AN: new chapter up

Chapter 11 - Shadow (II)

It wasn't only the members of Team Red who were completely blindsided by the new development; Naruto and Nishioka had been taken completely by surprise too. Bearing an expression of intense concentration on his face, Isagi didn't even wait for the ball to land after being reflected from Rin's foot. It was his direct shot. A skill that he had acquired during the shooting stage of the second selection.

"Goal for Team White. The score is 2 -1."

⁂

"Where did that come from?!"

"Nice job, Isagi!"

"Brilliant shot!"

But while his teammates were heaping praise on him, Isagi's eyes appeared to be unnaturally focused.

From the beginning of the match, he noticed that Team Red was watching Naruto's play with hawk eyes. The blonde's unreal long-distance shot and his impressive athleticism inadvertently made them focus almost entirely on him. His presence on the pitch was that overwhelming. If the strikers shone like stars in a football team, players like Baro and Naruto were as blinding as the sun.

'I could never hope to compete in a fair contest against someone like him or Baro with my current skills.'

However, what Isagi felt was not despair. It was ambition. From the very start, he had been an underdog. He used to have the second-lowest ranking among all the candidates yet, in the end, half of them had been eliminated while he passed to the next selection.

Everyone adored watching their favourite players score amazing solo goals, and many other football players dreamed of doing the same one day but Isagi had no such thoughts at the moment. Whether he had to make use of his teammates or even his opponents, in the end, it did not matter to him. He was willing to use anyone and anything for his own benefit. He didn't care about his goals looking pretty. All that mattered to him was to score.

'With my current skills, I can't be a star. My skills aren't flashy. I can't be like Naruto, I can't shine like the sun. Not right now. Then, if that's the case, I will be the shadow that devours them all.'

⁂

"Hoho, I like the look on his face," Aryu said with a smirk.

"Are you finally going to get serious?" Nagi asked Rin.

"Yeah."

As the VAR's whistle rang, Nagi kicked off by passing the ball to Rin.

Naruto was quick to charge at him, pressing for the ball, but Rin passed the ball back to Aryu with his heel and sprinted past Naruto without it. The blonde started running towards the ball again,, but the tall boy immediately passed the ball to Tokimitsu.

Bachira was quick to block his way, attempting to tackle him, but, in doing so, Nagi was momentarily left unmarked. Nevertheless, the panicky boy didn't try to dribble him and kicked a long, diagonal cross. Once again, in spite of his sketchy behaviour, his accuracy was remarkable. Rin received Tokimitsu's pass with his chest perfectly.

But Nishioka was onto him right away. Rin tried to feint shooting on the target, but Nishioka wasn't fooled again and stood his ground this time around. Furthermore, when Rin tried to cut inside, he read his move and blocked his advance, stopping him completely.

"No way! He stopped Rin?! What are we going to do?! I can't believe it! Aaaah!"

But while Tokimitsu was having a meltdown again, Rin was still calm. It wasn't often that he met someone who managed to stuff his dribbling, but it was not like he had no other choices.

As Nishioka tried to sweep the ball away from his feet, Rin turned with his back to him and shielded the ball with his body, preventing him from completing his tackle. The shorter boy tried to push him from behind, but while Rin wasn't like Naruto or Tokimitsu, his physique was still better than that of his opponent.

Mostly unaffected by the shove from behind, Rin picked up the ball with the tip of his foot, juggled it once with his knee and then suddenly kicked the ball above his head, to his back.

"No way!" was the only thing Nishioka could say when he saw the ball's smooth arch in the air.

It was as if Rin had eyes in the back of his head. Even Isagi who had been doing his best to read the flow of the game, was caught completely off guard, not expecting Rin to pass to Nagi from that position. Although he had been marking Nagi himself, not having expected the ball to be sent their way, Isagi was a split second too late to react and Nagi managed to receive Rin's pass, albeit with some difficulty.

As amazing a football player Rin was, passing back over his head was bound to have a degree of inaccuracy to it.

'He only risked shooting such a pass because it was Nagi!' Isagi realized when he saw that Nagi had to extend himself to the limit in order to catch Rin's ball with his foot. 'If it was anyone else but Nagi, they wouldn't have caught his pass. This is the chemical reaction between Rin and Nagi!'

In that instant before the ball could touch the ground, Nagi abruptly twisted his body and kicked the falling ball with his other foot.

A whistle rang and then the VAR's voice was heard:

"Goal for Team Red. The score is 2 - 2."

"... You've got to be kidding me."

