999
The Rules of the Game and the First Death
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or 999.
Previously on 999: 9 Shinobi Behind 9 Doors with 9 Hours,
Time had frozen as they gazed into each other's eyes, blushing by how close they were. In fact, their faces were close enough to kiss each other but not of them moved in. They instead stayed that way, not wanting to get up or even move.
In the midst of this interaction came a voice that Naruto swore to never forget in his life. The voice that sounded cold like metal and harsh like the desert night. It was mechanical, like that of a robot but it had tone in it that caused everyone else to cringe.
{I welcome you all, from the bottom of my heart, to my vessel.} Any chances of continuing and any hints of this budging romance were broken like a magic spell. Everyone was able to trace that voice to a speaker on one of the corners where the ceiling meets two of the walls that form the room the strangers were in. {My name is [Zero]…captain of this ship. I am also the one who invited you all here. It is time for the Nonary Game to begin.}
That voice was like a straight cutter as it wormed out of the speaker mixed with static in the background that was so strong, you could feel it in the air. Still, there was no mistake as Naruto could even feel that same person talking to him in his apartment room as the blonde faded out. It was clear enough to the crowd that surrounds Naruto, this voice was no stranger to them.
"Hey you asshole! What the hell is all this?" Silver cursed at the speaker. "Come out where I can see your bastard face!" He didn't care how useless it was, he still had to get this out of his system before he so much as explodes.
"Why are you doing this to us!? Is it a grudge!? What is it!?" Lion wanted answers as well as Silver. But that voice of Zero was not to be daunted,
{I mean to have you all participate in a game. Some of you, I know, are familiar with this game.} Naruto was confused because it seemed that this Zero knew the strangers more than they did to Naruto with the exception of Hinata. Zero just went on, {The [Nonary Game]. It is a game…where you will your life on the line.}
That is exactly what that intruder in his apartment said to Naruto before the blond went out; this Zero was definitely the one who kidnapped him on that night. But Naruto wasn't the one who responded afterwards.
"Nonary Game…?" The dancer seemed confused, she wasn't familiar with this game as the ones Zero was talking about.
"What the hell does that mean?" The mountain was no different and muttered in confusion about all this. That is until the voice from the speaker continued,
{The rules of the [Nonary Game] can be found. On yourselves.} Zero told the desperate crowd who drove their sweaty nervous hands into their pockets to each find a sheet of paper. This stirred up everyone's voices too,
"Hey there is something in my pocket!" "Same here!" "What is this!?" "How did it get in my pocket!?" All these voices shout out like before while Naruto just helped Hinata sit down next to him; the blond then went into his own pocket to find a sheet of paper with writing on it.
"Here is one too!" Naruto had to say that until he noticed that the [lion] man walked up to him.
"Then would you mind reading it for us young man?" Naruto noticed that everyone else was staring at him, like they were waiting for Naruto to read; before it could get awkward, the blonde did as he was asked of.
XXXXX
On this ship, you will find a handful of doors emblazoned with numbers. We will call them the [numbered doors]. The doors in front of you are a pair of the same.
The key to opening these numbered doors are the [numbered bracelets] that each of you possess. Should you total the numbers on your [numbered bracelets]…and find the [digital root] of that number is equal to the number of that door, the door will open. Only those who have opened the door may pass through.
There are, however, limits. Only [3-5] can pass through one numbered door. All those who enter must leave, and all who enter must contribute.
XXXXX
[Bracelet], Naruto paused to look at the hunk and bulky piece of metal and plastic on his wrist. Naruto looked around to see that everyone else had one too and had come up the same conclusion. They all must play to game to get out and they must follow the rules.
Naruto went back to his sheet of rules and started off where he left off.
XXXXX
The purpose of this game is simple. Leave this ship alive. It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out…seek a door that carries a [9].
XXXXX
Naruto, by now, had reached the end of the letter and paused to see how everyone will react. There was a moment of silence instead while Naruto tried to move his head around this; is this is a game, what happens when you break the rules? IF anyone heard that, Naruto will soon regret speaking or thinking so soon.
That was when the speaker came back to life once more. {There is one last thing I must tell you. As you have no doubt surmised, this ship has begun to sink. On April 14, 1912…the famous ocean liner Titanic crashed into an iceberg. After remaining afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes, it sank beneath the water of the North Atlantic. I will give you more time. [9 hours]. That is the time you will be given to make your escape.}
That was it and the speaker died again. Then there was a new sound altogether that rang in the room. The sound a bell. Like one in a grandfather clock that will ring at every new hour of the day given the number of rings in a row. It turned out to come from indeed a clock, one that was half way up the stairs to the doors leading to a supposed 'A Deck'.
