my guard went up. What kind of civilian kid talked like that with such a casual tone? "Said that she had a puppy following her around too," My worries did a one-eighty at that. I had almost sounded like he had been talking about Anko and- "He also said that you should look down, idiot," The kid said then and my eyes widened as he dissolved into water.
My eyes darted down and I cursed internally as I tried to Flicker to a side. I wasn't fast enough though, and the kunai with a tag at my feet exploded, sending me flying to the side. It was a good thing that I was resilient.
As I prepared myself for the landing though, I saw the shine of ninja wired around the place I would fall on. 'Fuck,' I thought, twisting my body mid air a bit and quickly using my right arm to push against the ground as fast as I could away from the place.
Once again, I was too slow.
The sound of broken branches reached my ears just as the wires snapped together and wrapped around my right forearm. It was nothing like my other experiences with the ninja tool though. This was like someone had fused together ninja wire with razors. A strangled whimper escaped my lips as I felt the thread cut through my shirt and bandages and dig right into my flesh like a hot knife on butter. The pain though, only got worse as I felt a tug on the wire and my body was pulled up into the air, like someone's sickening version of a pendulum.
"Well, what do we have here?" A mocking voice asked out loud. "If it isn't the lost puppy."
I half groaned and half whimpered as I twitched to look at the man, the small movement enough for the wire on my arm to send another shot of pain through my body. I could feel the blood trailing down my arm and body. I had dealt with pain through my training, bruises were not strange things for me, neither were cuts and some worse things. This though, was probably the most extreme thing I had ever been put through. The fact that I was hanging from the cutting wire wrapped on my arm only made it that much worse.
And that was before the mad bastard decided to tug on the string again.
A pitiful scream escaped my throat before I continued breathing shakily.
"I'm talking to you, lost puppy," I heard, and I turned my panicked eyes towards the man.
He was… plain-looking. That was the best descriptor I could give him. Like so many people that weren't in the cast of the story, he looked like I could forget about him, with his black hair in a normal cut and black eyes. Everything was average…
Except that grin.
The smile on his face filled me with dread and fear. I remembered what I remember of my previous life's media, where one would often see the villain grinning like a lunatic, often the smile would be impossibly wide. And those sources could never do justice to how unnerving the real thing could be, as I was finding out.
"That's more like it," If anything, his lips seemed to stretch even more to the sides when he noticed that he had my attention. "Now, I want you to look me in the eye when I do this," And with that said he pulled up the needle-like sword, Nuibari. With him holding it like a javelin, I didn't have any doubts of what would follow as I hung in the air by a cord.
'Fuck you, Joker-wannabe!' I thought to myself as I activated Stunning Thread on the wire still cutting into my arm. My hand cackled with electricity and then...
Nothing.
And after the silence followed laughter.
"That was funny!" The man shouted. "Nuibari's wire is special, obviously," He explained, mockingly stretching out the 'obviously'. Of fucking course one of the Seven Swords wouldn't have normal wire. "So long as I channel chakra into it, it'll be stronger, sharper, and nobody can mess with it but me. But nice try though!" And then he continued laughing.
And there I was, with an arm rendered nigh unusable trapped inside cutting wire. Unable to get it off as it held me in the air in front of a mad man. My mind, muddled by the pain and the fear, tried its best to come up with something, anything that I could do to get out of this situation.
The distant sound of an explosion reached us.
"And that..." The man said, snickering at something only he knew. "... is your backup meeting my partner, lost puppy," What little blood there was in my face quickly vanished. "Yeah, he will have fun with the annoying bitch. Him and some new associates of ours. But that's not important… now..."
He twirled the blade in his hand with as innocent a smile as someone like him could manage. Then, the sword settled into the previous hold he had and he positioned himself. The grin changing to that crazed one that he had before.
A second later, Nuibari was thrown at me as I hung limply in the air.
"Die for me, lost puppy."
[} Chapter End {]