chapter 87

"Are you sure about this?" Yugito asked, looking rather uncomfortable where she stood, contrary to the confident demeanor she'd displayed ever since Eiji first saw her. It was… something, he guessed.

"Oh, these bitches have absolutely no idea the hell they are in for," He heard Tayuya comment before starting to cackle like a madwoman. Eiji had to admit, it was rather amusing.

"I'm an A ranked kunoichi, you know that, right?" The Kumo nin informed him, and he just raised an eyebrow. Kurotsuchi, next to her, remained silent but she looked like she would rather Yugito win this argument. Unfortunately for both of them, he was far from worried.

"You'll both spar with me. If you don't, Yugito, I'll put you at the lowest rank inside the team. If you don't, Kurotsuchi, I can't train you because I won't even know what I'm working with," He told them flatly, because he'd rather use his time for something productive. "Everyone ready?" He asked his mind companions.

"Of course," Kage replied instantly with a scoff.

"We are, Eiji," Hachi said, much more calm than his counterpart.

Tsuchigumo barked enthusiastically, happy that she'd probably get a chance to participate.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the clearing, his words had lit a fire under both Kunoichi. They straightened their backs once they heard him and they mimicked each other as they lowered their stances, narrowing their eyes at him. It was almost funny, seeing two people so different react the exact same way. The challenge had been issued though. Now it was time to see what his new team member could do.

"One, two," He started counting, twirling Nuibari in his right hand, keeping his stance lax but still ready. "Three," he finished, and vanished from where he stood at the same time as Yugito did. Kurotsuchi, meanwhile, waved his arms around her.

The ground at the Iwa nin's feet shifted, suddenly burning bright red as the molten stone rose to protect her. Meanwhile, Yugito became a blur, which would have been more impressive if she could zero in on Eiji. The boy himself, however, had long since left the place they had last seen him.

Three Lightning Flickers saw him standing right beside a dashing Jinchuuriki before his foot kicked her side. He also kicked her right towards Kurotsuchi, an indirect attack as it were. Just for the Iwa nin's knowledge though, he threw Nuibari so that it pierced a hole right through her defense.

She had to know there were things that not even lava would stop.

With both his opponents momentarily distracted, he rushed through hand seals to activate World Ender. With it on and Tsuchigumo giving him just the amount of chakra he needed to power it, he pulled on Nuibari's string to bring it back to him.

"How about we have some fun, eh, Tsuchi?" He asked and immediately he felt a rush of emotions wash over him. Excitement, determination, predatory glee. "Good to see you are on board, girl," He added, his smile turning into his 'Creepy Smile,' as Tayuya would say. Moreover, he was pretty sure she commented something from where the rest of the team stood, looking at the spar.

With his young partner agreeing, there was nothing stopping Eiji. 'Sacred Flock,' He called mentally and lightning came to life behind him. Birds of cackling light took shape before starting to fly towards his opponents. Both kunoichi seemed to realize now that they should be the ones worried about this fight instead of him.

Yugito tried swatting away one of the birds with a chakra cloaked hand. That was the wrong choice to make, however. Bijuu chakra or not, his birds stung. Killer B might have been able to shrug them off, but even he had shown that the things affected him, if only the smallest bit. Yugito was no Killer B though.

'It's an S ranked technique for a reason,' Eiji thought with a grin. 'An S ranked distraction too,' He added, seeing how both of his opponents seemed to focus on the lightning constructs. Yugito, to her credit, kept an eye on him, which allowed her to block Nuibari with her now very long and chakra cloaked nails. 'All's fine,' Eiji thought to himself, as he traded blows with the Jinchuriki.

It was all going according to plan, after all. 'God, that sounds so villainous,' He mused wryly.

"I'm sure you would make a great villain, Eiji," Kage commented and the boy could hear the mirth in his tone. "We can help with that, if you want."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Tsuchi is too pure. I couldn't corrupt her like that," He replied, sending a point black Electromagnetic Murder towards Yugito, who dodged, unaware that the attack was also in line with her 'partner'.

