Chapter 143 ( Extra )

[Child's Play]

"Eiji's here!" a very young voice cried out excitedly, shortly followed by a mess of other shouts and borderline screeches. A cacophony that made him grin widely. With a chuckle, he ran his good hand's fingers through his hair as he heard the sound of rushed steps and more than one stumble.

"They like you more than us," Kabuto deadpanned. Everyone knew that was a lie, but they played along anyway.

"That's because he spoils them," Shino added, pushing his round sun-glasses up. "Techniques, weapons, supplies, all from abroad. We can't compete."

"We could, if he weren't an asshole about not picking up the stuff we tell him to," Kabuto replied with a twitch of his eye.

"I'm just cool like that," Eiji told them, smirking at them as the first child rushed through the corridor, the same one that had seen him at the entrance and quickly rushed to get everyone else. "And I have summons that you two don't, which also helps."

"Mainly the being cool part though," Tayuya said, looking entirely too smug, even to Eiji's eyes. That was when she was at her most beautiful though… tied only by her blushing face and her pouting face, he supposed. "You thinking dumb things again, Fearless Leader," she hissed.

"So I am," he replied with an amused smile. Still, he knew better than to voice even half of his thoughts. He wasn't that suicidal, after all. "Hey there, kiddo," he greeted, catching the boy that had finally reached where they were standing outside the orphanage with his threads. Swiftly, he maneuvered the little one before he dropped him on his shoulders. "Behaving yourself for Kabuto?"

"And Hana!" he exclaimed, making Eiji grin at Kabuto. The silver-haired man was doing his best to look anywhere at Eiji though. There'd be no escape for him though. Not from Eiji and certainly not from Tayuya. And when Temari and Fu heard about this? He almost felt bad for his ex-teammate. The only downside was that Jirobo had probably won all the bets, lucky bastard.

"Is that so?" Eiji asked, getting a hum from the boy sitting on his shoulders. Glancing to his side, his grin became a little softer as he saw Tetsuya fussing on her mother's arms. The lil' baby was still getting used to not having Eiji's attention on him all the time. It was all made more difficult by the fact that he had his father wrapped around his little finger. It'd be a real struggle for him not to turn out spoiled, but Eiji would try his best. As it was, he smiled at his son before extending his prosthetic arm and tickling him.

For whatever reason, his son seemed to find that arm hilarious, grasping at it and giggling.

"How about the rest of you though, have you been good?" he asked, then, glancing towards the crowd of children that had gathered around them. His answer was a whole lot of cries of "Yes!" from all around. Then he looked at Tayuya, who pretended to be annoyed but he knew was secretly pleased. "What do you think, Yuya?"

"I think I might as well. You like showing off too much," she told him, gently offering him to take Testuya, which he did. He chuckled at her excuse though, because they both knew she loved to play her flute and use Genjutsu to entertain the children. "Now, brats, what do you want to see today?"

"Can we see the fight with the army again?" one of the children asked and Eiji chuckled.

"They do love that," Kabuto commented dryly.

"It's a very impressive moment, admittedly," Shino said, looking as excited as the children, really. Not that he showed that much, but Eiji knew enough to notice.

"Shino-sensei loves explaining that battle!" a girl exclaimed happily. "It's the best!"

"Ahem, it does give a lot of examples to go off of," said Aburame explained awkwardly after clearing his throat. Eiji just looked at him with a smirk that had him shifting in place. That is, until Tayuya started playing while she walked towards a clearing beside the orphanage. As they did, the surroundings shifted to show the battlefield where the Suicide Squad had faced the forces of the Cloud.

Granted, Tayuya gave a very edited version of it, since that wasn't exactly… child friendly. Especially the Kabuto's parts and nobody wanted to traumatize the children with nightmarish pictures of their favorite person in the world. Although, who knew? Maybe they'd give them the uncensored version when they grew up, especially if they decided to become ninja themselves.