Naruto himself was speechless. He remembered then what Isagi said about the white-haired boy before the match: "His ball control is incredibly good. He's a genius. As long as he gets a pass inside the box, it's a guaranteed goal. He can shoot from any position."

⁂

"Don't mind it. We're tied. We'll still win in the end," Naruto said encouragingly.

"Bachira, let's switch for a bit. Let me start with Naruto this time."

"...Okay."

For once, the boy seemed to not be as happy-go-lucky as usual, but he didn't protest and switched his position on the pitch with Nishioka.

Before kicking off, Nishioka turned his head to him and said with a grin.

"Watch me how I'm dribbling past that meathead."

It was, in equal measure, both a provocation and a piece of advice. Turning towards Naruto, he said:

"Pass it to me, I'll start."

"Okay."

The moment he received Naruto's pass, Nishioka burst into a sprint. The "Messi of Aomori"; he had not gotten that nickname only for being as short as Messi. Just like the real deal, Nishioka's dribbling and speed were exceptional among his peers.

Unlike Bachira, who had tried dribbling past Tokimitsu using his creativity and marvellous ball control, Tokimitsu cut past him with pure speed. Even with his impressive recovery and acceleration for short distances, Tokimitsu was unable to catch up to him.

"Crazy guy incoming!" Nagi yelled when he saw how quickly Nishioka left Tokimitsu in the dust and tried to intercept him.

As Nishioka feinted with his shoulder and pretended to look to the right as if he was going to cut inside, Nagi almost broke his ankles when the shorter boy juked him by continuing to sprint along the touchline.

"Aryu, take on Number 9!" Rin shouted a last-second warning before Nishioka kicked a long pass from the side of the pitch into the penalty area.

Despite Bachira and Isagi having arrived together with Naruto in the penalty area, the two of them were so short that they could never hope to beat someone as tall and lanky as Aryu in an aerial duel. Rin himself also had more than 10 cm in height over Isagi and Bachira, standing at 186 cm tall. He was confident enough to stop the two of them from scoring all by himself. It was only Team White's physical monster that worried him, Uzumaki Naruto.

When Nishioka's long pass arrived and Rin saw the explosive manner in which Naruto shot up, a pit appeared in his stomach. Aryu's face too broke into an expression of surprise at seeing how the blonde had jumped just as high as him despite being several centimetres shorter.

At the very last moment, Rin also jumped together with Aryu in order to stop the blonde from scoring.

Shoved out of position due to Rin's last-moment jumping shoulder charge, Naruto let out a curse in his mind because he knew on an instinctual level that his chance to score had just been stuffed.

In that split second before the ball made contact with his head, Naruto saw Isagi staring at him from the corner of his eyes.

Had it been any other striker from Blue Lock, their ego would have definitely egged on them to try their luck and score from that position, regardless of how low their chances of success were. But Naruto wasn't entirely like that. Every time he had played selfishly in the past it had been due to having shitty teammates. It was different in the present. His teammates were awesome and he was more than willing to help them score if he didn't have the opportunity to do it himself.

Rin and Aryu were both shocked when, despite winning the aerial duel against the two of them, Naruto hit the ball with the left side of his head, passing it back instead of hitting it towards the goalpost.

Naruto, Aryu, and Rin had just landed back on the ground when Isagi smashed the ball squarely with his right foot. It was his weapon, Direct Shoot.

Even a professional goalkeeper would have been unable to save that volley to the near post. The ball smashed into the top left corner of the net and rolled for two long seconds before finally falling onto the ground.

"Goal for Team White. The score is 3 - 2!"

"You again!" Rin spat. It was clear to all that he wasn't happy, to say the least.

It wasn't hard for someone with his level of spatial awareness to distinguish what Isagi was doing, but the worst thing was that he could momentarily not think of any way to stop it.

⁂ Half-time ⁂

"Have you seen Rin's face? He looked like he wanted to kill you! Ahahaha!" Nishioka said and laughed out loud.

"I know you said you have a goal-smelling ability thing going on but shit, man, that thing is overpowered as fuck!" Naruto also said and patted him heavily on the back.

"Damn it, Bachira, it's your fault my weapon got such a lame name!" Isagi shot a reproach, only to be met with a weak chuckle from the boy.

Turning his attention to Naruto, Isagi said while rubbing the back of his head:

"It's not that effective, usually. But it's much easier to take advantage of it when I have a striker as overwhelming as you in my team."

"Ayo, quit praising me to the face like that, man," Naruto said, this time rubbing the back of his head too in embarrassment at his flattery.

