The Hunter Chapter 2
The White Hunter & The Black Swordsman
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, Sword Art Online and Naruto belong to their respective creators and I am just using that, illegally, without explicit permission. Sue me. The only things that are mine are the ideas that I introduce in this fic.
Hum... Not my best chapter. Was kinda stuck on wondering what I wanted to include, and what I didn't want to include. As well as how to form the relationship between the three. Still, I hope that you enjoy this little chapter. That being said, it is currently Friday where I am. Don't expect frequent updates from me for the next two-three months since classes are starting again next week.
Soundtrack List
Yuna Ito - Trust You
LiSA – crossing field
****The Hunter****
Kirito grinned as he held out a hand to the panting blonde who was still on his back, "Good job, bastard. Nice shooting."
Naruto snorted and grabbed the offered hand, slowly pulling himself up, "So you CAN smile. I was beginning to wonder if your mom dropped you on your face as a baby or something. That aside..." he looked at the smashed remains of his great bow laying around his feet and sighed at the amount of effort he was going to have to put in if he wanted a new one.
"I'm going to need a new bow." He grumbled.
All around the two men, the players began clapping and hollering in joy as reality set in.
They had finally defeated the first floor boss of Aincrad, the first floor that had single handedly confinecd more than 8000 players in it for two months had been broken through, "We cleared it! We unlocked the second floor!"
The metaphorical wall that had never seemed more impenetrable, standing high and tall, monstrously strong even after 2 months of effort, had finally broken down, allowing a single bright ray of hope to shine through the rubble.
It gave them hope that getting out of SAO and getting back to real life wasn't just a hopeless dream.
"Why is everyone clapping?! Those two people sacrificed Diabel just so they could get the Last Hit!" He turned to the spectators, inciting them with wild gestures, "And that blonde has a special Hidden skill that he kept to himself; that proves that everything he said during the meeting was a lie! How can you expect us to trust his words when he is lying like that?! Right?!" the single voice of dissension broke through the happy cheering.
A quiet murmuring began replacing the happy cheers and both of them could feel the stares of 45 people prickling the back of their necks with resentment.
"I'm beginning to really dislike that Kansai dialect." The blonde mumbled, as he sagged against the wall, slowly gathering his stamina again.
"Agreed."
Asuna appeared between her teammates, one hand placed on her hip with a scrunched up expression on her face, "What's the big deal about this Last Hit thing?"
Last Hit was the act of scoring the decisive hit on a monster, granting the attacker and his team a greater chance of obtaining item drops and Col from the defeated monster. Experience was usually proportionally divided amongst everybody who participated in battle, meaning the team who did the most damage would obtain the lion's share of the experience. In this case; Illfang. Naturally as a unique monster boss, The Kobold Lord would drop highly valued and unique equipment that couldn't be obtained anywhere else.
He glanced at the temporary inventory space from his menu, eyes rapidly shifting through the items stored there, waiting to be distributed amongst himself, Kirito and Asuna.
Scratching the back of his head, Naruto wearily got up, feeling strangely weak as the adrenaline surge left his bloodstream while Kirito began explaining the concept of a Last Hit to the girl in hushed tones. Even if his real body wasn't here and any damage done to his avatar could be easily healed by potions or crystals, mental fatigue represented a real danger to any SAO player. A simple lapse of concentration was more often than not, more lethal than any blade considering the amount of hand, eye and mental coordination that the game required to activate Sword Skills.
It was worse for him compared to most players because trying to get his spears to fly in a straight line; much less even hit something really wasn't as easy as it looked.
He accidentally shot his own foot off once.
It wasn't something he liked to talk about.
Someone else yelled angrily, a scimitar user from Diabel's group C. Behind him, the other members of the team looked haunted and dishevelled, glaring at the archer and the swordsman with unveiled anger and accusing eyes, "Ki-Kibaou-san's right, I heard him shouting before Diabel-san died. The-these people, they already knew the skills the Boss used! If only you gave that information at the start, Diabel-san wouldn't have died! One of them even has a special skill that he didn't use until it was too late, if he had used it sooner, Diabel-san wouldn't have died, right?!"
"Right!"
"Yeah! Tell us how you got that skill! It's not fair that you alone have it!"
"The other one too, he's a beta tester like the blonde guy! Helping people out my ass, they're just pretending to be the good guys while they hide all the best spots for experience and equipment to themselves!"
Their wrath was interrupted by the mace user who had served as a tank with Egil until the end. He raised his hand honestly, and said in a calm tone.
