Secret Santa
By: Jolly
A Naruto Fanfic
XXXXXXXX
Author's note
XXXXXXXX
Hello again everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful year! I was hoping to finish this up before the 2017 holiday season... but my life went absolutely ape-crazy and I had to take the time to get my life straight before I worried about fan fiction again. That all being said... This is the final chapter of Secret Santa and it's been a blast of a time to get here! I hope everyone has enjoyed the ride with me!
Enjoy!
XXXXXXXX
"Aaaannnd done!"
With a pair of clicks, Hinata sent off the end of shift progress report to Tenten. That taken care of, she finally let out a long, relieved sigh before reaching over and picking up the clipboard to the left of her keyboard. She took a moment to check off the completed tasks from her list there and smiled when she realized that there was only one item left to do before she could head home for the day.
A pair of knocks on her office's door frame brought her attention to the tall, tanned blonde leaning halfway in with a bright smile on his face. He held up a stack of paper with one hand and waved it back and forth with a chuckle. "Got the bios for the new hires hot off the printers, Hinata!"
"Oh, thank God!" she exclaimed as she flopped back against her chair in a very unladylike manner and tossed the clipboard back to her desk. "How does this year's batch look?" she asked as she waved Naruto towards the comfy chair against the wall of her office. He was more than happy to oblige her and quickly parked himself in the second most comfortable chair in the room.
"Well, they're a... unique bunch, for sure," he replied with a smirk. "We've got two guys straight out of high school and a real odd girl coming over from EA-Tiburon." He pulled out a few sheets from the middle of the stack and passed them over to Hinata as he continued. "Blake Belladonna. Got her GED at 15, and applied immediately to EA-Tiburon. Seems they took a chance on her despite her age and it paid off for them. She's been working Quality Assurance for almost 3 years and has some pretty big projects under her belt."
Hinata paged over and browsed the list as she nodded. "This is a very impressive list. Why did she leave EA? With this much experience, I'm surprised she didn't try to move up the chain there."
Naruto's smile disappeared as he took a second to word his reply. "She was a shoe-in for a Team Lead position... but unfortunately, her personal life bled over into her professional life." Hinata looked up from the papers in her hand and quirked an eyebrow in silent query. "My contact in Tiburon told me that she and her boyfriend fell in with a really bad crowd. Long story short: she broke it off with the guy and the group they were a part of and immediately moved up here to try for a fresh start."
"Hmm..." Hinata leafed back through the paperwork and processed everything Naruto had told her. "Okay, unless one of the other two seems like a better fit, I think I'll take her onto my team and pair her up with Kiba until we're sure she's got herself settled. Who's next?" she asked as she laid Blake's bio on her desk.
Naruto chuckled, deciding to keep the little tidbit of information his contact had passed along to himself. Specifically how Blake's temperment and mannerisms were that of a quintessential catgirl... Hinata would find out soon enough that Blake and Kiba would likely get along as well as cats and dogs... literally.
"Well, next on the docket is Juane Arc... and frankly, you can take everything in here," he paused to wave another stack at Hinata, "and toss it in the wastebin." He handed over the papers and waited patiently for her to look them over.
As Hinata read through the packet, she became more and more impressed with what she saw. "I don't understand. This is a fantastic resume, Naruto!" She looked up at him with a small scowl. "Why would you want to pass him up?"
Naruto merely waggled a finger at her with a grin, leaned back into his chair and crossed his ankle over his knee. "First off, I never said anything about not hiring him. Quite the opposite, in fact. Secondly, while I know you're not from around here originally, I'm surprised the name didn't ring a bell. The Arc family are kind of a known entity locally."
Hinata knew of the Arc family, but that only served to further confuse Hinata. "If you weren't saying to not hire him, what did you mean?"
"Weeeellll... did you see his references?" A nod from Hinata. "I kind of went to school with this guy's older sisters, and from hanging around them, I know what kind of circles they tend to run in. Those names didn't jive, so I made a call to one of his sisters. Turns out that ninety percent of that," he pointed at the papers in her hand, "is complete bullshit. The name, age, contact information and the high school are correct, and that's it."
Hinata looked back down at the papers in her hand with a scowl and slowly mounting anger. He had lied about his qualifications? "Yet you want to hire him?" She glanced back up with a pointed glare. "Why?"
Naruto leaned forward and uncrossed his legs. "Because his sister told me the story of the failure known as Jaune Arc," he replied simply. "A boy with few friends, little talent, and no serious career prospects. A boy who kept messing up at the simplest of tasks and had no one to believe in him... not even his seven sisters or his parents. A boy whose only claim to notoriety was the sheer number of hours he put into his one passion: video games." Naruto finally sat up straight and stared directly into Hinata's eyes.
"A boy who swore to his parents that he would get a job doing what he loved and make a name for himself in the video game industry."
