Chapter 81

"You are doing great Hanabi," Eiji praised as he looked at both Hyuuga sisters move through the Gentle Fist katas next to each other. Both of them had sweat running down their brows as they concentrated both on their movement and also on something else. Hinata had green chakra pooling on her hands as she moved, applying her knowledge of Iryojutsu as she moved through her combat stances.

Eiji was fairly sure she was trying to combine the Gentle Fist with medical techniques. That had potential, he supposed, but it sounded to him like something a little out there. Coming from him, that said a lot. Then again, maybe the Byakugan and the Hyuuga's fighting style could help with that? That, he didn't know.

On the other hand, the younger sister was doing the same thing but instead of medical techniques, she was using the Living Thread technique he'd taught her. He'd had to ask for permission from Hiashi, obviously, and the man had been present through the whole 'lesson' as it were. Even now, the Hyuuga Clan head was sitting next to him, overseeing the training with him.

The girl had been very enthusiastic about the Jutsu, and had dived right into it once she learned how to do it. Hanabi had been even more eager to get better at it when her father had asked if the threads could be used just like the tip of their fingers in their Gentle Fist style. That was something Eiji wasn't sure about, obviously, but some experimentation had the Clan Head saying that it may be possible.

That brought some concern to Eiji though, as he looked at both girls.

'They are both good,' He thought, which would normally be a good thing. Instead, it worried him. 'What will you do, Hiashi? Will you have one of them under your clan's Cursed Seal?'

Obviously, he couldn't just ask that to the man, but it was something that had been in his mind a whole lot at that moment. He'd been interacting with the Hyuga sisters a lot more, especially the younger one, and that had brought to mind things that had slipped his mind before. Eiji didn't know what he would do if one of his friends was placed under such a thing.

He might go full Danzo on the whole place, if he was honest.

He hoped everyone realized that. He'd made abundantly clear that he cared about his group of friends and the lengths he would go to keep them safe. If the Hyuuga Clan tried their luck… well, that would be their undoing, he supposed.

"Worries for the future, Eiji," Hachi said in his mind and he reluctantly agreed. It was still something to think about though.

With the crackle of lightning, his hand twitched and his expression turned into a grimace. 'Lightning Manipulation training sucks,' He thought, momentarily distracted. He waved off Hinata when she started moving to heal his fingers.

The first step for that particular nature manipulation was to have sparks fly between the user's fingers without damaging them. Anko had joked saying that it was the fastest to either be picked up or dropped since it was the only chakra affinity that hurt the user when trained. Granted, it was just a static shock at most, but when done constantly it piled up. It also, inconveniently, made it impossible to train that with clones.

Thus, his clone was working on Fire Manipulation instead, in an exercise where he had lit up the center of a leaf and then had to stop the burn from reaching the borders. It was something that had stirred old memories in Eiji's mind about seeing that somewhere, but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember where. Maybe he'd seen something similar in a story back in his old life? It was a possibility, he supposed.

Also, while Hinata's concern was appreciated, it was unnecessary. The damage couldn't pile up, really, since he was also training with World Ender at the same time, regenerating from any damage he suffered while training. That wouldn't stop the girl from worrying, he knew, but he didn't know what else to do. She could see how his chakra was moving and how his body regenerated, after all. What more could he do to help her worries?

Nothing, he supposed. After all, it was one of Hinata's more ingrained habits, to worry about the people she cared about. It made him feel bad about training when in her presence, really. Not bad enough not to do it though, since he wanted to spend as much time with his friends as he could.

At that moment, that meant Hinata herself and Hanabi, since everyone else was busy with family, teachers or someone else.

[Lightning Manipulation has gone up a level.]

'Nice,' Eiji thought to himself as sparks started flying between his fingers once again. "Everything alright over there, Tsuchi?" He asked in his mind, receiving an affirmative answer. That was no surprise though, since the Beast would never admit to struggles of any kind when it came to helping him.

"She's fine," Kage reassured before Eiji could even 'voice' the question to the Orochimaru Shards. "Keeping that and Eternal Purge going isn't straining her. Helping you mid battle with attacks and such will put a much higher strain on her though."

'Something to think about then,' Eiji thought with an internal grimace.