Everyone waited for the bells to end as they never lost count of the rings. 7…8…9…The bell stopped ringing and the 10th one never came which meant only one thing. That is was now 9 o'clock; given how dark it is, it must be the one in the evening. Naruto saw nothing but darkness out of his cell at bottom deck; all this added up to the deadline of [6 AM] of next morning.
{Now it is time.} That same voice erupted from the speaker for the third time since the crowd all gathered in the room. {Let out game begin. I wish you all the best of luck.} That was it, that speaker never went off ever again and now the nine strangers are left in the room trying to decide what to do next.
Right now, Silver was cursing at the speaker with words that are powerful enough to make a sailor blush red but everyone else were silent as a lamb. That is until Hinata went up to Naruto with a clear frighten expression on her face. "…Naru-chan I am scared." Hinata didn't seemed to be bothered by what everyone will say to that nickname, only to stay with her old childhood friend.
Thankfully they didn't notice, they only left the 'B-Deck' to hopefully find another way out but with the lower decks filled with water, the upper decks have windows sealed off and any other door locked with strange symbols above the keyholes (one was a circle with two lines going horizontal and vertical, the other was found as a key reader with a fancy lower case 'h' with a dash across its top), it seemed that the two [numbered doors] are the only way through this ship. Still, no one approached them and soon they saw that they spent a half hour wasted.
"Just what the hell are we going to do now!?" Silver shouted, clearly outraged by what has happened so far.
"What I want to know is what that girl called you Naru-chan?" The dancer said while facing and pointing at Naruto who never left the 'B Deck' or Hinata at all.
"Is that your name?" The pink hair girl spoke too and soon everyone wanted answers to their own questions. Naruto couldn't hide it anymore,
"No that is just a nickname from when we were kids." Naruto may be a college student but he did have a reputation for being outspoken even as a child and he was always known to think ahead; that meant Naruto was not taking any chances with him accidentally revealing his real name to Zero who could have been listening to them. How else was he able to speak to them if he had no other way of knowing when the crowd reached this very room?
"Yeah. Naruto and I were childhood friends since elementary~!" Naruto knew one thing will never change about his childhood friend was her mood swings from shy to chatty in a very instance if and only if he was around her. "And my name is…" Hinata was about to foil Naruto's plan until the blonde covered her mouth while the Mountain bet Naruto the punch.
"DON'T!" Everyone cringed to the booming voice that match the mountain man's enormous size. "We can't just say our names out here? What if Zero is still listening to us!?" It was like the Mountain man had picked up Naruto's thoughts exactly about the situation. Still that sent off yet another passing of words and panicking people in the room until Naruto enough of this.
"SHUT UP!" That got everyone's attention; who knew that a college student will be bold and loud enough to match the [mountain] man in volume. "He is right about not saying our names to each other for [Zero] to listen on and I have a solution to this." That really got everyone listening, "We need to make up code names." That simple and to the point and yet no one was complaining about how simple a childlike it can sound as.
"And just on what ground should we make our code names on?" The [pink hair] girl asked and Naruto hadn't lost his smirk but didn't say a word. Only lifting his left arm and show the one thing that stood out as.
"Our [bracelets]?" The [dancer] muttered as she looked at hers with everyone following in suite.
"Yeah. It doesn't matter if [Zero] himself or someone working for him had put the bracelets on; that bastard knows us by our numbers so let's make code names based on that. If we do, [Zero] wouldn't learn something he doesn't know about us." Naruto explained in full detail. Everyone soon caught on and muttered about how there was no better choice of code names.
Then the [lion] man smiled and spoke up, "If that is the case…I will like to be called [Ace]." Naruto titled his head about that choice for a name until he smirked,
"Like the card ace in card games? Then your number is…" Naruto left off for Ace to pick up with a smirk of his own. Ace then nodded and revealed his bracelet to be the number [1].
Then the [prince] spoke up after a while of silence with his own smile. "My turn. I will like the name [Snake] if you don't mind." That was completely irrelevant and yet Snake picked up the expression of confusion among the crowds. "Since Ace's name is based on cards, I will like to base my name off die; in that game, two is the least number to have receive when a set of die. That is called 'snake-eyes' so it fits my numbered bracelet." Snake then showed his bracelet to have the number [2]. "Also, the term 'snake-eyes' matches since I am blind." Now that took Naruto by surprise because he thought that the white eyes with no pupils was like normal eyes but he never thought to ask if this man is blind.