"I'm sure Kage doesn't want that either," Hachi pointed out, barely containing a chuckle from the sounds of it.

"Will you shut up about that for once!"

"Are you distracted?" Yugito asked, indignant. To be fair, his eyes had unfocused a little while he talked with his advisors. However, he hadn't actually started ignoring her. After all, he didn't need his eyes with Web Sense active. She didn't know that though, which was why she was suddenly enraged.

She started attacking much more aggressively then, but it was already too late for her. Poor Kurotsuchi was still barely blocking the Sacred Flock with her Lava Release. Yugito, for her part, seemed to hold her ground by dodging and still found time to attack him, which was rather impressive. Her attention was too divided because of that though.

Slowly, where the Jinchuriki had been irate she started getting desperate. The change happened when she finally noticed that for all her attacks, things still looked much the same. The slashes that she got in through his defenses did absolutely nothing, World Ender erasing any effect that they might have had to turn things in her favor.

Eventually, his plan started, neither of the two noticing how ninja wire had crept its way under them on the ground. In about a second, both of them were wrapped in the steel threads as electricity coursed through them. Both women sized up. 'Those Lightning Manipulation levels are showing,' Eiji thought, between Nuibari's thread and that, even the Jinchuriki was contained.

"And that's that," He announced, clapping his hands as if to clean them of dust. Nuibari's wire pulling on the sword itself and getting it in its place behind him. A second later, the threads let go of both women, who groaned loudly in Kurotsuchi's place.

"I couldn't do anything," The Iwa nin voiced, clearly frustrated.

"Well, what are you, a Genin? Did the Tsuchikage make you a Chunin already, Princess?" He asked, walking around them as he considered what he'd seen during the fight, what he'd learned from both of them. He'd have to have a few more spars though, try different approaches and see what they did then.

"He made me Chunin," Kurotsuchi answered through her teeth as she dusted her clothes. "You are supposed to be around my level."

"Who said that?" He shot back, amused. It wasn't that he was trying to mock her or sound full of himself, it really wasn't. However, Eiji hadn't been at her level even during the Chunin exams, he was pretty sure.

"We were both in the Chunin Exams together, did you forget?" She growled.

"And everyone there was at the same level?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "Did you come here to be trained by someone at your level?" He continued, this time with a tilt of his head. "Did you think just anyone would be given a mission to-?"

"Ok, I get it," Kurotsuchi ground out.

"Good," He nodded. "I don't need to try to convince you that I'm good. If you want training, that's what you'll get, but don't get prissy with me, Princess." He rolled his eyes when the girl huffed and turned away.

"So, what's your assessment?" Yugito asked professionally, looking almost like she hadn't just gotten her ass kicked. She was taking the loss much better than the Princess, that was for sure.

"My assessment is that you are pretty good, I gotta say," Eiji told her, regarding her once more, his eyes finding places where Nuibary had cut through her outfit. None of the scratches were too big, which spoke of how well she'd covered herself. "Also, good call not having your friend help you out," He added, drawing a slight smile from her and a confused frown from everyone else. It seemed that not everyone knew who and what she was. He'd have to solve that real soon.

The Princess could be kept out though.

"Anyway, I'll wait for you to fully recover and then we'll spar again. I want to test you further. Get a good measure of what you two can do, what I'm working with and what to improve in," Eiji mused, turning and starting to walk towards his team.

"Excuse me? Improve?" Yugito asked, confused, as she started walking slightly behind him.

"You are part of this team now, so that means you'll train with us. We have a lot of downtime while we try to discover how Akatsuki is trying to get to Han, and that means we have a lot of time to use to get better. What, you thought we would only sit tight and wait for them? I have better things to do than just be on guard duty," Eiji explained to her with a bored tone.

"I was sent here to-"

"You were sent here to be on my team," He interrupted the Cloud ninja as he turned and stared at her. "I don't know what they told you, but I'm in charge of this mission and the only reason you are here is because I decided to give A and your village a chance to prove that you aren't an enemy. You'll do as I say and do it well, that's all you need to know."

