chapter 128

Eiji had suddenly found himself facing moments in which not having an arm almost came off as a good thing. Almost, for half a second and with some severe concessions, but the fact stood. One such instance happened that morning while he cooked breakfast. Normally, it'd have been like any morning, but this time it was different.

It was the first time he cooked since he lost his arm, and he still did it with a smile as wires danced around the kitchen. Every thread had something to do and they all did their job perfectly. Eiji was almost positive that the whole thing was still half helped by his Cooking skill. Regardless of reasons, it was a sight to see, the scene in front of him.

And yet, he turned his gaze away, even as he continued working on the meal. It'd been a while since the last time he'd needed to look at something to see it, really and multitasking just came naturally to him at that point. Still, he'd have usually left some part of it all to the twins to keep an eye on, just in case he got distracted, but he decided to be extra lazy and make a clone to cook, mainly because the twins were busy and they'd likely need to withdraw back to his mind anyway.

"Ugh, it's too fucking early to be awake," Tayuya grumbled, blinking blearily. "The fuck are you doing up, Fearless Leader?..." She asked, before pausing and almost freezing. "The hell am I doing here?"

"Are you saying that you forgot what happened last night? I'm almost insulted," he shot back with a slight grin. A gesture that widened when he saw the narrow eyed gaze she sent his way.

"That was a godawful play to see. I'll tear the Bimbo's hair out for this," she grumbled, rubbing the sleep off of his eyes. Or tried to, at least.

"I mean, it was pretty bad," Eiji agreed with a nod. "The dancing afterwards was actually pretty good, shame that someone fell asleep," he added, drawing a slightly flushed expression from her. "Comfy, are you? You'd better be, I had to sleep on the couch."

"Idiot," she grumbled under her breath. "You carried me all the way over here?"

"Of course I did. The Suna populace was quite entertained," he answered with a grin. "Not that I blame them. After all, you were already starting to build a reputation here and then there you go, being carried like a princess, snoring for everyone to hear and-"

"I don't snore!" the girl protested, hitting him right in the face with a pillow. "Stop lying, you lying liar!"

"Yeah, I guess I'm a bit whipped," Eiji acknowledged with a chuckle. "Nobody saw you, it's fine. Now, I'm making breakfast, you want some?" He needn't have asked though, judging by the way she perked up where she sat. "Also, I appreciated the effort last night, even if plans could have gone better."

"Well, at least you know I put the effort in," she mumbled, probably not even wanting him to really listen. He did though, so he approached her and kissed her forehead. She always looked positively cute whenever he did stuff like that. With this adorably confused expression that was a stark contrast to her usual confident or annoyed expression.

"I do. Now, let's go," he said, leaving the room to go back to cooking himself. "I guess I'll have to plan the next date, huh?"

Usually, his dates with Tayuya were as simple as possible. There wasn't a lot of planning involved, since they were mostly just simple people in that regard. Just go out to eat something or maybe shopping and little else besides just enjoying each other's company and generally relaxing. It was the best kind of date, in his opinion.

Still, that didn't mean that he didn't appreciate that Tayuya had put much more effort than usual in their last one. Maybe it was something related to their sort of confession when she'd arrived at Suna. Or maybe it was just her realizing something about their relationship. Eiji himself knew the whole thing felt different now. It just felt… more.

As such, he guessed he could take things more seriously too. Although, he wished Ino were close by so that he could ask for advice. It'd be a pain to get through all the teasing, but he'd happily put up with that to get a better idea of what to do. Eiji just didn't know what he was doing, even if he felt that things were going well.

'I guess Fu and Temari will be my feminine council,' he thought, amused. A feeling that only grew when he felt a cough in his mind. 'And Hachi,' he corrected. 'Thought you didn't want to get too involved in my love life,' he added, thinking he did a decent job of-

"Nice save, but no dice," she dashed his hopes mercilessly. "And I don't mind giving advice. I just don't want a close look at what your love life is like, is all. Same for Kage and Tsuchi. Anyway, yeah, we can discuss things later. I'm playing with the lady now, and she doesn't like me not paying attention."

'Have fun,' he told her. He'd have spent some thought about how weird it was that he had a female version of Orochimaru that lived in his mind as an advisor for his future dates but… Well, his life had never been quite sane, had it? So he didn't pay that much attention.

Besides, he had better things to focus on, like the good food he'd just finished making. Or his beautiful girlfriend, who was getting up and walking into the dining room. The latter detail gave him pause though.

"Is that one of my shirts?" he asked, looking at the black and red piece of clothing as Tayuya blushed.

"My shirt was all wrinkled," she said, her excuse sounding weak even to her, if her progressively more red face was anything to go by.