"So, ready to go on that date?" Eiji asked, rocking Testuya as he turned to look at Kabuto, who had lagged behind with him.

"I told you I have to get some supplies."

"Which you can easily do with clones," he commented with a smirk. "Tell Hana we'll visit the vet while we are here too, yeah? Yuki misses her friends," he added.

"... Sure," the med-nin agreed, knowing continuing to lie was a fruitless endeavor. "Do try not to make them into worse terrors than they already are."

"Kabuto, my man… It's almost like you don't know Tayuya," Eiji replied with a chuckle, drawing a sigh from the silver-haired man. "I'll try to keep it from getting destructive, if it helps."

"I'll take what I can get," Kabuto said before giving him a pat on his good arm. "Come around again before leaving this time, yeah?"

"You get a rush job once and never hear the end of it," Eiji grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

"You know it, Needle Man," the med-nin told him, making him groan. If it weren't a child that had come up with that, he might have just gotten bloody vengeance for that nickname. He didn't even have Nuibari anymore, damnit!

[}-o-{]

[Family Visit]

"What's up, Uzumaki Fam?!" Eiji exclaimed, all but kicking the door open. Immediately after, the house was filled with childs' laughter. There were also, however, childs' excited cries from inside.

"Uncle Eiji!" he heard, and around a corner appeared little Himawari and Boruto. They were rushing, but the latter wasn't quite skillful enough at running to stay on his feet. Instead, Boruto fell face first to the ground, only stopped by the quick wires that shot from Eiji's pouch. "Thanks, Uncle Eiji," the child mumbled as he was brought up in the air.

"I don't think you should be running just yet, lil' one," he replied with a smile, bringing the boy to his side to hug him together with Himawari. "How are you doing?"

"We've been bothering dad like you told us!" Himawari dutifully answered, drawing a grin from him.

"That was you?!" was Naruto's scandalized exclaim. "They've been a nightmare. Screaming at night, running around when I have work to do, Himawari doesn't do her homework, they stay up late-"

"Sounds very familiar, if you ask me," Eiji commented, giving his brother a flat look. At that, Naruto grimaced.

"Eiji~ It's been forever," the Hokage whined, much like he'd do when they were children. "Let it go already!"

"Never," he replied dryly.

"You suck."

"No, you suck, Fishcake," Tayuya commented as she entered and stood beside Eiji with Eri in her arms. On his other side, Tetsuya poked the bear… Or Himawari, depending on who one asked. "Also, a hello would be nice."

"Yeah, yeah, whateve-"

"Naruto," Hinata said from behind the blonde. She didn't sound angry or anything, but the Hokage stiffened nonetheless and put on a very forced smile on his face.

"Welcome, everyone, so good to see you," he said mechanically, not quite managing to conceal how fake the "good" was there. Eiji and Tayuya both smiled genially at him anyway.

"Great to see you too, bro. Things going well?" he asked, unable to keep his amusement to himself.

"Peachy," Naruto hissed. Beside them, their children giggled.

"Great to know, Fishcake," Tayuya said with a very good fake cheerful expression and tone. "What are you cooking, Hinata? Your food continues to be the greatest motivator to come here."

"Not us?" Himawari asked, pouting.

"After you, kiddo," the flute player answered seamlessly with a smile, planting a hand on the child's head. "Have you been practicing?"

"Yeah, I think I have that song you taught me down. When can I try to actually cast a genjutsu with it though?"

"Who knows, if you are good enough, maybe we can try right-"

"No!" both Naruto and Hinata exclaimed, panic on their faces.

"You guys are no fun," Tayuya pointed out, not even a little surprised. Meanwhile, Eiji chuckled, walking towards the dining room with Boruto in his arms and Himawari and Tetsuya soon following.

"I think your dad had enough, guys. Maybe we can give him a break," he commented as they took a seat. "So, how are things going for you? Nobody is giving you a hard time, right?" he asked, narrowing his eyes when he saw Himawari look away. "Right?"

"Some girls were being mean in class the other day," she mumbled, poking at the floor with her foot.

