Naruto, Sword Art Online/ソードアート・オンライン 1. Year 2226

The door swings open as Ashton runs into his room; Aluminum bag in his right hand, dangerously hot bowl of shrimp ramen in his left. He rushes to his 24-5Di television, the new updated version of the 23rd century that allows users to essentially interact with whatever is on the screen as if the viewer were actually part of the program. "Ash, don't be on that game all night, I saw on the news that its bad for your health!" My mother warned from up the stairs. I slurped a mouth full of the shrimp ramen from the bowl as if I was immune to the heat and ran to close my door. They say everything is bad for you in this century, but we'll develop a cure for it just like how we developed one for Cancer and it will be replaced again by another virus just like how we're searching for a cure for Mechanical Nano-Interference- The fatal virus that damages the central nano-chip that everyone has implanted in them at 1 week old. I guess its just Mother Nature's way of saying stop fucking with me. Drinking up the last bit of my ramen broth, I tap my wrist and call my best friend Nick. We had both just purchased the Naruto: Welcome to the Ninja Way game, a revamped and recreated game of the Naruto anime from the 21st century, and were ready to live, I mean play the game. The game was like every typical MMO game made now a days, where you essentially enter another dimension and become your created character. Except this game featured a role playing society to capture the essence of how life may be like living in a Naruto ninja world. Everyone who bought the game would be regular shinobi who could work their way up to become the Kage of a village. The Kage's and their advisers already set in place were the lucky few who were accepted into the beta version. They were not only gifted with knowledge of the game, but they were also ascribed certain abilities due to their titles. This game also boast another feature, every character you see in the game is real, meaning that the NPC's were all played by real people, people who worked for the company.

"This is about to be Dope," I said excitedly to the phone on my wrist. "Dope?" He laughed. "Nobody says dope anymore you mean its about to be Crystal, you my friend have been watching to many old movies" He said. " Yea yea crystal whatever" I said annoyed by truth of his comment. Nick had been my best friend since birth and we knew each other better than our own mothers did. It was probably because we did almost everything together. By everything I mean we had beaten almost every game together because that's all we ever did. We lived as if playing videos games was almost better than living itself. "I just started my game" Nick said as I started mine simultaneously. The last Naruto Shippuden theme song played in the background. Then Japanese characters for the 5 ninja villages appeared on the screen. On top of them was a health warning: playing this game for a long period of time could cause cerebral damage... blah blah blah. I exited the message and immediately a play button popped up in between two massive doors like you were entering a ninja village. "Alright, I'm about to enter the game," I said to Nick. "If you can add me on a friends list or something I'm going to make my name Nile I said. " Alright, I'll name mine Alev, its Turkish for flame." he said proudly. I laughed, "You always pick the weirdest names, but did I tell you I met this girl earlier when I was buying my game?" He repeated my laughter, "You didn't get her Codes ( What kids call digits in this century) though." "I mean I didn't but she said we could meet up in the game, she was so Hi-tek (Provocatively beautiful; sexy)," I responded. He laughed again, "Ok then what is her character name?" I paused how could I forget to ask her what she would name her character. " "Exactly, you're acting so LAN, but alright I'm starting, see you in game" he said and then the light on my wrist turned dark. I laid in my comfy game couch, clicked play, and closed my eyes.