Hinata could only close her eyes and sigh. Of course it would be something like that. "I may have only lived here for a few years, Naruto, but even I've been here long enough to know that your own motto is not dissimilar to the Arc family's: 'An Arc never goes back on their word', wasn't it?" Naruto's grin was all the answer she received. "Very well, then," she began as she tossed the resume into the garbage bin sitting between them. "Let him prove himself under the guidance of someone just as stubborn as himself."
Naruto just leaned back, still grinning. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Hinata. I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got. I'll put him with Idate to start out with and go from there." Getting a nod from Hinata, he passed her the last packet. "Last, but not least is our very own Monkey King."
Hinata quirked an eyebrow and couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously? Sun Wukong?" She looked back at Naruto, who had a full blown fox grin on his face. "You double checked this is legit?"
"No joke, Hinata. Sun. Wukong. Either he came out of a fifteen hundred year long game of Hide and Seek to play video games for a living or his parents have a really weird sense of humor," Naruto joked while laughing. "That being said, his credentials all passed muster. No actual professional experience, but I peaked at his social media and Steam account achievements and he's got the skills and dedication to do the job."
"Hmm... blond, decent looking and, according to your notes, has a boisterous and friendly personality," Hinata drawled with a smirk.
Grin. "Ino?"
"Ino," Hinata agreed as she placed Sun's paperwork on her desk next to Blake's. "I take it that you plan to give them their initiation exam?"
"Yep~!" he responded instantly, using his hands as a headrest against the wall. "I even know exactly which one I'm going to be giving them."
"Do tell..." Hinata prodded, having a good idea exactly which test he was going to put to this particular trio.
"These three all strike me as solo players. Jaune has never had any support, so has never expected to get any at all. Blake probably knows all about working as a team, but with her personal life being as messed up as it is, she's even less likely to try to make new bonds or cause waves right out the gate. And Sun... well, Sun's the type to dive headfirst into a new game with the difficulty set to Hardcore just for the challenge. He won't opt for the 'easy' solution if a more challenging way to prove his superiority exists."
Hinata's grin was now downright predatory. "Oh, Naruto... The Bell Test? You're evil!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "Mind if I spectate?"
Naruto looked up at the clock to check the time. "Only if we're done here. I've got a hot date tonight. Real special event, you know?" he said with a wink to the woman across from him. "I mean, it's not every day that anniversaries roll around."
Hinata couldn't help but chuckle at her boyfriend's antics. "Very true, Naruto. You never did tell me what you had planned for us to do," she agreed as she stood from her desk, Naruto quickly doing the same. "Care to enlighten me?"
Saying nothing, Naruto walked to the door of her office leaned down and around the frame and stood back up holding a basket that he'd obviously left there before coming in. "Really? A picnic basket?"
Naruto just shrugged. "Why not? I figured we could head out behind the office to the gardens and have ourselves a picnic dinner while we enjoy the weather and watch the sunset. What'cha think?" he asked with a grin as he turned his side towards her and offered his arm for her to take.
XXXXXXXX
"You know that everyone with offices in the back of the building can see us, right?" asked an amused Hinata.
"Yeah, so? Let 'em look," he replied after taking a sip of wine. "It's a damn fine view."
Hinata had to agree as she took took a bite out her sandwich and looked towards the horizon across the gardens behind their office building. "True..."
"Besides," Naruto continued on. "This is first day of the summer that hasn't been outright sweltering. Someone up there must like me to make the weather perfect for an evening picnic." Saying so, he finished off a slice of apple and reached over to grab another half-sandwich from the tray on the blanket.
"It is nice to be able to step outside the building and not immediately break into a sweat..."
"Yeah, and..." Naruto stopped suddenly as a hand covered his own. Turning his head, his eyes widened as Hinata pressed her lips against his. Getting over his surprise, Naruto closed his eyes and deepened the kiss, responding in kind as their tongues sought access to the other's mouth.
As they seperated slightly, Hinata pressed her forehead against Naruto's. "It's perfect, Naruto. You don't have to be so worried or nervous. I love it. Thank you," she told him, pressing one more kiss against his lips before leaning back to her original position on her side of the blanket.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head with his free hand and chuckled in embarrasment. "Was I that obvious?"
Hinata's kind smile answered his. "Don't worry. Your tells are only obvious to me." She reached over to the tray and grabbed two half-sandwiches, handing one to Naruto. "Maybe to Sasuke and Sakura, too, but they don't count in this instance."
"Speaking of, can you believe they're getting married next month?" he asked, then took a bite of his food.
"Hmm..." she hummed softly. "They've been engaged a year and a half now. I'm honestly surprised they didn't get married sooner."
"Yeah, me too... but Sasuke wanted to have his own savings put aside beforehand. Nevermind the fact that his family is as loaded as yours and mine are and wouldn't even blink at fronting them the money to buy a house outright," Naruto griped good-naturedly as he polished off his food and washed it down with the rest of his wine. "He's too stubborn and proud for his own good, but I can't fault his work ethic or say that he doesn't have his heart in the right place."