"That's it, I guess Tsuchigumo can come out to-"

"It's fine though!" she exclaimed, eyes wide. "I… I don't care anyway. I'm fine just hanging out with Sarada," the little girl added, a small smile on her face. "She kind of, might have punched them."

"Good, the Uzumaki blood is strong in that one then," Eiji commented. It was a little weird, to know that Sarada was named the same even though her mother was Karin instead of Sakura. Maybe even weirder than Himawari being the older Uzumaki sibling. Ultimately, it didn't matter. There were butterfly effects all around anyway, but it was interesting to ponder on them from time to time. "You tell me if you ever need anything, ok? I'm not above killing-"

"Eiji," he stiffened then, sitting straight and turning to give a brittle smile at Hinata. "What are you telling my children?"

"That I'll have Himawari's back. It's my godfatherly duty, right?"

Hinata narrowed her eyes then and he gulped, feeling sweat forming on his forehead. Ultimately, the woman hummed and nodded, turning and walking towards the kitchen again. Eiji, meanwhile, sighed in relief as the children laughed at him.

"Yeah, laugh it up. Let's see how you are when Hinata is staring at you," he grumbled goodnaturedly.

"Gumo?" Boruto asked then, poking his cheek. Eiji grinned at the toddler then, extending his puppet arm and making the boy giggle excitedly and clap as the wires from inside extended. Soon, there was Tsuchigumo made of steel threads moving around on the table while all three of the children – and four, when Tayuya sat beside him – looked on excitedly.

"That's enough of that, children," Hinata said, bringing a pot to the table while Eiji retracted his wires. The children were very disappointed, but that didn't last long. The Hyuga's cooking was just that good, after all. 'Wars could be stopped just with this,' he thought with a grin as he took the first bite.

[}-o-{]

[Apprentice of the Sword]

Shizuma Hoshigaki was… a brat.

Eiji wouldn't have described him in any other way, quite honestly. He wasn't even sure why the man wanted the Bloody Mist back and he honestly didn't care enough to really find out. There was nothing good in that period of the Mist, and it was better left long forgotten unless it was to learn from previous mistakes.

So, he might be a little bit annoyed at this guy that had decided stealing Samehada was fine and was now throwing a tantrum.

Just a little bit.

However, he wasn't going to do anything about it. The times in which he had to step in at every problem that was out of the norm were long past. The Suicide Squad took care of most things by then. Suigetsu might have a lower rank than Yuki still, but that didn't mean he was weak. If he wasn't enough – which would mean a lot of complaining and training from the overeager man – then Jirobo or Fu would be more than happy to punch an asshole or two.

Rare was the occasion in which Tayuya and Kabuto got involved, since they'd all but retired about at the same time as Eiji. They still kept an eye on things and they were the speakers for the Suicide Squad, but they didn't do missions anymore. They didn't even supervise all that much, since Nagato and Konan had that part covered from the Squad's base of operation. At most, Eiji would step in if he felt the need to remind everyone that he was there when people started getting uppity. Otherwise…

'Delegation is the best,' Eiji thought to himself as he moved to keep an eye on Hoshigaki.

Now, as for the reason why he was involved in this himself? Well, one could say that he was tangentially related to this matter. He wasn't going to actually step in, but he wanted to keep an eye on things. Someone else was going to take care of things and he'd just witness it while snacking on something he'd gotten from a stand a few Flickers ago.

'Think of the devil,' Eiji mused as Hoshigaki froze. In front of him appeared a steel wire right at eye level. When the "swordsman", if he could be called that, looked around, he was surrounded on all sides. Eiji smirked at the sight. 'Pretty good,' he noted, using his own threads to sense the web that had been weaved.

"I think that's enough running, don't you?" a voice asked, making Hoshigaki snarl. "That's not a good look on you, Gills," the girl commented with a giggle.