"Even so, the guide that was handed out yesterday, it was written that it was only information on the boss's attack pattern during the beta period, right? If he was really a beta tester, wouldn't his knowledge be the same as in the guide? It was obvious there was no chance for him to realize that the attack pattern had changed until the boss pulled out that big ass Nodachi."
"Tha, That is..."
A ratty looking man shook his fist in denial, "Tha-that strategy guide was a lie! Argo's information shop was selling lies. That person was a beta tester after all, there's no way she would have given us the truth for free. They're all just helping each other, these damned beta testers!"
Spiteful words like that hammered on their conscience. Gritting his teeth, the weary blonde tried to get up and argue, only to wobble on his feet unsteadily as the world spun around him causing the black haired swordsman and Asuna to dart to his sides, supporting him by grabbing on to his arms.
"Tha-thanks."
"No worries. Asuna, can you support him by yourself?"
"Yes... but what are you going to do?"
Kirito grinned bitterly and said lowly, "He saved us once already, so I guess it's my turn to be the hero."
Slowly stepping forward, he began laughing lowly, "You guys sure are idiots."
Kirito threw the staggering blonde a look, "Hidden Skill? Don't make me laugh, there are far more power skills on the higher level that only the elite can get. That skill is nothing but looks, all talk and no walk."
Every single player present, save his teammates, were now staring at him in shock, as he continued speaking in a condescending, contemptuous tone, "And don't compare someone like me to those idiots like that the blonde and normal beta testers, among that 1000 players, how many of them were true MMORPG players like me do you think were selected? Most of them were just newbies that didn't even know the difference between the sharp end of a sword and its hilt."
He surveyed all the shocked and pale players watching him, "But, I'm not like those guys."
Kirito deliberately twisted his lips into a sneer, "During the beta test, I reached floors that no one else could reach. I learned of the Katana Skills the boss used since I kept fighting mobs that used katanas from a floor way higher. I know way more other things too, there's no way even that Argo person could even match me."
"...What, is that..."
The person who first pointed me out as a beta tester, the ratty man from Group E, said out in a hoarse voice.
"That's... no longer on the level of a beta tester... that's totally cheating, you are just a cheater!"
From around them, "Yeah! Cheater! Cheating beta tester!" Many voices spewed those dissatisfied words harshly. Those words were soon mixed up together, in the end a strange sounding word, Beater, reached my ears.
"...Beater, that has a good ring to it."
Laughing and grinning, the black haired man looked around at everybody in that area, and told them in a clear voice, "Exactly, I am a «Beater». From now on, please do not lump me together with those former testers."
Selecting a black cloak from the temporary inventory shared between his teammates, he equipped it with a flourish. The dark gray leather coat that he had worn up till now, was replaced by the unique equipment dropped by the boss just a moment ago, the Coat of Midnight. The ragged brown tunic was replaced by a shiny jet black leather cloak, its length long enough for the hem reach his knees.
"I'll go on and activate the second floor's transfer gate. From the exit up there it will be a short walk to the district town, if you want to come along, be prepared to be killed by any mob that comes along." With those ominous and elitist words, Kiriot began walking up the narrow spiral staircase towards the wooden door set in the wall behind Illfang's throne.
As the players watched him leave, a new voice joined the conversation, ragged and resigned yet resolute, "All of you are truly fools."
Tired of being talked down to, the cactus head apparently hit his limit when he aggressively stepped forward with his fists raised and an expression of pure anger on his thuggish face. The golden haired man who had left Asuna's embrace side stepped the charge and slugged him across the face with all his remaining strength, throwing Kibaou onto the ground with a loud crack, above him, the marker turned orange because of his assault on another player.
"It makes me sad to see all of you so petty," He pointed at the cactus head groaning on the floor with a lazy finger, "Especially idiots like you. You claim that we should lead you, teach you, yet when Kirito was telling everybody not to surround the boss and whittle away at his HP in small teams, what in fuck's name caused you to disregard the orders of someone that obviously knows more than you and charge in, endangering the lives of you and your equally retarded team just for some items? LEVEL 5 ITEMS?! OUT OF 100?"
Kibaou's group stared at their feet, looking slightly embarrassed.
"And my skill, yeah I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't even know if it would work, it wasn't even field tested yet. You want the skill so badly? Buy the next guidebook. It'll be there for you ungrateful idiots to copy, assuming any of you are skilled enough to use it anyway. If that wasn't bad enough, you then try and lynch the beta testers, the very same people who have the experience and knowledge we need to clear the game faster? Congratu-fucking-lations, almost every single one of you here have almost singlehandedly ensured that no beta tester will ever willingly stick his neck out for any you ever again, because even he does, he just risks it being cut off by you instead of by monsters."
