Jinchuuriki

by Resurrection of the Forgotten

Landing one last blow on Madara Uchiha at the end of the war Naruto finds himself waking up in a world he doesn't understand. Trapped in the MMORPG Sword Art Online Naruto soon discovers that he isn't the only one stuck within the game against his will. Now he will help liberate them from Aincard by conquering all 100 floors.

4. Chapter 3

AN: I am so sorry that this took so long to update. At this point it has to have been more than a year since I posted the second chapter to this fic sadly life in general has kept me busy. It has been 3 months since my last update. The only consolation I have is that this chapter turned out being the longest chapter for this fic to date. Now I seriously wish that I could promise that it won't be so long until my next chapter sadly one never knows what will happen.

Any ways enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, Sword Art Online, or anything else that may or may not appear in this fic.

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Chapter 3: The Blacksmith and the Information Broker

"Talking"
'Thinking'
(Author's Note)

Monsters were dispatched by the party of three as they made their way to the first town on the Second Floor of Aincard falling to Asuna's rapier, Kirito's sword, or Naruto's kunai or shuriken. Neither player voiced it but as they watched Naruto fight off whatever monster appeared without an actual weapon they wondered at the kind of life he must have lived, the challenges that he had to have faced to never hesitate when a creature could skewer you at any moment and end your life, and if they could have possibly lived in such a world, as they were now they really doubted it. While the threat of death was real for all of them it was more real for Naruto as one hit in the wrong place would see him killed instantly instead of his health bar dropping a few points.

Kirito also felt a sense of guilt deep within him as he fought alongside the other two as he recalled the first friend he made within SAO back in the Town of Beginning on the day they discovered that they trapped within the game. Klein was a player with spiked up red hair held in place by the ugliest bandana Kirito had seen in his life, but Klein seemed to be fond of, the beginning of facial hair along his chin that gave him an unkempt look. His armor while the standard wear looked almost like that belonging to a just flourishing samurai, which was funny because his avatars features fit it perfectly before Kayaba changed everyone's appearance to what they really looked like in real life. He looked a few years older than Kirito and quite a few inches taller. Despite their difference in age the love for MMORPG's formed a bond between them that saw the normally antisocial Kirito considering the man a friend.

But when it came time to leave the Town of Beginnings after Kayaba's announcement Kirito had abandoned his friend. Klein had logged onto SAO with the full intention of meeting up with some friends from a previous game and though Kirito offered to lead Klein safely to the next town, so that they could get a small advantage over the other players that remained shocked in the town square, Klein refused to leave his friends behind. But the idea of leading even one more person in the death game and being responsible for their lives had been too much pressure and too much responsibility on the off chance that they could die while Kirito was leading them. So the two split ways with the promise of meeting up again at a later date.

Now Kirito found himself partied with two other players, referring to Naruto as anything but another player would just be too much of a hassle, who had never played an online game like SAO in their lives. He wondered what made them so different when not even a month ago, not even a few days ago; he wasn't willing to party with a group of veteran players. Just watching them for a few seconds revealed what made them so different.

Asuna was faster than anyone with just a month of experience playing their first MMORPG had the right to have, Kirito had known hardcore gamers that wouldn't have been able to accomplish what she had with only a month, despite their circumstances. At times Kirito still found himself in awe of the orange-brown haired girl as she moved almost gracefully around monsters like it came naturally to her. It wouldn't surprise him at all if Asuna took dance lessons back in the real world. What he was more in awe of was how quickly the girl picked things up as he only had to go over things briefly with her before she understood them when they were making their way to Illfang's lair, making him wonder if she wasn't some type of genius.

With Naruto it wasn't so hard to determine what set him apart from everyone else. If his story was to be believed, and Kirito found little reason not to, since he was a kid Naruto had been trained to fight, to survive, and as much as he didn't want to think about it to kill. For Naruto going from his world to SAO mustn't have been too much of a big difference, unlike all other players trapped in SAO who probably never had to fight for their lives. Along with the skills the blonde trained over the years to obtain and the jutsu he possessed he was years ahead of anyone else in the game. Though the fight with the First Floor Boss proved that Naruto was anything but' invincible.

That still didn't explain what caused Kirito to so easily to continue to lead them across the Second Floor.

"Hey what's the matter with you?" Naruto asked Kirito bluntly as he noticed how deep in thought the black haired swordsman seemed to be.

"Huh? Oh it's nothing." Kirito answered coming out of his thoughts about his two party members to notice that they were close to the first and main town of the Second Floor, Urbus. "Looks like we're here," He declared obviously.

"Yup," Naruto agreed wholeheartedly. "Let's check this place out!" The shinobi said excitedly.

Kirito gave Naruto an hesitant grin. "While that sounds like fun," The swordsman began. "We should probably go to the Weapons Shop first and get you a new sword." He advised. "Afterwards we should head to the Armor shop. They probably won't have anything all that better than what you could get on the First Floor shops but it never hurts to check." Kirito finished.

Naruto blinked a couple times owlishly before threw a fox like grin Kirito's way as he scratched the back of his head. "Oh right, that's what I was going to do." The shinobi claimed.

"Right," Kirito dragged out unbelievingly. Even with the couple of days that he has known Naruto, Kirito realized when the cerulean eyed teen was excited about something he could get forgetful and careless to the point that it could be mistaken for stupidity.

Asuna couldn't help but giggle a little at Naruto's antics. Naruto was a bit of a mystery to the hazel eyed girl. She couldn't quite understand how he could be so serious one moment and carefree the next. She supposed it had something to do with the way he grew up. Either way she was grateful for his easy going personality as some the stories he told of the pranks he pulled made her laugh and made her feel that she was hanging out with a couple of new friends she had made and not trapped in a virtual world. When she was aware of her situation she wasn't as worried because the confidence Naruto projected was so great that Asuna couldn't help but believe for herself that they would conquer all 100 Floors of Aincard. Whatever monster they came across there wasn't an ounce of hesitance within Naruto when they faced it.

'You can see it in his eyes.' Asuna decided, having caught her-self staring into his cerulean blue eyes more than once. 'No matter what we face Naruto believes completely that we can win.'

"What are you laughing at Asuna?" Naruto questioned the girl next, taking her hand in his and proceeded to lead her away deeper into the town.

"Hey hold on a sec!" Kirito called after the two, noticing that Asuna made absolutely no attempt to free herself of Naruto's grasp and was actually laughing a bit more as the shinobi led her into the town. "You don't know where the Weapons Shop is!" He pointed out as he rushed to catch up with the two before Naruto ended up taking them all across the town.

…

"Alright we've finally gotten that taken care of," Kirito muttered. Naruto had ended taking them in the completely opposite direction from where Kirito knew the best Weapons Shop to be located in the town. After catching up to them he took them to the Weapons Shop and then to the Armor shop where Naruto got himself a new vest, but that was mostly for the new shirt that came with it as he immediately put his Anbu vest back on since it offered better protection. "Do you really need all those swords?" Kirito questioned Naruto. The number of swords that Naruto had bought at the Weapons Shop was ridiculous and left the two other players surprised by the sheer number.

"Yup," Naruto replied fixing the sword that he had strapped on his back, the sword obstructing the word Jinchuuriki a bit. "Regular swords break easily when I use them, it might be a side effect of my being here. A rare sword might do better, but until I get one I need to stock pile on these." He told them.

"How many swords have you broken already?" Asuna asked curiously.

"I don't know," Naruto said shrugging his shoulders. "50?" He guessed.

"Seriously," Kirito mumbled, getting Naruto to shrug his shoulders again in response. "Well ignoring that, it's getting pretty late so we should think about finding a place to stay."

"Is there an inn close to here?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, there is." Kirito answered after thinking about it for a second as he got another idea. "But I just remembered about this quest outside of the city that we can do. It's not so hard and the reward is to stay in this farm house. It might not seem like much but at least we won't be bothered by other players and the farm house has a bath that we could use." He told them.

In the blink of an eye Asuna was standing in front of him, her hands holding his arms, as her face came in close. "Did you say a bath?" The hazel eyed girl asked seriously.

"Y-yes ma'am," Kirito replied, somewhat fearfully, uncomfortable with the intense look in Asuna's eye and her being so close to him so suddenly.

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Asuna demanded. "Let's get going!" She all but ordered. Taking a proper bath was something that Asuna had seriously missed since being trapped in SAO.

"R-right," Kirito said with a small awkward smile, his eyes closed. Naruto was smart enough not to say anything having past experience with similar situations with Sakura and standing between something she wanted.

As they were walking to where the NPC that would assign them the quest was located Naruto couldn't help but look around at all the players already within the city. "There sure are a lot of people here already." Naruto commented. Some of the people he spotted he didn't even recognize as being part of the Raid Group that had fought Illfang. In fact he hadn't seen so many other players since Kayaba explained everything back in the Town of Beginning.

"They probably got word from the others that the First Floor was cleared and used the teleportation gate in the Town of Beginning to get here." Kirito explained for Naruto's benefit, as he too looked at the other players that gathered noting the faint looks of hope that some carried.

"Teleportation gate?" The shinobi questioned.

"Yeah," The black-haired swordsman replied. "It's a quick way to move between the floors without having to go through every dungeon or floor just to get to the ones higher up or at the lower levels. Of course that only works after the Floor Boss is defeated and the next floor is opened." Kirito told him, as he pointed to the general direction that the teleportation gate was located from his experience in the Beta Test.

"I think I get it." Naruto muttered with his arms crossed in front of him and a thoughtful look on his face.

"Don't worry you'll catch on soon enough." Kirito assured the blonde, having to remind himself that despite the fact that Naruto could pull up information from the internet and the skills he possessed he still was new to MMORPG$s in general.

Their conversation was cut off when they heard an angry shout from a nearby male player. "WHAT KIND BULLSHIT IS THIS?!" The player demanded. Turning to the source they spotted one player holding up a much shorter player up by his shirt.

"What's going on?" Asuna asked curiously starring at the scene, like a lot of other players, which was happening a few feet away.

"I'm not…" Kirito began before he spotted the small rug, anvil and hammer, and sign that said Nezha's Blacksmith. "He's a Blacksmith." Kirito figured.

"Blacksmith? What is a Blacksmith doing here?" Naruto questioned. Blacksmiths were common in the Elemental Nations so it's not like he didn't know who they were, but what he didn't know was what the purpose of one was within the game.

"Blacksmith is a skill that can developed' in the game." Kirito started, "They create, maintain, and enhance weapons and certain items if they are brought the right material. This isn't a certain thing and there is a chance of some problem happening while it is being enhanced, I'm guessing that's what happened to that guy and why he's so mad." The swordsman figured, as the three watched some of the player's friends start to pull him away from who they could only figure to be Nezha. "Anyway we should get going before it gets too late." Kirito finished as they all left.

…

After accepting the quest from the farmer NPC, Kirito lead Naruto and Asuna to where the quest was to take place.