	2. The Game

The Five Hidden villages appeared again, except this time you could choose telepathically which village you want to be from. I chose the village hidden in the Mist, as I was a little of a water element buff. The screen zoomed in on the village, then through the mist, and then it zoomed in on a 3 story building, to a room on the second floor, until it finally arrived at a mirror. In the reflection of the mirror was a half-naked character with random features. Next to each of his features was the word of each corresponding part of the body and at the top and option to choose the gender. I started with the hair making my character have a pony tail similar to that of Shikamaru's. I then moved down until I reached the feet. I made my character look like a combination of Shikamaru, Haku, and myself; with scrubble turning into a goatee. "Character customization is really detailed," I thought. "Its probably because there will be that many players in the game." My customization of the features of the character was followed by a height and age selection, I chose to make my character 5'8 and 15 years old, I wanted my gaming experience to be as realistic as possible. After selecting the features and the height and age, my character turned to a closet and a wardrobe where I could select what he would be wearing. As I was selecting, my character was actually reaching in the closet and wardrobe finding the clothes that I chose. I chose an outfit that looked exactly like Shino's in Naruto Shippuden except all black and without the glasses. My character finished by tying his headband around his head. Then the screen turned black. Suddenly in the darkness, five element orbs appeared. They were Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water. I guess these orbs represent chakara elements so being the water buff that I am, chose water. It allowed me to choose again so my second choice was wind. After choosing the screen went black again. This short time of darkness was followed by the word Kekki Genkai and it had highlighted options for which ability I could choose. "Sweet, I'll make my shinobi like Haku" I said choosing his blood line ability. After I chose, darkness covered everything again, but this time when I could see again, everything was different. I was finally in control of my character, looking at this new world through his eyes. I looked at the ceiling, then at my hands, I was definitely in control of this body. After getting used to moving a character that I created myself, I realized that I was actually laying down. I got out of bed quickly, moving felt more automatic than I thought it would, and ran to the mirror. I appeared in the mirror, but this time with no options to change my features and with a strange light blue steak that stretched from the front of my head to the end of the hairs that were tied up. "I guess this is how I'll look forever" I thought, thinking about how life consuming this game would be. "Man this has to be the most Crystal game I've ever played!" I heard someone shouting from outside of the door. "Don't say crystal, we gotta act the part, but yea man this shit is dope!" Another voice exclaimed. I moved to the door like a shinobi, back against the wall, ears perked up, right hand on my kunai pouch. I had Kunai! I reached into the pouch and saw 12 razor sharp knives ready to be thrown. The kunai weren't the only things that surprised me, but I was also surprised at how fluidly I moved to the door, Like a real shinobi! The mechanics of this game were definitely better than any game that I have ever played. After getting over my surprises I heard more people talking outside and with no cries for help or the sound of metal clashing, I decided it was safe enough to go outside. I opened the door, the piercing sharp rays of the sun did more damage than any kunai I was expecting would. After my eyes adjusted to the light, I was surprised again by how real the game looked. I could see the rust on the railing in front of my door, the dew dripping from a humming bird's beak as it was drinking from a flower. Perhaps what surprised me the most was how the female characters on the ground below me looked. I mean usually female game characters can be hot to an extent, but these characters looked exactly like real girls. I took in the scenery for a while before I realized that everyone was actually headed in the same direction. Testing out the mechanics of the game even further, I hoped off of the second floor where my room was onto the ground. I felt the shock wave through my body as I stuck my landing, two feet like a pro-gymnast. "That was pretty cool dude," I heard a high pitch voice coming closer to me. "I really wish I didn't make my character 7 years old, I don't even get a headband until I graduate the academy and become a Genin." I looked around and then finally down until I saw a kid. "Dam I'm really glad I decided to make myself 15 years old, I guess it was shinobi intuition" I patted myself on my back inside my head. "I'm sorry about that kid, what's you name?" I asked the pipsqueak. "Ok dude I'm not a kid in real life I'm actually 13, and the names Aqua." He said crossly. "To make things worse he was really a kid in real life and he picked a name like aqua, no creativity whatsoever," I laughed in my head. "Oh well Aqua I'm Nile, do you know where everyone is going?" I said talking slowly as if I was talking to a baby rather than a 13 year old. Before I could finish my sentence Aqua was running in the direction that everyone else was headed. Yelling back in my direction he said, "The MizuKage is about to give the opening ceremony, you fucking dick!" Its always funny how the youngest kids in every game always have the worse language. I ran in the direction of the crowd and the loud murmur of voices, lets see what the MizuKage looks like.