Reaching into his inventory the blonde flung his hands out with a distasteful look, throwing sacks of Col and equipment on to the ground with a loud clatter, "These are my share of the boss drops. You can have them. Maybe squabbling over them will keep all of you busy long enough for us to clear this god forsaken game. "
The blonde gave everyone a fierce glare, huffing in satisfaction when he had determined that they were suitably chastised. Tiredly donning the last remaining piece of equipment in his inventory, Windwalker's Cloak, a long trench coat similar to the Coat of Midnight, only with an open front, made of flowing, pure white cloth that granted minimal protection but significantly increased his movement speed, the blonde began climbing the staircase without another word.
****The Hunter****
Kirito slowly climbed up the spiral staircase that led to the next floor paying particular attention to black stone steps through fuzzy vision as his own adrenaline surge wore off, when he missed a step and slipped. Wobbling over backwards, Kirito closed his eyes and internally prepared himself to be extremely humiliated after tumbling all the way back down after a flashy exit when someone's palm was placed at the small of his back, stopping him from toppling all the way back down with a grunt.
"Oi, oi... You know what happens when a tired man leans on another tired man right?"
He recognized the voice, and let out a small chuckle, "What the heck are you doing here? You were supposed to agree with the rest that I was a complete bastard and let me take the heat."
"Uh huh. Who the heck is supposed to watch your back then?"
"I can take care of myself." Kirito replied shortly.
"Oh definitely, the perfect way you almost broke your neck by oh-so-gracefully falling off the staircase was absolutely convincing argument. Imagin-Ack!" the strength left Naruto's knees, and BOTH of them began wobbling over backwards, windmilling their arms uselessly to regain balance when a giggling girl grabbed both of their arms and pulled them back onto the steps with a huff.
"You're BOTH idiots." Asuna declared with her hands on her hips and a half smile on her lips, golden brown hair flowing in the slight breeze blowing from the open door.
"Asuna?" Naruto gave the ridiculously energetic girl a weird look.
"What?"
"You do realize that we just fought, nonstop, for nearly five hours right? How on God's green Earth are you still so active?"
"Really? I don't really feel any different I guess... I mean, yeah I'm tired, but at least I'm not tripping while standing still."
"What are you smoking and where can I get some?"
The brown haired girl slapped the back of Naruto's head as she took a seat between the two males while the black haired boy rolled his eyes, "Stop making stupid jokes like that."
The blonde chuckled and pulled out some black bread and meat that he shared with the other two.
The three of them quietly munched their lunch in companionable silence on the steps with the portal to the second floor barely 2 metres behind them, "Shouldn't we at least go open the teleporter or something?" Asuna mumbled through her meat sandwich.
The other two shared a look, and replied simultaneously with silly grins, "Too tired, those idiots can wait."
Asuna rolled her eyes at their idiocy before something occurred to her and thrust her face in front of the blonde, positively burning with curiosity, "That reminds me, how did you manage get a bow? I thought only melee type weapons were available in SAO, that's what the pamphlets said anyway."
The blonde poked her nose and slowly pushed her face away from his lunch with an amused smile before returning to picking his sandwich apart slowly, "That's... not exactly true, there are minor ranged weapons, but most of them are generally used as secondary support skills since they don't really do much damage. I simply exploited the way the vague way the system classifies ranged weapons." He explained simply.
Kirito narrowed his eyes at the explanation, "That sounds a lot like you know how the system's code works."
"You might say that." Naruto nodded vaguely before turning back to an attentive Asuna, "You see, SAO was the first game of its kind and boasted of an extremely detailed environment to ensure maximum immersion in the game. What that really means is that the programmers did their best to make the in-game laws of physics mimic that of real life, like gravity for instance. What this boils down to, is that there are any number of ways to reach your goal as long as you are creative enough to operate within the system's limits."
He paused and swallowed another bite and a sip of water from a bamboo container, "First off, you have to know that all weapons are generally divided into four categories, thrust type like your rapier, smash type like maces, slashing types like swords and axes and finally piercing types like my spears. The finer details are unique to each weapon but that's beside the point. Under those four main categories is another sub category; throwing weapons. Take for instance, picks and flying hatchets. Despite clearly being throwing weapons, picks are also categorised as spears and throwing axes are mini axes, so the throwing weapon skill set actually applies to all four categories as a whole and one can even use a pick as a spear if he wanted to. Most people just don't know it because, well... who in the world will throw a massive axe or spear?"
"There's one idiot right here." Kirito commented dryly, already understanding where this was going.