"The same could be said about you, you know?" teased Hinata as she poked him in the side. He chuckled and playfully batted away her finger. "But seriously, have you put any thought into getting a bigger place yourself?" she asked, coming back to a conversation they'd had a number of times. While they tended to end up back at his apartment more often than not after their dates, it was invariably a bachelor pad. She was sure they were both invested in their relationship and were looking to eventually make it serious, but with her living in her family manor and Naruto living in a one bedroom apartment, talks of taking their relationship further than serious dating had been tentative at best.
"As a matter of fact..." Naruto drawled, intentionally looking towards the fading sun and not at Hinata. He could still feel her disbelieving gaze on him, however.
"Naruto...?"
"Found a nice three bedroom-two bathroom place about ten minutes from here, still in the suburbs and just off a main road. Mile from the police and fire stations and two blocks from a hospital with an emergency room. Sits on a half-acre lot with plenty of yard left over..."
He felt her shift and saw her turn her entire body towards him out of the corner of his eye. "How much is it? How would you afford the mortgage?" They both knew that Naruto could easily afford his apartment, but paying for a new house was a whole other beast.
"Weeelllll... about that..." he began, red beginning to darken his face.
"Narut-"
"Mom sort of... kind of... went and bought it for me already," he said, blush now readily apparent on his face. He then turned to finally face his girlfriend, who was staring, open-mouthed at him.
"I... thought you wanted to do the same thing as Sasuke and buy your own house," she said slowly, eyes looking all over his face, as if searching for clues to a mystery.
"I absolutely did... buuuut mom kind of forced my hand and left me with no choice but to let her buy it for me," Naruto explained as he reached behind himself into the picnic basket. "It was the only thing she would accept in exchange for missing out..."
"Missing ou-... No! Naruto!"
Naruto held out a small black velvet case, which he opened to reveal a silver ring with three diamonds. It was a very simple design, but elegant just the same.
"Hinata Hyuuga, will you marry me?"
XXXXXXXX
*click* *click* *click* *click*
*shuffle-shuffle*
*click* *click* *click* *click*
"Okay, I think that should be enough to satisfy his mom. I feel like a voyeur... but I got the important parts at the very least, with some decent action shots for flavor."
"I still can't believe that Kushina bought you a brand new telescopic lens just so you could take pictures of Naruto asking Hinata to marry him, Sasuke..."
"Sakura, I love you dearly, but you really need to stop underestimating what lengths Naruto's mom will go to when it comes to stuff like this."
XXXXXXXX
Jaune couldn't believe he was actually standing in front of Hidden Leaves Entertainment.
It was a huge surprise when his resume got him a callback, but he still couldn't believe that he'd passed his first interview and was now just a few steps away from keeping his promise. He glanced down at the letter in his hands and re-read it just to make sure he hadn't screwed up anything.
Mr. Arc,
Congratulations and welcome to Hidden Leaves Entertainment!
Your employee orientation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 27th at 8:00 A.M. at the address below. Food and drinks will be provided, so be sure to come hungry! Orientation is expected to last 4 hours, so come prepared!
Best Regards,
Naruto Uzumaki
Quality Assurance Team Lead
Jaune quickly checked his watch. 7:52 A.M. Just in time!
'Calm down, Juane. You've come this far. Don't get cold feet now!'
Taking a deep breath, he walked to the door and pulled it open.
XXXXXXXX
The three Quality Assurance Team Leads were sitting together in their meeting room, watching the security video feed for the lobby to the forefront of the large screen mounted on the wall. Off to the side was a smaller video feed to another room where a pale black-haired woman and tanned blond man were sitting at a table, the woman reading a book with a green cover completely ignoring whatever the man was saying. By the looks of it, the man was either trying to make small talk, or straight up hitting on the woman.
"There's the last one," pointed out Ino as a tall blond man let himself into the building and made a bee line for the front desk. She took one last long sip of her coffee, then chucked it at the garbage bin by the door. "Time for me to shine! You love birds behave yourselves now!" she chirped happily at the blushing pair as she sashayed out of the door.
Naruto sighed and shook his head. "It's going to be weeks before she even starts to let up a little bit."
Hinata giggled in response. "It could be worse, Naruto. Kushina could have e-mailed those pictures to everyone in our teams."
"Thank God for small mercies!" They both shared a laugh as Ino exited the elevator on the screen and made her way over to greet their new hire. Her personality seemed to be a bit much for Mr. Arc to handle and it was apparent that Ino was turning him into a stuttering mess, despite his best efforts. "She's really enjoying herself with this one, isn't she?"
"Why shouldn't she? It's not like she can make anyone on our teams a stuttering mess anymore," Hinata pointed out. "They're all innured to her antics at this point."