When I finally got to where everyone was gathered, I saw a tall building covered in moss here and there that stretched so high that I couldn't see the top due the to mist. I looked around and saw both female and male characters as kids, as teens, some as adults wearing an assortment of clothing. Everyone however looked completely different from the other. Spanning the the crowd my eyes landed on a character that looked like someone's grandpa. He wore all black robes that had a hood which he had taken off. He had a long white Gandalf like beard to compliment his Gandalf like hairstyle which complimented his old hunched over stature. His eyes looked kind of scary though, almost lifeless. I chuckled, "What a troll." In the middle of my observation a voice from a plateau like building in front of the really tall building began to speak,

"Attention shinobi of Kirigakure, I am Yagura, your MizuKage, I welcome you" he said with confidence. The Mizukage looked and sounded exactly like Yagura from Naruto except he was a little taller and he boasted the Kage ensemble. He continued, "As we all know, the game was just released simultaneously across the world, so every shinobi, except those who were allowed access to the beta have equal skills sets," He paused. "The game is based on similar laws to reality so your character will age, feel pain,and grow physically just like if we were in the regular world. Since this is a shinobi world, you will find that there are rules from the regular world that do not apply" He paused and turned to his left, "For example..." Standing to the left of the Mizukage was a shinobi wearing a gas mask and clothes that resembled a pinstripe paunch o that was tighter the closer it got to his head. The ninja was unnecessarily tall and made the Mizukage look like a child. When Yagura looked in his direction the shinobi weaved hand signs so rapidly my eyes could barely keep up with the movement of his fingers. "Summoning Jutsu!" He said with a deep thunderous voice. He bit his thumb and thrust his palm onto the ground and a cloud of smoke appeared and when it cleared the giant gas masked shinobi was in the shadow of what looked like a giant bear with a skunk like tail and snout. The Mizukage continued, "We as shinobi are gifted with the ability to manipulate chakara and as shinobi of the mist we boast specialty in the greatest element, that of Water" He paused this time smiling before he started speaking again, "We shinobi of the Kirikagure are the best shinobi in the ninja world and we shall prove that to the other villages either by diplomacy or by war, let all fear the showers of the Blood Mist." The crowd cheered on cue and I found even myself yelling "Blood Mist" as if I was under some genjutsu. Suddenly the sun turned black, the sky illuminated with a red glow. In the face of the sun a human face appeared that looked just like the old shinobi I had saw in the crowd earlier. Its eyes moving like a baby that realized it could see for the first time. It said, "I am Tonori Miyazaki, better known as the creator of this game. However, all Shinobi must refer to me as Madara." As he said Madara the ground began to shake making everyone tremble with fear." He continued, "Mother Nature has become despised with the insolence of human kind and has blessed me with the power to bend reality. From now on this is you're reality." I looked around to see if everyone was just as confused as I was. "You shall be trapped here forever, but if you die your life shall disappear from both worlds." He was about to continue talking when I heard a familiar voice, "Why don't ya shut up jackass, this is a game, I'll sue your ass if anything happens to me for real fucktard." I looked over to see Aqua yelling at the sky. Aqua's character then appeared in the sky like he was being recorded on TV. "I will make an example of him," the sun said. As soon as he said this the old man I had saw earlier in the crowd was bending over in front of Aqua, face to face. One of his eyes had the rinnegan pattern the other a sharingan in the tsukuyomi pattern. The sky then showed Aqua in a different place. He was nailed to the ground and crying out in pain. There were also clones of the old man, each holding a large stone. Each of the clones began to put the stones on top of Aqua, each stone applying more weight causing Aqua to cry out in an inhuman-like sounding pain. the process continued and restarted for what seemed like days until the sky returned to its red glow. I looked at Aqua in the crowd, snapping out of the apparent trance we were in, and saw that he was on the ground; the old man was nowhere to be seen. Someone ran over to check his pulse, "He's dead" the person said trembling. " The black sun began to speak again, "If you die in this world you die in both worlds" He said in an eeirie voice and then continues speaking, "You as shinobi will make this world realistic, I have gifted certain shinobi with kekkai genkai abilities while others are just regular shinobi. In a shinobi world villages must compete for resources and revenue so each village will have a feudal lord that they must protect or their village will be utterly destroyed. Villages can be employed by other feudal lords to gain more revenue and resources based on the strength of their shinobi. Welcome to your new reality." The sun and sky then turned back to their natural state, the shocking words resonanting in the air, "Welcome to your new reality."