"Your control is slipping, Hanabi," He noted out loud before frowning. "Do you want to take a break, you've been at it for a while already."

"No, I'm fine," The girl replied instantly, even with her voice coming out weary. "I can keep going for a bit more," She added, bringing her control of the wire around her back to what was the standard for her as she continued with the katas.

Eiji could only shake his head at her. 'It's like having another Tsuchigumo,' He noted with some amusement.

[}-o-{]

'This is ridiculous,' Eiji thought, his fist colliding with a much bigger one made of orange 'armor' as it were. Before he could complain more, he had to Flicker to the side, to avoid a spiraling ball of doom. Then, he did the same but away from his opponents. He could only stare at his brother's new creation.

There stood Naruto with a glowing armor around his body made of orange seal barriers. It seemed the blond had gotten tired of not having anything that could actually be used in combat. Naruto looked at his incredulous expression and grinned, cracking his knuckles.

Next to him was Sasuke, who still had a Rasengan rotating in his hand. 'How did this reverse shit come to pass anyway?' Eiji had to ask himself as he looked at them preparing to charge right back at him. There was the Uchiha with the spiraling chakra in his hand and the Uzumaki with glowing chakra armor around him. 'What are the fucking chances?'

The little shits didn't even stop there, no. Naruto slapped a few more seals on himself, making the armor grow spikes all over it. Sasuke for his part, stopped the Rasengan, changing it for something else. Both of his arms coated themselves in electricity. 'Double Chidori, huh?'

'Time to up my own game, it seems,' Eiji thought with a smirk. Then he pulled Nuibari from his back. He'd been trying to improve only his Taijutsu and World Ender in the spar, but if his brothers were so eager to fight all out… Well, he would indulge them.

As the thread of the Legendary weapon came to life, both boys suddenly grew nervous. A second later, they steeled their resolutions. It seemed both of them were determined to win this spar…

'Cute,' Eiji thought, grinning from ear to ear. "No, girl, we've talked about this," He had to add, when Tsuchigumo seemed to want to join in and increase the chakra she was giving him. He'd had to do training just to contain how much power the Beast gave him so that there was no leaking outside of his body.

After all, with Sasuke and Naruto in the group, he didn't know what would happen if Tsuchigumo's chakra ran wild. Would it mess with their seals? Sasuke didn't have nearly as good control of his Mindscape as Eiji did. There was no way he would risk it and while Naruto got along with the Kurama somewhat, they were nowhere near a point where Eiji would like to even come close to testing how much they could trust him.

Thus there was almost no visual que of him using Tsuchigumo's help. Except for a detail that had his friends gulping when they first seen it. It seemed that much like Naruto with the Kyuubi's chakra, Eiji's eyes changed when using the Beast's. His, however, turned dark blue. Completely at that, with no pupils or sclera.

'Maybe those things are lingering effects from the Cursed Seal?' Eiji had to wonder. After all, both the spider legs on his back and the eye changes were very similar to his transformation from the Mark, after all.

He had other things to focus on though. Namely, beating his friends into the ground. For their own good, of course.

He heard a groan from the surrounding group.

"Idiots. Now we'll really have to heal them," He heard Sakura grumble, Hinata humming her agreement. Eiji chanced a look over to them and neither looked particularly pleased as they looked at Naruto and Sasuke. Looked like the boys would be met with some choice words once the spar was over.

'For now though,' He thought, snapping to the side with a Flicker as Sasuke charged at him with the same technique. 'Ninja Messiah or not, I'm still the big brother in this place, you gotta respect me, boys,' He chided them in his mind, chuckling to himself.

Sasuke was already charging once more, one of his Chidori spent but the other one easily taking its place. It was impressive, really. Eiji didn't think he had any memories of the boy ever using two at the same time. Not like his memories were a perfect thing anymore, but still.

Unfortunately for him, Eiji had no intentions of going easy on them anymore. It would be disrespectful, really, with how they were going all out. He was just honoring their intentions… maybe. Regardless, the Uchiha was met halfway towards his target by a ninja wire web that wrapped itself around him. He even gave him a little shock for good measure.