"True... true. And there they go. Okay, I'm off to prep the consoles and grab some food before picking up the newbies. You mind setting up the feeds so that the troops can watch the fun?" he stood and asked his fiance with a grin.
"Sure thing," she replied as she stood as well. "Give them hell, love." She reached up and pulled Naruto down for a short kiss before letting go and giving him a wink. "Good luck, have fun, don't die!"
"Ha! Never going to happen!"
XXXXXXXX
Jaune was bored. No scratch that. Jaune was bored and hungry. And going by the demeanors of his fellow new hires, they were, too. Well, at least Sun was. Blake seemed to be plenty entertained by whatever it was that she was reading if her expression was anything to go by. After Jaune had been shown into the room by that very good looking woman, he had introduced himself to the people that were already there. Sun seemed to be the outgoing sort, but Blake had simply given him a curt greeting and then paid him absolutely no further attention.
The letter had said that there would be food and drink provided and that their orientation would begin at 8, but so far they'd just been shoved into a room and left waiting. That had been almost three hours ago...
Realizing that there was nothing he could do about his hunger without leaving and giving up his opportunity, he decided to at least relieve his boredom. He decided to turn his attention to the monitor on the wall of the room and actually read what was being displayed. It seemed to be a few informational notices and what looked like a High Score board of some sort. Jaune stood up from his seat and wandered over to get a better look as it continued to cycle through.
As it came back around to the score board again, he acted on a hunch and reached up to touch the screen. The Pause symbol suddenly displayed itself along the bottom of the screen and the display stopped cycling. "Huh... nifty." He then started to read.
BELL TEST RESULTS
KUSS 9,534,000
ASKI 7,238,000
KHST 6,852,000
STOJ 5,917,000
"What are you doing?"
Jaune turned away from the screen and saw that it was Blake who had asked the question, her attention no longer on her book. Instead she was focused on him with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh... well, the scoar board caught my attention and I got curious, so..."
"You're not concerned about possibly getting in trouble for touching things you know nothing about?" she asked sharply, eyes narrowing.
"Hey, hey! Ease up, kitty cat!" Sun said with a bright smile and hands giving a 'calm down' motion. "It's not like he broke anything. Besides! It is a touch screen."
"That's beside the point," she retorted, turning her glare on the other blond. "And call me 'kitty cat' again and shove that eye-watering tie down your throat!"
Now that Jaune really looked at them, Blake's bow did kind of look like cat ears... and Sun's bright orange tie was rather... bright.
"And anyway, that score board probably has nothing to do with us, so you're just wasting your time," she shot, waving her hand dismissively towards Jaune and the screen. He wanted to retort, but before he could the door to the room opened up, drawing all of their attention.
"Hey you three! Good to meet you all!" exclaimed the tall blond man... holding a coffee mug and eating a doughnut! "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, one of the Quality Assurance Team Leads, and I'll be giving you all your initiation exams today!" he said before taking a bite of his pastry and washing it down with delicious smelling coffee. "Now, before we get started, does anyone have any questions for me?"
Sun was the first to raise his hand and spoke up when Naruto gestured to him with his mug. "Yeah, hi! I'm Sun Wukong, nice to meet you. So, uh, there was supposed to be food and stuff? Like... hours ago? What happened with that?" he asked, with both Jaune and Blake nodding in agreement.
"Wait," Naruto began, confusion on his face. "There weren't doughnuts and coffee in here?" Everyone shook their heads. "Hold that thought."
The Team Lead then leaned back into the hallway and called out, "Hey, CHOUJI!"
"YEAH?!" came the reply from in the distance.
"Whose turn was it to buy food for the newbies?!"
"Uuuuhhhhhhhhhh... Pretty sure it was yours, Naruto!"
"Seriously?! Shit... Alright, thanks Chouji!"
Naruto then turned his attention back to the trio in the room with him. "Soooo, yeah... I kind of dropped the ball on that one guys. My bad!" he said with a bashful grin... as he finished off his doughnut and, again, washed it down with his coffee. "Okay, so any other questions before we begin?"
He was met with three angry glares.
"Excellent! So if there aren't any more questions, just follow me to the exam room and we'll get this started!" Naruto explained as he turned around and started walking down the hallway. Blake, Sun and Jaune exchanged glances quickly before following the focus of their ire away from the room they'd been stuck in for three hours.
A short walk later had them entering a room with Testing Center on the door. Upon reading the words, Blake turned and gave Jaune a funny look before shaking her head and entering the room after Naruto. In the Testing Center were four old fashioned AV carts with TVs, consoles of some sort, headsets, and what was assumed to be the controls for said consoles. The carts were the kind that every public school in the country used to use on days the actual teacher was out and the substitute declared it 'movie day'.
Jaune wouldn't be surprised if he were to find the name of one of the local schools written somewhere on the cart were he to take a closer look.