"Ok so the quest is pretty simple," Kirito began reminding the other two of what they had to do. "All we have to do is defeat some Wind Wasps to complete the quest." He stated looking at the wasp monsters that littered the area.

"Seems easy enough," Asuna commented rapier at the ready.

"The quest is not all that hard." Kirito admitted again. "It doesn't offer much in the way of experience or Col with the only real reward is the chance to stay in the farm house, though the Wind Wasps kind of make up for it with the experience you get for defeating one. But it's perfect quest for a couple of newbies."

"Newbies huh?" Asuna muttered as he gave the black haired boy a light glare. "So do you think you're better than us?" She asked him dangerously.

"I didn't say that." Kirito hastily said recognizing the possible danger that he was in. He looked to Naruto for some possible help, maybe even distracting Asuna with telling her a story about a prank he pulled back home she seemed to enjoy those, but all the shinobi did was give him a pitying look.

"But you definitely implied it." The orange-brown haired girl pointed out.

"Can we not make a big deal about this?" The swordsman almost begged.

"No let's," Asuna countered. "A bet, first one that beats 50 Wind Wasps wins." The female player stated.

The swordsman looked completely unsure if should take the bet, "And what happens to the person who loses?" Kirito asked tentatively.

"Simple," Asuna answered. "The one who loses has to pay for dinner for the winner and Naruto." She said.

"Me?" Naruto pointed to himself dumbly. "I'm not going to be part of the bet?" He asked.

"No," Asuna said shaking her head. "We need someone to keep track of how many monsters we each defeat to make sure nobody cheats." While a little disappointed that he wouldn't get to be part of the competition Naruto nodded his head in acceptance. With that cleared up Asuna turned her attention back to Kirito. "Well?" She asked expectantly.

"Fine," Kirito agreed just to keep things from getting more troublesome, "Whenever you're ready." He said with a sigh.

The two players got in their respective ready stances as they waited for a signal from their third party member for them to begin their competition. Seeing that Asuna and Kirito were waiting for his signal Naruto brought his hands together in a cross hand seal. "Shadow clone Jutsu!" He shouted forming a single clone beside him. At the formation of the clone Kirito and Asuna took off at the Wind Wasps that had now turned their attention to them, as more appeared beside them.

Wind Wasps were mostly earthen black bee monsters with green stripes and stingers the size of ice picks. With their ability to fly the Wind Wasps flew up high before dive bombing at the two players. Kirito dodged to the side of the Wind Wasp that was closest to him and struck it at its side with his sword. Spinning around on a single foot Kirito activated a sword skill and slashed at another Wind Wasp, just reregistering the sound of shattering glass that signified that he destroyed the first wasp. Destroying the second Kirito spared Asuna a glance to see how she was doing.

Asuna walked calmly yet confidently towards a group of three Wind Wasps that were flying towards her, her hazel colored eyes steeled with pure determination. Raising her Iron Rapier it glowed with the activation of a sword skill before unleashing it. The three Wind Wasps fell under a barrage of strikes from Asuna's rapier, flashes of light the only evidence that they had been struck. The wasps shattered around Asuna before the female rushed at another group of monsters.

'I might be in trouble,' Kirito thought briefly before running at another Wind Wasp, redoubling his efforts in order so he didn't fall to far behind.

Naruto watched Asuna in amazement once more, like the first time he saw her after Illfang tore her cloak, unable to help think how beautiful the girl looked as her hair flew behind her as she destroyed monsters left and right. For a moment Naruto was so busy watching Asuna he almost forgot to keep count of the monsters that she had destroyed. Asuna was hardly the fastest person that he had ever seen but the speed and accuracy of her strikes still left him in awe as each Wind Wasp was hit no less than three times before they were destroyed and the girl moved to her next target.

While Naruto kept a careful watch of the number of Wind Wasps each player destroyed, he also made sure to attack any wasps that snuck up on either player destroying them before they had a chance to land an attack on either Kirito or Asuna. Naruto wouldn't admit that he kept an extra close eye on Asuna.

Several minutes later and many defeated Wind Wasps, more than enough to complete their quest, Kirito and Asuna were nearing the end of their competition both of them slightly exhausted.

"You know," Kirito got out between breaths, "We can stop this right here and call this all off right now." He commented somewhat hopefully.

"Not a chance," Asuna returned. "You're paying for dinner for Naruto and me." She stated confidently.

"Yeah I didn't think so." Kirito admitted with a muttered sigh, as another group of Wind Wasps respawned in front of them at an accelerated rate. Sparing a glance to look over his shoulder at the cause at the faster respawn rate of the monsters Kirito was of two minds about it. On one hand it meant more monsters they could get experience points off of. On the other they had practically no time to rest and catch their breath as they were constantly fighting the monsters that showed up. Sidestepping a Wind Wasp stinger Kirito drove his sword into the base of the wasp's stomach hitting it in its weak point and destroying it instantly before going after another one.

Asuna ran at another wasp deflecting its stinger and took advantage of the 5 second delay to activate her Sword Skill Linear and with a single thrust of her rapier Asuna forced the wasp back before it shattered into light particles and to the sound of a window shattering.

"That's it!" Naruto shouted bringing the competition to a close, as he dismissed his clone and dashed at the small group of Wind Wasp that Kirito and Asuna still had to fight helping them destroy the remainders.

"So," Kirito said after the last Wind Wasp was destroyed and another didn't immediately take its place. "Who won?" He asked.

"With a score of 46 to 50," Naruto began purposely drawing out telling them who won. "The winner is… Asuna," He finished with a fox like grin.

"Aw man that sucks." Kirito muttered, his head dropped in disappointment. "And I was so close too." He continued letting out a sigh before looking over at Asuna. "Looks like you won Asuna." Kirito finished.

"Was there ever any doubt." Asuna replied with a smirk on her face as a translucent screen appeared in front of her. Looking over everything she got from the Wind Wasp she spotted something that grabbed her attention. "What's this?" The female wondered as she materialized the item. In her hands a rapier appeared, it was a thin sword with a dark-green dome-shaped guard. Asuna's eyes trailed from the rapier's hilt all the way to the tip of the sword. "Wind Fleuret," She said reading the name of the weapon out loud.

"Seems like you got lucky with that last kill," Kirito commented. "That's a monster drop." He informed both Naruto and Asuna before a thoughtful luck crossed his face. "Now that I think about it Wind Wasp also drops Wind Wasp Needle which we can use to enhance weapons." Kirito continued. "With both we can make the Wind Fleuret even stronger."

"So we'll have to find a Blacksmith?" Asuna clarified.

"Yup," Kirito replied. "Although we should wait until tomorrow since it is getting late." He remarked as the sun had already begun to set since the start of their little competition.

"Alright," Naruto said agreeing. "Besides I could use a bath."

The reminder of what the reward for the quest that they just completed snapped Asuna out of her reverie of her new weapon. In an instant Asuna had her new rapier just inches away from Naruto's face, as she fixed him with a steely glare. "Not before me." She said evenly, "Got that."

"G-got it," Naruto replied nervously with a sweat drop.

"Good," Asuna continued cheerfully as she swapped out her Iron Rapier for the Wind Fleuret and had it sheathed at her waist.

Naruto and Kirito stood next to each other watching Asuna walk away with a skip in her step while they had blank looks on their faces. "She's…" Naruto began but trailed off at the end not sure what to say.

"I know," Kirito replied, patting Naruto on the shoulder, not quite sure what he was agreeing with but agreeing none the less. "I know." He finished walking after Asuna.

With a sigh and a shake of his head Naruto followed after his two party members.

---

Kirito and Naruto were sitting at the table within the farm house having just finished eating the dinner that they had been able to prepare for themselves, Naruto including a few bowls of ramen, while Asuna enjoyed her much anticipated bath in the bathroom above them. Currently the two were discussing their plans for the next day, besides finding a Blacksmith so that they could enhance Asuna's Wind Fleuret, and Kirito helping Naruto understand more things about the game.

"Why does this have to be so complicated?!" Naruto shouted, grabbing his hair in frustration.

Kirito laughed a bit at Naruto's frustration with understanding some rules of the game before sparring him a smile. "Don't worry about it; it sounds more complicated than it really is." He assured the blonde shinobi. "Just don't think about it and play the game and it will all seem much easier." Kirito promised.

"If you say so," Naruto grumbled his head resting on the table.

Kirito was about to ask Naruto more about the Elemental Nations curious to learn more about the other world that his friend was from when Naruto suddenly stood up and walked towards the door. "Where are you going?" Kirito asked.

"Outside to train," Naruto answered. "I need to clear my head."

"Okay," The black clad swordsman replied following Naruto outside wanting to see what kind of training a shinobi went through in order to get stronger. Kirito was surprised though when he walked out of the house only to spot Naruto a few feet away from the door seemingly staring at nothing. "What's up?" Kirito asked curiously.

"Listen," Naruto said softly. "Can't you hear that?"

Kirito stared at Naruto in confusion for a moment before he tried to listen to what Naruto was apparently hearing. 'It's faint,' Kirito thought as he closed his eyes. 'But I think I can make something out in the distance.' The black haired swordsman finished opening up is eyes, "Just barely." Kirito said answering Naruto's question and wondering how the shinobi managed to hear it.

"Come on let's go." Naruto instructed taking off in a sprint. Kirito only hesitated for a little bit before he rushed after Naruto. The two soon came upon the scene of two people chasing after a third whose form was mostly hidden by a dark brown cloak that they were wearing.

"Are those… ninjas?" Kirito asked looking at Naruto questioningly when he noticed the appearance of the two players chasing after the third.

An annoyed scowl appeared on Naruto's face at the sight of the two "Ninjas" both of them dressed in black clothing and masks that covered a majority of their faces. Without saying a word Naruto began running faster than before, before in a single bound the shinobi jumped above the two wannabe ninjas and landed between them and the player they had been chasing. "I don't know what you bastards are trying to do." Naruto began pulling out a couple of kunai and holding one in each hand. "But unless you want me to kick your asses you'll leave right now." The blonde shinobi ordered.

The two ninjas gave what Naruto assumed to be incredulous looks through their masks about to completely ignore Naruto's suggestion when Kirito voice came from behind them. "If I you were you," Kirito started, causing the two ninjas to swirl around to see the black haired player standing with his sword at the ready. "I would do as he says and leave."

The two ninja cosplayers looked at each other unsurely before one decided to speak up. "We're not leaving until that bitch tells us were the Quest NPC we want is located." One ninja declared angrily.

"I'm not telling you anything." A female voice from behind Naruto declared, her features were mostly obscured but it was still clear that she was sticking out her tongue out at them.

The two ninja bristled visibly at the declaration but before they could do anything a kunai zipped by them, coming close to hitting one of them but missing by mere centimeters. The two instantly turned around to face Naruto but were completely caught off guard when Naruto appeared next to them the other kunai he had pressed against one of them and his sword pressed against the other.