'That's one,' Eiji thought, dodging Naruto's now massive orange glowing arm. He was just in time to see the blonde gulp as he realized that he was alone in the fight now. He didn't get a moment to reassess his situation though. Instantly, Nuibari pierced her way forward, meeting Naruto's armor.

Eiji, frowning in concentration, did his best to cut only the tags on the boy's arms. He wasn't a seal expert, but he'd picked up a thing or two from living with the blonde. 'If I cut one, the armor should… Oh, come on!' He exclaimed in his mind.

His plan had half-worked, really. The armor disappeared, but only the one on the arm he'd targeted. It seemed that Naruto had covered for that weakness, clever little shit. 'Well, hard way it is,' Eiji decided with a twitch of his eye, Flickering away from the coming armored fist.

"Oh, come on!" Naruto shouted, unknowingly echoing his brother's thoughts from before. Said boy had no mercy for him though, rushing back in and piercing his armor once more. This time, the pseudo-Susanoo leg disappeared. And so, piece by piece, the armor crumbled under the red-eyed boy's assault. "Just wait until I work out how to use the Hiraishin without passing out. There won't be anymore dashing around for you, Eiji," The blonde threatened.

"Ha!" He barked out a laugh. "If you think that would be enough, think again. Now, off you go, both of you. Move along and have your girlfriends treat your wounds."

Both Naruto and Sasuke sputtered in denial. It was kind of adorable. Same for the girls' red faces, really. 'I'm gonna miss them,' He thought, his smile turning bitter. It regained some life when he heard Tsuchigumo bark in his mind, a wave of… something comforting hitting him. "Thanks, girl."

"That was so cool!" Hanabi exclaimed as she rushed towards him. "How did you do that?" She asked then, pointing a finger towards Sasuke, who was still being released from the wire trap he'd left him in. "You formed the web so quickly! You gotta teach me that!"

"Sure," Eiji readily agreed, planting a hand over her head and ruffling her hair, much to her dismay. "I'll teach you that and some other tricks, if you are fast enough, that is," He added, suddenly unsure if he'd have time for that before having to leave.

"I'll learn it, you'll see," The girl shot back, apparently offended by the lack of faith. "And that shocking thing! I want to do that too! Do you think I'll have a Lightning affinity too?" She bounced back to the eager student really quick, he noticed.

"Maybe… I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something else if you have another though," He reassured. "Now, how about we focus on web weaving, yeah?"

"Sure," She nodded quickly, falling into step with him.

"Oh God," Eiji heard Sasuke exhale behind him.

"There'll be two of them," Naruto said, apparently dismayed.

"Shush you," Sakura interrupted their little conversation, apparently unamused.

"Stay still, Naruto-kun," Hinata ordered.

[World Ender has gone up a level.]

'Hope this could last forever,' Eiji thought, sadly, as he started teaching the younger Hyuuga sister.

[}-o-{]

At that moment, Eiji found himself pressing his forehead against the ground in a kneeling position.

"Please," He begged, sounding as serious as he possibly could. Of all the preparations he was making for his mission, this was probably the most important of all. "Please teach me."

There was a moment of silence that stretched for far too long for his tastes. He remained where he was though. Eiji might have felt worried that he was failing a test just by begging like this, but he couldn't risk it. He had to make it obvious how serious he was. He didn't remember begging on his knees for anything.

They had to know, by now, what this meant.

"As much as you want to deny it," An elderly voice started speaking and Eiji hung on his every word. "You've done us a great favor, Eiji Satou."

"And we always repay our debts, child," A female, but equally as old sounding voice started then. "Yes, we shall teach you."

"Rise, Eiji Satou," The first voice told him and he did so. His eyes took in the sight of the small spiders, one dark blue and the other pale pink. Father and Mother regarding him for a moment.

"Are you ready," the latter started. "to learn the Sage Arts?"

His fists closed and a half grin formed on his face.

"Ready as I'll ever be, Mother, Father," He said then, bowing to them, silently thanking them for the opportunity.

[}-o-{]

Fist collided against fist and, eventually, one of them receded.

"How do you fucking do it?!" An angry voice shouted from the side, annoyance very clear in it. "How?!"