Still, he kept his mouth shut and set the table with his wires.

[}-o-{]

"You mean I could control sand like the Kazekage does?" Jirobo asked, with doubt and hope in equal parts. After the summary Eiji had given him of his future training, it was a fair assessment. Next to him, Kabuto remained silent while Temari narrowed her eyes.

The girl had taken the fact that she wasn't his sole second-in-command anymore rather well, he felt. Then again, Kabuto had done a pretty good job so far and he wasn't as much of a strategist as she was. She had the head to have the role during battle situations, but he had the skills to work with the team out of them. It was a system that he felt would work rather well, really.

Back to what he was working on at the moment though…

"Not really. That level of control would require a while. You'd likely spend your whole life trying to get to it, without focusing on anything else," Eiji told him, dashing those hopes quite fast and mercilessly. That kind of commitment would be more likely to cripple him than benefit him. Instead, they'd approach the subject from another perspective. "No, that's just not doable. What you can do is do some rough things like exploding sand everywhere or something equally as blunt. However, that wouldn't require a whole lot of control or chakra and it would be quite the asset to have in terrain like this," he explained, dragging his foot over the sand to make his point even clearer.

"... That makes sense," Jirobo said after a moment of processing that information. Frowning, he nodded, staring at him. "How do we start?"

And thus, a clone was dedicated to working on some jutsu theory with the man while he focused on the rest of the team. It was a day for individual teaching, it seemed, and his team was eager to start working on stuff. Besides, nobody had to babysit the Princess like back in Iwa, so that was a plus, he supposed.

"As for you," Eiji started, tilting his head towards Fu. She was good. She had solid defense and offense with her armor, and even had some ranged options with her bug silk and scale attacks. Those weren't precisely top tier things, but they were good to better control the battlefield. She even had decent mobility with her wings in Tailed Beast Mode which made things that much better. "I think you need better range. You have some options, but you could be much better. Do you want to talk this with the Seven Tails and we can talk about it later between the two of us?"

"Hm, that sounds alright," she replied, nodding. She had a grin on her face, which made him think that she already had something in mind. "Also, hm," she called, before he could cut things off and head somewhere else. She hesitated for a second before nodding once more. "Chomei," she said, making him blink. "The Seven Tails' name is Chomei," she explained, and dashed away before he could even comment.

'Huh, that was… something,' he mused, following where she went for a second. Interesting development that one, and Eiji quite honestly didn't know what to think about that. It was almost certainly a good thing though, so he'd just shrug and move on. It wasn't a huge thing in the grand scheme of things, but it meant that he had gained quite the support from a rather powerful ally, even though he was already counting the Seven Tails as such.

"So…?" Naruto prompted him, bouncing excitedly on his toes. Eiji sighed, because quite honestly, the blonde's endless energy just made him feel even more tired than he already felt. Still, it also made him grin wearily despite the exhaustion he carried on his bones. While Naruto's energy didn't help much, his enthusiasm certainly did to get his mood up.

"You need more range, basically," Eiji summarized with a shrug. "Throwing exploding tags is all well and good, but you need more options than that in a battle where you haven't been able to trap the surroundings."

"Ok? That makes sense, I already have some ideas-"

"I'm sure you do, so, make a list, try to think which one is better and why. Once you've worked that out, we can go over the list and I'll give you my opinion, alright?" he told the blonde, getting an immediate nod and Eiji could see how the blue eyes unfocused, already deep in his twisted, dangerous mind. He shuddered to think what would befall Naruto's enemies in the future.

"So, I'm guessing Tayuya is last, what do you have for us?" Kabuto asked, correctly reading how things would go. Instead of answering, Eiji tilted his head and looked towards Temari.

"I saw that you were practicing with puppets now," the girl pointed out, in turn gazing towards the mednin. "I can help you get better with that. I have a puppeteer as a brother and I've faced a good number of them. I won't give Sasori levels of advice, but I can give you some knowledge that you probably skipped."

"That… makes sense," Kabuto nodded, already thinking that over in his head. After a moment, he nodded again, this time more certainly.

"Have fun, you two, and try not to kill each other," Eiji told them with a wave. He was keenly aware of the fact that neither actually replied to that. 'Well, Kabuto should be able to patch himself and her up if it comes to that,' he decided, focusing on his girlfriend then.

"Clone group, genjutsu training and we play together?" she asked and he grinned. "You still gotta get better with the guitar and the new arm," she added, smiling back at him.

[}-o-{]

"She has a colorful language," Kabuto commented, drawing a snort from Temari and a wry smile from Eiji.