"Last chance," Naruto warned. "Leave now."

"Y-you wouldn't dare." A ninja said somewhat fearfully. If Naruto even scratched them his cursor would change colors and mark him as an Orange-Player, a criminal within Aincard. While they were going to force the female player to tell them where the Quest NPC they would have stopped before their own cursors changed.

"You want to bet." Naruto threatened moving the blades closer.

A few tense seconds followed before one of them finally caved in. "Okay, okay." The man said. "We'll go." He agreed, his companion nodding his head only a small bit as he did his best to keep his eyes on the blade pressed against his neck.

The three players watched as the two ninjas left in a hurry before the cloaked female player turned her attention to the two who helped her. "Thanks for the save." The female player said gratefully. "Those two were being really annoying" She admitted before her stomach growled. "You wouldn't happen to have some food would you?" The girl asked sheepishly while holding her stomach.

…

Kirito and Naruto watched as the girl who introduced herself as Argo wolfed down a few bowls of ramen that Naruto had placed in front of her along with anything else that she could get her hands on.

"Just how many bowls of ramen do you have?" Kirito whispered to Naruto.

"Enough," Naruto whispered back. Though eventually Naruto realized he would have to do something to come by food seeing even his sealed supply of ramen wouldn't last forever.

"Ah!" The girl exclaimed in satisfaction patting her full stomach. "That was delicious." She stated happily. Looking at her Naruto once more noticed her features starting from her brown eyes and curly auburn hair. She wore full-body cloth and leather armor under her cloak. But what drew Naruto's attention the most was the painted whisker marks, three on each cheek, though her whiskers made her looked like a mouse instead of a fox. Naruto wasn't sure if he should feel insulted by the whisker marks or not. "Thanks for the food."

"You're welcome," Kirito replied with a smile. "Do you mind telling us why those two guys were chasing you?" He asked her curiously.

Argo hummed thoughtfully before answering. "Normally I'd charge people for information, but considering you two helped me I'll let it slide this one time." She began.

"Why would you charge us?" Naruto questioned her confusedly.

Argo grinned cheekily at her fellow whisker marked player. "I'm an Information Broker. If there is some information that you need I can get it for you, for the right price." She informed them. "As to why those guys were chasing me…" Argo started before trailing off. "Do you have a bathroom?" The girl asked.

"Yeah," Naruto replied, resisting the urge to face-plant at the sudden change of topics, "Upstairs second door on the right." He told her.

Without a word Argo stood up and made her way upstairs leaving the two male players by themselves.

"So what do you think those two ninjas wanted with her?" Kirito asked Naruto.

Naruto let out a bit of a huff at having the other two players referred to as ninja but didn't say anything in regards. "They said something about a Quest NPC." Naruto reminded him. "Argo probably knows where they are and the other two wanted the information so they could take it."

Before Kirito could say something back a couple of screams from upstairs drew their attention. "Uh, we forgot that Asuna was in the bath." Kirito realized only to see Naruto already bounding up the stairs towards the source of the scream. "Hey hold on a minute!" The black haired swordsman shouted.

Naruto didn't hear a word that Kirito said as he had taken off towards the bathroom the moment he heard Asuna scream without a thought in his head. That's why when he reached the second floor he ran to the bathroom, passing an embarrassed' Argo, without stopping until he was at its door, "Asu-!" Naruto shouted in concern only to be cut off midsentence as a lot of bathroom supplies were thrown at him. Before Naruto's head was hit with something big and very hard the shinobi caught the briefs of looks of creamy colored skin that was barely hidden behind a white towel and Asuna's blushing cherry red face.

When Naruto woke up he was lying on the couch with his cloak off, his head throbbing, and the others a few feet away. "What hit me?" The shinobi mumbled holding his head.

"It'd be easier to tell you what you weren't hit with." Kirito said with a smirk on his face. Once it was safe Kirito had went to retrieve Naruto and if he didn't know it was impossible the Beater would have sworn that the sink looked like it was almost pulled out.

Naruto's eyes widened and his face turned a dark red as he remembered the last thing he saw before he was knocked out. Looking at the girl in question Naruto noticed Asuna standing a few feet away her face still noticeably red as she gave him a pointed glare that he had seen before.

"Did you see anything?" The hazel eyed girl asked him lowly.

"Huh?" Was Naruto oh so smart response.

Asuna didn't let up on her glare in the least, of course it was kind of ruined with the color her cheeks were currently in. " . ?" Asuna repeated stressing each word.

Naruto's face turned a darker shade of red and he had to hold back the nosebleed that he was sure he was going to have because, though he would never admit it out loud, the image he saw of a naked Asuna with only a towel covering her modesty was an image that Naruto was not about to forget. "No," Naruto denied dishonestly shaking his head wildly.

Asuna narrowed her eyes slightly at the blonde not believing his claim for a second but unable to do anything about it, especially since she already knocked him unconscious when he entered the bathroom. "Pervert," Asuna muttered crossing her arms and turning her back on him in a huff, as anime tears streamed down Naruto's face at the accusation.

Argo snickered a bit and drew the attention of the other three players in the room to her. "Who would have thought that the hated Jinchuuriki would be so afraid of the wrath of a single girl?" The Information Broker snickered. "Also to be knocked out by her."

The three party members stared at the laughing girl. "How do you know about Naruto being the Jinchuuriki?" Kirito was the one to eventually ask.

"Well I saw it on the back of Naru-bou's coat." Argo told them gesturing to the coat on the chair. "The Jinchuuriki with special powers is all that anyone that was part of the Raid Group is talking about right now, so it wasn't hard for me to learn about you." She claimed with a bit of pride in her voice. "Of course they're also talking about the Beater." Argo added looking at Kirito.

"Okay," Naruto began. "So now can you tell us what quest those guys were after?" He asked.

Argo looked at Naruto confused. "Eh, don't you know?" She questioned him back. "If you didn't take the quest then how'd you get your whisker marks?"

"These are birthmarks." Naruto replied with a bit of an annoyed look on his face.

"Really?" Argo questioned still looking a little doubtful as she reached out her hand towards his cheeks in order to rub them, only for her hand to be slapped away by Naruto. "Fine," Argo said with a disappointed pout on her face before she began to explain. "There is a quest on this floor near the southern edge; I call it the Martial Arts Quest because the reward for completing it is a Martial Arts Extra Skill. I found in during the Beta Test and now those ninjas and their guild want to know where it is." She told them.

Kirito looked at the girl with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't giving them information the whole point of an Information Broker?" He asked.

Argo shook her head patronizingly. "For the right price," She told him chidingly. "They want the information for free."

The hazel eyed girl realized that something was missing from Argo's explanation, "But what about the whiskers?" Asuna asked noting that the cloak wearing girl hadn't explained that.

Argo nodded in acknowledgement of Asuna's question. "The Quest NPC paints these whisker marks at the beginning when you accept the quest." She explained. "I thought because Naru-bou had whiskers that he had already accepted the quest." She told them honestly.

"Martial Arts skill," Naruto repeated his interest peeked.

"That could be useful," Kirito agreed. "So how'd much will it cost us for you to tell us where the NPC is?" He asked.

Argo waved the question off as she smiled at the three other players. "Don't worry about it." She said. "Consider this a freebee for helping me. I told one of you the reason why I was being chased." Argo said pointing at Naruto before pointing to Kirito. "And I'll tell you where you can find the Quest NPC." She promised as she proceeded to tell them exactly where the Martial Arts quest NPC was.

When Naruto, Kirito, and Asuna set out the next day it was the blonde shinobi who immediately noticed that someone was missing.

"Where's Argo?" Naruto asked Asuna since she and the missing Information Broker had shared a room the previous night.

"She set out early." Asuna answered. "She said she might see us later."

Naruto and Kirito nodded their heads in understanding. "Ok," Kirito began. "First off we should head off into town and see if we can get a blacksmith to enhance Asuna's Wind Fleuret." He decided with Naruto and especially Asuna agreeing with his plan. "Then we can head to the southern edge of the floor to where Argo said the Martial Art Quest NPC is supposed to be."

"Alright let's go!" Naruto cheered drawing smiles from both Kirito and Asuna.

…

Walking into Urbus the three immediately began to search for a Blacksmith NPC within the main city on the Second Floor. Sadly they found out, and what Kirito recognized as an original part of the Beta Test, that there were no Blacksmith NPC in the entire city and Kirito then told them that their wouldn't be any on the entire floor.

"So what do we do?" Asuna asked a little disheartened that she wouldn't be able to enhance her newly acquired Wind Fleuret like she originally planned.

"I don't know," Kirito replied as he tried to think of something.

"What about that Nezha guy." Naruto said remembering the player from the other day that they saw that looked like was a Blacksmith.

"That's right," Kirito said snapping his fingers recognition. "I'd forgotten about him." With his small contest with Asuna and then meeting and helping save Argo the other night the homely looking player had slipped the swordsman's mind.

"Lets' go!" Asuna said enthusiastically heading out toward where she remembered Nezha's small shop was located.

Sadly their briefly renewed hoped was dashed away rather quickly when they found their way back to where they had spotted Nezha and found the spot empty. "He's not here." Naruto pointed out obviously as he looked around hoping to spot the player somewhere nearby.

"Maybe he just moved to another spot." Asuna suggested hopefully.

"Maybe," Kirito agreed. "We should look around and see if we can find out anything. We can meet up back here in an hour." He suggested, Asuna and Naruto nodding their heads in agreement before the three players went their separate ways in order to gather information.

An hour later Kirito and Naruto were waiting for Asuna to return the two of them having already let the other know that they failed to find anything. Naruto didn't share with Kirito that a good amount of the players he tried talking to glared, insulted, and/or ignored him completely.

"Where is she?" Naruto wondered.

"Calm down I'm sure that she'll be here soon." Kirito told Naruto leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in front of him, being far more patient than the blonde shinobi, as he watched said shinobi pace in front of him. Just as he finished assuring Naruto, Kirito spotted something out of the coroner of his eyes. "Look here she comes now." The black haired swordsman stated.

Spinning around Naruto saw Asuna running towards them with a pleased smile on her face. Coming to a stop in front of them Asuna's smile became all that much brighter proud at her accomplishment, especially when it became obvious that Naruto and Kirito failed to learn anything. "I found where Nezha went. Another player told me that he moved his shop a city further south from here." Asuna told them.

"So we just head south and have him enhance your Wind Fleuret." Naruto decided.

"Plus we were already going to head in that direction for the Martial Arts Quest so this works in our favor." Kirito added in before a frown crossed his face. "The only problem is that there are a couple of villages to the south of Urbus. Do you know which one it was that Nezha was heading to?" The swordsman asked directing his question to Asuna.