"I want to next and I want to be called [Seven]." The mountain said and his stood out more than 'Ace' and 'Snake'; it was like he couldn't think of any other code name for his number bracelet which happened to be [7], what a surprise.
"I will like [Clover]." The pink hair girl went next and revealed her bracelet number to be [4] just like the lucky four-leaf clover. Yet there was just something between Clover and Snake that Naruto wanted to find out,
"Okay you two. What is the beef and cuddling about?" Naruto said and everyone wanted to know too. And yet with all this peering pressure, the two didn't acted stressed out; In fact, Snake only smiled while Clover blushed and answered in a way that shocked everyone.
"We are siblings." Naruto couldn't believe it, they had nothing in common so how could it be that they were older brother and young sister. Yet for some reason, Naruto no longer felt like asking anymore question and went back to creating code names for the rest of the crowd.
"Oookay. I will go next and please call me [Santa]." That was Silver or now Santa who went next. He explained that his chose that name because it contained the Japanese word for 'san' which means 'three'; just like on his bracelet.
"I will be [Lotus]." The dancer said in cheerful sound, like she thought her code name complemented her the best out of the other code names. Nobody wanted to break her happy mood with her decision.
"I am going to skip myself." Naruto then said that everyone agreed on; since Hinata had said his real name, there was no need to try and hide it from a man like Zero. "Let's call you [June]." Naruto said to his childhood friend who wondered why the blonde chose that name until she finally noticed that Naruto held her left hand, showing the number six on it; she blushed when she realized that June was common girls name as well as the sixth month of the year so it worked perfectly.
Now Naruto went over the code names and numbers of the crowd. [Ace] had [1]. [Snake] had [2]. [Santa] had [3]. [Clover] has [4]. His name was skipped. [June] had [6]. [Seven] had [7]. And [Lotus] had [8]. Which left the one man who never spoke up since Zero talked to them, the one with the hair like a [bird's nest].
In fact, he was still pale and sweaty while not even saying a word. Clover walked up to him with her hands on her hips. "Hey why don't you have a code name?"
"C-code name? W-w-why?" The pale man shivered and stuttered like he was drenched in cold water or something. Clover didn't waver,
"You have a numbered bracelet do you?" The man raised his left arm to show that had a [9] on his bracelet. "So what do you want us to call you? Have you even thought up a codename yet?"
"T-that i-i-s b-because…" The man started to stutter again until he suddenly pulled a 180, with a more calm and in control type of face in an instant that somehow sent shivers down Naruto's spine; the blonde had a bad feeling what is going to happen. "Because I am not staying you all!" Sur enough, the man got bold and snuck up behind Clover. He even took out a pocket knife from somewhere and held it at Clover's neck!
"Clover!" Naruto shouted along with Snake and Santa who both responded to this change of circumstances but before they could make a step forward, the man shakily pushed the knife into Clover's neck; this pale man was serious about this to have Clover as a hostage.
"D-don't move or I will c-cut her throat open!" The man threatened the crowd and they didn't move a muscle as the pale man dragged Clover to the door with the number [5] and stopped in front of the device to the left. "O-okay…I will let her go if she will place her left hand on the device and let it scan her bracelet." The pale man demanded but Clover hesitated for a moment before seeing that Naruto was also hesitating but with a confident expression that the man will stay to his word and everyone will be just fine.
So Clover nervously placed her hand with the bracelet on the wrist on the scanner that caused an asterisk to show in the box above. Naruto remembered that Zero told everyone that only [3-5] people can enter one of the numbered doors. "N-now will the man with the number [1] bracelet please come over here slowly and scan his hand on the panel?" Ace barely moved which caused the pale man to grit his teeth and pushed the knife into clover's neck deeper to cause blood to seep out. "Did you h-hear me!? Do it or s-she dies!" Ace moved slowly this time and scanned his bracelet at the panel before retreating to the crowd. Then pale man release Clover to scan his hand at the panel and pulled the lever attached to it; the door opened like the mouth of a rusty metal animal with the sounds of squeaking iron. "T-thanks and I now I will be able to get out all because of your corporation!" The pale man tossed Clover aside before entering the doorway before turning and waving at the crowd. "T-thanks for all your help. I am going on ahead, see you later!" Then the doors closed on him and silence reigned until Naruto finally found the strength to move onto Clover who was still on the ground, shaking in fear.
