Welcome to the beginning. This fanfiction will be a fairly long piece and I hope to entertain you as well as myself along the way. All of my attempts at fanfiction thus far have been rather pitiful due to multiple reasons. This is my attempt at a fresh start; I am not abandoning my old ones, however, I am going to wait until I feel my writing ability has 'leveled up' so to speak, before I continue them. Speaking of 'leveling up' this fanfiction is an attempt by me to turn the world of Naruto into an open world in depth RPG where I am the 'player' of a new character with a secretive background. It will follow my character from birth to the end, wherever I choose that to be. As this will be written as a game that is 'played' I would love for you, my audience, to be involved in the story telling. I have put only about a day of thought into this idea, but I am too excited to stop myself from writing this.

The way I would like your help in this story are four fold:

relationship/s; I wish to know whether you want a single pairing or a harem.

Power progression; I would appreciate feedback on the evolution of my 'characters' power, whether I am making him too strong too fast.

General ideas; thoughts and feelings on where you feel the story is going as well as where you think it should go.

Cannon; the involvement level with canon characters, i.e. meeting Naruto and befriending him in academy… apprenticing under Kakashi or Asuma. Relative to certain clans i.e. the kaguya's or Uzumaki's. As well as reactions to non canon or uninon things such as crossover elements and supporting OC's other than the main character.

I will take all suggestions into consideration and will likely implement many of them. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A MEMBER OF TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME THROUGH THE REVIEWS!

Once more, I look forward to having fun these next few years with you as we work to create something beautiful.

Enjoy. ^-^

/

United States of America: November 25, 2023

I rushed home as soon as I could with my newest prized possession, when I arrived in my drive way I quickly cut the engine and left the car with my new Elit.3 in my backpack. 7 years of development and design for beyond my understanding had been put into this products creation. The perfect gaming console.

After the Digital Health Act of 2015, citizens of the United States were convinced to receive microchip implants of the major bodily functions that would help regulate and protect the numerous systems of the body after a major epidemic of a rapidly mutating virus labeled Ragnarok. The newest addition to humanity's health care allowed instant location and treatment of all infected bodies and the chips were viewed as a wonderful invention. Since then, the use of the cerebral chip has been modified over and over again until it arrived where it is today.

With the release of the Elit.3 came the realization that the perfect gaming system was complete. A system that uses the human brains own functions as the controller, monitor, speaker, processor, hard drive and more.

I placed the package next to my bed and sighed as I lay down. I pulled out the small device and reclined back in my chair, looking around the room I saw my multitudes of anime memorabilia and my various manga sets that lay scattered around the room. I read the package of the only game that was available for the Elit.3. "The beginning, of… the end?" I said. 'Weird choice of words there… hmmn.' I thought as I read the description.

"Is the ultimate simulation … blah blah blah, do not use if under the age of 21, blah blah blah… relies on the creativity of the user to build the game's world!?" I exclaimed as I shot straight up in my bed. 'That means…' I looked around the room as my mind filled with wonder, 'I can recreate any manga/anime I have ever known!'

My brain shut down for a time as the possibilities flashed through my head. I quickly regained my senses as I decided on just which one I would want to try most. 'In what world could I have a power and situation nearly as fun as this…? None? Thought so.' I finished the instructions quickly.

I plugged the game into my Elit.3 and inserted it into my vertebral slit; it slid in with no problem as I felt it connect to the edge of my senses. A brief moment of hesitation gripped me as I prepared to start the game, but I brushed it off as mere excitement. 'Okay, I'm ready. Initiate game, The Beginning of the End. Emmersion level 1. Complete emersion imminent in 3, 2, and 1.' *1

The world snapped into place with a loud noise, like that of a jet engine popping balloons and then catching fire from the helium and exploding in a blaze of glory. Except, without any of those things. Just a little bit of light and some motion sickness. Two lights stood before me. One said "Select character" the other said "Create a character." They floated in the air before me and I smiled. Reaching out a hand, I made my choice.

Konoha residential district: 2, Rikudo Sennin. y.a.r.s.

"Shinka-kuunn! I'm booorreed!" whined a small little brunette as she threw her arms around a young boy who, extremely surprised by her actions, yelped in fright.

