Chapter 47

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

Chapter 47

[Sasuke Uchiha]

"To test the limits of my abilities," The memory whispered in his ear as his fist hit the wood of the training dummy. Stinging pain shot through his hand, but he ignored it as his Sharingan glared at the unmoving, unliving target.

How long had it been since he had actually thought about that day besides the occasional nightmare? It had once seemed impossible to get rid of it. The voice. The red eyes. The words. The message.

However, time continued moving and so did Sasuke. He found new people to care for, reluctantly as it had been at the start. He found friends that stood by him, that walked next to him, despite the path he had set for himself. He even found a new… family in Eiji and the rest of the group. Yes, even the annoying blonde he called a teammate. But the Satou… had done something that the Uchiha hadn't thought possible, filling a hole that he thought he would carry within him forever.

And Sasuke could finally put the past behind him. He would never forget, he knew that. However, he felt like he could finally live with it, at the very least. That is, until that happened. And that was said.

"You'll prove my strength," The words were so terrifyingly similar. They had set Sasuke on edge for a good while during the preliminaries, making him break in cold sweat.

Still, even through the traumatic memory, Sasuke could still look at Eiji and say that the two brother figures of his life weren't the same. Both seemingly obsessed with power, yes, but fundamentally different in the end. In the method.

One tested his abilities by killing his whole clan and mentally torturing his own brother.

The other proved his strength by fighting a strong and likely unstable foreign ninja. Without killing them at that.

His other hand hit the wood this time, much harder, and he knew that his knuckle was now bleeding on the training dummy that he had Naruto reinforce with seals. His fist, however, stayed against the bark as his shoulders sagged.

Taking a shuddering breath in, he leaned his forehead against the wood. His hand moved down the dummy slowly. Red eyes with black tomoe appeared in his mind, glaring at him.

"It would be worthless to kill someone as pathetic as you," The voice of his nightmares said harshly.

Then the tomoe disappeared.

"Take deep breaths," A softer voice whispered in his ear and Sasuke did as it said. His chest rising as the air filled his lungs and moving down as he let it out.

"Foolish little brother, if you want to kill me, curse me, hate me!" The first voice shouted. He almost flinched at it.

"Concentrate on my voice, ok? Deep, slow breaths…" The second voice continued, unperturbed. A smile appeared underneath the red eyes in his mind.

'Inhale,' He told himself, a grimace he hadn't noticed easing into a peaceful expression. 'Exhale.'

"And live a long, unsightly life, run away..." The cold voice mocked with an air of indifference. "Run away, and cling to your pathetic life."

"Stand straight and relax your shoulders," The warmer voice continued instructing, advicing more like. And Sasuke stood, shrugging his shoulders a bit and letting out a sigh. The face grew more detailed in his mind, with his pale skin and messy black hair.

"And someday, when you have the same eyes as me, come before me."

"I will," Sasuke muttered in a whisper. "And when I do, I won't be alone, brother," He continued, his voice growing stronger as the words came out. The last word spat out like a curse. "Because..."

"That's what brothers are for, right?" Eiji told him, more than once.

"I have another brother now," Sasuke said, resolutely, his eyes glaring at the training dummy as if it was his traitorous… relative. "And I'll make sure he doesn't turn out like you, Itachi."

"You'll prove my strength."

"I won't let him," Sasuke insisted. "Because that's what brothers are for."

[}-o-{]

[Temari of Sunagakure]

What an absolute monster Konoha had created, Temari thought.

It was late at night, but she couldn't sleep. It had already been a challenge before the exams. After all, they were in a village that they were supposed to invade in a month's time, everyone around was an enemy even if they didn't know that.

Now though. Now it was even worse. Where she had nightmares once in a while, all of them involving green eyes and lots of sand. Now they were an everyday thing, filled with the sound and flashes of lightning, a shining sword and a glowing pair of red eyes.

The boy, Eiji Satou, hadn't even spoken to her directly throughout the exams. He had mostly interacted with her older and younger brothers. But she had been there on all occasions. And she had also been there to see him beat the unbeatable.

Or, at least, what she had thought was unbeatable.

Gaara had lived through things that had made her stare in both awe and horror in equal measures. Gaara had killed people that could have easily anihilated her and Kankuro together. Gaara, who had never, ever been so much as scratched through his perfect defense. Gaara who would always end fights with his enemies dying a gruesome death by sand compression.

