Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything related to the characters in it.
Enjoy.
I was never a very lucky person.
I just happened to trip in the middle of a cross walk on my way to school. I was running late. My only thought was that my mother would have killed me if I was late once more. So there I was, trying to eat a granola bar with one hand, and stuff my half-done homework into my backpack with the other when I tripped. The oncoming bus driver was texting, and didn't see me until it was too late.
One minute I was there and the next minute I simply wasn't.
When I thought of death, I thought of a light shining down on me or an angelic choir, or an assault of pain.
Not darkness.
I blinked, confused, and waited for a few seconds for something to happen. I knew I was dead. I didn't exactly know how I was so certain of that fact. I just felt... detached. So I waited. And waited. And.. nothing?
A sound came from behind me.
I turned and stopped short, sure that my eyes were deceiving me.
Just where the hell was I? And if this was heaven, what kind of heaven was this?
On either side of me were rows and rows of arcade machines, going far past my line of vision. I glanced down at my feet, half-expecting to see some sort of carpet flooring that usually accompanied arcades. That small bit of normalcy would have made me feel less uneasy about this whole situation but there wasn't one. There wasn't even flooring, just impenetrable darkness stretching below and around me, the only color in the room being from the machines. The lack of anything below my feet was disconcerting.
All the machines made their own unique sounds, blending together until it should have been overwhelming. It was nearly the opposite. The sounds were subdued, more in the background than in the foreground.
What was going on?
I looked around, searching for an explanation. Any explanation. I had so many questions, but no answers.
With nothing else to do, I studied the first arcade machine to my left. On the side of the machine was the night sky, painted with multiple twinkling stars shining on it. The machine to my right had a picture of an animated character with a straw hat along the side of it. I stared at the picture for a few seconds longer, having a vague recollection of it being from a show that I used to watch when I was much younger.
I hesitated for a few long seconds before moving towards the game on my right. As I stood in front of it, I wondered what the point of this all was, and why I was even there. I looked at the screen.
At the top it read One Piece, and below the title it had a virtual picture of a pixellated boat, sailing on pixellated water. I looked at it for a few seconds before slowly grabbing the joystick. Insert 25 cents To Start appeared on the screen, blinking a few times before going back to the original screen.
I frowned. Where would I get twenty-five cents? I was tempted to look under the machine, but seeing as there wasn't a floor, it would be pointless. I shook the joystick in frustration but the same infuriating message appeared on the screen.
A thought occurred to me. It didn't seem like it was possible but I reached into the pockets of my jeans anyway.
Just as I had expected, they were empty.
"Agghh!" I kicked the machine in utter frustration and annoyance and whirled around. What was the point of being there if I didn't have any money to do anything?!
I completely dropped the idea of being in heaven by this point. So where was I? In Limbo? Hell?
"Hello?!" I called out, hoping that someone would answer. Hoping that someone would appear with an explanation for all of this.
I was rewarded with utter silence, with the exception of the game noises.
I wanted to scream, or to put my head in between my knees and pretend that none of this was happening. Or both.
Instead, I walked down the center of the two rows of games. I had to keep moving, I was sure that if I stopped I wouldn't start again. After a minute or two -I couldn't keep count- I spotted a green and orange striped machine. A picture of an animated blonde male, wearing a familiar obnoxious orange jumpsuit was on the side of the machine. I was planning to walk right by the bright machine but as soon as I spotted the picture I felt something within me being pulled towards the game.
I moved until I was standing in front of the game, wondering why this one was any different from any of the other games. At the top of the screen, it read Naruto in big, bright, orange, pixellated letters. Below it was a.. city? A town? Neither of those seemed like the right words to describe the place that I was looking at.
As my left hand closed around the joystick, something about it just felt right.
Insert 25 cents To Start appeared on the center of the screen and I breathed a sigh, pulling my hand away from the game. What made me think this one wouldn't need any money? I was half-tempted to laugh at myself.
I began to turn away from the game, feeling an odd sense of disappointment wash over me. I glanced at Naruto again and did a double-take, staring at the quarter that was perfectly balanced halfway into the coin slot. Where did that come from?
That wasn't possible. It wasn't there a second before. But there the coin was, defying logic.
I stared at the quarter for a few more long seconds as if looking away would make it disappear. I hesitated before tentatively pushing it into the coin slot. Press Start To Play blinked onto the screen.
Temporarily pushing the coin out of my mind so that I could think properly, I pressed the play button.
The screen went blank. I blinked, confused. The screen started to get brighter and brighter until I couldn't look at it anymore and it enveloped everything around it. I began to hear a dull ringing in my ears and I felt myself being pulled forward, unable to stop it.
And then..
Nothing.