The hazel eyed girl furrowed her brows in thought as she tried to remember if the specific town that Nezha as moving his shop to was mentioned but eventually she shook her head. "No," Asuna answered.

"That's fine," Kirito assured the other two. "He's either gone to Taran or Marome we'll just have to search both cities to find him."

"I can create a couple of clones and have them' search the towns," Naruto offered. "If they find him they'll dispel and whatever they learned will transfer back to me." He said helpfully.

"That's a very useful ability." Kirito said somewhat enviously. He could only imagine how many things he could get done if he could make copies of himself that would then transfer all their knowledge back to him. He could have one of them do his homework while he played videogames all day. 'That's the dream.' Kirito thought before a frown crossed his face. 'At least it was.' The swordsman realized once he realized that he had been trapped in a videogame.

"But will that really work?" Asuna asked. She had been feeling a little guilty for all the time that Naruto and Kirito were spending just to help her enhance her Wind Fleuret so she honestly hoped that Naruto's clones did work so that they could focus on something else for a while, while the clones searched for Nezha.

"Yup," Naruto replied. "My clones can do anything I can. Their only weakness is that one good hit dispels them, but no regular monster is fast enough to hit them and as long as no players attack them while in the city they'll be fine." He assured them.

"Alright then," Asuna said far more confidently and a smile back on her face. "Then your Shadow clones can handle that while we go complete the Martial Arts Quest." She decided.

"Right," Naruto agreed bringing his hands together in a cross hand seal about to summon a couple of clones only to be stopped by Kirito.

"How about," Kirito began putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "We wait until we leave Urbus before you create your clones Naruto." He suggested as he spared a look at all the other players around them. While people knew that Naruto had abilities, and more learning about him every minute, Kirito still thought it was a good idea to keep as much of what Naruto could do a secret for as long as possible.

Naruto and Asuna looked around and noticed some of the nasty looks a few players were sending Naruto. "Right," Naruto agreed once more seeing how he was being looked at.

---

Journeying out of Urbus was simple enough. With their combined strength Naruto, Kirito, and Asuna made short work of most of the monsters that they came across, making sure to cover each other so that at no point they were overwhelmed. Naruto burst out laughing when they came across a Trembling Cow finding the monster hilarious to look at, drawing a giggle from Asuna and a chuckle from Kirito.

Naruto made sure to create a couple of Shadow clones once they were a good distance away from Urbus with Kirito pointing them in the general direction of where they'd have to go in order to reach the villages of Taran or Marome.

Following Argo's directions the three headed south towards the highest mountain that they could see knowing that at its summit they would find a hut were the Quest NPC lived.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Asuna asked the cerulean eyed teen after a while and noticing how the blonde shinobi seemed to be fidgeting, drawing the attention of Kirito at the same time.

"It's nothing." Naruto replied dismissively. "Just not used to traveling so slow." He finished. They had been walking at a leisurely pace since they left Urbus and for a shinobi who was used to jumping through the trees and running across the land this pace was nearly unbearable for Naruto. Sadly that wasn't the only thing that bothered Naruto about being stuck within SAO.

"Guess you never took the time to stop and smell the flowers huh?" Kirito questioned.

"Nope," Naruto answered. Since he became a shinobi his life had been filled with training, getting stronger, saving villages/countries, princesses, and the world. Whatever time off he did get was usually spent training. "Besides why would I want to spend my time smelling flowers?" He asked obliviously.

"Yeah, it's just an expression." Kirito said with an awkward smile.

"Oh,"

Asuna giggled at the interaction between her two male party members.

…

At the foot of the tallest mountain that the three players could find on the southern edge of the Second Floor the three players each looked up at the tip with slightly slack jawed expressions on their faces at how tall the mountain was.

"Were supposed to climb that?" Kirito muttered loud enough for the other two to hear. "That'll take all day to climb." He guessed before turning to face Naruto and Asuna. "Maybe we should just head back and find Nezha." The black haired player suggested. On the way to the mountain one of Naruto's clones had dispelled letting the blonde shinobi know that Nezha was in Taran village. Naruto then created another clone and sent it to Taran in order to keep tabs on Nezha.

Asuna refused, shaking her head in disagreement. "We'd have to come back and climb it eventually, might as well get it over with now." She countered.

"Good point," Kirito relented with a sigh.

"Alight," Naruto cheered. "Then what are we waiting for?" He asked no one in particular as he brought his hands up in a hand seal that had by now become familiar to Kirito and Asuna. "Shadow clone Jutsu!"

"What are you-" Kirito started only to let out a yell of surprise when Naruto's clone picked him up and carried him on his back.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted, carrying a blushing Asuna in his arms, before he and his clone channeled chakra into their feet and began to run up the side of the mountain. Several feet up Wind Wasps started to spawn above the three players and dove down at them.

"Now what?!" Kirito yelled over the rushing wind as he looked at monsters that were closing in, his hands twitching to the sword on his back.

"What do you think?" Naruto's clone replied.

Kirito looked back at the ground with a nervous and fearful look on his face before turning his attention to the Wind Wasps. "Just don't drop me." The black haired swordsman pleaded; loosening the tight hold he had on Naruto in order to draw his sword Anneal Blade.

"No promises," The clone answered jokingly causing Kirito to mutter incomprehensibly under his breath.

"Ready Asuna?" Naruto asked his passenger shifting his hold on her so that he held her by the waist, unintentionally having her body pressed against his.

"Ready," Asuna replied as steadily as possible, drawing her rapier as smoothly as she could, doing her best to ignore the feeling caused by herself being pressed against Naruto.

Without even slowing down for a second the temporary group of four blew past the Wind Wasps the monsters shattering seconds after they were passed. For the next several minutes Naruto, Kirito, and Asuna climbed up the mountain dashing past any monsters that spawned in front of them, those that proved too close to ignore being destroyed by the later duo. Eventually, thanks to Naruto, a climb to reach the summit of the mountain which should have taken at the very least a few hours to reach was completed in minutes.

"Okay," Kirito began, after the clone that had been carrying him dispersed. "While that was really helpful please don't ever do that again." The swordsman pleaded. Throughout most of the climb Kirito was fearful that at some point Naruto's clone would drop him accidently, or if not that that one of the monsters might slip past him and hit the clone dispelling it.

Naruto merely grinned at Kirito in response. "You don't hear Asuna complaining." The blonde shinobi pointed out.

In response Asuna bopped Naruto on top of his head. "Don't do anything that dangerous again." She scolded him tiredly.

Naruto's grin turned sheepish in response, "Asuna~!" The blonde whined halfheartedly, rubbing the back of his head while appreciating the fact that Asuna didn't hit him nearly as hard as Sakura would have, of course few people could hit as hard as Sakura.

Looking around the three players noticed a small hut a short distance away, and someone leaning against the wall of the hut.

"Yo," Argo greeted the three once they were close enough. "Looks like you made it," She pointed out obviously, "But how?" The whisker marked girl asked curiously having seen the three appear on the side of the mountain, with a clone of Naruto's carrying Kirito.

"How'd you get here so fast?!" Naruto asked instead while pointing at the auburn haired girl stupefied.

Argo grinned cheekily back at Naruto. "Secret," She replied, "Unless you'd like to pay for the information." She added.

"No thanks," Naruto deadpanned.

"Aw, you're no fun Naru-bou." Argo bemoaned. "Then how about letting me rub your whiskers?" She offered reaching out her hand towards him.

"No," Naruto answered smacking her hand away.

"Come on," Argo insisted. "I'll let you touch mine if you let me touch yours." The Information Broker proposed once more reaching her hand out towards Naruto only to have it smacked away again.

"Why do you want to touch his whiskers so much?" Asuna asked curiously.

Argo's eyes glinted as she answered Asuna's question. "My whiskers are painted on." Argo started, "But his are real. I want to see if I rub them if Naru-bou will start to purr, like a cat." She explained before throwing her arm around Asuna's shoulder and bringing her close. "Don't you wanna see that for yourself Aa-chan?" Argo questioned with a sly smile on his face.

Asuna actually considered it and couldn't help become curious herself; silently thinking it would be adorable to see Naruto purr.

Noticing the intense looks that both girls were now sending him Naruto became slightly nervous. "Hey," The shinobi began. "These are birthmarks so why would I purr. Besides I'd be more like a fox than a cat." Naruto reasoned. "And fox's don't purr… right?" He finished looking at Kirito questioningly who shrugged his shoulders not knowing the answer to the question himself.

"We'll see," Argo said, as she withdrew her arm from around Asuna, letting the matter drop for now. "So you three ready to take the Martial Arts Quest?" She asked looking at the three players eagerly.

While Kirito and Naruto nodded their heads in confirmation Asuna shook hers indicating that she wouldn't be taking the quest and drawing curious looks from the other three players.

"This doesn't seem like the thing for me." Asuna explained. "So I think I'll just sit this one out and just watch from the sidelines." She told them.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked her carefully.

Asuna nodded her head sparing Naruto a small smile. "Yup, hand-to-hand seems more like your thing. I'd rather stick with my rapier." Asuna said placing a hand on her Wind Fleuret.

"Alright then," Argo said, clapping her hands and drawing the three players' attention back to her. "If that's settled let's get the quest started." She said excitedly. In all honesty she was looking forward to what Kirito looked like with whiskers. She'd also be interested in how Naruto would look like with the whiskers that the quest gave him, but considering that he already had whiskers she didn't really have anything to look forward to.

Naruto was the one to knock on the door as Kirito and him' stepped forward while the girls hung back a bit. The door was opened by a male NPC with short cropped black hair, sleeveless grey shirt and brown pants. His skin was slightly tanned and highly defined muscles on his arms. The NPC gave them a pleasant smile. "Greetings, you must be really strong to have climbed all the way to the top of this mountain." The NPC said completely unaware that Naruto, Kirito, and Asuna had technically cheated and taken a shortcut to get to the summit of the mountain. "Are you possibly here to learn the secret behind my fighting technique?" The NPC questioned.

Transparent screens appeared in front of Kirito and Naruto before both male players pressed the button to indicate that they would be accepting the quest.

"Very well, follow me." The NPC instructed as he walked out of his own hut and proceeded to lead the four around the back. Walking around the hut the players came upon the sight of two giant boulders in an open space. "In order to learn my technique you must split these boulders in half by using the palms of your hands." The NPC explained before pulling out a small jar of paint from behind his back. "But first," He continued, as he quickly painted a set of whisker marks on both their cheeks similar to the ones on Argo's face, three whiskers on each cheek. "Now you may begin." The man finished before proceeding to walk back into his hut.

Asuna and Argo took a moment to take in the addition to whiskers to the male players faces, while Kirito and Naruto looked at each other. The paint on Naruto was hardly noticeable as the painted whiskers were directly over Naruto's own giving them only a slightly thicker appearance at the beginning. The whisker marks that Kirito sported were far more noticeable, like Argo he had three on each cheek for a total of six that were colored a dark brown.