"Well... yeah pretty much." Naruto chuckled, "Anyway, the damage of a throwing weapon is determined by three things; the Dexterity stat, the skill multiplier itself, and how hard it is thrown. Since axes and spears are pretty heavy, there's no way anyone can throw them hard enough, plus it's a waste to throw a perfectly good weapon away like that, which is sort of why I stuck to using beginner spears."
"In other words, you compensate for your own lack of strength using that stupidly large bow."
"That's about the gist of it." Naruto nodded easily.
"Problem is, how did you manage to make that bow?" the black haired boy responded curiously.
"Well, that's the second part of the exploit. You've played the game before Kirito. Now tell me how does the crafting system work in the game?"
A nonplussed Kirito seemed to ponder the question for a moment before it dawned on him, "Wood crafting..."
"Bingo." The blonde cheerfully slapped Kirito's back.
"Wait, wait, what about wood crafting." A confused Asuna interrupted pitifully with cheeks that puffed up adorably.
Kirito felt that it reminded him of his hamster, begging for food when it was hungry though he refrained from speaking his mind out loud, he still laughed at the girl's uncharacteristic curiosity, "Amongst the crafting skills available like blacksmithing or even tailoring, wood crafting is different because it's used for crafting furniture instead of equipment like tailoring and blacksmithing. Using those two skills is basically just involves putting the raw material on a table and tapping it until it becomes a randomized piece of equipment according to the blacksmith's or tailor's skill level. Wood crafting, like cooking, is different in that, there are no set patterns, one can create anything they want out of the raw materials according to their imagination and skill level only influences the quality of the material that you are allowed to use. Apparently no one else realized that it could be used for more than furniture. The idiot here," He gestured at the blonde who was on his back resting, "Basically just carved out a piece of furniture that is shaped like a bow, stuck a piece of string on it and then literally used it LIKE a bow, along with spears as big ass arrows. When you combine that with the spear's high base damage, the fact that he managed to negate the spear's slow attack speed and zero cool down period because he's basically throwing them instead of using them like normal spears and the throwing weapons damage multiplier; it means that we're basically sitting next to Sword Art Online's version of a one man Heavy Artillery."
Naruto proudly puffed up his chest at the title.
"Of course there are quite a few setbacks to it that I can see right off the bat." Kirito muttered excitedly, causing the blonde to deflate comically with anime tears, "It's got to be ridiculously hard to aim with that thing because there is no system support for that function unlike normal Sword Skills, in other words, it will have to be an innate skill, and because of the movement speed penalty for equipping using heavy long range weapons, I'm pretty sure you are nothing but a glorified sitting duck while you're shooting."
"Movement penalties? Sitting duck?"
Kirito scratched the back of his head, "Uh... all weapons have their general advantages and disadvantages. Like my sword, it is flexible and versatile in any situation, but equipping it will cost me 10% movement speed and their base damage is nothing to write home about though we compensate by being able to attack many more times than a spear within the same time span. Rapiers have some of the lowest base damage in exchange for being able to attack faster than any other weapon and have no movement speed penalties at all, though they also completely lack any sort of AOE skills to deal with multiple monsters. Spears, large axes, halberds, pole arms on the other hand have high base damage and a wide sweeping range, but they inflict a 40% movement speed penalty. Armours have similar restrictions; heavy armour like plate mail costs 30% movement speed but gives the best amount of defence, light armour like chainmail gives less armour, some evasion and only inflicts a 20% movement speed penalty. Cloth amour on the other hand, "He tapped on his tunic, "Only takes away 10% movement speed and gives little to no defence at all in return for massive evasion boosts."
The brown haired girl thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, "So... assuming someone uses heavy armour and a pole arm, we're looking at someone with high defence and base damage per Hit at a cost of a 70% movement speed penalty?"
"Pretty much." The enigmatic blonde answered easily, "We call those kinds of characters, Tanks. Fast moving characters with good Damage per Second are Sweepers and those in the middle of the spectrum, trading the two extremes for versatility are Supporters." Naruto added conversationally, "By the way, you and Kirito are considered Sweepers, while I'm technically a Supporter."
"That's only because you can't move properly though. Besides, anything weaker than a semi-boss more or less goes down in one hit when you blow its brains out with your spear from a range. Anything stronger and you'll be in a party with a dedicated tank to take the attention away from you anyway. As long as you can find a way to fix that speed problem, I'm willing to bet my college savings that there won't be anybody around that can out damage that stupidly huge bow of yours."
"Muu! I'm starting to hate MMORPGS. This is more complicated than university level math! There are so many stupid variables!"
