AN: By sheer number of reviews, a total of 68 the most I've gotten for a first chapter, I'm posting this second chapter for everyone's enjoyment. Sadly this chapter is way shorter than the first chapter, which is weird since normally the first chapter is the shortest, either way on with the fic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Sword Art Online, or anything else that may or may not appear in this fic.
Chapter 2: Explanations
"Talking"
'Thinking'
(Author's Note)
Kirito was true to his word and quickly led the party of three to a safe zone. They had to fight some monsters along the way, and though they were all a bit worn out from their recent battle with Illfang, they swiftly dispatched whatever monsters they came across. Through it all Asuna had kept a close watch on Naruto looking for any signs that the injury he received from the first boss was affecting him. Naruto and Kirito made themselves comfortable after arriving at the safe zone, but Asuna refrained from doing that as she stood over Naruto with her hands on her hips.
"Alright, before you start explaining what's going on with you," Asuna said, giving Naruto a pointed look. "I think it would be best to take a look at your wound. We don't have anything that we can use to treat it, but we should still make sure that it's not getting worse. So take your shirt and armor off." She finished with a light blush at telling a, admittedly handsome, teen male to take off his shirt in front of her.
"There is no need for that." Naruto replied unconcernedly as he lifted up his shirt where Illfang had injured him. Only to reveal that there was no wound what so ever and the only proof that he had been cut at all was the dried up blood that once surrounded where the wound was once located.
"How is that possible?!" Asuna said astonished taking a closer look at where she knew the injury should be. "I was sure…"
"Um, Asuna?" Naruto said uncomfortably.
"What is it?" Asuna asked looking up towards the blonde to look him straight in the eye, only to notice just how close their faces were to one another. For a few seconds the two just stared at each other as Asuna's face steadily started to redden before she finally reacted, "P-P-Pervert!" The girl screamed, hastily backing away from the whiskered blonde, before proceeding to glare at him.
"How am I a pervert?!" Naruto demanded, standing up at Asuna's accusation.
"Because you are!" Asuna told him as if it was obvious, lacking any real sense of logic as if just saying made it true. Such was the inner workings of the female mind, an impossible puzzle that not even the wisest of men could ever hope to solve.
Naruto blanched at the female player's continued claim. The confidence that her voice carried making the blonde shinobi silently wonder if Asuna somehow figured out his past association with countless perverts and the few times he did something perverted. He was a twelve year old kid, entering puberty, who traveled with a man that proudly claimed to be a super pervert for two and a half years. There was no way that he was going to return to Konoha completely innocent, much to the dismay and ire of Tsunade.
Kirito stared at the two unsure if he should be laughing at the little comedy act that was happening in front of him or try to remind the two what they were supposed to be discussing at the moment. A part of him was telling him to stay quiet or risk drawing Asuna's ire to himself and somehow end up being labeled a pervert as well. "Alright guys I think we should get back on track here." The black haired swordsman eventually got out.
Kirito speaking up drew the other two's attention to him and for a moment they just stared at him impassively. Feeling their gazes locked on him, Kirito fidgeted uneasily wishing that he had just kept his mouth shut. They were all quiet for a moment longer before the silence was finally broken by Asuna, "Hmph, fine." She said in a huff as she sat down, away from Naruto, with her arms crossed over her chest.
Naruto sat down as well as he scratched the back of his head, wondering where he should start and how much he could really tell them. There were things that Naruto wanted to keep to himself things he wasn't comfortable talking about, his childhood for example. Then there were things he didn't mind telling them about, his status as a Jinchuuriki had become a point of pride for him and was something that he wanted to hide. If they couldn't accept his former status then that was solely their problem, Naruto had long stopped caring if people would accept him or not because of Kurama. Those who could really call friends would look past the fox and see him; those that didn't weren't worth thinking about. "Where should I start?" Naruto wondered out loud.
Kirito looked at Naruto curiously, "How about the beginning?" He suggested.
The suggestion had the blonde thinking, "The beginning?" Naruto repeated, a sad mirthless smile appearing on his face. What would constitute as the beginning? When Hashirama and Madara were alive? Or did everything begin on the night of his birth? At times, when there was a lull in the war and the whiskered shinobi had time to himself' to think, it felt like there was a greater force at work driving everything to a certain point. Either way Naruto knew that he had to tell Kirito and Asuna something.
Kirito and Asuna silently stared at the blonde, neither wishing to disturb him when they noticed the distant, almost haunted, look that appeared in his eyes as he considered Kirito's suggestion.
Coming to a decision Naruto focused his attention back to the two players that were waiting for him to start talking. If he was going to explain things to them it would be best to start with who he was. "Ok for starters my name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze and I am a shinobi from Konohagakure no Sato." Naruto began and for the next couple of hours he told them of everything that he found of relative importance, answering the occasional question that they had along the way.