Maybe he'd snapped a little too easy, but Eiji couldn't let her destroy the already shaky foundation of his team. He needed all of them to work together and to the best of their abilities. If anything went wrong, it could be the end for… well, everything and everyone.

So, he would stamp the idea out of her head if he had to, because there would be no talking back to him. Eiji was the one with all the information about their enemy. It was probable that nobody knew as much about the Akatsuki members as he did, not even the other Akatsuki members.

"Eiji, you should," Hachi started, but Eiji almost ignored him. He almost asked Tsuchi to help him terrorize Yugito. Then, he took a deep breath.

'Calm,' He thought to himself and, to a lesser extent, Tsuchigumo. He heard her whine something, clearly just as tempted to lash out as him. Maybe he wasn't keeping as good a grip on his emotions as he thought.

"Or maybe she isnt," Kage suggested and Eiji almost frowned. "She is a Chakra Beast, after all. She might be naive and adorable," The boy's lips twitched at that, but decided not to point out that choice of words to the Orochimaru shard. "But she's proven that she can be ruthless with the animal constructs."

That was… true enough, he supposed. Maybe he'd have to spend some more time with her, try to curb those tendencies. It would eat at his training time, but this was something that he couldn't ignore. If Tsuchigumo went out of control, it would be a disaster.

The Beast whined, this time full of regret and sadness.

"Everything's fine, girl," Eiji told her. "Just means we can spend more time together."

"Was I clear?" He asked, focusing back to the present, where Yugito was looking at him nervously.

"Damn, really laying down the law, huh, Creepy Eyes?" Tayuya unhelpfully commented.

"I don't think we've been training you in close combat enough, Tayuya. You won't always be able to hide behind your summons or someone else," Eiji replied as he turned towards his team. The aforementioned Sound nin gulped and paled at the prospect. "Anyone else wants to offer a comment?" When they all replied in the negative, he nodded.

"Good," He said before sighing and closing his eyes.

'God, I hate this mission.'

[}-o-{]

"So, what's the secret here, Eiji?" Temari asked him with narrowed eyes once he'd sent Kurotsuchi away. Evidently, she noticed something in the way he treated Yugito while he examined her and the Princess. That was actually good, since that was kind of what he expected from her.

"Yugito Nii is the Jinchuriki of the Two Tails," He replied bluntly, carefully keeping tabs on how everyone reacted.

Kabuto didn't react at all, which meant that he already knew. Unsurprising, considering that he'd dealt with information before. Tayuya and Jirobo, for their part, tensed up, eyes darting towards the blond woman that stood just as casually as before. Temari, for her part, paled, terror flashing through her expression before she could control herself.

"She's also here to stay, so you better deal with it," He added, mostly to the Sand kunoichi. "She's a Kumo Jinchuriki, so she's as stable as one of them can get."

"You make it sound like we still aren't stable," The woman in question pointed out and Eiji just stared at her.

"None of the Jinchuriki I've met seem to be very stable, honestly," He replied with a shrug. After all, there was Naruto, who he loved to death, but also had to admit wasn't a perfect picture of a sane person. There was Killer B, who while he hadn't exactly displayed his eccentric ways much during their battle, he already knew of them and had seen glimpses of them. Then there was Han, who spent most of his day meditating to keep a semblance and barely interacted with anyone. "I'll withhold judgment for even you guys."

Yugito seemed to be somewhat normal so far, but a day of spars and little else was hardly enough to make a decision on that front. For a single second though, it looked like she wanted to defend herself. Then she closed her mouth and a conflicted expression took over her face.

"Fair," She conceded, likely remembering Killer B.

"Anyway, I want no problems on this front and I will smack you if you make a fuss for no reason whatsoever, am I clear?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at the lot of them. After all of them nodded, some slower than others. "Good. Jirobo, don't use your chakra absorption technique on her. There's a good chance that won't end well for you."