"No, I'm serious, I'm not just buttering you up. I'm sure Rin knows exactly what I'm doing, but he doesn't have enough people in his team to put a stop to it because you're too dangerous."

When Naruto looked like he wasn't quite getting it, Isagi continued:

"Basically, Rin's situation is like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has to choose between focusing his attention on you to stop you from scoring or focusing his attention on me to stop me from taking advantage of his absence on the pitch with my spatial awareness."

"If he focuses on me, he's afraid that nobody else among his teammates can stop you. That goal from the halfway line that you scored had put the fear of God in them. Knowing that you can score from virtually any position on their side of the pitch, they're forced to mark you at any step you take. And he prefers to keep his eyes on you himself."

"But if he focuses on you, I will take advantage of the situation and exploit the holes in their formation. If you're like the light that attracts everyone's attention, I am like the shadow. The stronger the light, the stronger the shadow, too. My strategy has worked so well thus far only because I have a teammate as good as you attracting all the aggro."

⁂

The second half of the match was just as intense as the first… for 10 minutes. This extreme game of "chess" that they were playing had taken its toll on their stamina. It went to show that the rankings of the second selection weren't as accurate as one may think at first. Despite Team Red consisting of players ranked 2, 3, 4, and 8, they were evenly matched against a team consisting of players ranked 1, 15, 16, and 20.

But while most of them had started breathing out heavily and their pace began slowing down, two players appeared to still have plenty of gas in the tank.

"That muscled wimp is starting to get on my nerves," Naruto said and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand while waiting for Nishioka to get the ball for a Throw-in.

Team Red had changed their strategy in the second round. They took on a defensive tactic, not leaving their side of the field. They were trying to catch their opponents with counter-attacks. The unusual thing about their new tactics was, however, that Tokimitsu was now marking Naruto nonstop, regardless of his position on the field, like a hunting dog. Moreover, whenever the blonde got deep into their side of the pitch, Rin would join hands with Tokimitsu in order to stop him. Naruto was, essentially, completely shut off.

Passing long balls to his teammates wasn't a viable method either because they were all short while Aryu was at least a head taller than them.

Lastly, with Rin and Nagi being fully focused on defending, Isagi, Bachira, and Nishioka were having a hard time creating their usual combinations.

"How are you two still running like that is beyond me," Isagi said while gasping for air.

Their moment of respite didn't last long because, at that moment, their teammate returned with the ball and threw it to Isagi.

Seeing Nagi charging at him, Isagi quickly passed the ball to Bachira, not wanting to risk losing possession to him. When Isagi ran past Nagi, Bachira passed the ball back to him.

Nagi kept pressing persistently, and Isagi was forced to pass the ball to Bachira once again, making the white-haired boy let out a curse of frustration at their 1-2 passes as he once again changed his direction and lunged at Bachira.

But this time around, Bachira didn't pass the ball back to Isagi. For one very long second, he didn't even move. That second was enough for Nagi to reach him and cut in front of him, blocking the angle he needed to pass the ball back to Isagi.

From the moment he failed to dribble past Tokimitsu in the first half, Bachira had not played like his usual self. Instead of the light-hearted and confident dribbler he was in general, he was acting hesitant now, barely contributing to the game with anything more than keeping possession of the ball.

'Naruto-san is like a beast. He's incredible. Nishioka is a very technical dribbler, and his speed is off the charts as well. Isagi has evolved too, he even scored two goals in this match. They are amazing! But what did I do in this game? I did nothing… …won't I be left behind at this rate?'

He wasn't sure what was wrong.

'Why did my dribbling not work on Tokimitsu? Why can Nishioka and Rin predict my movements? How can they stop me so easily?'

As he asked himself that question, a particular scene from the training he went through yesterday with his teammates came to his mind:

"You can't dribble past me, just give up."

It was Nishioka, he was chuckling merrily after stuffing his dribbling attempt for what had to be the 10th time.

When Bachira asked "how?", Nishioka answered:

"I'm just putting myself in your shoes and think of whom you will try to pass the ball to."

As he remembered those words, a flash of realization glimmered in his eyes.

'...I'm always trying to pass the ball to someone, aren't I?'

But while he was having an internal monologue, Nagi wasn't idle and didn't wait for him to come back to his senses. Nevertheless, Bachira reacted instinctively to his tackle and pulled the ball back with his foot before performing a Zidane roulette and leaving the white-haired boy behind him with a dumbfounded look on his face.

'But if I don't pass the ball to others, how else am I supposed to make friends?'