"If you think I'll just roll over and-" Whatever speech the man had been about to deliver was interrupted by a wire snapping and wrapping around his throat. In a moment's notice, he was already being held in place by an entire array of steel threads. "You- How- Gah!" the man choked out, but speaking when you could barely move and your windpipe was all but squeezed shut wasn't what Eiji would call easy.

"Well, that was disappointingly easy," the girl said as she approached her target and pouted.

"Those are the best jobs," Eiji commented, Flickering to her side. "Good job, by the way. That was beautiful," he praised, making her beam at him in a way not-unlike one of Kabuto's kids or Tetsuya.

"Thanks, Eiji-sensei!" Hebiichigo exclaimed, the very expression of a happy camper. "I told you I wouldn't let you down."

"That you did," he replied, planting a hand on top of the girl's head. "You've been training hard. You weren't that good last time I trained you."

"I've been practicing everything you told me," she said, looking down shyly, not at all bothering to try and swat his hand away. Eiji was fairly sure that she appreciated the affection, considering how she grew up. "I've read the scrolls and I've, hm, tried to improvise some."

"I noticed," he said, and he shook his head when the girl tensed up. "I like it. You'll have to explain it to me, maybe we can come up with something better… If not, I might just copy it myself," he said and if the expression she had before was beaming like a light, then the one just then and there might as well have been the sun.

"Of course, Eiji-sensei!" she replied, visibly stopping herself from hugging him or something like that. He couldn't have that. Thus, he pulled her into a one armed hug.

"Let's go. I think we can afford to stay here for a bit while I train my favorite Nuibari student."

"I'm your only Nuibari student… Kind of need to be, considering…" Hebiichigo trailed off then, growing a little red at the raised eyebrow and half-smile he gave her. "Idiot," she mumbled, looking away.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go. I'm sure we can get some good training sessions while I'm here," he said.

"Ah, by that you mean-?"

"It's been a while since we sparred, right? Motion practice is all well and good, but you gotta apply that to actual battle," he said, and he sensed Hebiichigo gulping by his side. "It'll be great."

"Maybe we could just do motion practice. I mean, it's not like anybody else fights like you, Eiji-sensei. There's plenty of others-"

"Yeah, but I have the most variety for you to practice one," he dismissed, grinning widely at her increasingly panicked look. "I have been wanting to stretch my elemental jutsu, if you know what I mean. I don't get nearly enough practice with the other elements since I got them down."

"Surely there's others more capable-"

"Yeah, but the Squad refuses to practice with me anymore and everyone else runs as soon as I start speaking," Eiji commented, feigning that he didn't understand why they'd do that. "My student wouldn't refuse training, would she?"

"I mean, of course not, but, maybe we could-" Hebiichigo started stammering, visibly looking for an excuse or something. He had an ace up his sleeve though, a trump card to secure his training partner.

"I guess I could ask Hanabi if you don't want to," he said, looking ahead thoughtfully. His words made the girl freeze and her eyes narrow. He could almost sense her determination solidifying.

"No, there's no need, Eiji-sensei. I'm always grateful for any training you can provide," she said, her previous doubts and fear disappearing into thin air.

"That's the spirit," he replied, grinning widely. It wasn't like he was going to put her through the same training he did the Squad. He wasn't that much of a monster. Besides, that had been all the way back when they needed to fight absolute monsters out of their league. Things had changed for the better and there was no need to train that hard.

Which wasn't to say they hadn't been getting steadily stronger, of course. They just didn't need to almost kill themselves in the process anymore. Eiji did enjoy the occasional slight humiliation though. He found that mortification was a great motivator to do better.

Maybe he'd go easy on Hebiichigo though. She didn't get nearly as much of his time as Hanabi did since they were around Konoha a lot more. 'Hm, might as well be nice and just spend time with her, I guess,' he decided in the end. Not that he'd tell her that. Maybe it'd motivate her to do her best when the spar came.

In the meantime, he wondered if there were any nice places around to take Tayuya on a date later.

Hebiichigo did seem to love babysitting, after all.