"Okay, you three!" Naruto began after polishing off his beverage and placing the empty mug on the cart furthest from the door. The four carts were set up facing back to back in four different directions and there were gaming chairs set in front of each cart. Naruto grabbed the controller and headset from the cart nearest to him and sat in the chair in front of the cart. "Pick a console, grab the controller and headset and have a seat. I'll explain the rules once everyone's settled."
Blake and Sun chose the seats on either side of Naruto, leaving the console directly across from Naruto as Jaune's only choice. As he sat down with the required items, he realized that he could see Naruto through the gap underneath the top platform of the cart. "Everyone good to go? Good."
Naruto pressed something on his controller and the screen in front of him sprang to life.
BELL TEST
BEGIN TEST
WARM UP
EXIT TEST
"Welcome to the Bell Test. This is a heavily modded port of a very popular FPS game that Hidden Leaves Entertainment uses to test... unique teams upon initiation to the company," Naruto explained as he stood from his chair and moved over to the counter along the back wall of the room behind where he was sitting. "I will state this plainly so that everyone understands it up front: HLE has a very unique and firm stance on our teams. You three will be playing as a team against myself. Your objective will be to kill my character in order to obtain a Bell. Each of your characters are unique. They have different skills, special abilities, and statistics from each other and my own character. I will warn you now," he said, taking the time to look each of them in the eye. "If you do not come at me with everything you've got, you will fail."
"Fail...?"
Jaune realized that the question had come from himself involuntarily.
"Yes, Mister Arc. Fail." Naruto's piercing blue eyes drilled into him from across the room. "Failure means that you leave through that door behind you, keep walking until you're out of the building, and never return."
Jaune felt all the blood leave his face as he realized that this was his one and only shot to succeed. Failure meant going back home and admitting defeat... and breaking his promise.
"How, exactly, do we fail, sir?" asked Sun from Jaune's right.
Naruto nodded and answered the younger blond's question. "My character is carrying two bells at the begining of the game. If you kill my character, your character will then be carrying a bell. Killing any player that is carrying a bell will then transfer that bell to yourself. The same rule applies to me: I can kill one of you carrying a bell to take it back. Anyone that doesn't have a bell at the end of the game... fails."
Blake and Sun's gazes hardened while Jaune blanched further. This was not how he thought his day would go...
"So to clarify," Blake began, drawing Sun and Jaune's attention. "Only two of the three of us can pass this test." Naruto merely inclined his head slightly with a neutral expression on his face.
'But then why put us on a team in the first place? It just defeats the point of being on a team if we're forced to fight over who gets the bells at the end!' Jaune thought to himself.
"Don't forget, however, that none of you may pass, as well, Miss Belladonna. After all," he said, pausing for a moment. "This exam has a sixty-six percent fail rate."
Blake give a fierce grin to the older man. "I don't think that'll be an issue."
Naruto gave her a baleful look in return. "We shall see, Miss Belladonna, won't we? Now!" He clapped his hands together, surprising all three of them. "I need to grab a few things from the other room. While I'm gone, go ahead and use the time to Warm Up, familiarize yourselves with your characters, and talk amongst yourselves. I'll be back in just a few minutes."
Having said that, Naruto walked passed Blake and Jaune and exited the room.
XXXXXXXX
"How are they holding up?" Naruto asked as he popped his head into the meeting room. The entire Quality Assurance team was spread throughout the room watching the large monitor on the wall. He could hear the three new hires' voices coming out of the speakers along the walls as they spoke to each other using the noise-canceling gaming headsets to talk to each other. It wasn't friendly banter or planning, either.
Shikamaru turned away from the computer he was sitting at and gave Naruto a bland look. "About as well as you expected. Sun basically told them to stay out of his way and Blake is pretty much ignoring the other two completely."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "And Jaune?"
Shikamaru grimaced slightly. "He's getting a handle on the controls well enough... but I had to mute his audio. He's apparently having a mini panic attack."
Naruto sighed. "Yeah, I thought that might happen. Let's hope they pull it together, then. You ready to make my character the most ninja-like futuristic supersoldier in the world?"
A quick thumbs up from the lazy man confirmed that he was ready with the cheats. "Kiba, you ready to provide overwatch for me?"
Kiba turned away from his computer with a feral grin. "Ready to roll, dude!"
"Excellent! Be sure to let me know if they actually get their acts together and figure out what they're supposed to be doing. I've got the box lunches ready here, so I'll see you guys on the flip side!" Naruto yelled as he slipped out of the room again.
A barked laugh followed him down the hall. "Dude, you are so mean!"
XXXXXXXX
Jaune's mouth was watering and his stomach was protesting loudly as Naruto placed the two boxed lunches on the counter behind his gaming chair. As he turned back to the trio, he smiled evilly at them. "All right, prep time is over. Return to the main menu." Jaune sighed as he navigated the menu and returned to the starting screen.