That Gaara, had been knocked around like he was a civilian kid against a fully grown Jounin. That Gaara had been driving to the point of almost releasing the demon in him. That Gaara had been skewered with a sword and shocked to unconsciousness.

By a boy younger than even himself, no less.

What does one even call a person like that?

Genius? Prodigy? Monster? Would he classify as a demon himself? She didn't know. And she honestly didn't care. The only thing she cared about, the only thing she was sure about, was that she wouldn't stand in front of that… person when the invasion happened.

No, she would take her brothers with her and run far, far away from Eiji Satou. As far as she could manage. She would find a way to convince Gaara and she would knock some sense into Kankuro if she needed to. With their mother dead and their father increasingly distant due to his work as Kazekage, they only had one another. And she would be damned if she lost them too.

Better a traitor than dead.

[}-o-{]

[Inoichi Yamanaka]

"Inoichi, I had a question, actually," Eiji Satou asked the moment we were inside his mindscape, the day after the preliminaries were done. The boy looked to be alright, despite what they were there to do, how they were going to do that and the problem that had caused it all. Inoichi could only marvel at the resilience of the kid, if nothing else.

"Yes, Eiji?" The Yamanaka Clan Head asked with a raised eyebrow. His eyes, however, strayed from the Satou towards the mindscape around them. It was scary, terrifying even, how much it had changed and how much more detail it had now. All those days back when he had initially entered it and he had seen the complexity and the sheer size of what Eiji had created, he had known that the boy was someone exceptional. He had been told before, of course, but then he had known.

And now, less than a week afterwards, the place looked nothing like before. Or not, really. After all, it still looked like a replica of Konoha. But the point was that there was so much more detail to everything. Before, it had looked like a painting, a very well done, very realistic painting but a painting nonetheless. Now, it looked like they were actually in the real Konoha if not for the absence of people around.

"The purple, fiery thing," Eiji spoke, breaking Inoichi from his appreciation of the unbelievable creation that was his mind. "What even is that?"

Well, wasn't that a good question? Because, if Inoichi was honest with himself…

"We don't know what it is," The Yamanaka admitted, grimacing as his pride was hurt. He was the expert of Konoha when it came to the mind. There was probably nobody who knew more than him even outside Konoha. And still, that thing stomped him.

The Orochimaru presence was easily explained in a number of ways. From the most simple, that it was an imprint the Sannin had made of his own mind to leave inside others so that he could control them, to some… very disturbing theories that everyone was working on now that they had more information on what they had previously thought was a seal and nothing else.

The 'purple, fiery thing' as Eiji called it though, nobody had a guess on.

"Our best guess is that it's a corrosive element, for the mind, that is," Inoichi explained. "The visual signs are there, as far as we can tell, but there are some very strange details here and there that still have us theorizing. Ultimately, we think it was supposed to weaken the mind for Fake Orochimaru to have an easier time affecting the victims."

The Yamanaka felt a sympathetic smile form on his face as the Satou frowned, slowly walking towards the cube he had made around the subject of their conversation. He could only imagine what having these things inside his mind would feel like. It wasn't a nice thought to have, that was for sure.

"Well… here we are," Eiji said then, turning his impassive face towards the cube. The thing looked like the nightmare of any Yamanaka, if Inoichi was honest. Nobody would want to try and tamper with it, if told. He dreaded ever having to deal with such a thing. It had been increasingly difficult when it had been created, but now? He didn't even know the levels of skill one would need to even try to do something with it.

The surface was so incredibly carved that there wasn't a single spot that wasn't used in a design of some kind. The pictures the faces painted seemed to hold no meaning, but they all looked like pieces of art nonetheless, abstract as they were. But that wasn't even it. He was sure there was more to it.

"Is there more than the surface?" Inoichi asked, almost dreading the response.

"It's an inch wide," The boy nodded. "On the inside face there's different designs and that cube is connected to another an inch smaller. And so on until they touch the… corruptive presence, whatever it is."

'A nightmare indeed,' The Yamanaka thought to himself as he stepped closer to the construct. And, as the distance between the cube and himself lessened, he saw that there was even more than he had initially noticed. Carvings that he couldn't have seen if he wasn't right next to it. 'What could you have done if you were a Yamanaka, Eiji,' Inoichi wondered as a cold shiver ran down his spine.