"You called yourself a Jinchuuriki before." Asuna pointed out after not got done retelling his story. "What is that?" She asked.
"It sounds Japanese." Kirito added, "But it's not at the same time and I've never heard that word before."
"Jinchuuriki," Naruto started steadily. "It literally means the Power of the Human Sacrifice. It is a word that classifies a certain type of people, those with one of the nine Bijuu sealed inside of them." He explained to them before letting out a sigh. "But most of the time it is used as a slur that means that we are less than human in the eyes of others."
"And you are a 'Jinchuuriki'?" Asuna asked him curiously.
"Yup," Naruto replied cheerfully, "Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, strongest of the Bijuu, at your service.$"
"I don't know," Kirito began skeptically, putting his hand against his chin in thought, after hearing Naruto's declaration. "I don't quiet buy it. This all seems too farfetched to me."
Asuna looked at the black haired swordsman. "You think that it might be a trick?" She asked him.
"Maybe," Kirito replied, looking at Naruto intently. "Kayaba could have programmed Naruto into the game to trick and confuse players." He said logically from his point of view.
While Naruto personally didn't like the fact that they were questioning if he was telling the truth or not, as a shinobi he could appreciate their sense of caution. 'They could at least stop talking about me like I wasn't here.' Naruto thought with a pout.
"We'll need to think of something that proves that he is telling the truth." Kirito stated. Asking him to just do one of his jutsu wouldn't be enough since they all could be programed into the game.
"Like?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Right now we can ask you a bunch of questions." Kirito suggested, "If there are things that you don't know about your own past or inconsistent in your answers that should at least give us a hint on whether you're telling the truth or not." It wasn't a perfect plan, though it would probably take a while to catch the blonde in a lie if that was in fact the case, but at the very least they had something to go on.
"Alright," Naruto said agreeing with the idea. "What do you want to know first?"
For the next hour and a half Kirito and Asuna would ask Naruto a variety of questions about himself, where he came from, and the world in general. Some questions were so mundane most people would never even bother thinking about them on a' normal bases; others were so complicated that Naruto took a minute before giving a satisfactory answer. Finally after nearly two hours Kirito and Asuna were running out of things to ask Naruto.
"Ok," Kirito said, trying to think of something to ask. "First kiss?"
Naruto opened his mouth to answer until the question registered in his mind and caused him to freeze before he could answer. The disaster of the memory that was his first kiss flashed through Naruto's mind, even now years later the blonde shinobi still felt like retching at the memory of that day. "C-can I have any other question?" Naruto asked shakily, "Anything at all."
Kirito and Asuna looked at the whisker marked teen curiously, neither understanding why he was suddenly so hesitant when he didn't have trouble answering any of their other questions. "Why?" Kirito asked with a raised eyebrow. Maybe they finally caught Naruto in something that they could use to prove that he was a program that Kayaba had placed into the game to trick players.
"I don't want to talk about it." Naruto answered evasively.
"That's not a good enough answer," Kirito refuted. "You have to answer all our questions honestly. If we leave even one unanswered or lie to us then there is' no way we can believe you." The black haired swordsman explained.
"Maybe this is too personal or Naruto just hasn't kissed anyone yet." Asuna suggested.
"Then why not just say that?" Kirito questioned her. "Or hesitate at all? Up until now no matter the question he has answered them without hesitation. The fact that he hasn't means that he either can't answer the question because Kayaba didn't program an answer into him." The Beta player stated bringing up a good argument. "Or something happened that he doesn't want to talk about." He finished by looking at Naruto intently waiting for him to answer.
Naruto sighed once he realized that he wasn't getting out of answering that question. "Sasuke Uchiha," The blonde shinobi mumbled embarrassed, looking away from the other two.
For a moment Kirito and Asuna just stared at Naruto. He had told them about Sasuke Uchiha and the other Konoha 11 during his explanation of where he came from and the reaction this admittance had varied between the other two players, Kirito burst out laughing while a dark blush spread across Asuna's face as she pictured Naruto kissing Sasuke, or a figment of her imagination of the Uchiha. Needless to say what she pictured and what actually happened were two completely different things.
"It's not funny!" Naruto shouted at Kirito when the black haired player didn't stop laughing, he still shivered at the memory and a part of him would die each time he remembered that day. It didn't help that the only other time he had kissed someone the woman, which he thanked Kami for that little respite, was trying to suck out all of his chakra and effectively kill him. "And what the hell are you thinking!" The blue eyed teen demanded, rounding on Asuna as he noticed that the chestnut, bordering on orange, haired girl started to drool.