[}-o-{]

[Fear of God]

The years had passed since the end of Akatsuki and the threat that it represented. The main five nations knew, however, not to test things, not to think about testing things. They knew, after all, the great equalizer that would point towards them if they did.

They'd all seen it.

They all saw it fairly regularly visiting their lands.

They understood.

Others, however, weren't so "lucky" as it were. Others hadn't been witness to the Weaver and his Suicide Squad. Those were the ones stirring with the perpetual state of peace of the world. They saw the great nations doing nothing and thought something changed.

They thought right, but for completely wrong reasons.

They saw them weakened by something, in their cluelessness, and so they decided to act. The first of them all was Village Hidden in Waterfall. Hurt by the loss of their Jinchuriki but no less determined to prove that they deserved to be one of the great powers of the world as once they had, they made their moves. They attacked smaller nearby nations, preparing and testing the waters. Soon, without opposition, they were emboldened.

They moved towards the Land of Earth first. Their element might be weaker there, but even with their wrong assumptions they didn't dare go for the Land of Fire. The greatest nation, some called it, and for good reason.

So, a border settlement in the Land of Earth was their first target.

And their last.

The Iwa forces moved to meet them. They moved to stop them and soon, the armies clashed. Battle broke out and it wasn't soon to stop. The Waterfall hadn't taken well to their losses, to their perpetually dwindling strength. Thus, they had worked, they had prepared and they'd done so right…

For the worst plan.

The first sign was the wind. All of a sudden, a gust seemed to sweep through the battlefield and it didn't stop. That alone unnerved many a shinobi, considering the relative calm that had permeated the place before the battle. That alone was all that they needed to know…

The second sign was the fire. much more blatant. Any fire technique did not carry out its purpose and, instead, the flames flew up towards the sky. Many a soldier looked up to follow it, seeing, soon enough, how every bit of fire gathered at one point over their heads. It gave many pause, stilling the conflict ever so slightly.

The third sign was the water on the shore by their side. As the seconds passed, it pulled back more, the waves hit back higher. Many had froze as a gigantic wall of water seemed to come their way… Only to stop some distance away, a semicircle that kept to its place, hovering, threatening.

The fourth sign was the earth, stopping it all. The very ground shook, cracked and split. At that very moment, they didn't know if the earth rose around them or if the ground they were standing on sunk, but they soon found themselves standing inside a circle.

There was a wall of earth on one side and one of water on the other. Over their heads, fire had gathered in a miniature sun. Around it, the winds swirled into a circle, making it look like the eye of a hurricane around them.

The fifth sign was the lightning and the thunder, when people were already mostly silent and looking around. After that, everything was silent. Not even the sea to their side could be heard, nevermind the winds or the fire in the sky. There were only the sounds of their own movements and whispers around them, which only served to unnerve them even more.

The sixth sign was the killing intent, washing over them like the sea had fallen on them instead of holding still. The cold seeped inside them, chilling their bones. Their minds were filled with dread and their bodies weighted as if someone had dropped a mountain on their shoulders.

Then, they heard the faint rumbling of stone and saw, from the earth wall's side, how a platform protruded from it and a single figure walked into view. Many a Stone shinobi froze, knowing very well who this person was. There was no mistaking the dark clothes nor the red nor the white fur around his neck. Even far away where many of them were, they could see the unnerving red eyes in his impassive expression.

Nobody moved.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody breathed.

Not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't. The bloodlust permeating the battlefield was that oppressing. It felt like they might just die if they did the smallest thing to earn the individuals' attention. The Stone shinobi stepped back, away, slowly but confident. Or as confident as one could be in the face of a force of nature that could disappear them all.

The Waterfall forces remained frozen, like their hearts had been grabbed by a frozen hand and death was looked at them in the eye.

"You will stop," the man said, his voice carrying over all the way through the battlefield, despite speaking normally, almost casually. "And you will go."

And so the two sides did.

Because the God of Shinobi had spoken.