Imagine Utopia: An HDN Spin-Off

By: The Lost Hokage

Please note that this is my first attempt at writing, both on this site and in general. Please keep this in mind when offering critiques.

In addition, the HyperDimension Neptunia series of games, the animation, as well as the manga are the property of their creators. I do not own any characters, settings, or ideas used in this story (except for one character and one setting that I created).

I am a Naruto fan, but similarities to characters present in Naruto are merely coincidental.

Chapter 1

It was a cold day in Lastation, unusually so for the time of year. As far as the eye could see, people hurriedly scrambled into and out of stores and office buildings, pushing and shoving each other but quickly turning to apologize afterward. A cool breeze blew by, picking up and dropping leaves that had fallen from the few trees in the highly industrialized nation. At the feet of benches, birds gathered and pecked at crumbs left by old passerby, stopping to chirp every few seconds before taking flight again.

The skyline was dominated by the towering Basilicom, home of the nation's CPU and CPU Candidate. These two were the most influential people in the entire nation, holding political, militant, and economic power. They answered only to themselves, and the building served to display that authority. Its tall stature set it above all of the other buildings in the nation, and the intricate designs around the outside gave off a quaintly regal atmosphere, which was appropriate due to the CPU's standing.

Just outside the Basilicom, an equally quaint man sat on one of the many plain benches that riddled the streets. His appearance was strikingly plain and lackadaisical, as he wore a pitch black jacket that he kept unzipped to reveal a plain grey shirt underneath. He wore simple jeans, but instead of proper walking attire, he wore black socks with black house slippers. Overall, an outsider would be likely to make comments on the amount of black he wore, and they would be right in doing so; the commonality of the color in his attire was somewhat off-putting.

His chocolate-brown eyes and jet black hair were covered by his jacket's hood. Overall, this was simply the finishing touch on a very suspicious ensemble, and this was made no more evident than by the questioning looks he was given by passerby. Every few seconds, a married couple and their child would walk by and comment on this man to each other, remarking on his suspicious appearance or his choice in clothing. Although his intentions weren't clear, sitting outside the Basilicom did not send a good message to the public eye.

This did not seem to bother the man much, as he got up and walked towards the door of the Basilicom. He placed his hands in his pockets and kept his head held low, so that one would have great difficulty in seeing his face. He approached the doors, but as he got closer, he hesitated for a moment to appreciate the effort put into the building's entirety. Even the doors were laced with ornate ironwork, and although the doors slid open upon approach, they had designs reminiscent of game cases where one would normally push a door to open.

The man walked up to the door, so close that there was perhaps only a few inches of separation between it and his face. A camera scanned his body and conducted an identification test, a standard security procedure adopted by all four nations to ensure that only authorized personnel could enter the Basilicom. As expected, the test turned out negative and the doors did not open, but whether this was due to the man's face covering or him being unlisted remained unknown. This did not seem to bother the man, and what happened next was truly shocking.

He took a step forward, and instead of simply colliding with the door as a normal person would, his leg seemed to phase through the door as a ghost's body would. He took another step, and now his entire right flank was inside of the door. A third step pulled his entire body through the door, but once he completed this motion he was stopped by several guards.

"Sir! This is a restricted area! Turn back now!" The man was surrounded by three Guards, all wielding state of the art weaponry entrusted only to the elite among the security force. Most people would tremble in fear at the sight of this.

The man uttered a simple grunt, completely unfazed by their threats. He took another step forward, and the guards tightened their grips on their weapons.

"This is your last warning! Turn back or we are authorized to use lethal force!" At this point, any sane person would turn back and leave with nothing but a mild scolding. Staring down the barrels of three guns in the hands of highly trained personnel would be too intimidating for most.

The man opened his arms, as if he was inviting the guards to attack him. Although his face was still concealed, it would be reasonable to assume that he was smirking in arrogance. He seemed completely assured that in a conflict, he would emerge victorious.

The guards opened fire, and, to their surprise, their bullets merely impacted the door and left large, winding cracks on the glass. It was as if the man wasn't there at all, but this explanation could not be used since he was clearly visible. The man put his hands back into his pockets and took another step forward.

"Hyaaaah!" One of the three guards lunged toward the man in a desperate attempt to stop his siege of the Basilicom. Of course, he merely fell through his body, but then the man suddenly turned around. He placed his hand on the back of the guard's head and, using the momentum provided by his motion, threw him through the door and onto the street outside. A pool of blood formed around his body.

The two remaining guards trembled in fear at the force in front of them. In that moment, they truly believed that the thing in front of them was not human. Although it resembled a man, it was simply a monster or some kind of abomination, at least in their eyes. No matter what it was, the goal remained: stop this man from making his way to the atrium, where he would find the CPU and CPU Candidate.

The man pulled his hand out of his pocket and very slowly raised his hand out of his sleeve. The seconds crawled by as the two guards anxiously waited to see the actions of their mysterious assailant. Suddenly, a wave of force emerged from his hand, blowing the two guards back and into the wall behind them. A sickly crack emerged from one of the guard's backs as he impacted the wall, but the other was lucky enough to impact a stack of boxes that cushioned his fall.