"So how do I look?" Kirito asked nervously with a forced smile on his face. While he had known about the whiskers being painted on whichever player accepted the Martial Arts Quest he wasn't aware of what he would be required to do and looking at the size of the boulder the Beater was worried if he'd be able to complete the quest or not.

For a moment Naruto, Asuna, and Argo were silent as they stared at Kirito but that silence was soon shattered when both Naruto and Argo couldn't hold back their laughter any longer and burst out laughing at Kirito's expense, even Asuna found herself giggling a little at Kirito's appearance.

Argo was holding her gut as she responded to Kirito's question, "Y-Y-You look like Doraemon, Kiri-bou!" The Information Broker exclaimed between laughs as she pointed at the dark eyed swordsman, "Kiriemon!" She finished by mixing the two names together.

"Great," Kirito muttered his eyebrow twitching in annoyance. He had been hoping that even if he had failed to complete the quest that at the very least no one would notice he had whiskers, or that they made him look cooler. 'No such luck,' Kirito thought before a determined glint appeared in his eyes. 'Guess I'll just to complete this quest no matter what.'

Without even thinking about it Naruto brought up his second screen, the search engine screen, and he typed in the name Doraemon to see what Argo was talking about. What he saw was a cat like creature that was mostly blue with white face, belly, hands, and feet. Seeing the creature and moving the screen so that it hovered in front of Kirito, Naruto soon burst out laughing once more as he noticed a faint resemblance between the two.

Argo stopped laughing the moment that Naruto brought up the screen her eyes fixated solely on the screen before she spun around switching her focus to Naruto. "How did you do that?" She asked her eyes shining with unbridled curiosity.

Kirito face-palmed at how careless Naruto was at revealing that ability, considering how a lot of players already had a low opinion of Naruto he really didn't need anything that would set him apart in the eyes of the other players. 'Well it's not like we decided to keep that a secret.' Kirito rationalized.

Argo was at Naruto's side in an instant looking at the screen as best she could from over his shoulder. "How did you do that?" She asked once more repeating her question from before.

Naruto looked at the girl strangely for a moment as he tried to come up with something to say. "I don't know?" He replied rather lamely not sounding like he believed it himself, and from the look that Argo was giving him she didn't either.

"Right," Argo dragged out sarcastically. "Come on tell me." The auburn haired girl pressed. "What do you want in return? The location of a rare item? A quest with a lot of experience or col?" Argo asked, each time she asked a question moving closer to Naruto. "My three sizes?" She finished in a sultry whisper as she pushed herself against Naruto, causing the shinobi's face to turn a dark shade of red.

"W-What?!" Naruto gasped out in shock.

Argo wasn't nearly as quite with her last suggestion as she thought she was because suddenly Asuna was between the two pushing Naruto and Argo away from each other, an annoyed look on her face. "Hey stop messing around!" Asuna told them, though her words seemed to be more directed towards Naruto as she was looking straight at him while giving him a mild glare. "You have a quest to complete remember, Naruto." She reminded them.

"R-right," Naruto agreed but Asuna turned away from him in a huff for some reason that the shinobi didn't understand.

Argo backed away laughing lightly. "I was just kidding anyway." Argo claimed waving her hands in front of her dismissively. "Though I'd really like to know how you did that." The Information Broker added, silently promising herself that she would get that information out of Naruto.

Naruto ignored the Information Broker as he turned to face the boulders along with Kirito, who had been looking intently at the boulders since Argo started to get information on the search screen out of Naruto. "So what do you think?" Naruto asked Kirito.

"I'm not sure," Kirito began looking at the two boulders carefully. "We might be able to do it with our bare hands, but I don't know it looks impossible." He freely admitted with a shrug of his shoulders.

Naruto hummed tilting his head to the side for a moment in thought before walking up to one of the giant boulders. Stopping right in front of the boulder Naruto lifted a single hand before thrusting it forward and causing impact with the hard surface. Kirito, Asuna, and Argo watched their jaws almost dropping in shock as the boulder that Naruto had just punched shattered from that one blow. Turning around to face the three Naruto had a fox like grin on his face. "That wasn't so hard." He stated almost dismissively.

"B-B-but how?" Kirito muttered in disbelief before he regained his composure and shook his head as he realized that what Naruto had just done probably had a lot to do with him being a shinobi, "Seriously man that's almost unfair." He remarked though his words lacked any sort of negativity and he honestly sounded more amused than anything else.

"That was amazing!" Asuna stated much more enthusiastic at Naruto's display.

"You think so?" Naruto asked sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed by the hazel eyed girl's praise.

Kirito rolled his eyes as he watched Naruto and Asuna interact for a bit, the two momentarily lost in their own little world as they talked about what Naruto just did. "Okay," Kirito muttered to himself turning to face the boulder, "My turn then." He said out loud, more to himself than the others but he still managed to draw their attention back to him. The swordsman closed his eyes as he took several deep breaths as he took a stance, one hand in front of him palm open with the other pulled back close to his body. A moment passed before Kirito's eyes snapped open and he thrust his arm forward hitting the boulder. "HA!" Kirito shouted the instant that his hand made contact with the boulder.

Nothing happened.

Behind everyone a crow flew by, "Aho, aho aho!"

"Okay so this isn't going to be easy." Kirito remarked rather lamely as he turned to look at the others with an awkward expression on his face.

Naruto held back a snort as he tried to keep from laughing, Asuna elbowing him the gut helped with that, as Argo gave him a look that was filled with sympathy. "I understand," She empathized. "I couldn't complete the quest, that thing is like an Immortal Object. I was stuck with these whiskers for the entire Beta." Argo revealed.

Kirito nodded his head in understanding, though he became increasingly concerned with rather he'd be stuck with the whisker marks for the rest of their stint within the game. "I'll just have to try again." Kirito decided turning back around and getting ready to punch the boulder.

Naruto, Asuna, and Argo sat back and watched Kirito punch the boulder again and again. "This might take a while." The blonde shinobi remarked offhandedly.

…

Several hours later the sun had already begun to set and the three players were still watching Kirito strike at the boulder with very little, none really, progress.

"Ok," Kirito began as he took a seat on the ground across from the others as he took a small break. "This is seriously unfair." The black haired swordsman complained. "You were able to split that rock with one blow and I've been at this all day and haven't done anything to it." The black clad player stated sounding the smallest bit jealous as he gazed at Naruto.

The blonde player scratched the back of his head, "Uh, sorry?" Naruto apologized uncomfortably.

Kirito let out a sigh before waving off Naruto's apology. "Don't worry about it. I'll get this eventually." Kirito assured both Naruto and himself. "I don't want to be stuck with these whiskers for the rest of the game after all." He added, rubbing at the whiskers with the back of his left hand almost hoping that the action would remove the whiskers.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Both Naruto and Argo demanded of the self-imposed Beater.

"Nothing I swear!" Kirito said rather hastily shaking his arms in front of him, feeling a sense of relief once the two stopped glaring at him. "Anyway we should figure out what we're going to do from this point? It's obvious that I'm not going to get this today and we still need to get to Taran before we lose track of Nezha."

"The Blacksmith?" Argo questioned.

"Yeah," Asuna confirmed before tilting her head in confusion. "How did you know that?" She asked sure that she and none of the others had mentioned the Blacksmith since meeting up with the Information Broker.

"Ufufufu, I gather information of course I'm going to know about the first ever blacksmith in Aincard." Argo told Asuna, waving her finger in mock disapproval.

The other players nodded their heads in understanding before Kirito continued, "If we leave now we can probably reach Taran right before sunset. Then tomorrow we can come back or I can come back on my own since only I have to complete the quest." Kirito offered.

Naruto rolled his eyes a bit at Kirito's self-sacrificing attitude. "We don't need to split up." Naruto rejected. "We can go back to Taran have Nezha enhance Asuna's Wind Fleuret and then come back." The shinobi countered.

Asuna nodded her head in agreement. "I like Naruto's idea." Asuna announced. "There's no point in us having to split up when we don't have too." She decided.

Kirito stared at his two party members before a small smile appeared on his face, "Ok then we should get going then if we do want to reach Taran before dark." Kirito said as he got to his feet, the others copying his actions.

Argo spoke up next drawing the three's attention to her. "I think we'll separate here." Argo told them. "I have my own things to take care of so I should get going." The auburn haired girl announced.

The group said their goodbyes to Argo before Naruto took a hold of Kirito and Asuna and jumped off the mountain's edge, to the screaming of the two players he was carrying. Argo rushed over to the summits edge with wide eyes only for them to widen more when she saw Naruto actually running down the side of the mountain.

After a few moments Argo's look of surprise changed back to normal with a sly smile crossing her features. "You are really interesting Naru-Bou." Argo said out loud to no one.

---

"Seriously Naruto you could have given me a heart attack jumping off the mountain like that." Kirito muttered as he, Naruto, and Asuna walked into Taran.

"You're fine," Naruto replied waving off Kirito's complaint, only to be smacked over the head by Asuna who had an annoyed look on her face as she tried to straighten out her hair from the mess it was in.

"We are not fine." Asuna said stressing out the last word. She couldn't help but think that it was excessively cruel of Kayaba that besides trapping everyone in SAO he still made it possible for female players to experience bad hair days. "Never do that again."

"Fine," Naruto grumbled. Honestly the shinobi didn't understand what the two were complaining about it's not like they were in any danger while they were going down, a bit of chakra made sure that Naruto wouldn't lose his hold on them.

"Ok so where is Nezha?" Kirito asked turning to look at Naruto expectantly since his clone was tailing the blacksmith.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer; having dispelled his clone once they entered the town, only to be cut off by Asuna. "Before that," The hazel eyed girl said. "It's time you payed up for losing our bet Kirito." She told him as Kirito paled a little.

"Bet?" Kirito repeated. "What bet?" He asked trying to feign ignorance.

A frown crossed Asuna's face as she closed in on Kirito until her face was right in front of his. "You're not trying to get out of our bet are you Kirito?" She asked a threatening edge in her voice.

"O-of course not Asuna." Kirito replied with a small nervous smile, a bead of sweat going down his face as he tried to placate the female player.

"Good," Asuna said giving the black haired teen a dazzling smile, her personality doing what appeared to be a 180 since she seemed far more cheerful than she was a second ago, as she stepped back from Kirito. "Let's go." She finished cheerfully spinning around, reaching out and taking Naruto's hand in hers, and began to walk away.

Kirito let out a relieved breath the moment that Asuna began to leave, dragging Naruto behind her. "Man she can be scary when she wants to be." Kirito muttered to himself under his breath. "Hopefully whatever she plans on buying won't be too expensive." He hoped as he scratched the back of his head before he began to follow his two party members. Sadly for Kirito his hopes would soon be dashed away.

…

"So how did you learn about this place?" Kirito inquired of Asuna as the three party members sat within a restaurant waiting for the desert that Asuna ordered to arrive.