"She spent a good chunk of her life being a drunk gambler, I think that's to be expected," he pointed out before leaning back against his chair. The team was basically resting, lounging around the house he'd been given as Temari, Kabuto and him went over the message he'd just gotten from Iwa.

Apparently, things had become a bit of a shitshow over there due to what happened. Fortunately, it seemed that the hornet's nest had been kicked, but things hadn't gone completely up in flames. It was more that everyone was nervous. What had happened meant that someone had learned about the Summit, which had been a well kept secret for the most part.

The only reason Eiji himself had known was because he'd had to escort Tsunade and act as bodyguard. It was a very important event though, and the more important something was the more chance that it'd be leaked out, frustratingly enough. There were a number of ways someone could have put the pieces together, what with who had disappeared for this, but still.

This was a lot more organized than Akatsuki had been up to that point too. They'd been a menace before, with all their S ranked ninja, of course. Now, however, they were a methodical menace and that changed things drastically for everyone. The good point was that he'd mostly dealt with them and according to their information, only the leading pair remained and little else.

The world didn't know how dangerous Zetsu was and they didn't even know about Obito just yet. Eiji had no doubt that the guy would make a move soon. No way he'd just stay idle while his plans crumbled around him. No, he was basically a cornered animal and there was nothing quite as dangerous as one of those.

He could only sigh as those thoughts crossed his mind. Closing his eyes, Eiji let his forehead fall on his palm while his elbow rested on the table. Wearily opening his eyes again, he looked at his wooden arm, which he started idly moving this or that way, wiggling the fingers and such. It was strange to see, but oddly… distracting, he supposed. Or maybe his tired mind just latched onto the first thing it could and ran with it.

"So close," he mumbled, not entirely aware of the silence that had fallen in the room. "So far," he finished, letting his fake fingers fall onto the table and starting to drum them over it. Soon, the songless tune was joined by a flute. As the pointless sounds turned to actual music, Eiji stopped, simply closing his eyes again and listening. "Thanks, Tayuya."

With that, he straightened on his seat once more, although it soon crumbled as he just leaned lazily against the chair. He regarded his Squad plus Naruto for a long moment, trying to kick his brain into motion. Hachi and Kage, meanwhile, discussed the issue between themselves while he eavesdropped a little.

Eventually, he nodded to himself.

"I have a letter to write, think you can do it for me, Temari?" he asked, receiving a quick nod from her. "Actually, make that two. One for Konoha and one for Kumo. Neither is gonna like the message," Eiji was actually surprised that she replied affirmatively just as fast as before. He appreciated the faith though. "Kabuto, I need you to speed up a battle ready arm. It doesn't need to be perfect or even completely finished, but I need it fast so I can start practicing."

"I can do that. How much time do I have though?" the mednin asked instantly, and Eiji could already see his mind working through the problem he was presenting. Before answering, he looked at a specific paragraph in the message he'd gotten with certain trepidation. Before he could even voice a reply though, it seemed that the ex-spy had already gotten what he'd say. "I see. Got it." And with that, Kabuto stood up and left.

"Fu, Jirobo," Eiji continued, making the two straighten up too. "You two go and train, would you? We'll be leaving soon, so I need you to get better and fast. Temari will be joining you after we are done with those letters."

"Sir, yes sir," Fu said cheerfully before standing up and starting to skip away. He was fairly sure she was faking that attitude to try and cheer the team up, him specifically. He was grateful for that. She had that same uplifting effect that Naruto did, he'd found, and he was very appreciative of it. Especially at times like those.

Silently, Jirobo followed.

"Naruto," Eiji started then, addressing the only person that wasn't a Squad member in the room. "Trap this place to hell and back, will you? We'll be leaving, which means that the place will be more dangerous afterwards. Fortunately, you'll be getting some back up," he added, looking towards the message he'd gotten once more. "But still, I'd be more at ease if I knew you did your best. Kisame isn't a problem anymore, or Samehada more specifically, so your seals should be much more effective if you get attacked again."

"Ain't that great?" the blonde asked with a grin that held little of his usual cheer and a lot of pain promised to anyone foolish enough to come after him. It seemed that he'd taken personal offense to the way the Akatsuki pair had breezed through his field of seals and was now very much wanting to prove that they were an exception and not the rule. Eiji was fine with that, a motivated Naruto was a scary Naruto, after all. "Sure, nobody will want to even think of coming after me after the first try. If they even could at that point."

And with that scary statement, the blonde left.

"So, Fearless Leader, what about me?" his girlfriend asked, the only one left to be addressed and Eiji deflated a little.

