Chapter Two: The Many Faces of Reality
AN: Yes, there will be a shameless expropriation of themes from The Matrix. Oh well. You can't have cyberpunk without netrunning, and The Matrix took netrunning to its logical conclusion. But this won't be the Narutrix. I'd really appreciate reviews and constructive feedback.
"If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain"—Morpheus, The Matrix
Kakashi led the three hapless recruits through the labyrinth of corridors that burrowed their way through Konoha's central command base. In the ten years that Kakashi had served in Konoha, never before had he seen such a hopeless group of recruits. Taken individually, each of them was considerably above average in abilities, but when combined as they were, they were definitely less than the sum of their parts. Kakashi had learned from painful experience that talent without teamwork meant nothing but death and wasted talent.
But he'd reserve judgment until they actually went through the entrance simulation. Maybe the gods will be watching and a miracle will happen; Kakashi certainly didn't dismiss the chance of them passing. He just wasn't getting his hopes up. For the most part, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke followed him in silence. "At least they can march in step," Kakashi mentally noted, "one must crawl before walking."
After almost a half an hour of winding through dimly lit corridors and clearing security check points, they arrived at their destination. The room was small and almost pitch-black. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, the shadowy silhouettes of what looked like four chairs came into view. Kakashi flicked on the lights, bathing the room in a dim glow. The chairs looked eerily like a gothic version of a dentist's chair. Sakura shuddered slightly upon seeing the resemblance.
Sasuke was not impressed. "Kakashi-sensei," he jabbed, "you said we were going to a simulation room to take our exam."
"This is the Simulation room, Sasuke," Kakashi replied, "you would do well to shed your preconceived notions of reality. If you are to survive in Konoha, let alone pass this exam, you must find what is underneath the underneath."
He walked over the first chair in the row, setting his hand on it with approval. "Do you all remember the standard issue neural interface that was surgically implanted in you when you joined the Guardian Youth?"
Naruto nodded, "Yeah, it hurt like hell, but netrunning is certainly a hell of a lot more efficient than keyboard and mouse."
Sakura nodded in agreement, and Sasuke imperceptibly winced at the thought of the implant procedure. "Good, it seems you're all familiar with netrunning," Kakashi noted, "that will make this exam go much more smoothly. Just as sophisticated netrunning software can create a virtual representation of the ethereal world of computer networks and intuitive interface methods, so too can it be used to create an extremely sophisticated simulation of reality. The entrance exam will be a full scale combat exercise, and we'll be using these access nodes to create the exam. This software is light-years beyond anything you have ever seen before."
Naruto walked cautiously up to one of the chairs. He carefully examined it, and found an extendable interface port on the chair right where the occupant's neck would be. He self-consciously rubbed the interface port on his neck as he sighed, "I think I get what you mean, Kakashi-sensei."
"Wait a sec," Sakura muttered, "what is it going to be like in this 'virtual reality'?"
"I can't describe it to you, Sakura," Kakashi smirked, "you're going to have to feel it for you self." He motioned for them to take a seat in the chairs-cum-simulators. Naruto eagerly sat down in one. Sasuke, not to be outdone by Naruto, assertively took one. Sakura grudgingly sat down on the end, nervous about what this adventure would entail. Kakashi took the last one.
"Just relax," he cautioned, "tension will only make it worse."
The last thought that ran through Sakura's head was "Worse?! What the fuck does he mean by worse?!" As soon as that train of thought finished, the interface port on the chair connected to hers, and her vision went blurry. Her sight faded to black, and her hearing began to drown in a sea of static before going mute. For a nanosecond, she was completely cut off, without any sensory perception of any kind. Losing any reference point, it felt as though it lasted for an eternity.
Pain, like a knife stabbing deep into her skull, cut through the eternity. As soon as it faded away, a light brighter than a thousand suns came into view, almost blinding in its radiant white purity. A cacophony of noise shattered the silence. The sound began to retreat back from whence it came, and the bright light before her dimmed. She found herself standing naked in a formless white room. She looked to her left, and found Naruto and Sasuke also standing naked in this formless white room. She instantly blushed, her modesty catching up to her. They too became cognizant of their nudity, and nervously tried to protect what little dignity they had left.
Kakashi-sensei materialized before them, wearing a black skin-tight combat suit. Small utility pouches dotted the torso area of his suit, and a coal black pistol was strapped to his left thigh.