Naruto petted a pouting Asuna's head with a wide grin, "Relax, take your time understanding this stuff. No one said you had to be an instant expert. As long as you stay alive, there's always another chance to come back again, better, stronger and wiser. You can't do anything anymore once you're dead." Naruto observed gravely, "Speaking of which, we better get going. It's going to be dark soon and I don't want to be stuck outside of the safety zone when night falls, especially since I feel like I'm buck ass nude without my bow."
"Agreed. Except the nude part." Kirito nodded and the two of them hefted their equipment up, "Asuna? Aren't you coming?"
The two blinked in concern, "A-are you alright?! Your nose is bleeding all over the place! And why is your face so red? Are you sick?"
The questions jolted the brown haired girl back into consciousness and she desperately tried to stem the blood flow from her nose, "Eh? Ah! I'm alright, I'm alright!" Ju-Just go ahead without me! I'll catch up."
Kirito scratched the back of his head in worry, "We-well if you're sure...? Just follow the path, there's only one way from here to town anyway."
"O-okay. I'll be nud-FINE, I mean FINE!"
"O...kay? We'll be waiting for you at the only inn in town, we can decide what we want to do after this there."
[Spurt]
"Asuna!? Why are you bleeding even more!?"
She clamped her hands on her nose, "I-it's nothing. Th-the two of you are going to be in the sa-same room?"
"Is there a problem with that? We'll get you a different room of course."
She frantically waved her hands with a strangled smile, "No! No problem! [Spurt] Now get out of here!"
"...Okay?"
"What's wrong with her?" Naruto muttered as he started jogging at a brisk pace.
"Why are you asking me? The only females I know personally are my sister and mother." Kirito grumbled in embarrassment.
"Ah... You think I cooked that meat wrongly or something?"
"I dunno, tasted alright to me. Must be a girl thing."
As the two reluctantly left the only female member of their team and ran along the beaten path, Kirito quietly sent Naruto a private message, "By the way... You do realize that the exploit means that you're not the only one that is capable of using bows right? If someone else finds out, we'd have quite a few bow wielding idiots running around."
The blonde shrugged, "I know... I was going to ask Argo to publish the exploit in her book anyway. The only reason I didn't do so beforehand was because I needed to test it out in actual combat, up till then I was only testing it out on dummies and static targets."
"What!? Why!? You should keep it a secret! What if someone uses it for bad reasons?" the raven haired swordsman protested harshly.
The blonde shook his head, "I'm not looking to get an award or anything. I just want to free everyone from the game and go home." He gave Kirito a significant glance, "I'm not saying that what you are suggesting is wrong, but I have to help. I just can't stand around and focus on myself. Aincrad, SAO... the deaths of 2000 people... part of it was my fault and getting them out as soon as possible is the only way I know how to atone for it. As for being misused... I'll deal with it as it comes I guess."
Silently, the black haired swordsman considered the blonde's words and his earlier suspicions, "Does this... have anything to do with the fact that you knew how the system's coding worked?"
He received no reply from the blonde. Figuring that he was uncomfortable with revealing anything more, Kirito steadfastly kept his focus on the road, allowing their black and white cloaks to flap silently in their slipstream.
"Yo, Kiri-bou. Ruto!"
Both of them skidded to a halt, as a small girl, her height was only enough to reach Kirito's shoulder, much less the taller Naruto's height. A pair of whiskers on each cheek, clearly drawn with black ink stretched as she greeted the two men with a wide grin as shameless as her black merchant's soul. This small girl, who resembled a Rat, was Argo, the information dealer and publisher of the Guidebook.
"I'd ask how you managed to get past us and reach the second floor before either of us, but I don't think I can pay the price." Naruto dryly noted with a smirk.
"Nishishihi, good guess Ruto! By the way, it's 1000 Col-sa."
"So? What do you need from us? It's not like you to look for us. Usually you make us look for you." This time it was Kirito's turn to comment dryly, already too used to the Information dealer's antics.
"Well... I kinda need a favour; you see I'm being chased by two idio-."
"I keep telling you that if you don't stop being so creepy and calculating, you would regret it one day, didn't I? Naruto cut in with a sarcastic grin, "What did you scam from them this time?"
"Mu! I'm an information dealer! I don't do scams-dayo!" Argo began ranting in the middle of the road but stopped when she realized that the blonde was deliberately teasing her when he began guffawing out loud.
"Ignoring the idiot beside me for a moment, we'll help but what's in it for us? Not to mention, how are we supposed to protect you from them? I don't plan on being an orange player anytime soon." Kirito spoke up as he began slowly scanning the area for any sign of the two people that were supposedly chasing Argo.
