Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 133

"And that's supposed to be you? You are delusional," the masked man replied with, which made Eiji laugh once more.

"Not me, no," he agreed with a chuckle. "I just beat them to the punch, really. You were getting a little too dangerous, after all. So, sorry, I had to stop your plans... Obito."

That made his opponent freeze and Eiji could sense the face he made, which almost sent him into laughter once more. Oh, it was so nice to finally be there. To finally stand there, at the end of the line, and know everything was fine. If Obito had any ace up his sleeve, he'd have used it already, but there was nothing. They'd been at a stalemate for too long for that to be the case.

That meant one thing and one thing only. He couldn't beat Eiji. The only silver lining for Obito was that he thought the boy couldn't defeat him either due to his Kamui. They were at an infinite draw, as far as the Uchiha was aware.

He was wrong though.

"How do you know that?"

"You'd be surprised of the things I know," Eiji answered, his grin turning from amused to something much meaner. "I know lots of things, but above all, I know you can't beat me."

"And neither can you beat me," Obito shot back.

"That's what you think," Eiji replied, lightning cackling around his body. "But I know I can."

A second later and before the Uchiha could really decide what to do with what Eiji was saying and doing, the boy dashed towards him. Nuibari pierced right through Obito's chest. Harmlessly, of course, but that wasn't the point of the attack. 'Got you,' Eiji thought to himself, grinning even wider than before.

'Let's go, Tsuchigumo,' he called in his mind, receiving a bark in response from the Chakra Beast within him. 'Relentless Storm,' he added then, finally fully activating his technique. Instantly several very significant things happened. Lightning flashed, blinding the world with its light. Thunder boomed, deafening the world with its sound. The only other thing left to feel was the ozone in the air.

To Eiji, it was the smell of victory.

[}-o-{]

[Onoki]

Everyone was in position and the Tsuchikage found himself frustrated and, yes, a little in awe of what the Weaver had accomplished. That one boy had done something that was – even though Onoki would never admit it to anyone – quite impressive. Hell, that might be one of the worst understatements out there.

After all, Eiji Satou had, by himself, mobilized the might of the five biggest Nations to do what he wanted. Now, the Land of Rain was surrounded by them on all sides. There was no border that someone could come out of that wouldn't be seen by someone. They'd all gone a step further and covered behind the main line of defense, just in case.

The promise they were given was that this should be the last step to taking out Akatsuki once and for all. That was something that everyone wanted, which was probably the reason why they'd listened so well. Onoki could have been convinced to do this if it really came down to it, he supposed. However, he didn't think A's spirit was broken enough to be ordered around by a brat otherwise, even if he'd look terrible in the eyes of the world.

And yet, every single Kage had done as the Weaver asked. Granted, he didn't have enough influence to pull stunts like this one consistently or anything. It was mostly a one time thing in all regards, but it was still impressive that it had happened at all.

Onoki really wanted – and at the same time didn't – to see what Satou would do if he survived a few more years. If he was this much of a nightmare as young as he was, what would he do with a few years to get even stronger and overall better? What heights would his team reach, if they'd gotten so far up as they did now?