	3. The New Reality

Shortly after the foreboding message from the creator of the game, who calls himself Madara, The Mizukage wasted no time and began securing the village as well as sending a black ops troop to escort the feudal lord to the village. He had his main shinobi take count of the number of shinobi that are part of the village. "Get in line everybody!" shouted a women with hair like the 5th Mizukage from Naruto. She had an eye patch over her right eye wearing an all white lab coat with what appeared to be all black leather overalls underneath.. She was holding a clipboard that had all of the names of the shinobi in the village and their currnent rankings. "I am Nova 2nd in command of Kirikagure as well as the commander of the black ops of the mist" she waited for everyone to understand her title. "Right now our village is composed of our confident leader, Yagura the Mizukage, Me, Nova the Mystic, Vander of the Smog ( the guy with the gas mask from the ceremony), 11 beta testers who are our black ops, 100 useless Genin, and 55 imbeciles who decided that they wanted to be runts in the academy, in that order," She let everyone soak in her insults, "With the statistics I've pointed out its safe to say that if we were attacked at this very instant we would be dead, and we've all seen how real the death is here" She paused and stared, a look that made everyone freeze. " My job is to whip you nin into shinobi, you will receive a number from this black ops member here," She pointed to the black ops member on her right,"After receiving your number all 1's will report to the main gate, 2's to the ceremonial ground, 3's to the academy,..." she continued but I blocked her out, distracted by the thoughts in my head, " I was a real shinobi, not a person in a world controlled by limitations that were set upon me by people I've never met, I could do anything." Others may have been shocked by the death of Aqua and I would be lying if I said that I wasn't too, but something about his death made me feel alive, like I had been dead in the other world and this new world was what life really was. "Hey you with the pony tail!" Nova yelled at me, " The fuck are you doing?" her voice brought me back and at the same time scared me, maybe I wasn't so ready for this ninja world. "Yes Nova, I mean Boss Nova, I mean..." She interrupted me, "You're a number 1 report to the main gate now!" My legs began to move by themselves as I found myself walking briskly towards where all the other 1's were headed. I felt like her gaze was always on me so I arrived pretty quickly to the main gate. There, me and my fellow number 1's were greeted by a black ops member wearing his mask that was painted like a fox. "Hello everyone" the black ops member said.

"I am not as loud or as direct at speech as Nova is,but I will turn you into shinobi by the end of the month." He finally took off his mask. His face was a pale white, and his hair matched. He had squinty eyes and a face that never seemed to droop out of a sly smile (Picture Jin from Bleach). He took an unnecessarily long pause and said under his breath, " At times I feel like I may have picked the wrong village." He then raised his voice and said, "Nonetheless, I am here, you are hear, and I will teach you how to kill." I could feel my demeanor as well as everyone else's around me drop. "Yea that's right shinobi's do kill" I thought. The black ops member than began to walk towards the main gate which I hadn't noticed until now was open. "Uhh sir or whatever your name is, I thought she said no one could leave the village" said a shinobi in the group. This shinobi has short dark blue hair that turned white once it reached the front of his head. He had on a black V-neck shirt with a small v right below his neck. He also had on gray shinobi pants that met right above his shoes exposing only a little bit of his skin. He had his head band tied around his torso so that it went diagonally across his chest which I noticed strapped a 4 foot scimitar and its sheath to his back. The black ops shinobi paused and threw a kunai in a motion that appeared to be undetectable to the human eye. The kunai grazed the cheek of the shinobi and then the black ops member turned only his head to face us. I couldn't tell if he was angry but his sly smile and sneaky eyes sent chills down my spine. He continued walking and of course my group composed of 15 members followed.