Asuna had been humming happily eagerly waiting for the dessert that she had ordered before answering Kirito's question. "Argo told me about it." The orange-brown haired girl answered. "She said it was an apology for walking in on me the other night." Asuna finished her cheeks coloring slightly a she glanced towards Naruto, remembering that Argo hadn't been the only one that had accidently walked in on her.

Naruto own cheeks colored slightly as he recalled what happened, gulping nervously seconds later when Asuna began to glare at him. The shinobi was silently thankful when the hazel eyed girl stopped soon after.

"Right," Kirito mumbled, enjoying the little byplay that happened between Naruto and Asuna. Kirito would admit that he thought Asuna was beautiful, but he definitely wouldn't want to be in Naruto's place just to get a glimpse for a second of something more. Kirito blinked in confusion a moment later when Asuna's eyes seem to sparkle as she starred at something over his shoulder while Naruto was drooling a little in his seat beside the female player. Looking over his shoulder Kirito saw a chef bringing over the dessert that Asuna had ordered, the most expensive item on the menu Kirito remembered, and the Beater had to keep himself from drooling as well at the sight of it. A cake was placed down on the table in between the three. "That looks delicious." Kirito said gulping hungrily.

…

"That was so good~." Asuna said with dreamy sigh, her hands clasped in front of her face.

"Mmhm," Naruto agreed wholeheartedly, "Almost as good as ramen." While the cake had been delicious it could never compare to ramen in the shinobi's mind.

"Definitely beat anything here during the Beta." Kirito added, though he wasn't thrilled about how the cake was divided.

Asuna was the one who decided how the cake was split between the three the chestnut haired girl giving herself half of the cake, Naruto received a little more than half of what remained, and Kirito got the smallest piece of the three.

'Though it's a lot better than what she was originally going to give us.' Kirito rationalized as Asuna had first attempted to keep most of the cake for herself while only giving small slices to the two male players, Naruto's marginally larger than Kirito's. "And also this "Luck Plus" definitely wasn't around during the Beta. Though it only lasts fifteen minutes." He finished looking up to the plus symbol by his name that was counting down.

Asuna seemed to snap out of her daze at she glanced at the countdown next to her own name before her eyes seemed to widen. "Then we have to hurry and enhance my Wind Fleuret." The girl said placing a tender hand on her rapier before taking Naruto's hand in her other one and tried to hurry the blonde along. "Come on let's go!" She insisted taking off in a rush.

"Hey hold on!" Kirito called out. "Asuna you don't know where Nezha is?!" He tried to point out as he followed the pair since Asuna was still dragging Naruto along instead of allowing the blonde shinobi to lead. In the back of his mind Kirito had a faint sense of Deja vu to when they first arrived in Urbus.

…

A few minutes later the trio was finally approaching where Nezha had set up shop, once Asuna had let Naruto actually lead them to where he knew Nezha was instead of just running through the city randomly. Like before Nezha's shop was rather simple except that he had a couple of swords on display on one side of his anvil and on the other was a small forge. The moment that Asuna spotted Nezha she started to speed up with an excited smile on her face.

"Just fifteen minutes," The hazel eyed girl murmured before coming to a stop right in front of Nezha. "Hey!"

Nezha looked at Asuna slightly surprised by her sudden appearance, "Um y-yes?" He asked just as Naruto followed by Kirito arrived. "Do you want to buy something? Or something repaired? I have some really good daggers."

"You didn't have to run." Kirito told Asuna, "We have plenty of time."

Close by a clock tower, with a digital clock floating above it, showed that it just turned 7.

Asuna completely ignored Kirito's comment as she was completely focused on Nezha as she drew her rapier. "I want to enhance this." Asuna stated clearly holding the weapon out to him. "I've collected a whole bunch of Wind Wasp Needles." She finished.

Nezha lowered his head seemingly in thought; his face shadowed by his hair so that the look that appeared in his eyes when he spotted Asuna's rapier was missed by the others. "O-okay, request accepted." Nezha said taking the rapier from Asuna. "Now then let's start."

For a moment the three players were distracted when Nezha ignited the forge, the flames quickly lighting up the dark surrounding area. They watched silently as Nezha took the now glowing rapier and placed it on the anvil before bringing a small iron hammer on it.

Asuna flinched a little at the first strike something that wasn't missed by either Naruto or Kirito.

"Hey it's going to be okay." Naruto said trying to reassure the orange-brown haired player from where he stood to her left.

"You've done everything you could." Kirito added from Asuna's right. "With the "Luck Pulse" there is a 95 percent success rate so it'll be fine."

Asuna gave the barest hint of nodding her head to indicate that she did hear what Kirito said. A second passed before Asuna tentatively reached out to her left hand and took Naruto's hand in hers. Naruto looked at Asuna slightly taken by surprise at her grabbing his hand, for the last couple of days they've held hands a few times but that was mostly to lead to others in some random direction. This, Naruto realized, was somehow different from those times. They weren't rushing off somewhere in excitement without thinking about what they were doing. Naruto could see it clearly, despite the brave front that Asuna was trying to put forward to hide how nervous she actually was. Taking Asuna's hand more firmly in his Naruto squeezed it as a sign of reassurance and comfort.

"It'll be okay," Naruto repeated again softly

"Yeah it's going to be fine." Asuna agreed. "Even if it fails it won't break, right?" She asked the groups' most knowledgeable player.

Kirito nodded his head once in confirmation. "Yeah, right now it's at +4 right? At worst it will downgraded to +3." The Beater said. "So it's not like it breaking could ever happen."

Ping

The sound rang almost deafeningly to the three players none more than Asuna. Their eyes were fixated on the Wind Fleuret that lay on the anvil now broken in two halves before shattering completely. Asuna's eyes were wide, disbelieving, her expression almost broken the girl looking like she might collapse at any moment if Naruto hadn't put his arms around her to keep her up.

"I'm sorry!" Nezha shouted bowing to the trio. "I'll give you a full refund! I am so sorry!" He apologized.

It took a moment but Kirito eventually was able to snap out of his stupor. "Hey hold on!" The black haired player snapped furiously, "What the hell is going on?! The penalty for enhancement failure is at worst -1! So how did this happen?!" Kirito demanded.

"I-it's a new penalty that could have been added to the game, something like this happened once before." Nezha admitted nervously. "I'm sorry!" He apologized once more.

…

The trio walked silently through the streets of Taran on their way to a local inn. Kirito led the way with Naruto following him, as the shinobi gently pulled Asuna behind him. The hazel eyed girl hadn't said a word since she watched her Wind Fleuret be destroyed and Naruto was genuinely concerned about her since her nearly broken expression hadn't changed since then either. Getting three rooms from the Innkeeper NPC the three players headed up to their rooms.

Asuna was the first to enter her room with Naruto and Kirito watching after her. Both male players wanted to say something to her, something that could comfort her after losing her treasured Wind Fleuret but they both knew that anything they could say would come out sounding hollow. Asuna only spared them a tearful glance before the door closed behind them.

"Let's go." Naruto said leaving no room for argument in his voice.

"Where?" Kirito asked though he had a good idea of where.

Naruto didn't look back at Kirito, walking towards the exit, as he answered, "To find Nezha." The shinobi stated. With Kurama, Naruto was able to sense the negative emotions in others, but his instincts cultivated with his upbringing told him when something wrong.

…

Naruto and Kirito stood around a corner in a alley from where Nezha was located. The two were spying on Nezha trying to find some clue as to what happened while the blacksmith was enhancing Asuna's Wind Fleuret. Sadly at the moment all their spying had resulted in nothing at the moment. Suddenly Naruto's hand snapped up and looked like he was trying to get a hold of something in midair.

"What are-?" Kirito began to ask but stopped midsentence

"Eh Naru-Bou no fair," Argo's voice came out of nowhere before the auburn haired girl appeared out of thin air, her hand dangerously close to his whisker marks. "I was so close." The Information Broker whined childishly. "How'd you know I was there?" She asked.

"You can't sneak up on a ninja." Naruto returned with his fox like grin.

Kirito rolled his eyes a bit before he looked around the corner of the building they were hiding behind to make sure that Nezha, and whoever else he might be with hadn't heard them. When he saw that Nezha was still oblivious to their presence, busy dealing with another player, Kirito turned his attention back to Argo. "It's good you got here so quick Argo, now do you have the information we asked about?" Kirito asked the auburn haired girl.

"So serious Kiri-bou," Argo remarked with a grin on her face before becoming deadly serious. "But it's just like Naru-bou and Kiri-bou sensed that in a short amount of time there have been seven different cases like the one you two told me about. This isn't a coincidence." Argo revealed. "All cases involved high level players that lead the frontlines losing rare weapons."

"And this guy is involved." Naruto stated with a scowl as he glanced over at Nezha, not a single doubt in his mind that the blacksmith was somehow involved with everything that was going on.

"But what would be the point?" Kirito asked. "They'd just be reducing our overall strength. Our chances of ever getting back to the real world are just getting farther away." He said trying to make sense of why someone would do something that would make things more difficult for them. Besides that he also felt anger for his friend also being a victim of this scam.

Argo shrugged her shoulders. "They might not have any other reason than to collect rare weapons." She answered. "It improves their own chances of survival and if they have to they can sell whatever they steal for a good price."

Naruto stopped glaring at Nezha, the player having broken into a sweat that he didn't know the cause behind, to look at Argo curiously, "But isn't there some way to keep players from stealing from one another?" He asked.

Argo nodded her head in response. "Even though that is true there are some imperfections that could be taken advantage of if a player knows about it." She said thoughtfully.

The Beater raised an eyebrow curiously, "Imperfection?" Kirito repeated. "You mean a bug? Why hasn't it been fixed?"

The auburn haired girl shrugged her shoulders once more, "Though this is not the Beta not all bugs can be expected to have been fixed in SAO. The administrators could have also purposely made it a part of the game." Argo explained the best she could with the information that she managed to gather.

"If people are stealing rare weapons then Asuna's Wind Fleuret wasn't destroyed." Naruto said. "Then what was it that we saw destroyed?"

"A fake," Kirito realized. "At some point Asuna's weapon was switched out with a fake, but when?"

"Was there any point when it was being reinforced that it could have been switched?" Argo questioned the two male players. "After it was handed over, when everyone's eyes were off it even if for just a second." She pressed.

Both boys were deep in thought trying to think of a moment when they took their eyes off the rapier, something that both were having trouble coming up with since the three of them were very excited as they watched Nezha worked and hardly spared a moment to look away. After a couple of seconds both had an epiphany as they remembered the same thing at the exact same time.

"The forge!" Naruto and Kirito said at the same time.

"Okay," Naruto continued. "So we figured all this out but what about Asuna, what about her Wind Fleuret how do we get it back?" He asked. A very real and very big part of Naruto wanted to do nothing more than walk over to Nezha right then and there and beat the shit out of him until he returned Asuna's Wind Fleuret.