Slung over his back was a submachine gun of some sort. "Welcome to the combat simulator," he chuckled.
"Is there some reason why we have to be naked?" Naruto spit back
"The computer simulation hasn't assigned you clothing yet, and the default physiological scan that your virtual body is based on didn't include any clothes," Kakashi replied. He muttered some commands into his radio headset, and a rack of combat equipment materialized before them. "Please, help yourself. Take whatever you think you'll need."
The three recruits quickly donned the form fitting reflex combat suits, and then began picking through the assorted combat goodies. The reflex suit body armor was a highly restricted piece of military hardware, and even Guardian Youth paramilitary like Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had only been given the bare minimum of training with such a sophisticated piece of nanotechnology. Luckily, the suits were very user friendly in spite of the inherent complexity. The nano-fibers of the suit remain as flexible as spandex (even though the suit itself was about two centimeters thick) until subject to impact, like a rifle butt or a bullet impact. Upon impact, they turn rigid, creating a solid barrier to stop the impact before soon returning to their flexible shape.
Naruto grabbed his favorite sidearm, the venerable M11A Caseless. It was accurate, and its 10mm caseless shells packed stopping power that Dirty Harry himself would admire. He grabbed three 15 round clips before pocketing a couple of flash bang grenades. Everything felt so real, it was uncanny. Their weight and texture was spot on. "It's hard to believe that this is all not real," he muttered.
Kakashi chuckled, "Is it any less real than the world outside, Uzumaki Naruto? Are the sensations any less authentic than touching a tangible grenade? Your brain thinks it is real, and so it is. Reality is determined by your own perceptions; right now, this is your reality."
Naruto eyed him suspiciously, and then went back to collecting gear from the rack. He grabbed a couple of frag grenades, a vibroknife and a fiber-optic camera. Finally, he picked up a MP-90 submachine gun and three fifty-round clips of caseless ammunition. He put on his tactical radio headset, and steeled himself for the coming fight.
Sakura hurriedly zipped up her reflex combat suit, scrambling to regain her modesty as soon as possible (all the while sneaking peaks at Sasuke's naked body). The form fitting reflex armor hugged close to her skin, providing her some much needed comfort. Next she grabbed an M11A pistol, and swiftly slipped it in the holster on her right thigh. She pocketed three clips for the pistol, as well as two flashbang grenades, a vibroknife and a "Jabberwocky" ECM Jammer
grenade. For the pièce de résistance, she snatched up her favorite: the LTR1 sniper rifle. She wasn't much of a fan of getting up close and personal, preferring to keep her distance, and fight with the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper rifle.
Sasuke was suited up and ready before the other two. With machine-like efficiency, he snatched up a vibroknife, an M11A pistol, three frag grenades, and a standard issue AR10 assault rifle. He quickly inserted a 42-round clip into the rifle, and snapped the bolt back with a resounding clack. He set the safety and turned to Kakashi-sensei. "Now what?" he said with a smirk.
"Well, you all seem pretty eager to start, so I'll give you the rundown," Kakashi declared as he went through each of his weapons one by one, as if by habit. "The exam is going to be fairly simple. You're going to be dropped off into a simulated combat area. Using any tools at your disposal, you will find and neutralize me."
They all nodded, turning to each other cautiously for clues about the coming challenge. They'd never seen Kakashi in action, so this challenge was a gigantic unknown abyss. "We're as ready as we'll ever be!" cried Naruto, "Let's do this!"
Not to be outdone by the dropout, Sasuke nodded in silent agreement. Suddenly, the world around them faded to black. Just as suddenly, they found themselves standing in a cluttered warehouse. The ambient sound of rain filled the cavernous space of the warehouse. Droplets of water rained down from the ceiling; this warehouse would provide little shelter from the pouring rain. The smell of mold and mildew permeated the decrepit warehouse.
As they oriented themselves, Sasuke muttered "Fuck!" to himself.
Sakura nodded. "It's going to be almost impossible to stay unnoticed," she whispered, "the puddles of water are going to be like death traps, and I can't hear a damn thing over the rain. Kakashi-sensei knows his stuff."
Naruto scanned across the warehouse, looking for optimum hiding places: any place where Kakashi might be, waiting in ambush. He was going to hunt Kakashi down, but first he'd have to find him. Something was kind of off about the warehouse. Everything was extremely realistic, but it all didn't seem quite right. Something about it started to give him the creeps. Something just wasn't right about everything in the warehouse, but he couldn't put his finger on it. "Ugh, this place is creepy," he muttered.