"Maybe if you keep trying, you'll figure it out," Eiji replied to Tayuya as he continued his fight against Jirobo. He had decided against using his Flicker or any of his Lightning Release techniques, really. He wasn't even using Nuibari for this. He was going at this purely with Taijutsu… well, except for World Ender.

[Advanced Taijutsu has gone up a level.]

'It's been a while since I last saw one of these,' He noted. After getting Nuibari, he'd focused a lot more on his Kenjutsu and hell, even before that, he'd been more Ninjutsu oriented. This, however, was a necessary development. If he wanted to use World Ender to its maximum potential, he needed to use his body more.

Besides, he couldn't very well cut his potential 'teammate' to pieces with his sword, so there was that.

Spinning his whole body in the air to avoid an attack from behind, Eiji sent a kick to Kabuto's side, sending the young man flying against a tree. Then he crossed his arms and blocked a fist from Jirobo. He'd told him to not use his Chakra Absorbing technique, which would have ended badly for him considering Tsuchigumo's existence. Granted, he didn't tell him that, instead just telling him that this was for training, not a real battle.

He'd used that same reason for telling Tayuya not to use her puppet summons. What he hadn't told her was that he had Eternal Purge and he'd keep it active for the duration of the training. 'God bless Tsuchigumo,' He thought to himself, much to the Beast's pleasure. He wanted to see if that constant failures would get the girl to improve her already impressive skills with Genjutsu.

'And God bless Shadow Clones,' He thought, as he traded blows with Jirobo, keeping himself aware of what Kabuto was doing as he sneaked around looking for an opening. He'd leveled the skill a bit and it seemed that he could add another copy with each level.

[Shadow Clone Technique - Lvl 4

B-rank technique with which the user can create solid clones of themselves that dispel when damaged.

Maximum number of clones - 4

Hand Seal - 1

Consumption - Chakra divides equally between the user and all Clones.]

That meant that he now could make four Eijis, which meant insane levels of training.

For some reason that he couldn't understand, while the clones didn't have the system, their actions counted just as much as his for skill levels. That suited him just fine though, since it meant that he could now train in four different things at the same time. Granted, he didn't do that, but he could.

Currently, for example, he had one clone in the Realm of the Spiders, learning Senjutsu. After merely a day of teachings, he'd achieved two things. First, he'd maxed out Meditation, which had been a skill that had always annoyed him with the way it had seemed to get stuck at level 19. The second was unlocking Senjutsu as a skill.

[Senjutsu of the Spiders - Lvl 1

The user gathers and balances natural energy with their own chakra to increase Physical Stats and gain a sensing ability.

Physical Stat Increase - 10%

Sensing Range - 40 meters]

Progress with that skill was slow, that was for sure, but he guessed that made sense. Along with it had come yet another new addition to his Status Screen.

[Natural Energy Points: 0/1325]

It had appeared right in between his Chakra Points and his Beast Chakra Points, the max amount being equal to the former. Apparently, he needed to gather enough energy to balance it with his Chakra levels to make Senjutsu work. That meant it would be much better to train it with his original body, since he could just see the numbers. However, his original body was the only one that could do physical training, so a clone would have to do it. Besides, it would be better to train without looking at the screens. He wouldn't be able to do that mid-battle, after all.

[World Ender has gone up a level.]

He dismissed that last screen with a thought before planting both of his fists straight into Jirobo's chest and sending him flying for the last time. The imposing boy's body smacked against a rock, his head dropping as he went unconscious. Then Eiji turned to grab Kabuto by the neck and raised him in the air.

Looking at him, the Konoha nin saw the usual fear ingrained in the silver-haired young man.

'Good,' He thought to himself. It was better that the former spy had absolutely zero ideas about the position he was in. If he so much as twitched the wrong way, Eiji would not hesitate to kill him. He was a great medic and ninja in general and he'd prefer to have him on his side. However, if he couldn't be trusted then he'd be dead.

Eiji knew enough about his future to know that he didn't want to risk it.

"This is bullshit," Tayuya cursed from the side, as she, once again, stopped playing her flute.

"Hey, at least the music is nice," Eiji commented with a lazy smile, earning himself yet another snarl from the girl. She had spunk, he'd admit. So far she was the only one he'd used Wit's End on and hadn't been completely traumatized by the experience. Granted, she was also the one that had been under it for the least amount of time, barely more than a second, but it was still impressive.