Once he dribbled past Nagi, the monster that only he could see appeared in his eyes once again. It was standing in an empty spot behind the place occupied by Tokimitsu and Naruto. That was the place where Isagi was most likely going to be after two seconds, he was sure of that because ever since Isagi became his friend and teammate, the monster in his head had never been wrong about that.

Bachira clenched his teeth and shook his head. As if to further cement his hesitation about continuing to follow the monster's advice, just as he was about to pass the ball, he realized that it wasn't only Isagi who saw that "hole" in the defence but Rin had seen it too.

'I won't pass him the ball!' he decided at the last moment, and, instead of kicking the ball towards Isagi, he pushed it with the tip of his foot before breaking into a sprint.

'Nothing is going to change if I keep listening to the monster. I'll never be able to beat Nishioka at this rate. I have to change! If I don't want to be left behind, I have to improve. I won't become a dead weight! I won't lose everything I've gained until now at Blue Lock!'

Until then, he had always dribbled while bearing in mind the purpose of clearing the field for the sake of passing to someone for them to score. He had played football as a way to connect with others and make friends. And that style of dribbling had made him predictable.

But now, it was different. For the first time since he came to Blue Lock, Bachira decided to be truly selfish. And that new determination was like a second wind in the sails.

Not only that he dribbled past Nagi with a spectacular Zidane roulette, but he also dribbled past Aryu too with a humiliating nutmeg.

Rin could only watch startled how Bachira went against all his expectations, unable to do anything to stop him due to how far away he was at that moment (he had been on his way to intercept the pass that was supposed to come to Isagi).

"Tokimitsu!" Rin shouted, and the panicky boy understood what he wanted with no further explanations needed.

Tokimitsu stopped marking Naruto and charged at Bachira like a bull, intent on even bum-rushing him if it meant he stopped his advance. Committing a foul was far better than conceding a goal, especially while the score was still 3 - 2 for the opponent team.

Not unlike their previous encounter, Bachira bypassed him easily the first time by cutting in the opposite direction, but Tokimitsu was nothing if not persistent.

Nonetheless, this time around, Bachira didn't waste any time looking for unmarked teammates to pass the ball. Ignoring the monster that kept telling him to pass the ball, Bachira focused fully on the ball, immersing himself in a special state.

All emotions disappeared from his heart. His fears and doubts vanished from his mind.

He was in the zone.

Tokimitsu recovered and caught up to Bachira immediately after he dribbled past him, and this time he wasn't even trying to hide his intention of fouling his opponent, his hands extended in front of him, trying to catch Bachira by his shirt.

But Tokimitsu only managed to brush past the fabric of his shirt with the tips of his fingers because, just as he had been about to grab him, Bachira suddenly kicked the ball with his heel, sending it back through Tokimitsu's legs, and then turning around again.

As good at tackling as he was, even Tokimitsu found himself stumbling and falling onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, his body unable to keep up with the abrupt change of direction and pace.

But Tokimitsu's persistence had bought Rin a few extremely valuable seconds; a few seconds that allowed him to get back from his previous position and throw himself in front of Bachira to stop him from shooting.

Rin was once again floored by Bachira's move because instead of shooting with his main foot like any other regular player would do in front of the goal, Bachira faked a shooting motion with his right foot, choosing instead to do it with his left foot, from behind the right.

"Goal for Team White. The score is 4 - 2."

"Holy shit!"

"Was that a motherfucking rabona?!"

"I can't believe it!"

It wasn't only Nagi and the rest of his team that were left stupefied. Even Isagi who had seen Bachira score a similar goal before during the first selection was left awestruck because the level of opposition that they were facing now was vastly superior. Not only that Bachira had dribbled past three highly skilled players in a row but he had also styled on Itoshi Rin by tricking him and scoring a sensational rabona goal.

⁂

"This is bad… I don't know what happened to that midget, but if he goes berserk like that one more time, we're done for," Aryu said in an uncharacteristically serious voice.

"I won't give them the chance," Rin said, his eyes looking as if they were about to start spewing fire as he watched the three boys from Team White all hugging Bachira and congratulating him for his fantastic goal. "Forget about playing it safe and in hopes of counterattacking. We'll advance at once, all four of us."

"All four?!" Tokimitsu asked worriedly. "But about defence? What if that muscled yankee gorilla gets the ball in our half and shoots for the goal?"

"I won't repeat myself. All four of us will go forward."

After the VAR's whistle was heard, Nagi passed the ball to Rin and then broke into a sprint towards the opposite team's goal. And Nagi wasn't the only one. The other two started running at full speed, followed by Rin who started dribbling with the ball.