"Can I ask you to just… keep playing. I need the calm that your music gives me. Maybe we can set up some training with spiders or Suna nin afterwards, how does that sound?" he asked, not even trying to hide how much he needed this. Things would be getting pretty bad soon and that was saying something. He needed any chance to relax a little he could get.

Remaining silent, Tayuya simply hummed, nodded and then walked up to him, taking the seat next to him and dragging it a little closer. Then she sat down and leaned her back against his good arm. As she started playing, he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking at Temari.

"Let's get started."

[}-o-{]

[Sasuke Uchiha]

The trip to Suna was a tense thing. They'd been told, of course, why they were being sent from Iwa all the way to the Sand. Kakashi-sensei literally hadn't been able to finish informing them of their orders before Sasuke started moving, Sakura soon following. Their teacher had to continue explaining how things went as they moved, but he hadn't really complained. He probably saw the whole thing coming. It had been that predictable, all things considered.

Sasuke had already known that separating the team was a bad idea. They all knew the danger Naruto was in at the moment and he'd been glad to be on his team, so that he could watch the blonde's back. God knew he was too stupid to do it himself, after all. And then the orders had come, saying that they needed to be separated.

He got it, he truly did. Naruto would be with another Jinchuriki and a whole village to back him up. Surely that would be enough to keep Akatsuki away. On top of that, Konoha needed all the agents it could manage to keep things going well for themselves, with all the stuff that was going on around the world.

And yet… That wasn't making Sasuke feel any better about being away from Naruto when the blonde needed him the most.

Itachi had failed him.

And now he had failed Naruto.

It made his insides churn painfully, but the sole relief in the whole thing was Eiji. Their other brother, who had pulled through for Naruto and saved him. Now, it was Sasuke's turn to make up for things and take up the weight from the red-eyed boy.

He almost wanted to snap at Sakura for delaying them. She was clearly the slowest of the three of them. However, he couldn't quite do it, really. Not while he saw the pink-haired girl breathing harshly as she pushed her body to its limits like she'd rarely done before. So, instead, Sasuke only got to silently get more and more frustrated.

They were finally reaching their destination though and that was a godsend because he didn't know how long he could keep himself in check. The sand all around wasn't helping matters. Sasuke didn't think he'd ever come to enjoy a mission in the Land of Wind, ever. He'd have to make sure that Naruto didn't send him there once he made Hokage.

"Can you tell Eiji we are close?" he heard, and his head snapped to the side, catching a spider quickly burying on the sand next to Sakura. It seemed that either the girl had noticed one of the summons and sent a message or the summon had approached her for it. Regardless, he'd be seeing his brother soon and he was glad for that.

What he didn't expect was for the boy to appear next to them a moment later.

"Hey there, guys. Long time no see, huh?" he greeted, and while Sasuke wouldn't have been very vocal, he'd have certainly said something back in normal circumstances. Sakura would likely have tackled the boy with a hug or something, if only out of relief for not having to continue rushing to Suna. Hell, even Kakashi was likely to at least wave towards him.

However, it seemed all three of them were too caught off guard by a detail about Eiji. Detail the boy himself was keenly aware of, considering the bitter smile that formed on his face. A moment later, he brought his arm up and looked at it sadly.

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Eiji asked, before turning to look at them again. "I hope it's not too ugly?"

Instead of answering, Sasuke just walked up to him and pulled him into a hug. He'd never been a very physically affectionate person, let alone after the whole… mess with his family. However, he couldn't quite stop himself at that moment. He was so relieved to see his brother alive, suddenly aware of how dangerous the fight must have been, that he couldn't help it.

He'd have some pointed words with Kakashi though, since he'd forgotten to mention some things about events in Suna, evidently.

"I'm glad you are alive," he said as Eiji returned the hug.

"I'm glad you aren't doing too badly either," the idiot replied with, chuckling to himself. "Come on, let's go see Naruto so he can drag us to the ramen stand he found, yeah?"

"Of course he found one of those here," Sasuke grumbled, even though his traitorous lips twitched up. "..." He didn't move though, and neither did the others, Sakura and Kakashi wisely staying silent. "It was Itachi," he said more than asked. For some reason, he was sure of that fact, even if nothing he'd been told pointed towards that.

"It was," Eiji confirmed.

"Did you kill him?" Sasuke asked this time, not knowing if he was feeling hopeful or not for the answer, or which possible answer elicited that emotion. Regardless…

"I didn't," Eiji answered and suddenly everything else was silent. "I've captured him though. He has… information that's important."

"... He can't do anything? He can't escape? Cause trouble?" Sasuke continued questioning, feeling his mouth suddenly dry. Did he dare…? Did he even want to…?

"He can't," Eiji said, before locking eyes with him. "I can let you see him, if you want to."

"... Please."