The boy nodded, and suddenly looked nervous. It seemed that the problem had not occurred to him before Eiji pointed it out. It was a good thing he did. Last thing he wanted was to have someone in his team out of commission because of a spar accident.

"Ok, training time," Eiji announced with a clap.

"But after all your spars-," Temari started, only to be silenced by a raised hand from the boy.

"I'm perfectly fine and she's a Jinchuriki, she can probably go weeks without sleeping and training non-stop. She'll be fine," He explained, making the older blond woman grimace.

"Please don't do that."

"Good to know that you know I can do that. I won't though. I'm not a monster," He reassured, dutifully ignoring the raised eyebrows of everyone else around them. "All of you, sit on the ground, legs crossed and eyes closed," He ordered. A satisfied smirk formed on his face when they immediately did as they were told. "Now, I want you to ignore everything else around you, focus on the chakra running through your body and nothing else. You'll be doing that until I tell you to stop or something happens."

"Something?" Temari asked, not even opening her eyes.

"Something," He replied without explaining further.

"That sounds like training I had to do," Yugito commented when he led her away from the team.

"I'm not surprised," Was all he said. "Now, you and I are gonna spar for as long as we can, which will be a while. There's no surrender or defeat here. I want you to go until you can't anymore or until I'm satisfied. No matter the situation. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," She nodded, blinking. Her expression remained as it was, but suddenly Eiji noticed there was an air of seriousness around her. 'Interesting,' He mused. 'Subtle signs of emotion. I can work with that,' He decided.

Then he charged.

[}-o-{]

[Onoki]

'What an absolute mess,' He thought to himself as he saw his granddaughter leave. His eyes followed her until they couldn't anymore before locking on Eiji Satou, the Weaver. He almost wanted to blame him for all of this, but he knew that was just his anger latching on the closest target.

'Letting my granddaughter train with a Leaf nin, who would have thought?' He wondered with a wry smile. In all honesty though, he didn't much care for that, really. It was actually very low on his list of priorities, even if it wouldn't be the case for others in his village. He would go as far as saying he was quite happy with that arrangement.

Kurotsuchi would be trained by what he was sure would be one of the greatest Shinobi of her generation. Not only that, but Onoki had been keeping an eye on the boy and his team since they arrived. His training was effective, if nothing else.

The problem though, came from the fact that said boy was living practically next to their Jinchuriki and now another Village's Jinchuriki. Which was also fine even if it worried Onoki. What wasn't fine was that the Jinchuriki were being targeted by a very powerful organization and that meant that having Kurotsuchi with Satou was putting her in danger.

Not only that, but there was also the fact that there was another Village's Jinchuriki in Iwagakure. 'I'm so gonna smack A around next time I see him,' Onoko thought, barely withholding a snarl. The man might not be Raikage anymore, after the mind control incident he went through, but the Tsuchikage was sure that A still held a lot of control over what went on in his village. Furthermore, he was sure that A was behind this… whatever this was.

'Finish this mission quickly, Weaver,' Onoki thought. 'For both our sakes.'

What was the world coming to, when he empathized with a Leaf ninja? He amused himself for a moment thinking what his advisers and the council would have to say on that matter. However, it was short lived. After all, Onoki was the one that would have to keep them in line and he was already doing that for Satou. These recent developments had only made things that much worse.

The Tsuchikage could only hope that Satou would finish the mission before he had to kick them all out of his village. Otherwise not only would he have dealt with all the trouble for nothing, but chances were that Akatsuki would get their hands on their remaining Jinchuriki. Onoki was sure the Council would find a way to spin it so that it was his fault, nevermind the fact that he had brought this team here to keep them safe.

They were getting more and more bold as time passed and he also knew why. He was old, too old at that. He should have retired a while ago, he would freely admit. The only reason that the Council tolerated his stay was because of his Bloodline Selection. Still, they wanted him out of the position. They didn't much care about who took the post after him, just that it wasn't him.