As the older blond took his seat and got comfortable, he continued. "Since I messed up this morning with the catering, I went and prepared some boxed lunches for those of you who pass. Those who fail... well, if you fail, then you're not my problem anymore, now are you?"
Jaune gulped.
Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bedside alarm clock, pulled up on the tab and placed it on the ground in front of him. "This clock is set for noon. You have until the alarm goes off to get a bell."
He then placed his headset over his ears and pressed a button on his controller. "Ready up!"
Jaune selected BEGIN TEST and gave a silent prayer to the aether.
XXXXXXXX
"Dammit! I'm so sick of his damn teleportation! Stay still, asshole!"
"Crap! How'd he get behind me?!"
"Bullshit, that was definitely a headshot!"
XXXXXXXX
Naruto could barely hear the other people in the room with him as they were cursing him, but he made sure to listen for Kiba's warnings and watch all three of them to see if any of them figured out the secret to the test on their own.
Blake and Sun were very focused on their screens. They were also the most vehement in their curses. Jaune, however... Naruto glanced back at his screen and sidestepped a rocket, returned fire with a sniper rifle, then jumped off the cliff he was on to perform an aerial assassination on the unmoving character below him.
Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly. "Shika, unmute Jaune and see if he tries to get the other's attention. I think he's figuring it out."
"Then he's cutting it really close..."
XXXXXXXX
'Why the hell would he put us on a team and then force us to compete against each other?! It doesn't make any sense!'
Jaune ignored the game as his character respawned from yet another death. He was focused on something more important. Namely, figuring out the real purpose of this test.
FPSs were Jaune's bread and butter. In a fair match, Jaune put better than even odds on himself coming out of it with at least a 1:1 Kill-Death Ratio. More than thirty deaths a piece and not a single kill to their name? That was bullshit.
It was glaringly obvious within the first few minutes of the game that Naruto was using dev cheats to ROFLStomp the three of them into submission. However, it wasn't clear if the others had figured that little bit out for themselves yet. Probably not, considering they were both continuing to act like they actually had a chance against Naruto and would magically pull a rabbit out of their asses to pull off a win.
Jaune tore his eyes away from the screen and looked directly at Naruto. After a few seconds, Naruto met his gaze... and merely quirked an eyebrow at him as he pulled the trigger, sending a sniper round through Jaune's character's head.
'Son. Of. A. Bitch!'
"Blake. Sun. Listen up!"
"Unless you're going to say 'I'm sorry I suck so badly', I don't actually give a fuck right now!"
"What she said, dude! Quit your yapping and let me concenrate on killing this asshole!"
"Damn it, you two! Listen to me a second! I think I know wha-"
""SHUT UP!""
Both Blake and Sun finally tore their eyes from their screens to give Jaune death glares before going back to the game.
XXXXXXXX
"Nar-"
"Don't worry. I saw it first hand, Shika. Kill the cheats, okay? I need to make a point."
XXXXXXXX
"Woo! That's what I'm fucking talking about! Got one, baby~!"
"And I've got number two!"
Jaune could hear the voices of his "teammates" in stereo. After telling him to shut up, Jaune had simply shaken his head, put down his controller, pulled the headsets down around his neck and put his face into his hands to wait for it all to be over.
*bee-bee-bee-beep* *bee-bee-bee-beep* *click*
"Time's up."
"Aww, yeah! Photo finish! That's what I'm talking about!"
"Hmph. I knew I would find a way to pull through."
"Congratulations. You all fail."
""WHAT?!""
Jaune sighed into his hands. He knew it. This test was never about getting the bells at all.
"What do you mean 'fail'?! I got the stupid bell like I was supposed to before time was up!"
"I don't understand, Mister Uzumaki. Sun and I completed the objective. Why is it that we failed?"
Jaune heard the sound of something brushing against fabric.
"Mister Arc, would you care to tell the class why everyone failed this exam?"
Jaune didn't even bother to raise his head. Gods, he was so damned tired and hungry. He just wanted to go home, eat a big lunch and crawl into a hole. This day had just gotten worse and worse as it went on.
"Because the exam was never about getting the bells in the first place. This wasn't supposed to be a test of skill. This was our Kobayashi Maru."
To his right, he could hear Sun's 'Huh?', but to his left, Blake's quick gasp and curse told him that she finally understood.
"Miss Belladonna, if this was not a test of skill, what was it a test of?"
"...Teamwork."
"Correct. Teamwork. And here I was thinking that it would be you that figured it out first. After all, you already have three years of QA experience under your belt. You should know better than most." Naruto's pointed statement was met with silence from Blake. "Of the three of you, only Mister Arc even attempted to look underneath the underneath. While you berated him for his supposed lack of skill, he was following his gut instinct, figuring out the meta, and attempting to puzzle together the true purpose of the exam. And when he finally did figure it out and attempted to tell you..."
"We didn't listen to him," Sun said, sadly. Nothing but silence came from his left.