"Muu... Well... I was thinking about hiding behind the infamous 'White Archer' and the 'Black Swordsman' that defeated the first floor boss magnificently."
"That was way too fast." Kirito face palmed, though he knew full well that the titles weren't meant to be complimentary at all, quite the opposite actually, "News of that already spread? Not to mention they already began giving us weird nicknames?"
"Don't forget Asuna, there's a third member in our team." Naruto finished the sentence with a chuckle."
"Huh? There was a third person? Weird-da... No one said anything about him or her..."
"Thankfully. Asuna doesn't need people like us bringing her down." Naruto gave his somewhat grim opinion.
"Let's continue the original topic first, why can't you just hide in town? It's not that far from here now." Kirito jerked his chin down the beaten path that led into a valley. The second floor town, Urbus, was located right on the other side of the valley, although as the sun began to set behind the nearest mountain, Kirito realized the true reason.
"Ah...We were too late. Its night already... The monsters in the valley will become more aggressive and numerous, and I don't have any weapons with me right now. And to make things worse, Asuna still isn't here yet." Naruto muttered, seeing the really bad predicament they were currently in.
"Lucky for you two, I can solve all those problems-da! For a price of course~" Argo the Rat sing songed cheerfully as she took advantage of their situation.
"You already asked for protection, that's the price. We have already implicitly agreed, now what's the solution. Merchant's pride, don't go back on the deal now." Naruto immediately shot with a grin.
For the first time since meeting the Argo the Rat who always full of smart ass comebacks that enabled the short girl that was perpetually swathed in a brown full body cloak to always have the last word, Kirito finally saw what she looked like when she was dumbfounded, and it was absolutely glorious.
Cursing like someone had killed her pet kitten when she finally realized that she had been duped, Argo the Rat just jerked her head towards a small, unbeaten path through the bushes on their left, "There's a safe zone where we can wait until morning arrives, the path there doesn't have that many monsters so we should be fine. Incidentally the solution for Baka-ruto's problem is also there, the quest NPC for the Hidden Skill 'Martial Arts'. I rushed here as soon as I heard Illfang was defeated to confirm if it was still there from the beta, but two idiots ambushed me before I could get back to town, and I can't risk going back into the safety zone without ensuring that they don't see me."
"Why don't you just tell them where it is? That way they will leave you alone, and it will benefit the front liners in the long run." Naruto questioned lowly.
Argo hesitated, "One; the NPC can only give out the quests a limited number of times, meaning less than 10 people will ever get this skill. I can't just let some half assed ninja wannabes get them and waste them. And 2..." She hesitated, "Yo-you'll see why when we get there. It's a problematic matter that deeply concerns my pride-dayo."
"Understood. Now we just need to wait for the third member of our group to get here. You'll like her, I'm sure." he paused and made a face, "Anyone have any peanuts? I really need something to nibble on right now."
****The Hunter****
Play Yuna Ito - Trust You
Asuna and Argo giggled delightedly at the incredibly disgruntled look on the blonde and the raven haired boy, compounded of course by the fact that they both had rat like whispers, similar to the ones on Argo's cheek, decorating their own faces. Well to be precise, Kirito had whiskers, the old NPC had given Naruto ridiculously childish looking swirls and a pig's nose after he had accidentally insulted the NPC that appropriately enough, looked like an old Kung Fu master.
After warding off two idiotic looking ninjas and a breathless Asuna had arrived and agreed to the detour, the two of them had taken the forest path as inidicated by Argo, clambered up a cliff, down into an underground cave on the otherside and then up another cliff until they had arrived at the top of the highest mountain in the forest range. True enough, despite the 30 minute long journey, the path had been quiet and safe, except for three small encounters which were disposed off easily enough with Kirito's sword and Asuna's rapier.
When they had arrived at the top of the mountain, a very tired blonde had began cursing the skies, loudly wondering which retard was dumb enough to stay in a god forsaken place like this.
Needless to say, the old NPC who had just walked out of the tiny shack behind Naruto to greet the visitors had heard every single word and hadn't taken it very nicely. In fact, he had immediately painted the blonde's face without a single word, or even without either of them initiating the quest.
The blonde was in a word, horrified.
"They're so cuuute!" Asuna crooned with a wide grin before turning to the giggling Rat beside her, "Don't you think so Argo-chan?"
Kirito began banging his face on the table, rattling the ceramic cups of tea in front of them with each bang while Naruto gave her a pointed glare, "I swear to God... I'll... do not tell anyone about this."