"Sorry," Kirito apologized, though it didn't look like he was sorry since he was still laughing. "But I believe you now." He added.
That caught Naruto by surprise. "Why?" He asked.
"Because there is no way that Kayaba would ever think to make your first kiss with a guy and I can't think of anyone who would want to admit it." Kirito said, "Unless your…" He continued suggestively. "In which case good for you, but I'm straight so don't even think about it."
"I could kill you right now." Naruto muttered glaring at Kirito before looking towards Asuna. "What about you Asuna? Do you believe me?" He asked her.
The sound of Naruto's voice snapped Asuna out of whatever daydream she was having, and for the sake of everyone's sanity it will be left a mystery. Looking at Naruto the hazel eyed player still had a light tint of red on her cheeks, "Uh, um, of c-course." She stuttered out before composing herself. "It's kind of hard to believe though."
"I know what you mean." Kirito said nodding his head in agreement. "There are theories of multiple and an alternate universe for those theories to be proven true is nothing short of incredible." He stated in awe, "And kind of overwhelming. Just think what other worlds might be out there." The swordsman added.
Honestly Naruto didn't want to think about it, he was still having trouble wrapping his head around the fact that he was trapped in video game in a different dimension, the last thing he wanted was to try and figure out what other worlds existed, "So what now?" The blonde shinobi asked, Asuna looking towards Kirito for an answer as he was the most experienced player of the three of them.
"I guess," Kirito started. "That the next course of action would be to travel to the nearest town and restock on any supplies that we might need." The teen advised, "Naruto lost his sword in the boss battle so stopping by a weapon shop is probably a good idea." He continued before looking towards Asuna. "We'll have to watch his back until we reach the next town in case any monsters appear." The swordsman told her.
"Right," Asuna replied.
"Oi," Naruto protested, "It's not like I'm helpless." The azure eyed teen stated pulling out a kunai for them to see.
"Yeah, sort of forgot about your abilities for a second there." Kirito admitted sheepishly before a smile appeared on his face. "They will be a big help in clearing the game though." He added positively.
"Uh maybe not," Naruto said hesitantly.
Asuna looked at Naruto confused. "What do you mean?" She asked him curiously.
"I'll show you." Naruto told her instead, standing up and gesturing for them to follow him. "Come on," He urged them. The two were confused by what Naruto wanted to show them instead of just answering Asuna's question, but chose to follow him anyway. Their confusion only grew when the blonde shinobi led them out of the safe zone only to come to a stop ahead of a wolf, one slightly stronger than the ones on the First floor, which had yet to notice them. "Watch, but be ready just in case." Naruto warned them. Neither Kirito nor Asuna were sure what Naruto was doing but both drew out their respective weapons just in case.
Naruto walked away from his two party members and closer to the wolf, still keeping a good distance away so that it didn't react to his presence, before he brought both of his hands up in a familiar hand seal, "Shadow clone Jutsu!" The shinobi called summoning two clones to appear beside him.
Kirito and Asuna were momentarily stunned by Naruto's jutsu; it was one thing to hear about it and something completely different to see it happen in front of them. Their surprise was short lived when they noticed the wolf's reaction to Naruto's jutsu and what happened afterwards. The wolf's attention snapped towards Naruto, even though he remained out of range of its awareness and three other wolves spawned beside it. Without a moment's hesitation Naruto and his clones charged at the four wolves, each of them pulling out their own kunai, at the same time the wolves did. Naruto and his clones took care of the wolves in a matter of seconds, but as if to prove a point Naruto created a Rasengan and slammed it into the last wolf only for four more to immediately appear. One of the wolves spawned so close to Naruto that it could rake its claws down the side of the shinobi's arm before Naruto could react, blood appearing on the wolf's claws.
Seeing Naruto be injured Asuna instantly dashed towards the small pack of wolves, rapier at the ready and a Sword Skill ready to be released. Kirito stood back and watched things with a thoughtful look on his face. 'What's going on?' He thought silently. 'They shouldn't be re-spawning that quickly. And that first wolf it started to attack Naruto even though he was still at a safe distance. Is this what Naruto wanted us to see?' Kirito wondered.
It was only a couple of minutes later that Naruto and Asuna finished dealing with the wolves; Naruto dismissing his clones soon after Asuna joined the fight. Once the last wolf was defeated Naruto and Asuna sheathed their weapons and rejoined Kirito.
"What was that?" Kirito asked Naruto after they returned to the safe zone.