"God! Ami, stop doing that!" he replied as he shook her off of him. She fell to the floor and lay still, pouting. The boy, Shinka, continued, "You have friends. Go make them entertain you, I am busy right now.

Ami grew a tick mark but calmed down soon and just left quietly, once again rejected by the brother she loved. For the seven years that he had lived in the orphanage, she has never stopped trying to help him through his problem. The doctors had claimed he was merely trapped in a delusion, possibly due to a recurence of nightmares he had had for years prior to their checkup. And about a month ago, he changed. No longer did he dream of dark lights or of burning waters: instead he distanced himself from them all, and before their eyes he grew cold.

'Onii-san, where have you gone?' Ami thought as she left the room to find her friends and forget about her emotional pains.

/

I looked at the door that Ami had just left through. I sighed and stood up, observing the room I saw that my equipment was still in its hiding place.

Since I had first started this game, about a month ago, I had received only two things that count as 'game material', a single sheet of paper that stated the rules of this game that I had decided to play. On it, there was only two things. The first thing was what I believe to be the rule and goal of this game, a single word in all caps that read "LIVE" in English. And a on the page there was also a seal of unrealistic complexity that appeared to be a combination of runes, glyphs, and kanji.

The other thing I received when I arrived was a single set of gloves. They appeared to be rather generic, black gloves at first glance, but upon closer inspection those thoughts would change drastically. On their backs were small silver inlays over the knucklebones that continued until the front of the finger's tip. The palm had an almost invisible design of black metal grafted onto the leather material. The design stretched up through each finger's underside and connected with the slivers of metal on top.

Though I have never seen how it works, whenever I place my hands in them they become skin tight and do not budge until I personally remove them. Thus far, that seems to be their only ability of any sort and I have yet to find what their purpose is. Regardless, I walked over to them and placed them on like I have every day for the past month. I also grab the paper today and carefully fold it before slipping it in my left glove and exiting the room.

I carefully avoid the other orphans on my way out and it takes about 7 minutes before I am finally free of the orphanage's horrid halls of plank wood and gaudy decorations.

'Alright then, what should I do today?' I thought as I began walking through the streets of the ginormous city known as Konohagakure. It surprised me at first; the sheer size of the village was astounding. Listening to the idle talk of the merchants and villagers around, I had discovered that the radius from the Hokage's tower in the middle of Konoha and the outer wall was almost eighteen and a half miles! That is way larger than I thought it to be. Watching the show, I thought it would be more like four or five max. Also, the buildings are a weird combination of modern and traditional that I don't quite understand half the time though reminded me of the show in few ways.

My reflections on the differences of this game and the show were halted when I walked headfirst into a brick wall. "Oww!" I yelled, rubbing my head with my hands. 'That's the third time this week.' I complained.

A man walking down the street on my right started laughing so I flipped him off and started walking towards the nearby park to look for something to do other than get lost in thought and walk into walls.

/

2 months after start of the 'Game'

'Things are finally going to get interesting here, thought I was going to die from boredom...' I smiled at the thought as I put my gloves on and slipped the paper into it as per norm before looking for other items that I consider part of my possession. A meager collection of trinkets ranging from small scrolls filled with the bullshit language script of this world to things like the small purse of money on my nightstand or the single weapon that I possess, an old kunai I had found in an alley.

The reason I was grabbing these things is quite simple really, through much work and difficult situations I had discovered the location of one of the 9 Shinobi academies and convinced the Matron to let me join. As part of the requirements, I unfortunately (NOT!) had to leave the orphanage and will be forced to live alone as I learn. Fortunately though, the academy pays for all merchandise bought from class D and lower ninja merchants and I will get a discount on class C merchandise. If not for that, I doubt my stipend would pay for everything I am going to need…

/

The next day

The birds outside my window woke me from my slumber with a pleasant song. As I prepared for the day ahead, a single thought rebounded through my head. 'What should I do now?'

*1 Immersion level 1 is the deepest level of immersion. The body simulates a state of hibernation as the mind prepares itself to live a lifetime in only a few actual days.

I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. From 2+ they should be 3,000+ words. This was just short because I have no other information to share before the academy and I didn't want to do a cutoff in the middle of academy.

Now, tell me what you guys think will happen next and if you are enjoying the story.