"No wonder you wouldn't sell the information, if you accept the quest, there's no option to cancel unless you want to have these marks permanently drawn on your face. And to pass we have to break that stupidly huge rock with just our hands. Damn you Naruto. Damnnnn yewwwww... You're the only person I know that can somehow piss off an NPC of all damned things." A muffled voice came from the facedown Kirito, causing Asuna to burst into crystal clear laughter once more.
"Ca-can we take pictures in SAO, Argo-chan?"
"Of course-sa. I happen to have a few special items for recording images or sounds with me right now. I'll even let you have one for free, Asuna-chan."
"Wait! Free?! What happened to Argo the Information Dealer who doesn't even know what the word free means!?" Naruto demanded loudly.
"Ara, it's because I'm in such a good mood today. Besides," She began giggling creepily, "An eye for an eye right Baka-ruto?" was Argo's sinister reply.
Kirito began banging the table with his face again, "This is all your fault. This is entirely your fault. You couldn't stop at pissing an NPC off; you had to piss Argo off as well?"
"Imagine, the White Archer and the Black Swordsman in the newspaper, then underneath those fearsome titles are these pictures..."
"Snrrk..." Asuna buried her face in her hands, desperately trying not to burst out laughing in a completely unladylike manner.
"GAHAHAHAHA!"
She failed.
"Aren't you two getting along a little TOO well?!" the two males cried out comically.
****The Hunter****
Naruto carefully chipped off the edges of a block of wood that he had obtained by asking Kirito to cut down a solid tree that they found at the bottom of the mountain, not that it would really matter seeing as how he lacked any spears to use it with at the moment.
"Hey, White Archer." A teasing voice interrupted his carving, causing him to look up, thankful for the pitifully low and flickering light that the single candle light provided enough for him to carve with, but not enough for anyone to see the scribbling on his face.
"Oh, Asuna, what's up?" he asked lowly as he went back to shaving the square block of wood, bit by bit.
"Hmm... I was just bored. Kirito's outside punching that rock and Argo-chan's sleeping so there wasn't much for me to do." She set down the platter she had been carrying, a steaming mug of tea on it.
Naruto quirked an amused eyebrow as his hands continuously carved into the wood despite his lack of attention, speaking of long experience and practice.
"Do-don't get the wrong idea, I just wanted to thank you and Kirito for helping me. That idiot has one too."
"I didn't even say anything." The blonde pointed out, "But thank you, although I don't think we did anything worthy of thanks."
Asuna turned away and sat down on the stool on the other side of the room, watching the blonde steadily whittle down the piece of wood with an intense demeanour, humming quietly for a contemplative moment before speaking again, "You might not think so, but not many people would give a quiet, gloomy stranger a second look, much less welcome them in with open arms and teach them things that others consider trivial knowledge."
She knew the feeling, Asuna mused, she had always been one of the star students in her class, things that others did not understand came to her easily. Sadly enough, she hadn't been graceful enough to help those that weren't as lucky, or as patient. Even back then she had been aloof and gloomy.
It was easy to see how badly she had acted now that she was on the receiving end.
"That's still not really anything special. I want to get everyone out of the game as fast as possible; a lot of others do as well. You just haven't met them, wait until we hit the third floor, that's when guilds can be made. Lots of them; some dedicated to teaching newbies and helping them survive, others will be dedicated to clearing the game, will pop up like mushrooms by then."
"Just accept that I'm grateful will you?" She glared at him, "I mean... I've never laughed like that before, it felt really good to just let go, while we're with friends." She mumbled blushingly causing the blonde to chuckle.
"What are you going to do when morning comes?" he asked carefully, eyeing the girl while his hands carved nonstop.
"What do you mean?"
"Kirito and I probably won't leave the mountain for a week at most; you can't stay with us doing nothing. Even then, after we go down, we'll more than likely separate. Neither of us are really the type of people to mesh well in long term teams."
"Oh... I... I guess I'll head to Urbus with Argo-chan then." Naruto flinched slightly at the strangely sad reply before pulling out a small book that he handed to the girl, "You'll be alright though. That book was written by me and Argo, it contains lots of tips and tricks to find the best places to stay, finding the most suitable spots to gain experience points, stuff like that, and as long as you stay with Argo, you'll be pretty safe. I think... ok I hope. I'll pray for you?"
She gave him a flat stare that made him chuckle uneasily.
"Do you carve a lot?" She questioned idly as she flipped through the small book.
"I guess. My... sister wasn't very healthy, so she spent a lot of time in the hospital. I used to carve all sorts of animals for her to play with, in the hospitals." Naruto smiled softly, "The nurses even began calling me the Boy-who-Carved since her entire room was almost full of them."