"We have a saying here at Hidden Leaves Entertainment: 'Those who don't follow the rules are trash...' Mister Arc... at the end there, you put down the controller. Why?"
Jaune gave a mirthless laugh and raised his head to look Naruto in the eye. "'A strange game; the only winning move is not to play.'"
Naruto gave him a smile. "That movie is a bit before your time, isn't it?"
"Does it make it any less true?" he shot back.
"No, I suppose it doesn't." Naruto leaned his head back against the headrest of his chair and closed his eyes. After a minute of complete silence in the room, "One more chance. No dev cheats. No overwatch from on high. Just a 3v1 against an overpowered character in the hands of the guy who created the mod in the first place... with you all trying to get the bells. If you're able to get them in the first place, you'll have to decide who stays and who goes on your own."
Jaune gave a short sigh as he moved to put the headset back in place. "But first, it's lunch time," Naruto continued, causing Jaune to freeze. "I know I said that the boxed lunches were for those of you who passed, but if they don't get eaten soon, they'll just go to waste. So instead, Mister Wukong and Miss Belladonna, since you managed to each get a bell before the end of the test, you each may take one lunch box to eat. Since Mister Arc chose to break the rules and give up completely, he gets no lunch at all."
'Of course...' Jaune could only nod and sigh.
"I'll be going back to my desk to eat my own lunch. You have thirty minutes to eat and prepare for the make-up exam. When I come back, we'll try again." Naruto put down his controller and stood up. "Oh, and if either of you tries to feed Mister Arc, you immediately give up your second chance. I'll fail you all on the spot."
"What? That's not fair to h-" Blake began.
"LIFE ISN'T FAIR!" Naruto turned to the girl and stared her down. "Something that I'm sure you are well aware of, Miss Belladonna. I'm the one in charge here and my word is law in this room! Remember: 'Those who don't follow the rules are trash...' You want I should kick you all to the curb?"
Silence met his question. He walked to the door and opened it. "Thirty minutes."
*ka-clunk*
XXXXXXXX
"Too much?"
"No... I think that was just the perfect amount of asskicking needed. Standby. Hinata wants to say something."
...
"Naruto?"
"Yeah, Hina-hun?"
"You were absolutely right. Ichiraku is on me tonight."
"Yeeeeesssssss~!"
*giggle* "Now go get into position. They're just finishing up their apologies."
XXXXXXXX
"I get it, already, you two. Really I do, but as hungry as I am, I don't want to throw away our last chance at this. I'll be fine, honest."
"And I already said, 'fuck that,' Jaune! If we'd have listened to you, we might have actually stood a chance from the get-go. If you can figure out all that crap while being tired, cranky, and starving, I really want to see how you function fully fueled, dude!"
"He's right, Jaune. I was too stubborn to listen and I let my previous experience go to my head. Of the three of us, I think you were the only one who really passed that test, bells be damned."
"Blake... Sun... Thank you... but seriously, I can't do it."
"Look, dude. Either we are all eating or we are all going hungry, but whatever you decide, we're doing this as a team, got it?"
"I agree with Sun. We're doing this together this time. Fuck his rules. And besides, I already checked the hallway. He's nowhere nearby. If nothing else, just take a few bites from each of our boxes so that you can get some blood sugar going."
"...*sigh* Okay. Let's do this quick, though. We still need to take the time to plan what we're doing this time."
"That's what I'm talking about! Here, dude! First bite's yours!"
"Here, mine, too. You earned it."
"Thanks guys." *chomp* *chomp* "Oh, that's sooooo good..." *gulp*
*SLAM*
"YOOOOU!"
"Shit!"
"Ah!"
"Dude, WTF?!"
Naruto stormed into the room, headsets hanging around his neck and rage in his eyes.
"Just like that, huh? I'm gone for five minutes and you just go and break the rules?! After I graciously gave you all a second chance?! What do you all have to say for yourselves?!"
"Mister Uzumaki, it's my fault! Don't fail Blake and Sun! I was the one who convinced them to give me the food!"
"What?! Bullshit, dude! We had to convince you! There's no way I'm letting you take the fall for this! Dude, Naruto! Let Blake and Jaune pass! I was way to much of a Try Hard in that test anyway!"
"Not going to happen, you two. You guys have a lot of potential and I'm not going to let that go to waste because of my own stupidity! I've got work experience under my belt that I can use to get another job. Mister Uzumaki, fail me instead. Jaune was the one that figured it all out in the first place and Sun is a quick study and will make a great addition to your team."
"No, Blak-"
"Uh-uh, Kitty Cat."
"Guys, just shut up an-"
"Is that your final answer? All three of you are willing to give up your slot for the other two?"
"Yes, sir."
"Absolutely, boss man."
"Without a second thought."
"...In that case, YOU ALL... Pass."
"""WHAAAAT?!"""
"You pass," said Naruto with a glowing smile. Jaune turned to look at Blake and Sun, only to see them just as confused as himself.