Kirito was deep in thought when his eyes suddenly widened. Looking around wildly for a moment Kirito spotted the clock tower that showed it was only a few minutes till 8. "We have to go." He said in a hurry, barely taking enough time to transfer some Col to Argo before taking off.

Naruto was a bit caught off guard but followed after Kirito, making sure to transfer his half of the payment to Argo as he went. Catching up with the running swordsman Naruto tried to get his attention. "Kirito what is it?" Naruto questioned the gamer.

"I think I know of a way to get Asuna's Wind Fleuret back, but if we don't hurry it'll be too late." Kirito said not willing to slowdown in the slightest to answer Naruto's question. The veteran player was caught off guard when he felt himself get picked up and suddenly moving far faster than he was before.

"Then we can't waste any time!" Naruto shouted sprinting down the street, little more than a blur to most players.

Behind them Argo let out a huff, crossing her arms under her chest, at being left like that by the two male players without even a proper goodbye.

…

Asuna lay in her bed trying to figure out what she was going to do. The simple answer was to get another rapier; she already had a few spares that she bought from the Weapon Shop the other day. Only it wasn't that simple. 'I'm being ridiculous,' Asuna thought to herself, 'But.' Despite what Asuna told herself' and how hard she tried to shake off how hollow and hopeless she felt since losing her Wind Fleuret she just couldn't.

Closing her eyes Asuna made a poor intent at falling asleep. Though the moment she closed her eyes Asuna's mind was filled with images of herself falling behind Naruto, and Kirito, her rapier breaking as she was then forced to watch as the two people closest to her in SAO move on ahead without her. For a moment, Asuna imagined, Naruto looked like he'd stop and wait for her and that elated Asuna more than she could bring herself to believe, but then the shinobi was joined by the silhouette of a female player and the two proceeded to leave Asuna alone.

Blearily opening her eyes Asuna did her best to ignore the pain in her chest that seeing Naruto with another girl, even one without any definite features, and moving on with her caused. 'I can't think like that. I have to focus; I can't let them see me like this.' Asuna told herself, Naruto's smiling face appearing promptly in her mind. 'I don't want to look so weak in front of them again.' She finished, knowing that she had already shown them herself nearly breaking down into tears, 'Never again.' She silently promised herself.

Asuna wasn't giving any more time to think about what she was going to do because at that moment some large object crashed through her window, flew over her, and landed at the foot of her bed. Absently she noticed that someone was screaming. With wide eyes Asuna frantically reached for her rapier only to remember a second later that the trusted rapier that she had kept at her side since she received it days earlier had now been destroyed. 'No!' Asuna thought turning her attention back to whatever crashed into her room. It took her a couple of seconds as she came down from her slightly panicked state but she was eventually able to make out what the object was, or more precisely who they were. "N-Naruto? Kirito?" Asuna asked shocked that her two friends had been the ones who came through the window, "Wha-how?" She continued not quite being able to voice her confusion.

"I'm not even going to ask." Kirito said as he shakily stood up while he held his head. Normally it should have been impossible for anyone to break into the room of an inn through the window since they were considered Immortal Objects, but Kirito figured that Naruto was an exception to that rules considering his circumstances.

"It was that fastest way here." Naruto said unashamedly.

"Whatever," Kirito said quickly focusing his attention on Asuna. "Asuna hurry, materialize all your items." The black haired swordsman instructed.

"What?" Asuna asked still not being able to wrap her head around what was going on.

"We don't have a lot of time left." Kirito continued as he hastily instructed Asuna to bring up her Main menu.

After many hurried instructions from Kirito, along with quite a few frantic gestures, a new screen popped up in front of Asuna. "Completely Objectize All Items," Asuna read. "Yes or…" She continued.

"YES OF COURSE!" Kirito shouted, causing Asuna to press the yes button in pure surprise.

"Now what is that supposed to… do?" Asuna asked only to trail off near the end when things she recognized as hers started to appear out of thin air. Unfortunately for the female player it wasn't just weapons and potions that were materialized but clothing as well, which included underwear. 'What?' Asuna thought with a stupefied expression as her face turned a deep shade of red.

Neither male player gave much thought about the pile of clothing and other items they were basically diving into as they began to frantically search for something, ignoring the underwear that had fallen on them. A white bra on Kirito that ended up on his shoulder and pink panties that landed on Naruto's head. Asuna's horrified and embarrassed expression darkening to one of apoplectic anger with a dark aura forming around her. Naruto stopped moving instantly, being more alert when it came to the feeling associated with a women's righteous fury, before slowly turning to face Asuna a fearful look on his face, the panties that had been on his head sliding down the front of his face.

"I didn't know," Asuna began her voice barely above a whisper. "That you two wished to die so badly Naruto, Kirito, that you'd want me to kill you." The orange-brown haired girl finished, Naruto visibly shaking by this point at the feeling that Asuna was giving off.

"K-Kirito," Naruto called out to his fellow male player, who was completely oblivious to Asuna as he continued to search through the pile of items, unintentionally putting his hand into the pile. Naruto felt his hand come in contact with a long thin object and hoping that it was what he thought it was, or at least Asuna would use it to make his death quick and painless, Naruto pulled it out and presented it to Asuna. After a couple of seconds of Asuna not doing anything Naruto looked down at what he was holding and immediately felt relieved when he saw that it was Asuna's Wind Fleuret.

At moment the trio could hear the clock tower chiming in the distance as it turned eight 'o clock.

"H-how?" Asuna asked taking the rapier from Naruto's hands and holding it close to herself.

"Good," Kirito said with a sigh of relief, quickly throwing the bra that had landed on his shoulder on to the pile once he finally noticed it with his face heating up. "We just made it."

"Do you mind telling us what's going on now?" Naruto asked Kirito wanting to keep Asuna's focus as far away as possible from everything that was in the pile of items that she had materialized.

Asuna nodded her head in agreement. "How did you get my Wind Fleuret back? I thought it was gone." The hazel eyed gamer asked, still holding the weapon close to her.

"Right," Kirito replied as he took a seat at the table that was in the room, as Naruto took the other seat and Asuna sat on her bed. "Well first of all we should be grateful that Naruto was suspicious of Nezha." Kirito began before going on to explain how they shadowed Nezha for a while, called in Argo to do a little research on similar cases, and finally how Kirito explained how he remembered the "Completely Objectize All Items" options from his time playing the Beta version of the game. "It's hard to get to so not many people know about it. Encase an item or weapon is accidently dropped, misplaced, or lost." Kirito explained, "Since we knew Asuna's Wind Fleuret had been switched with a fake she could use the "Completely Objectize All Items" to get it back. Though there is also a time limit before the item is lost completely, for equipped weapons it's usually an hour which is why we had to hurry back." The Beater finished gesturing to the window, which at some point during his explanation had repaired itself.

"Well whatever the reason," Asuna began. "Thank you, both of you." She continued holding the Wind Fleuret in a cherishing embrace.

Both boys smiled happy at the fact that their friend already seemed to be doing a lot better than she had been several minutes ago, though Kirito's smile soon faded away at a fact he knew would happen. "I'm glad everything worked out Asuna." Kirito said earnestly. "But eventually you will need to get a new rapier. Even if it's maxed out after the next couple of floors it will become a liability." He finished regretfully the feeling only increasing when he saw the sad look crossed Asuna's face.

Asuna ran her hand gently down the length of her sheathed weapon. She knew that Kirito was just being honest, and with his experience as a Beta Tester his words were probably true, so Asuna couldn't begrudge him for his honesty but that didn't change the impact that knowledge had on her. Naruto was just about ready to hit Kirito for his words, as well meaning as they might have been, when he stopped as Asuna started to talk, "From the moment I first held this, when I first saw it, I was sure I would be using the Wind Fleuret till the very end." Asuna admitted freely with a fond smile on her face as she gazed down at the weapon resting on her lap. "As light as a feather with crystalline beauty it felt like it held a piece of my soul and was helping me. No matter what you say I could never just throw it away." The hazel eye girl said before switching her gaze to the two male players. "I know it might seem ridiculous but that is how I honestly feel." She finished.

"It's not. Not at all," Naruto denied giving the girl a big grin before it changed into a smaller smile, though it didn't lack any of the happiness he really felt, as he took off his headband and looked at the metal-plate running his thumb across the leaf symbol. "This headband first belonged to one of my teachers, Iruka-sensei, he gave it to me as proof that he believed in me. He believed that I could be a great shinobi even when I was the dead last of my class. I could have gotten a new one when I graduated, or when the cloth was destroyed while I was on a training trip, but I could never just get rid of it like that. It's too important to me." The shinobi stated putting the headband back on. "That's why I replaced the cloth, so that I could keep metal-plate and what it meant to me. I know how you feel Asuna." Naruto told the girl honestly.

Asuna smiled brilliantly at Naruto happy that someone understood how she felt.

Kirito considered mentioning the screw in his bike that he had had since his first bike but ultimately decided not to for something more important. "Well luckily there is something similar in SAO." Kirito told them, drawing their attention as he went on to explain. "SAO's Weapon Creation System begins with melting down a sword to its base and picking a new sword to make from a given selection. Essentially the soul of the weapon will be transferred to the new one." The Swordsman finished. When Asuna didn't say anything after a minute Kirito assumed that she didn't like his suggestion. "Or maybe you'd like to do something else." He added weakly.

"No," Asuna denied shaking her head. "That's probably what I'll do." The orange-brown haired player decided. "If this sword and its soul could be transferred to another I'll definitely fight with it till the very end."

"And I'll make it for you." Naruto declared decisively drawing confused looks from Asuna and Kirito.

Kirito shared a look with Asuna before returning his attention to Naruto. "Do you know what you're saying Naruto?" Kirito questioned the blonde shinobi curiously.

Naruto nodded his head in response. "Of course," Naruto replied. "I'd have to become a blacksmith right?" He asked back, getting a nod from Kirito. "Then I'll become a blacksmith." The shinobi said obviously. "It makes sense with how many swords I break." He added with a shrug of his shoulders.

"But why offer to make my weapon?" Asuna asked him, more than a little curious about Naruto's declaration, though she was still admittedly touched by his offer.

"Because," Naruto began looking straight at Asuna, the chestnut haired player being captivated by his eyes. "I never want to see you that sad ever again." The shinobi stated. "You were so cool and beautiful when we fought Illfang. No matter what Illfang threw at you, you didn't flinch even once. That's why I don't want to see you sad and if making a rapier that you can fight with through all of Aincard is what it takes then I'll make you the best rapier in all SAO." Naruto promised.

Asuna teared up a little at Naruto's declaration. "Thank you," The hazel eyed girl whispered out wiping the small tears away.