"Why was she in the hospital?" Asuna asked with concern.
"Car accident." The blonde answered flatly.
"Oh... then it's no wonder you want to leave the game. You have sister waiting for you to come back huh, Nii-chan?" Asuna said with an envious smile.
Naruto smiled bitterly, "She went into a coma 6 years ago."
****The Hunter****
Play LiSA – crossing field
Three days later, two men, one dressed entirely in black and the other in white finally entered Urbus, despite being the two out of three people that had defeated Illfang.
"This is troublesome; we just missed the boss Raid party even though we rushed to finish that old man's quest to come down from that stupid mountain in time. That and I'm out of peanuts. Again." The one white said, shifting the massive quiver on his back that held a bucket load of spears.
"... The second floor's boss is that lizard man isn't it?" his friend in black asked lowly.
Naruto pulled up his menu to check the private message that Argo had sent him, "Yeah. Same skills from beta, nothing visibly different, only equipped by a two handed Pole arm and breath attacks." He sighed, "Should we try and catch up? They should have just started on him so we might be able to make it before he dies and at least help a little."
Seeing the raven haired boy respond with a simple nod, the two of them started running through the town at a surprisingly fast pace.
It only took both of them 30 minutes to reach the towering black iron doors of the boss room, already hanging wide open to show an ongoing battle on the inside, the two of them stood hidden behind the shadows of the great door as they watched the pitched battle.
"Hum... should we help?" Naruto commented, idly running one finger up and down a spear as he watched about two full raid parties surround the boss who was already down to 2 remaining HP gauges.
"96 people. Not a bad turnout, don't think they're going to need our help. If I remember right, this guy was the easiest boss amongst all the rest."
"It doesn't look like their winning though, unless them getting their asses handed to them is actually a secret strategy we don't know about." Naruto observed flatly as the lizard started pounding the ground wildly, sending anyone near him to the ground coupled with a noxious gas that sent everyone into the poisoned status.
"Can I go home?"
"Screw you."
"Oh well. The faster we finish this, the faster I can get my peanuts."
Both of them began running towards the battle, "Oi, Kirito, a little boost?"
The raven haired boy nodded and dashed forward ahead of the blonde before spinning around in a crouched ready position, two hands clasped together.
The running blonde leapt onto the clasped palms with one foot, and pushed off with the added burst of power that his greatly boosted Strength, increased by the passive bonuses that the Hidden Skill Martial Arts granted them, the manoeuvre threw him, his body as straight and tense as an arrow, nearly halfway up till the very top of the chamber when he flipped and released the quiver on his back, flinging all the spears into the air around him.
On the ground, Kirito charged straight at the boss with his sword in a reverse grip, skidding to a stop right underneath the boss with a twist, that sent him spinning with the momentum, the sword's blade began glowing with a massive red aura at the apex of the spin, as the raven haired boy came full circle with a bellow.
"Vorpal Strike!"
The resulting explosive blast sent the 10 foot tall lizard rocketing upwards into the air, twisting around at an awkward angle, futilely trying to regain its balance when it found himself eye to eye with the business ends of 9 glowing spears notched on the same stupidly huge bow.
"Original Skill; Lunar Fang."
By the time Naruto had landed with wet splat, his clothes were splattered in eyeball fluid and greyish brain matter, "That... really wasn't a good idea." He commented with distaste as he tried to squeeze the blood out of his scarf.
"You've never had a good idea. Period. Like that time you tried to break the rock with your head instead of your hands."
"It cracked didn't it?"
"I don't even know where to start expressing how stupid I think that reply was." Kirito rolled his eyes without another word as he began pouring status healing potions down the throats of poisoned and paralysed players.
"I-It's them! The White Archer and the Black Swordsman!"
"You probably should have left them paralysed until we got out of here." Naruto concluded blandly as more and more people began chattering.
****The Hunter****
Author's Note
Yes, nice debate. Either I go for Naruto/Asuna and gain the distinction of being the first person to write that pairing in this particular site, requiring me to make up a whole new plotline, or I leave Asuna with Kirito, who by the way happens to be the first competent, legitimately, badass male anime harem lead in YEARS, instead of the standard whiny harem retards that get by just because they are... Nice? If nice were people were that lucky, I wouldn't be sitting at the pc right now.
Either way, it's gonna suck for me because of the backlash from either choice. XD
Yes that means I made the decision already.
No that does not mean I will tell you although you can find out the general direction I might take by counting the reviews yourself. Then again, that doesn't include the private votes I received.
Yes I'm an asshole.