The feeling intensified though, when he remembered what followed on the schedule.

"Ok… let's see the Fake Orochimaru now," Inoichi said, making an herculean effort to hide how much he feared going there. That absolute Hell that Eiji had created to contain Orochimaru. As him and the boy sank under the floor of the mindscape, the Clan Head suppressed a grimace.

He could feel the metaphorical cold sweat forming on his skin. Or maybe it was his body on the outside that reacted like that? He wouldn't be surprised. That place was…

"What inspired you to make this Eiji?" Inoichi asked. 'What inspired a kid to make such a horrifying sight?' His mind translated.

"I don't like losing my senses. I've been hit with a few Genjutsu that do that," The kid said slowly. "I hate them. And I'm also scared of them. So, I made this for Orochimaru. To share my fear, you know?" He spoke, finishing with a slight smile that unnerved the adult more than he would have liked to admit.

And, as the sight of the Sannin appeared before them, Inoichi could only think that Eiji had succeeded. The man, someone that frightened people throughout the whole Elemental Nations, looked pale and sweating. Shivering in place, with his eyes darting around erratically.

It wasn't even the usual white tone of his face that everyone knew him by, no. This one looked sickly feverish with his eyes encircled in black and sunken. The presence also didn't even seem to notice their presence there besides its now dull eyes suddenly stopping on them. It was more like looking through them though, recognizing that there was something there but without enough presence of mind to actually look at them. Inoichi almost pitied the Fake.

Almost.

"Everything seems to be alright," The Yamanaka said after a long moment where he wished he could be done with his inspection sooner. The less time he spent in such a place the less chances that he himself would need a Yamanaka to help him. "Keep checking regularly and I'll take another look next week."

"Sure," Eiji nodded casually, as if they weren't in the middle of a specially twisted kind of hell.

'I'm very glad that you are on our side, Eiji Satou,' Inoichi thought to himself.

[}-o-{]

[Team Kirigakure]

"I can't believe this! They took two of us out!" Raijin shouted, punching a wall as if it had been the cause of all his problems. Even a day after the preliminaries, he couldn't stop complaining. "Even Haku! And that blonde… how did she know that I could use Lightning?! How did she prepare for me?!"

"Hahaha," The rant was cut short as their 'Jounin Sensei' started laughing. "She wasn't prepared for you, brat," Said brat's eyebrow twitched at the way he was addressed. "She was prepared for the kid with the sword. All of the Konoha brats were," Zabuza explained, clearly very amused.

"Eiji Satou?" Haku answered, having memorized the name of the boy that held one of Kirigakure's national treasures just like the other two Genin had. That the nation hadn't hunted him down didn't mean that they didn't have an eye on him, that was for sure. "So, Konoha's Genin had him as a bar to measure against."

"And thus, they got that much stronger while trying to catch up," Zabuza continued after his 'student'. "And it worked wonders for them, that much we could see."

"We lived through a war," Raijin snarled. "And you are telling me that they are somehow stronger because they had a stronger classmate?"

"You didn't do much in the war, brat," Zabuza rebuked, his tone growing colder and sharper. Haku remained silent after that, while Choujurou made himself small against a corner of the room. The boy that caused the shift, himself, gulped and felt cold sweat running down his forehead. "None of you did, not even Haku," He hadn't let the Ice user do much, after all. He wasn't going to throw away all the effort he had put into raising the perfect tool just to have it die in the war, no.

"You might have battled here and there. Schoolyard fights at best, compared to what really went on in there," The Jounin continued. "So, don't feel entitled to anything because of the war. And furthermore," He punctuated leaning down and staring into the boy's eyes. 'When did he get in front of me?' The terrified Genin thought to himself as his hands and knees started trembling. "Being in a war doesn't make you stronger than anyone else. It all comes down to how much you work for that strength. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Raijin, and Choujurou even though he wasn't the one addressed, replied with a straight back.

"Good. Now you," Zabuza turned his eyes towards the shy blue-haired boy. The only one that had passed to the Finals. "I'm going to enjoy training you for the rest of these silly Exams."

The boy himself felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He wanted to get stronger, yeah. But he wasn't sure how much he could survive under the Demon's training. Let alone when it was solely focused on him. However, he still stood straight and stared at his sensei. Choujurou might be shy and lack confidence, but he was the only one that had passed. And that meant that it fell on his shoulders to prove the might of Kirigakure.