"Stay quiet!" Sakura whispered harshly. She unslung her sniper rifle, quietly cocked the bolt, and began scanning through the warehouse with its infrared scope. She froze suddenly, the rifle held steady on one point.
"What is it?" Naruto whispered, pointing his submachine gun in the same direction.
"Rats!" she squeaked, "Big fucking rats!"
"Is that all?" he replied, lowering his weapon. "Tch, women," he thought to himself.
"Seriously, these are some damn big rats! They're as big as my fucking dog!"
"That's great, Sakura-chan. Where's Sasuke?"
"Open your eyes, idi—" she stopped suddenly, as she turned to see that Sasuke was nowhere to be found.
"That bastard went off on his own…shit." Naruto quietly tiptoed through the dark, slipping behind large cargo crates, melting into the shadows.
"Well, I guess we'd better go catch up with him, eh Naruto?" Sakura queried, waiting for a reply. When none came, she whispered again, "Naruto!" and again nothing came from the darkness. She turned to find that no one was there. "Damnit! That asshole ran off on his own! I guess I'd better go track down Sasuke-kun," she screamed at herself.
As she crept her way forward through the darkness, a small shadowy figure followed her.
The pitch-black night of the warehouse was as bright as day to Sasuke, thanks to the Sharingan cybernetic implants in his eyes. Their infrared and motion tracking capabilities meant that few people could escape his sight. The built in targeting computer software was linked directly to his neural interface port via the computer nanofibers that ran along his brain synapses. His weapon was fire-linked to the cybernetic implants; if he could see it, he could shoot it.
The surgery had hurt like hell, but it was well worth it. He listened for any little sound as he slipped from cover to cover, weaving his way between cargo crates and derelict machinery. He could hear the scurrying of some rather large rats through the din of the rain, but nothing else; if Kakashi-sensei was moving, he was being totally silent.
Something darted through Sasuke's peripheral vision. He turned quickly to see what it was, only to find a blank wall and a stack of crates. He crept closer to the crates, sweeping his assault rifle side to side in a clearing pattern. He darted behind the crates, weapon at the ready, only to find nothing there. This warehouse was starting to get do him. Something wasn't right about this
place, as though the computer simulation was haunted by some ghost. "Right, haunted computer programs," he thought to himself, "Just stay focused, and finish the mission. I'll just get this done myself. Those two will only slow me down."
He began waking deeper into the warehouse. Out of nowhere, he heard a clicking sound coming from right behind him. There was only one thing it could be: the sound of an autopistol's hammer being pulled back. His minded raced, searching for an answer or a way out. Before he could react, he heard a soft monotone voice behind him: "Tch, you fucked up."
The short cackle of an M11A pistol cut through the din of the rain. Sasuke felt a wet impact in back of his head, followed by a sharp pain that quickly faded to numbness. He collapsed to his knees, and fell face first into a pool of rainwater. He couldn't feel anything anymore, just cold emptiness. Not quite what he imagined getting shot in the head would feel like, but as far as he was concerned, close enough. His vision slowly faded to black.
He soon found himself sitting in what looked like a lobby, watching a large plasma screen TV. The image on the TV displayed Kakashi quickly policing Sasuke's body, before cutting to two other figures running frantically towards something. "Shit," he thought, "now they're going to make me watch this unfold."
Sakura was slowly making her way to higher vantage point on a catwalk when she heard the report of the pistol shot. She quickly ran towards the source of the sound, pistol at the ready. After darting through the crates and dodging low hanging chains, she came to the most horrible sight she could imagine: Sasuke lying face down in a pool of blood. She quickly scanned the area before dropping to her knees beside Sasuke's body. She saw the bullet wound in the back of his head, and immediately went numb.
Naruto came around the corner in a frantic sprint. In panic, Sakura drew her pistol on him, and nearly fired. Seeing that it was her teammate, she lowered her weapon and muttered, "H-he…got Sasuke-kun."
Naruto had a hard time remember that this was all just an exercise. The corpse looked so real, it was frightening. "Sakura-chan…" he whispered, "remember, it's a simulation. Sasuke isn't really dead." Seeing the tears streaming down her cheeks made him doubt his own convictions. This was going to be a hellish adventure.