"But... why?" he ventured.
Naruto walked back across the room and sat back in his chair, the three of them turning their chairs so they could all see him.
"When I told you that saying earlier, I didn't tell you the whole thing," he explained with a very large grin. "At Hidden Leaves Entertainment, teamwork and passion for what we do has put us on the same playing field with the likes of Electronic Arts and Square-Enix. When it comes to our work, we all follow the same motto: 'Those who don't follow the rules are trash... but those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash!'"
Jaune, Blake and Sun all gasped with wide eyes.
"In the Quality Assurance Department, you will be a part of a team. You will see these people every day. Sometimes even days at a time in close proximity. Our teammates are our friends. They are our family. If you do your absolute best, your team will always have your back, even if your best isn't enough. If you do your utmost to improve, your Team Lead will go to bat for you with our Director, regardless of the situation or mistake. But most importantly, if you promise me right here, right now, that I will never again see that same blatant disregard for your teammates that I saw today, regardless of the repercussions to yourself, I will personally promise each of you that I will have your back all the way up to our CEO, Tsunade Senju. Can you make that promise?"
Three nods, two blonds with tears in their eyes, and one face covered by wavy, raven-colored hair.
"Yes, sir. I promise it on the Arc family name!"
"Never again, dude. I promise."
"I promise, sir. No more running and no more pushing away."
"In that case, my own promise stands. And Naruto Uzumaki never goes back on his word! Congratulations, Team BANS, on passing the Bell Test. Your score will be updated on the score board by tomorrow morning."
"Team..."
""BANS?""
Naruto laughed at their expressions of confusion. "Yep~! Team BANS. Blake Belladonna, Jaune Arc, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sun Wukong. The Bell Test is only ever taken as a group of four and, again, only for very unique teams. Accordingly, teams that pass are given fun little team names and given a place on the score board that Jaune noticed in the waiting room. Ours is BANS."
"Okay, that's actually pretty clever."
"I'll say! We brought the BANS hammer! Eh? Eh?!"
"Oh, gods... I thought I was done with puns after Yang enlisted..."
"Heh! You guys are going to fit in just fine. C'mon, you lot. We've got a party set up in the meeting room and the team is eager to meet you all."
XXXXXXXX
"12,854,000 points, huh?"
"You think they'll be crushed when they realize that the score is based off of how many deaths they had and the amount of time it took them to figure out the secret of the test?"
"You going to tell them?"
"Nope... too troublesome. Let someone else get their kicks. I think Chouji would be best."
"Chouji? Why him?"
"You didn't hear what that Wukong kid said during his ranting on comms, did you?"
"Oh, no... He used the F word?"
"Uh huh..."
"HA! Poor bastards... I'll go let Chouji know that he's got the right of first refusal."
XXXXXXXX
Author's Note
XXXXXXXX
And that's a wrap! For those of you not in the know (SERIOUSLY?! How could you not be in the know?!), the three characters that sort of take center stage in this final chapter (after the fluffy NaruHina goodness) are from the show RWBY by Rooster Teeth. I wasn't expecting to make this a cameo crossover, but I couldn't think of anyone else in Naruto canon that I could really make work with those scenes. So, instead I pulled from a new fandom that I've really taken a shine to.
To the RWBY fans out there, I know that Sun doesn't go around saying "dude" all the time, but he always struck me as the quintessential surfer-bro. So that's pretty much how I wrote him, except with gaming terms tossed in for good measure. That aside, I hope I was able to write Blake and Jaune well enough to pass muster. Let me know how I did in the comments!
Originally, this chapter was going to pick up right where the last chapter left off: with Naruto and Hinata taking a trip to "meet the family" on Christmas Eve, where Sasuke would be proposing to Sakura in front of both of their families. However, I just wasn't able to get those scenes to come together the way I wanted to in my head. So instead I took a step back and brought the focus back to where it all began: At Hidden Leaves Entertainment's Quality Assurance Department. I think it was a lot more fun and entertaining to write than it was the other way.
It honestly felt like I was continually bashing my head against the wall with that subplot. So I cut out the meat of it, and put it back in as backstory. I think it flowed pretty well, but I was a little sad that the NaruHina fluff was as short as it was. I just couldn't keep it going for some reason. *shrug* Oh, well. Some things just can't be helped.
ANYWAY!
This brings Secret Santa to a close. It also happpens to be the very first fic that I've completed to my satisfaction! Not going to lie, this last chapter was a lot of fun to write... and I might even make a one-shot or two at a later date if I'm feeling froggy enough.
Looking forward to writing the next story! Ja-ne!
"Even if the author is silenced, the performance is stopped, the story will not end.
Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy, if there is cheering, the story will continue on.
Just like the many lives.
For the us who are still in it and still in the journey, send warm blessings.
-We will continue to walk down this path until eternity."
~Fate/Stay Night - True Ending (Realta Nua)~