And he would.

"Zabuza-sama, I would like to up my training too," Haku spoke once again and his 'teacher' had to blink, surprised by the assertiveness in the boy's voice. He had never heard him speak like that, least of all to Zabuza himself. The wielder of Kubikiribouchou could only tilt his head and blink. "I would like to add more power to my skill set, if it's alright with you, Zabuza-sama," The boy added after a moment of silence.

'Oh, so that's it, huh?' The Jounin realized with a hidden grin under the bandages on his face. It made sense, in a way. Haku had never been so outclassed and so easily beaten before. He had struggled, of course, even failed, rare as it was. But the Ice user had never been so clearly defeated.

"Of course."

"Wait, wait. I want to train too!" Raijin jumped, his competitive spirit awakened by his two teammates getting all of his hero's attention. "I need more power, more speed, more skill, more… everything," He said. Because, ultimately, he hadn't been enough.

He hadn't had enough power to overwhelm the blonde girl. He had skill, yes, but not enough speed and strength to actually make it count fast enough. And that had cost him the match. And that was a hit to his pride. After getting off the streets, he thought he was finally becoming someone.

No longer was he going to sleep on an empty stomach. No longer was he beaten around to have what little he managed to get his hands on stolen. No longer was he just another weak kid, orphaned by the civil war.

He had been made a ninja. He had been called a talent. He had been put under someone as strong as the Demon of the Mist. He had been trained to be the wielder of one of the Legendary Swords.

But, in the end, none of it mattered. He was beaten by something as simple as poison. Invisible and odorless poisonous gas, but just poison in the end. How humiliating was it, to be beating not with strength, not with speed, not with the elements, but with poison?

He felt like that half-dead kid from the streets, starving and dying of thirst, once again.

And he hated it.

"Ha!" Zabuza barked a laugh at the fire in all his students' eyes. "Prepare yourselves, brats."

[}-o-{]

[Eiji Satou]

"So, Inoichi didn't tell me," I started as I stood in front of Anko, once again. "Did we get permission to try the Cursed Mark?"

"Yes," My sensei replied, although she looked anything but happy about that, a scowl on her face and a heavy tone that was uncharacteristic of her. "We'll try a few times and see how it goes and how it affects you and your mindscape. If we see anything that might even seem to be a problem, we are stopping that training immediately, no buts, no anything. Am I clear?" She asked, steel in her voice.

"Crystal," I replied with a serious expression and tone, because the situation demanded that. "Although, I was thinking-"

"Always a dangerous thing, that," Anko pointed out with a slight smirk and I rolled my eyes.

"That I don't really have anything that uses lots of Chakra. Or, at least, nothing that uses it fast, to take advantage of the Mark's effect, you know?" I explained lightly. It was a good thing that I had been told what the Mark did at one point during my check ups, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to say all this before testing it.

"Yeah, that brings us to the second part of your training throughout the next month," Anko nodded, this time she looked even less eager to tell me. And that raised some red flags in my mind. After all, what could possibly make Anko more reticent than the Cursed Mark of all things? "It was suggested to me that I can pass down the Snake Summoning contract to you," She said, and suddenly her reluctance made sense.

"You actually have the contract?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. It had to be in Orochimaru's possession. There was no way the Sannin had just left it behind.

"No," She admitted with a shake of her head. "But I can still summon them. And that way, I can get you a test to see if the Snakes would be willing to work with you. It should be… possible. More than that, actually. But chances are that you'll only be able to summon certain snakes, just like I do."

"Right… so, what do I have to do?" I asked, because there was no way I would pass up on the chance to learn any summons. They were actually one of my favorite things in the Naruto world. And the Game should make becoming a Sage a serious possibility, which would be a great boon.

"There's a second option though," She continued, not looking any happier for having another possibility besides the snakes. "Someone else brought to my attention," My mind idly wondered who were all these people that were telling her things about how to train me. Danzo, most probably, but it sounded like there were more people behind all this. Hiruzen, mayhaps? "That you could try to get your own contract," She finished and I blinked while my mind rebooted.

"Huh?" I asked intelligently. Getting my own contract?

"What? You thought Contracts just appeared from nowhere?" She asked, clearly amused by my surprise. "There's a way to get into contact with the Summon Animals. It's very simple really," She started, going into her 'sensei' voice, which she rarely used. "You simply use the jutsu without a contract. It'll either summon one or several specific creatures that you are compatible with, or… it could reverse summon you to a Summoning Domain."