The guard, dazed, looked up and saw the man walking toward him. With his last bit of energy, he attempted to grab his weapon, but it had been knocked out of arm's reach by the mysterious man's attack. Terrified, he blocked his face with his hands, but when the man kneeled next to him, he lowered his guard.

"Would you happen to know where Noire and Uni are? I have urgent business with them, and need to see them as soon as possible." The man's voice was deep and monotone, as if he were a student bored to tears in a lecture.

"You bastard…I'll never tell you anything."

The man chuckled. "Is that so? Well then, I suppose that means this is the end of the line."

He grabbed one of the guard's weapons and discharged it into the sole survivor, terminating him upon contact.

The man kept walking towards the atrium, following the signs given on the roof for directions. He took off his hood to reveal his face, believing that subtlety was no longer existent. He climbed a flight of stairs and then another until he reached a sign upon which the word "ATRIUM" was written in an imposing shade of red. He ducked behind a corner and saw a guard reporting to the CPU of the incident downstairs. He must have been the chief of security and had access to video feed, since no one else remained alive to tell the tale.

With explosive speed, the man jumped out from behind his cover and tackled the guard to the ground, where, upon contact, he fell through and was silenced. He got back up and dusted his hands before turning to the CPU.

"My apologies. I needed to have a private discussion with you, and he was getting in the way." The man seemed completely unfazed by the blood on his hands from earlier, and proceeded to stare into the CPU's red eyes.

"So you're the one he told me about, the one who caused all that trouble downstairs. I don't think I've seen you before, but you seem familiar somehow."

"Likely just a case of déjà vu. Normally, it is a huge honor for a civilian like me to see the CPU for themselves." The man's breathing was completely steady and he showed no signs of weariness or upset.

"Have you forgotten that you're now a national level criminal? Now that we've met, it's my obligation to do justice!" Noire's breathing sped with anger towards the threat in front of her, and the grip on her weapon tightened.

"Ah, that's right. I suppose I am, aren't I?" He gave a wry giggle, and for a moment he appeared as a little boy innocently laughing at a mistake he was ignorant to.

"…! How can you laugh at the death of these people? Whatever you are, I'll defeat you and restore peace!" Noire lunged towards the man and slashed downwards in an attempt to rend his lungs.

"Whoops. Care to try again?" Noire's attack simply fell through the man's body just as the guard's bullets did.

"So that's the ability that guard told me about. You're a tricky one, aren't you?" Noire recovered from the foul strike and steadied herself again, staring down the threat in front of her.

"Hmm, are you sure you want to do this? Y'know, nobody else needs to get hurt today." He readied his hands and stared blankly into Noire's eyes, ready for the battle that would likely ensue.

"You don't get to kill my people and just back out!" Noire readied herself for the exchange of blows.

The man let out a sigh. "Fine. We will do things your way."

Noire lunged towards the man and made a left-to-right slashing motion. He phased through and reached out for her sword, but she quickly pulled her hands back and prepared for another attack. Noticing this, the man ran through her and, once behind her, wheeled around and attempted to punch the back of her neck. Noire quickly wheeled around and blocked the strike with the back of her sword, stopping his blow short. He phased his hand through the blade and reached for her throat, but she punched towards his stomach, causing him to step back in reaction.

"You certainly fight like a CPU should. You have done well." The man began to rub his wrist.

"Hmph. I could say the same to you. I didn't expect things to turn out like this." Noire began to think of ways to eliminate the attacker when he began to speak again.

"I'd hate to interrupt your thinking, but could you please tell your sister to shoot? She's been aiming at me for the last few minutes and it feels awkward."

Uni emerged from around the corner, gun loaded and in hand. She seemed just as intent as her sister to put down the man in front of her, made evident by the rage etched into her eyes. Her grip on her weapon tightened as she saw the man responsible for attacking her home.

The man raised his hands and emitted a massive wave of force throwing both sisters off their feet. Uni hit the wall with a deafening thud while Noire landed about ten feet away, impacting a table and shattering it. Noticing the scenario, he walked slowly towards Uni until he was directly in front of her. He picked up her weapon and began to speak to her.

"My, things aren't going very well for you, are they? To think, a mere mortal would kill the CPU Candidate of Lastation, hailed as the greatest nation in all the world." He placed his hand on her throat and began to squeeze.

"Ack…ack…Noire…" Uni desperately reached out for her weapon, but the assailant held it tantalizingly out of her reach. Unbeknownst to the man, Noire had recovered and was beginning to regain her stamina, ready to finally put an end to the attack.

"Shhh….just let go and close your eyes. All of your sorrow and all of your pain…it'll all be over soon." The man's grip on her throat tightened, inflicting more pain on Uni. Her vision began to fade, and she could barely think at all. Just as things began looking bleak, a small flash of light appeared behind the man.

"Raaaaaargh!" In the time the man was choking Uni, Noire had transformed. She slashed downwards and to the right across his back, leaving a devastating gash.

"Gwooooh!" The man grimaced in unimaginable pain, dropping Uni and coughing up blood. He collapsed to his knees and a pool of blood formed around him.