We walked for what seemed like hours. I could tell we were no longer in Kirikagure because the mist no longer covered everything. we were in a forest that would be pitch black if it wasn't for the streaks of light that pierced through holes in the canopy. "My name is Kitsune, but just call me Kit" the black ops member said after he had finally stopped. "I believe the best way to train people into shinobi is to place them in a position where they will be killed. The demeanor of the group dropped again. "What's up with this guy and killing?" the shinobi that spoke earlier in the village said to me in a whisper. Kit continued, "I have marked the path with my kunai, if you have objections I suggest you leave now you could be killed" he said all in one breath. 10 minutes passed and 8 shinobi cracked under the pressure of just waiting and left. I looked around only the shinobi with the scimitar, 2 girl shinobi, 3 male shinobi and myself remained. After another extended period of time Kit began talking again, "Form your hands in the shape of the tiger" Kin's two index fingers and middle fingers then met at the top of his hands as he brought them together. "Mold your chakara until you can feel it in your feet," he continued "I shall return" and he vanished. We practiced doing this for several hours not saying a word to each other. By the 7th hour I could pretty much do it at will and I noticed that everyone else in the group had grasped the concept as well. "I'm exhausted" said a girl in the group who was identical to the character Anko from Naruto, except she looked younger and was shorter. "I'm Styx nice to meet you," The shinobi with the scimitar said smiling ear to ear. the girl shinobi rolled her eyes. As Styx was beckoning for the girl shinobi to reveal her real name the ground began to shake. "Does anybody feel that" I said. Nobody had noticed it before but now it was apparent. The ground began to shake louder and louder as if something was moving closer. "Over there" one of the other shinobi pointed, "why are the trees bending like that." Everyone in the group directed their attention to where the shinobi pointed to find that the trees were being either broken or bent at a rapid pace. A couple minutes later we could make out the image of a monster that looked like it was charging for us. "Aww shit" Styx said. Without asking any questions I ran in the only direction that seemed logical, away from the monster. the other members in the group decided to follow suit. I ran through the trees getting stabbed by some and scratched by all of the other ones until I heard the sound of rushing water coming from ahead. When I finally got to where I heard the sound coming from, I saw that it was a violent river right in front of me. The other shinobi in the group finally caught up to me only to see the same dilemma. "Do you think we could swim across?" the girl from before asked. "I'd rather try than be eaten by that monster back there" one of the male shinobi said. "Don't be stupid, we'll just have to fight it or something" Styx commented back unsure of what he said. "You can fight that thing i'm leaving" the shinobi said jumping into the river. at first it looked like he could make it across, but then a strong current hit him and just like that he was gone, devoured by the water. We all looked at each other in fear. And to make things worst, the monster appeared to be coming closer. we all turned to see the monster in the distance at least 50 paces away from us. "I have got it" the girl that looked like Anko said as she joined her hands together to form the tiger sign. the soles of her feet lit up. She took one step on the river and then another, and then another until she was skipping across the river. Before she got to the other side Styx and I were already matching the idea, not moving as briskly as she had. We were then followed by the other girl in the group and one of the male Shinobi until, 1 then 3 then 5 shinobi had arrived at the other side of the river. I turned around and yelled across to the last remaining shinobi on the other side, "Form the tiger sign, mold your chakara and come across and hurry." The shinobi looked at the water and looked just as pale as the river. He began to cry and looked at us. We were standing in awe, all of our mouths open to what we saw on the other side of the river. Standing behind the shinobi was what appeared to be a giant rat with large fangs protruding from its mouth. The shinobi on the other side saw our expressions and turned to find the creature's open mouth above his head, drool dripping on his forehead as he turned around. The smooth but violent rushing of the river was broken by the screams of the shinobi and the crushing of his bones in the creatures mouth as it savored every bite. We looked on in horror. Unaware of our surroundings, Kin appeared behind us, unnoticed and said, "lesson number 1, Shinobi of the mist know only blood and the power of rushing water." we all turned to face our mentor who stared over at the creature with the same sly eerie smile he always wore. He started to walk into the woods, we all followed none of us looking back.


End file.

Naruto, Sword Art Online/ソードアート・オンライン, Fantasy