"That can actually happen?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. It sounded like one of those things that would rarely come to pass. And while I had a modicum of hope that it could happen to me, I liked to remain realistic. Game or no Game, there were no guarantees in stuff like this.

"It can," She nodded seriously. "I wouldn't get my hopes up on that though. You are great, brat, more than great. But this is the kind of thing that doesn't care how good you are."

"Then, what are the… requirements for that to happen?" I asked curiously.

"Nobody knows. Every known domain had different ones, and we haven't even been told what they were," She shrugged. "Still, there's more than a little danger involved in the second option, regardless of which of the two outcomes you get. So, think about it and-"

"I'll take the second option," I interrupted her resolutely. As previously mentioned, summoning was one of my favorite things in this world. I had often theorized what I would like to do, or what animal I would prefer to get. Ultimately, between Snakes and some other summon, I would take the random one.

Don't get me wrong, I actually liked snakes. I didn't like that they got such a bad rep in the Naruto world thanks to Orochimaru. Although, if I remembered Manda correctly, they were pretty bad themselves. And while I had worked with some of Anko's summons, there weren't many that were actually anything that could be called nice.

Besides, what was the point of getting a Summoning Contract if you couldn't summon the boss animals? Could I even become a Snake Sage without the support of the bosses? I had many doubts in that regard.

On the other hand, if I got the first outcome and only got one or a few summons, there wasn't much to lose there. After all, it would have basically the same utility that having a few snakes to use would have. And with it I had a chance to score myself a Summoning Domain and that meant boss level summons and a path towards Sage Mode.

I could take that risk.

Besides, I was 90% sure that one person could have several contracts. So, I could ultimately decide to risk it with the Snakes at a later date anyway if the bet didn't pay off. Actually, now that I was on that note...

"Although," I continued, less sure than I had sounded before. "Can one person sign more than one contract?"

Before I got any response I got a smack on the back of my head.

"Interrupt me again, brat, I dare you," My sensei threatened. "But yes, you theoretically could sign more than one. But chances of a Domain summons to accept you go dramatically down if you have a different contract."

That was… unfortunate. However, I was pretty sure that I could convince the Snakes to give me a chance anyway if it came to that. Especially after Orochimaru was dealt with. I would need to be pretty strong to get them to listen to me at all, but I could get there with time. That was just another reason to put off that contract for now.

But first, I had to see if Plan A failed though.

"Option Two, then," I nodded resolutely, grinning at Anko when she shook her head with a half-smile.

"Why did I expect differently?" She muttered to herself. "And knowing you, I would be surprised if you didn't get a Domain Contract."

"So, how do we do this?" I asked.

From there, Anko spent the rest of the day teaching me the Summoning Jutsu's hand seals and the rest of the technique's details. Since I didn't have a contract, I could skip all the little nuances that would have made it a complicated matter. Apparently, I would have to re-learn the technique once I got the contract, since there were many things that were specific for each summons, mainly in how the chakra moved with the hand seals, some even changed a seal or two.

"Well, brat. Unless you want more time to think, go for it," Anko told me, trying to look nonchalant. Her nervousness showed though, which spoke volumes. For a second, I wondered if she had been against teaching me this but her hand had been forced. It was a possibility, after all.

Still, I couldn't let this chance pass me by.

Bitting a finger enough to draw blood looked a lot easier than it actually was, I learned that day. But it had to be done, and it was one of the quickest ways to go about it. And, at the end of the hand seal sequence, I put my palm against the ground and the black drawings extended on the earth. The circular seal extended under my feet until I was standing in the center of it and then everything went black for a split second. When I blinked, I opened my eyes to a completely different sight and I couldn't help but grin. 'Jackpot,' I thought to myself.

Then, I actually looked around.

"Huh? I actually saw this coming," I mused, my eyes moving towards the biggest of the creatures that surrounded me. "So, how do we go about this?"

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Was it mean to leave it at that? Yep. Do I regret it? Nope.

A bit of an interlude-y chapter, I'll admit. But I like it, and that's why it stays.

Besides that… I don't have much to say today. Weird, right? A short author's note for once.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Random Question: I'm sure 90% of you already know what they are but, what do you think the animal summons for Eiji are?

See you.