In a way, it was understandable, since the more time passed, the less reliable he would be. Foreign powers would be less and less intimidated by him and that would make his authority wane too. He knew it too, but he couldn't make just anyone Tsuchikage.

Kurotsuchi would be his successor and that was that. Onoki had yet to find a better suited person and if he was honest, he had stopped looking. She had the power and the mind for it. She only needed to develop both to an acceptable level but that was a question of time.

'Maybe not even that much time,' He mused as he continued looking over Satou's team.

Half the time, Onoki didn't know what the Weaver was doing with his squad, if he was honest. Like at that moment, as he looked at them… Meditating. It wasn't that he had anything against the practice, but at that very moment it seemed like the last thing they should be doing. They were though, and the Tsuchikage couldn't help but be curious about what it was for. It actually interested him almost as much as the spar that Satou was having with the Two Tails Jinchuriki.

Almost.

As he watched the boy battle one of the strongest ninja that the Nations could find, Onoki could only be glad that, for the moment, that was someone on his side. Iwa didn't have an abundance of strong shinobi, he would never admit. Right at that moment, the most prominent ninja they had available were Onoki himself and the Jinchuriki. The loss of one of the laters had almost crippled them.

The Tsuchikage really hoped Akatsuki would be dealt with soon. He didn't want to have to face them by himself, that was for sure, but on top of that he also couldn't be seen depending on foreign powers for too long. Everyone would realize his situation if that happened. Suna and Kiri were weak at the moment and Kumo was being watched closely by basically everyone, which allowed some playing room. It was never a good moment to show weakness, however, so Onoki would prefer to not have to.

'Now what, Weaver?' The Tsuchikage thought as he saw the boy leave the Training Grounds after ending the spar. Initially, the village leader had only gone to see how things went for his granddaughter. Thankfully, Satou had made all the right calls, even if Onoki could have done without Kurotsuchi being talked like that.

Now, however, he was curious. He wanted to know more about this boy that had risen so fast in the world. He wanted to know more about the man he was allowing to teach his granddaughter and successor. He wanted to know more about Eiji Satou.

So, he followed the boy as he made his way towards another Training Grounds. The ones he'd asked for specially for himself. The only explanation he'd given was that he needed to practice with a more destructive technique that had a bigger area of effect than normal. He'd doubted the precaution was necessary but Onoki had still given the boy the place he used to train himself. If he managed to guarantee the need of using such a place…

He wasn't sure how he would take that.

Still, he followed, intent in seeing what the boy could possibly need the Training Grounds for. Onoki knew pretty much all that the boy could do. He'd seen some of it himself. However, nothing in his file pointed to having a technique that caused a lot of destruction. The Sacred Flock he'd used against B and now here to test Kurotsuchi and the Jinchuriki was impressive, and Onoki was sure he'd pulled his punches, because a technique that dangerous was far out of his granddaughter's league.

'What madness have you created now, Eiji Satou,' The Tsuchikage asked himself, watching as the boy visibly concentrated once he reached the center of the Training Grounds. The old man remembered then, the day he'd first witnessed why the boy was a person to keep an eye on at all times. The day he saw such a young ninja completely break one of the best spies he'd ever seen like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Onoki had no doubts that Genjutsu was the reason the Weaver trusted his team so readily. A team that the Tsuchikage would have never allowed otherwise. Ex-Sound ninja and a Sand kunoichi of all people. He was sure Satou had placed at least the formers under his cursed creation at least once. It spoke for itself, really, the fact that he could put together such a group and they followed his every order without a single word of doubt or rebellion.

Then Onoki saw it, Satou practicing a new technique of his.

Lightning flashed and the village leader could only watch, readying his own technique to protect himself in case he needed it. As he watched the whole thing unfold though, the Tsuchikage couldn't help but take note of one fact. Because, after witnessing such a thing, he could only decide one thing and one thing only.

His village wouldn't go to war against Konoha, not if he had a say in the matter.

'Damn you, Hiruzen,' He couldn't help but think as he continued watching. 'How does your village continue producing monsters like this one?'