Not that the smallest threat of the same treatment didn't get her to cower like a child though, but it was a far cry from Kabuto or what he'd heard about Orochimaru. Hell, even Killer B was more affected. 'Maybe it's a Genjutsu user thing?' Eiji wondered.

"Had fun, girl?" He asked then, turning to the side, where Yuki casually walked into the clearing. He'd set the ninken to explore the forest a bit and maybe find an animal to spar against. She'd been fairly well trained, despite her history, and it wasn't like he could teach her any more Inuzuka techniques, so what she knew would have to do. Eiji needed her for her tracking skills anyway, not her battle ones.

The dog replied with a happy bark, her tail wagging from side to side excitedly.

"Glad to hear it," He replied with a nod. "Well, we are taking a break, guys. Take your time to recover while I think over what else to work on or how to train in some other way."

"You just want to play with the fucking dog, don't you, Creepy Eyes?" Tayuya asked, while Kabuto went to the furthest place in the clearing.

"Yes, yes I do," Eiji admitted unashamedly, earning himself a huff from the girl. She didn't say anything else though, of course.

[}-o-{]

"It's a shame that my friends can't come here," Eiji commented as he continued working on a meal. Understandably, the higher ups didn't want any of the Clan Heirs anywhere near where he was. Same for Naruto, really, but for different reasons. According to Hiruzen, they were only reluctantly allowing him to be there.

Shaking his head, he decided to just focus on cooking. It was actually the first meal he'd been allowed to cook since the Crush and he hadn't even realized that he missed doing it. For that alone, he thanked his hosts.

As for his hosts, well…

"A shame, really," Gaara replied with his emotionless voice. "Why are you cooking though?" He asked, not for the first time. Looking over his shoulder, Eiji saw the smallest of frowns on the boy's face.

"I like cooking," He answered with a shrug as he kept working. "It feels like forever since I've gotten to do it, so I couldn't let the chance pass. Is there anything you enjoy doing when you are free?" He asked back conversationally.

There was a pause and Eiji found himself wondering if the Suna nin was struggling to come up with anything or if he was stopping himself from saying something that was probably very disturbing.

"Not really," Was his eventual response. It didn't surprise Eiji in the least, if he was honest. He hadn't really expected an answer anyway.

"Shame that," He spoke, deciding to use Living Thread and Web Sense to know what was going on behind him without having to turn around all the time. "With that sand power of yours, I bet you could have some fun."

"How so?" The boy asked, his frown deepening.

"Well, I mean, I like to draw when I have time," Eiji commented. Not that he'd had much time for that, even with Hachi and Kage keeping him from overworking. He'd spent all his breaks enjoying the company of his friends, considering that he'd have to leave soon. "I imagine you could make shapes and such."

Through his Jutsu, he 'saw' the boy pull up a small amount of sand and have it swirl around over his hand. On their seats, the other two Suna siblings tensed up, but otherwise remained silent. Soon enough, the sand took a humanoid shape.

"I guess it could be done," Gaara acquitted, looking at his 'creation' thoughtfully. Soon, the sand puppet gained more detail. First looking like Gaara himself, then changing into Eiji followed by his siblings and from there an array of other people. "Fun, huh?" He added, tilting his head as if he didn't know what the word even meant.

The sad part was that he probably didn't.

With the meal done, he moved to set everything on the table.

"Hope you enjoy it and that I'm not rusty after so long without cooking," Eiji said, although he was sure the System would stop him from getting too 'rusty' as it were. Even after doing so little while he was recovering, he hadn't felt any changes from before the coma and after it, for example.

"It's… good," Gaara 'praised', his tone absolutely devoid of any feeling. Eiji just accepted it as a Gaara thing and rolled with it. By the way the boy was staring at his plate, he guessed that he meant what he said, even if he sucked at expressing that.

"Well, what about you two?" Eiji turned towards the other siblings, who had stayed willfully out of the conversation.

"It's very good," Kankuro replied, almost mechanically.

"It really is," Temari said, sounding much more honest than her brother. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," He waved off easily. "We are all friends here. So, there was one thing I wanted to ask you…"