"Ok," Kirito spoke up after taking a few seconds to let the moment pass. "So you'll become a blacksmith, but we've had a long day and should really get some sleep now." The black haired swordsman decided standing up from his seat. "Come on Naruto." He called walking out of the room after bidding Asuna goodnight.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto muttered standing up as well. "Goodnight Asuna."

"Goodnight, Naruto." Asuna said to the shinobi.

---

The next few days passed by rather quickly without much preamble. It took Kirito another two days before he was able to complete the Martial Arts Quest while Naruto and Asuna passed their time grinding against any monster that they came across, the shinobi practicing using his newly gained Martial Arts skills within the game. At times while Kirito was busy trying to complete his quest Naruto and Asuna would journey to the closest village or city in order to gather supplies or other materials that they might need.

But like any time Naruto found himself walking through a street he heard whispers from some players, not all but some, in concern to him. Naruto lived with hushed whispers all his life a few nameless players doing the same thing he had grown up with from an entire village hardly registered in his mind. But when those whispers were directed at Asuna, as well as Kirito whenever the swordsman decided to take a break, Naruto couldn't just ignore them. Slowly his two friends were being ostracized by the other players for simply being seen with him and the blonde shinobi realized, forlornly, to keep them from being distrusted and shunned by the other players trapped within SAO he would have to split up from the others.

With his chakra and skills as a shinobi Naruto would be fine no matter what was thrown at him while in the game, but the same could not be said about Kirito and Asuna. Naruto couldn't be with the all the time and at times they would need the help and trust of other players, especially during raids on the boss room.

That's why Naruto came to the decision he had.

"Sorry guys," Naruto whispered, having snuck out of the inn in the middle of the night several nights after recovering Asuna's Wind Fleuret, looking back at the inn with a sorrowful look in his eyes. It's not like the shinobi planned on avoiding Asuna and Kirito but at the moment it was best if they went their separate ways. At least for now and until Naruto could change people's opinion of himself; he did it once before there isn't any reason he wouldn't be able to do it again. With a deep sigh Naruto turned his back on the inn and began to walk away planning to head out to the fields.

…

Asuna was woken the next morning by the chimes of bells going off nearby. Looking around with her eyes half lidded and her rapier clutched to her body, having been to afraid even as she slept to let go of her weapon, as she looked around for the source when she spotted it nearby. "A message," Asuna muttered groggily, "From Naruto?" She continued to read her sleep addled mind confused as to why Naruto would be sending her a message when he was only a few rooms away. A part of Asuna's mind told her that she should be thankful that the blonde shinobi didn't just barge into her room like he did the other night. After debating for a second if she should read the message or go back to sleep the orange-brown haired girl opened the message and began to read it.

"Asuna, by the time you're reading this I'll be gone." The message read drawing an immediate gasp from Asuna and causing her to sit up in her bed, finally releasing her hold on her rapier. Without much of a second thought, even to the fact that she was only wearing her night clothes of a tank top and shorts, Asuna rushed out of her room towards Naruto's. After a couple of quick knocks Asuna opened the without waiting for an answer and almost ran into Kirito in the process.

"Kirito!" Asuna nearly shouted out in surprise before looking around frantically for Naruto but not being able to spot him. "Where's Naruto?! He's not, he didn't?" The female player asked, only becoming more frantic once she realized that Naruto wasn't there.

"Hey calm down Asuna," Kirito said holding up his hands in an effort to pacify the anxious hazel eyed rapier user. "Naruto's already left." He said stepping to the side to allow Asuna an unrestricted view of the empty room. "Looks like he left at some point in the middle of the night while we were all asleep." He commented shifting his gaze from the room back to Asuna.

"Left?" Asuna repeated, the only word that really registered in her mind. "Then he didn't…" She began to question only to trail off at the end unwilling to actually voice her question and risk it becoming reality.

It took a couple of seconds for Kirito to understand what Asuna was asking before his eyes widened nearly popping out of his head. "NO!" Kirito denied loudly while shaking his hands in front of him frantically in denial. "He just snuck out in the middle of the night." He promised. "If Naruto had done that, which he wouldn't you know that, his body would still be here." Kirito pointed out.

While Asuna didn't care about the little piece of fact that Kirito pointed out at the end it did help to relieve some of the nervousness she was feeling. "Thank goodness." Asuna breathed.

Kirito stares at the girl for a few silent moments before finally speaking up. "You're worried." He pointed out obviously with an almost amused smile on his face. "You should finish reading Naruto's message." Kirito advised. It was kind of obvious that Asuna hadn't finished reading Naruto's message before rushing towards his room to check on him otherwise she would have known that he had left and not killed himself like she initially thought. The only reason that Kirito had been in Naruto's room to begin with was because he wanted to make sure for himself.

Asuna nodded her head once in agreement, taking one last look around before heading back to her own room. Sitting back on her bed, unconsciously taking a hold of her rapier, Asuna continued reading Naruto's message.

"You don't have to worry I'll be fine and definitely keep my promise to you and make you the best rapier possible." That part caused Asuna to smile a little.

"You idiot," Asuna muttered softly to herself.

"But I had to leave." Naruto insisted in his message. "The other players would eventually turn their backs on you if Kirito and you were kept being seen with me and I didn't want that to happen. The two of you are strong, and will only get stronger, but not by yourselves you'll need the support of others. You won't get that support if you're ostracized because of me. I told you Jinchuuriki is The Power of Human Sacrifice someone who is hated by others. But I won't allow my friends, or anyone I care about, go through what I've gone through. I am willing to be seen as a Jinchuuriki again for the sake of everyone so that they could set their differences aside and focus on beating the game. So I'll fight on my own for now until I can earn everyone's trust, I've done it before, and if I ever need help I know I can count on you and Kirito to have my back. So until then, see ya." With those final words Naruto's message came to an end.

Asuna sat silently in her room contemplating what Naruto said in his message until a knock on her door drew her attention, "Asuna can I come in?" Kirito asked from the other side of the door, getting a "Come in," from the girl inside. Walking into the room the black haired swordsman found Asuna sitting on her bed holding her rapier, but unlike before Kirito somehow doubted that she was doing it consciously as she seemed almost deep in thought. "So did you finish reading Naruto's message?" He asked her, which was answered with a nod. "And what did you think?"

Asuna let out a huff as she set her rapier down beside her and crossed her arms in front of her. "It's absolutely ridiculous," The orange-brown haired player stated decisively. "Naruto's putting himself in danger for something so absurd. He's our friend, why would we let what some people say or think affect that?" Asuna asked rhetorically.

"You make a good point." Kirito conceded agreeing fully with Asuna's opinion, assuming that whatever Naruto told Asuna in his message was similar to what his message said. "But it was Naruto's decision and really we should have guessed that this was something he would have done." The swordsman finished almost casually with his observation.

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked with a confused expression on her face.

"Well," Kirito began thoughtfully, his hand held against his chin. "From what Naruto told us about himself he's the type of person to take on the problems of others without a second thought." The sword user reasoned. "At the same time when it comes to his own problems Naruto probably tries to solve them on his own so he doesn't feel like he is burdening others." Kirito stated. "That's probably part of the reason that he decided to leave the way he did."

Asuna looked down at the floor. "It's stupid." The hazel eyed girl muttered quietly to herself.

An uncomfortable look appeared on Kirito's face as he barely managed to hear what Asuna said in regards to Naruto's choice. "Maybe," Kirito said carefully. "But I kind of agree with him."

"What?!" Asuna gasped out shocked.

Kirito let out a sigh as he steeled himself about what he was about to say next. "I'm kind of in the same boat as Naruto." Kirito reminded her. "I 'revealed' that I was a Beater, someone who was a Beta Tester and used the information I gathered to cheat in order to get ahead of everyone else, so the opinion of the other players about me is a little better than theirs about Naruto. So it might be best if we went our separate ways as well."

"I see," Asuna said softly.

The black haired swordsman gave Asuna a small sad smile. He understood how the girl must be feeling, losing the two people that had been with her the last few days and that she had grown to trust in such short amount of time. "You'll definitely become strong in the future." Kirito stated obviously, it was fact that he was certain of after the last few days of knowing the chestnut haired girl.

"Naruto said something similar." Asuna remarked almost offhandedly.

Kirito smiled a bit brighter at Asuna after that. "Then you should definitely believe it." He urged his female friend. "But as strong as you get there is only so much that you'll be able to do on your own." Kirito continued. "So when someone you trust asks you to join a guild don't turn them down." The swordsman finished.

"What about you and Naruto?" Asuna asked.

"With his abilities the last thing you really need to do is worry about Naruto." Kirito advised.

"It doesn't matter how strong he is." Asuna refuted with a shake of her head. "Naruto could still be hurt!" As far as Asuna was concerned Naruto's life was possibly in the greatest danger out of anyone since one strike from a monster in the wrong place could be the end of him.

"Have more faith in Naruto." Kirito said trying to placate the rapier user. "Besides if he needs help he has us to bail him out. We'll both keep an eye out for him." He stated bringing up the menu screen to disband the party. "Later Asuna," The Beater finished as he walked out of the room.

"Bye," Asuna called after Kirito only noticing after the sword user left that there was a semi-transparent screen in front of her. A friend request from Naruto, below it two buttons a blue button with a white circle the other a red button with a white "X". There really only one response.

…

Naruto was taking a short break under a tree as he stared out at open field, keeping a close eye on the monsters when the chiming of bells drew his attention. Turning his head ever so slightly Naruto saw a small window with the announcement that Asuna had accepted his friend request and next to it a message from the orange-brown haired girl. With more than a little trepidation Naruto opened the message and read what was inside.

"Baka! Stay safe."

It was short, and to the point, and it still managed to cause a fox like smile to spread across Naruto's face, "Alright!" Naruto said out loud rather cheerfully, as he stood up and wiped away nonexistent dust from himself, "Breaks over time to get back to work!" The blonde shinobi declared before bringing his hands up in a familiar hand-seal, "Shadow clone jutsu!" And with that a clone popped into existence next to Naruto drawing the attention of all the nearby monsters and spawning a countless number more around them.

With determination burning in his eyes Naruto charged at the horde a sword drawn. While their might not be much of a point in him leveling up seeing as he was probably already the strongest player within the game Naruto still had to gather materials and items, besides just going out and killing monsters was kind of fun. This was supposed to be a game after all.

---

AN: Alright that's it. Now the next time I update this fic it definitely won't be as long as this chapter' because I just want it to be a short chapter focusing on Naruto and Asuna. I originally wanted them to have a moment in this chapter but this has already gone far longer than I originally intended and taken me much longer to write than I ever wanted. Sadly there were parts in this fic that I was left unhappy with.

The next fic that will be updated will be my Naruto/Gosick story and I'll definitely keep that short before moving on to either my Code Geass or Digimon crossover, right now I'm leaning more towards Digimon.

So until next time I hope this was enjoyed and everyone reviews.