Naruto ran his hand through his hair before answering. "It started a couple of weeks after the start of the game." Naruto began, "Whenever I used a jutsu more monsters would suddenly appear to fight me. It took me a while before I realized that Kayaba must have found a way to track my chakra and made it so monsters would appear and attack whenever I do." The shinobi explained. "There are a few exceptions, like using chakra to enhance my physical abilities; it is just when I use a jutsu when that seems to happen, or in a safe zone. And, from what happened earlier, I can also use jutsu during a boss battle. It was because of this that I started to improve my skills within the game." Naruto finished.
"Kayaba probably set up a program that would search for anomalies within the game with your chakra in mind and have monsters appear' whenever an anomaly was detected, to try and eliminate that anomaly." Kirito reasoned.
"Anomaly?" Asuna repeated confused.
"It's something that isn't consistent with the game's system." Kirito explained for both Asuna's and Naruto's benefit. "Naruto is a perfect example of this because he is neither a player nor originally part of the game."
"Then what would he be?" The hazel eyed player asked.
"An A.I.," Naruto answered in Kirito's place, drawing the other two's attention back to him, "An Artificial Intelligence, maybe Artificial Anomaly would be better, or like Kirito said just an Anomaly."
Kirito looked at Naruto curiously. "Yeah something like' that." The black haired swordsman agreed. "How do you know those terms?" Kirito asked Naruto. "I thought your world didn't have that much advanced technology." It was a legit question from what Naruto just got through telling them the Elemental Nations weren't the most advanced when it came to technology choosing to settle for what worked instead of trying to improve them.
Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "That's kind of complicated and I don't really know how it happened," Naruto mumbled, as he lifted up his left hand and swiped it to the side and a screen appeared in midair. Kirito and Asuna were' about to dismiss it until they noticed that it wasn't the normal menu screen and instead was an internet search engine, and near Naruto a transparent keypad popped up. With a few, awkwardly slow, keystrokes from Naruto the screen changed to show a news broadcast of Japan and the current events detailing the players trapped within in SAO. Kirito and Asuna watched on silently as Naruto brought up more screens each displaying different sites with information about the Japan and the rest of the world. "I'm trapped in SAO but not like you guys. I can't escape it, but I'm also not bound to all its rules like you two, after seeing Kayaba doing this on the first day I eventually tried it for myself and this happened." The blonde shinobi explained. "I learned about A.I.'s after learning about another game called The World where players were reported going into comas after encountering A.I.s in the game before it was eventually shut down."
Kirito had never heard of that game before, which meant that it probably existed and shut down while he was still just a kid, or possibly before he was even born. Either way that didn't really matter with what he was currently seeing. "This is great," Kirito said excitedly, a hopeful gleam in his eyes as he stared at the various screens. "With this we'll be able to communicate with the outside world and get some help."
Naruto let out a sigh not looking forward to what he would have to tell them next, especially since an equally, or even more so, hopeful expression appeared on Asuna's face as the girl probably was looking forward to communicating with her own family. "We can't do that." Naruto told them regretfully; especially when they turned their attention completely on him with an almost desperate and pleading look in their eyes.
"Why?" Kirito asked him.
"It's one of the restrictions placed on me." Naruto started, "I can't send out any kind of communication to the rest of the world. I think it's the same thing that keeps me trapped in SAO, I probably won't be able to send a message to the outside world until the game is cleared." The blonde shinobi stated.
Kirito let out a downtrodden sigh, "Well that's a letdown." He muttered looking up.
"I'm sorry," Naruto said, finding it to be the only thing he could say to them.
"It's not your fault." Asuna assured him softly, sending the blonde a small smile. "While it's unfortunate that we can't contact our families, or anyone in the real world, it just gives us all the more reason to clear the game."
"Yeah," Kirito said agreeing with Asuna. "This doesn't really change anything, so don't worry about it." He said nonchalantly before a smirk appeared on his face. "Besides at least like this we can listen to music besides the game's BGM and watch a movie every once in a while." The black haired swordsman finished, drawing amused smiles from the other two.
"Right," Naruto said with his fox like grin before he stood up. "So unless someone has something else to add we should start making our way to the next town." He finished looking towards the other two.
"I'm ready," Asuna answered, as she and Kirito stood up.
"Let's get going then." Kirito stated.
As one the three made their way out of the safe zone and towards the nearest town on the second floor, more confident than ever of the person they were each partying with and their chances of someday escaping SAO.
AN: Again sorry for the short chapter but this was meant as a more explanation with what was happening with Naruto that would hopefully answer some questions. I doubt I covered everything and hopefully anything I forgot will be discussed later on in the story.
The following chapters will be longer, right now though I'm trying to think of a chapter to replace the one with Kirito, Sachi, and the Moonlit Black Cats. What I want to accomplish is to make it a bigger tragedy than what Kirito experienced with the Moonlit Black Cats. I have the basic idea for it but it still needs a lot of work.
Till next time please review.