"Aryu!" Rin shouted when Naruto charged at him.

But his shout was a feint. Instead of passing the ball to the tall boy, he sent it to Tokimitsu instead who proceeded to floor Nishioka with a shoulder check before receiving the pass and starting to run towards the goal.

When Bachira came from the side to tackle him, Tokimitsu passed the ball to Nagi.

Having predicted Tokimitsu's pass, Isagi had been just about to intercept the ball but, instead of trapping it as he had expected him to do, Nagi teeped the ball like a Muay Thai fighter from the first touch, sending a scarily accurate pass to Rin who had just arrived inside the box at that moment.

It was a volley and a curved shot at that. The Hologram Goalkeeper never stood a chance, it had barely even reacted when the ball smashed into the top right corner of the goal.

⁂

"Shit, they got us this time," Naruto said, scratching his hair with both hands in annoyance.

Although the score was still in their favour with a lead of one goal, Team Red's goal just now reminded them not to count their chickens before they hatch. The match was still not over yet.

"Should we try doing the same thing they did?" Nishioka came up with a suggestion.

"It's risky…" Isagi said, not quite liking the idea at first. "...but I guess we could give it a try?" he ended up getting on board with it too when he remembered how long their team went in the second half without being able to score after Tokimitsu and Rin started marking Naruto at all times. Rin was too good at predicting their play.

⁂

"I think they're trying to do the same thing we did," Nagi said when he noticed that all four members of Team White came to the centre line, not leaving even one player in the defence.

"Hmpf, they're not even trying to hide it. Do they think we'd let them use our own strategy against us to win?" Aryu said and flicked his long hair over his back.

"Don't let them pass. No matter what," said Rin.

It was unlike Rin to say such words and speak so stiffly, but they had never seen him on the losing foot until then either. With Team White leading the score by 4 - 3, they only needed to score one more goal to win. Rin didn't say it explicitly but they all understood the meaning underneath too: that of sparing no expense, going as far as to even foul them for the sake of stopping their offensive.

"Tokimitsu, take on Uzumaki Naruto. Aryu, take on Nishioka, Nagi, take on Bachira. I'll take on Isagi."

"Yes!" the other three replied.

At that moment, the VAR's whistle rang, signalling Team White to kick off.

⁂

"Nishioka, you'll get my first pass," Naruto said in a voice quiet enough that only his teammates could hear it. "Then either pass it back to me or to Bachira. Isagi, you go as deep into their penalty area as you can and use your goal-smelling thingy-

"Fuck you!"

"Why he say fuck me for?" Naruto said taken aback, making everyone burst into laughter.

"Anyway, use your goal-smelling voodoo to find the best spot in their defence to shoot."

"I swear to god, you'll pay for this when the match is over Bachira!" Isagi said, his face a bit flushed from embarrassment.

Bachira merely laughed happily, not putting too much stock in Isagi's threats.

As they all took their respective positions on the field, the VAR whistled, signalling them to kick off.

Once Nishioka passed Naruto the ball, he and the other two broke into a full sprint towards Team Red's goal.

As per Rin's instructions, Tokimitsu charged at Naruto like a mad bull, using his entire strength to slam into his shoulder.

Largely unphased by Tokimitsu's brutish tackle, the blonde suddenly increased his sprinting speed and left him behind.

He was just outside the centre circle, on Team Red's side of the field, when Naruto unexpectedly let out a loud grunt and smashed his foot into the ball with the entire strength he was capable of.

Team Red had been so preoccupied with stopping Team White from using their own tactics against them that they forgot about the scariest weapon in Team White's arsenal: Uzumaki Naruto's shooting.

In all fairness, however, it wasn't only Team Red who was stupefied by his actions; Naruto's teammates themselves were left shocked too.

In order to lower Team Red's vigilance and make them forget about the threat his shooting possessed, Naruto decided to fool his teammates first in order to fool the opponent. Isagi, Bachira, and Nishioka's act of sprinting towards the penalty area had been so genuine and convincing that Team Red had never even expected that Naruto was going to shoot on the target instead of passing one of them the ball.

With its field of view blocked by the players in front of it, the keeper never saw it coming. It stood petrified as the ball smashed into the top left corner of the goal like a rocket.

AN: thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. For those who can't wait and want to read one more chapter ahead of schedule, you can find it on pa tre on at /grumpywolf. There's no football in the next chapter though, it's mostly slice of life. Until next time.