"It is okay Clover. The bad man is gone, he can't hurt you again." Naruto always had the desire to help others and including little children ever since he was a troubled orphan before meeting Hinata and after she left his life. Clover just stuck onto Naruto, still scared and needed someone to hold on too. Snake smiled and took his sister from Naruto,
"Are you not hurt too much Clover?" Snake asked like a worried older brother he is and Clover shook her head. But the moment between these siblings were the loud beeping from something behind Door [5] and the words that followed after.
"Help! Let me out of here! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Everyone listened in horror as they could even see the scared and desperate [ninth man], banging on the steel doors that won't budge. "Hey guys please open the door! I am sorry of what I have done, just open the door!" Naruto tried to scan his hand at the panel but instead of 'VACANT' like before, it said 'ENGAGED'. No matter how many times Naruto tried, the panel won't respond to his hand.
"Listen guys! He lied to me! He said this won't happen! He is a liar and he is going to kill you all! It was him who lied to me! It was he who killed me! NOOO! GARRGH!" Everyone kept listening and the ninth man screamed and ranted until his voice grew silent with that yell of pain echoing through their heads along with the muffled explosion that shook the very door.
Time slowed down for Naruto again as everyone tried to make sense of the Ninth Man's last words and what happened to him on the other side of door [5]. Naruto looked again at the device near the door that said 'VACANT' once more; that meant they can open the door again but no one could even imagine what was on the other side.
Naruto still wanted to know and it was better than just wasting around not knowing like he felt ever since he first awoke here. The blonde didn't want anyone else to start so he scanned himself at the panel and turned to the crowd for two more people; since he was five and the digital root for this door has to be [5], he need a pair whose numbers total into [9]. Clover was still shaken from the experience so she was out of the question and Naruto didn't want that to happen to June so he counted her out too. Finally he made his choice,
"Hey Snake, Seven." Naruto spoke in a medium soft tone hoping they will hear him. "I need your help over here." They seemed to want to know too so they came without a hitch and scanned their hands at the panel. "Now is everyone ready? I am going to pull the lever." The crowd braced and nodded including Snake and Seven so Naruto used all his remaining might to push down the lever which opened the door…and unleashed a new horror among their eyes.
The stench that was the first to go through the open door was filled with the foul odor of brunt flesh and blood. That match with what was on the other side; a mess of blood and flesh chunks that scattered around the door way and on the door. It was enough to make the girls shriek in horror but Naruto noticed that June had a fever and was about to faint. He moved like a bullet to catch her before June landed on the ground. "Are you okay June? You are burning up!" Naruto started to panic until he dragged June to one of the chairs nearby in order for her to sit in and try to take all this in; she just started to cry that a man died and they had to see all that in its worst. To end all this, the doors closed and the scanner panel turned from 'ENGAGED' to 'VACANT' all over again.
Still, the sight of the formally ninth man repeated in the minds of the eight strangers left of the count. All that blood giving the ways a poor paint job as the bones were bent in a weird way and the chunks of skin and muscle strained the floor. No one moved or said a word until Santa finally got the gut to say this for everyone to hear,
"The ninth man. He…blew up." Everyone soon felt dizzy themselves and reached for their stomachs for some reason, like there is something in there that threatened their lives like a bomb. One thing is for sure, Zero doesn't give mercy for those who try to break the rules.
*Hi everyone! This is MircThomas19 here with another chapter for this new crossover. I am sad to say that it wasn't doing so well with the public like my other stories. No one wants a fanfic that is also a walkthrough for a puzzle game I guess. So I will just work on it until I am finished with the story. By then, no one will want to see it again.
I feel really bad now since for the first time in a while that I forgot about a college entry that is needed by midnight of every Wednesday. I am really soft since I worry about such stupid things like that and everyone will just gave me the cold shoulder, calling me careless and forgetful. I wish to just forget about this one and enjoy the rest of my week until my next class lecture on Monday of next week.
Now enough of that stuff, I am trying my best to make this the best I can since I have taken crossovers with games but only with the game characters in a manga setting or a self-made one; in short, this is the first time I did a fanfic on an actual game setting, like taking a game made by the companies and alter it to fit the crossover. I guess that I have stepped out of my comfort zone and not made a good first impression.
Please tell me if I am altering the events of the game in this crossover. Just remember that if I didn't, it won't be much of a story if the only difference is the cast of characters. Naruto will never be like Junpei and this story will show the main character will a more defined character to better combine the two characters from both a manga series and a game together; Naruto's boldness and willing to take charge with Junpei's intellect.
Please let me know what you think and I will try harder to get better at this chapters. Have a nice day!*
