Ultimate Ninja Storm

"Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised."

~Denis Waitley quote

Chapter 4: The Introduction

When life gives you lemons, you throw them back and demand cookies. When life tells you that your secret could possibly be exposed and you have absolutely no idea how to stop it from happening, you send fate one good kick up the old fanny and make it your bitch. But Hinata was Hinata and Hinata was a bi-polar worrywart.

The remainder of the dinner had been… interesting. Hinata had been in a daze the remainder of the evening, Sasuke was in his plotting phase, letting out some really creepy accidental smirks every 10 minutes, Naruto was grinning from ear to ear like a constipated fox, Itachi was smiling and being the good child by actually paying attention to what the other adults said and Neji and Hanabi engaged in a heated argument over who would get ranked higher.

To tip off Hinata's sense of sanity, the parents added two rules to the banquet. 1. All gamers who had received a prototype must be present in order to receive a ranking and, 2. If the gamer doesn't show up, their files will be erased and they'll have to get the new version some other time and start over from scratch.

Despite all the bad news at the dinner, it wasn't the worst part. The worst part was coming to school this morning seeing blimps, posters and billboard signs all advertising the banquet that would be held... today.

It was the last session of the day, with 10 minutes remaining until class was dismissed. Hinata had Professional Communication right now, but as usual, Kakashi hadn't shown up yet. He'd be here one minute after the bell rang to stop the class from leaving and give them homework so they'd remember that he was in charge here, not them.

The girl slumped over and sighed, ignoring Tenten and Kiba's banter about the game. She didn't really want to hear just how awesome the game was when she was going to have to say goodbye to it in a few minutes. The banquet was to be held in half an hour. All Ultimate Ninja Storm gamers had to be present or their profiles would be lost forever. That meant Solice was at stake.

Solice was a mystery to the Gamemakers; no one knew who she was or where she came from, except Hinata. Solice was Hinata's alter-ego, her secret, and Solice was going to stay a secret, profile erased or not.

"Are you really sure about that?"

Hinata rolled her eyes and ignored the voice in her head. She'd realized it wasn't exactly healthy to have a split personality or have conversations with it.

"Ugh. You're such a priss! Don't you realize that deleting our profile is going to delete me too! You need me"!

"And I need my friends to trust me! How do you think they're going to take it when I show up at the banquet in place for us when I've been distinctly telling them I. DON'T. PLAY. ULTIMATE NINJA STORM? They all hate liars…"

"But you've been lying ever since you've gotten that CD. You can't go back now."

Of course I can. Our profile will be deleted, I'll never play Ultimate Ninja Storm again, you'll go away and I'll go back to living a regular life."

"That's what you want?"

"Yes!"

"Fine. Goodbye then."

"Wait…No… I'm…"

"Solice?"

Hinata sighed. Great. She just had a fight with herself. Awesome.

"I bet I'm gonna be in the top 10!" Tenten boasted. "I'm smart, fast, my ninja's pretty hot-"

Kiba scoffed. "I'm gonna be in the top 5! I mean, have you seen me play? I've got mad skills! Right, Hinata?"

The fiery tension raging between Kiba and Tenten made Hinata smile warily. They'd never change. "Um, I don't really know, Kiba. Both you and Tenten are really good at the ninja stuff…"

The two brunets huffed and sighed.

"Doesn't matter anyways," Tenten complained. "I've heard about this Solice chick." Hinata stiffened at the mention of her alter-ego. "Apparently, she's supposed to be extremely good. She'll probably be ranked number 1 at the banquet."

"Nah," said Kiba. "I don't believe it when people talk about her. S'just a bunch of publicity propaganda and bullshit. I bet she's just some sort of virtual obstacle the Gamemakers created. You know how in every game there's always some kind of unbeatable character? She's just that."

"You're just saying that because you know she could kick your ass, mutt!" Tenten accused.

Kiba rolled his eyes and lazily said, "They made Solice a girl. Everyone knows girls aren't that good at video game-" Kiba chilled when he felt the mass amount of negative energy coming from his left. He just mentioned a taboo topic. He looked to Tenten and waved his hands around frantically, trying to apologize. "You know I didn't mean that Ten! Girls are just as good as gu-!"

Hinata tuned herself out of the conversation and scooted over to the right of her seat. She didn't want to have Kiba's dead remains all over her uniform. As the loud smacking took place, Hinata looked to the clock. 1 minute until the bell.

She eyed the room and found Naruto's grinning face. He was laughing with his friends, probably just as excited about the banquet as her friends were.

"What would you do, Naruto-kun?"

As if hearing her thoughts, Naruto's eyes met hers. He sent her a warm smile and wave of the hand then went back to his friends. Her heart raced and she blushed softly. She knew exactly what he would do. He'd choose his friends over a game any day.

The bell rang and as always the students began leaving. Hinata took her time to leave her desk, just waiting for the silver-haired teacher to show up. And he did, right before Naruto could reach the door.

"Who told you all you could leave?" Kakashi asked through his navy blue mask.

"You're late again, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled.

"Shut up for a second, will you Naruto?" Kakashi sighed. He lazily looked to the class. "Your assignment will be to come up with 10 survey-worthy topics and at least 5 questions for each. That's all. You're dismissed."

The class groaned and shuffled out of the classroom, passing by Kakashi.

As Hinata headed for the doors along with everyone else, she thought back to her strange teacher. He wore a mask because he liked to provoke his students into becoming curious about his face. Well, that's what he said. Hinata just thought it was because he was on the run for some sort of murder he committed which would explain the young body and head of grey hair (dyed probably) and mask covering from his face from the nose down.

It was kind of like her and Solice in a way-with the whole identity change thing-except their appearance changed in the game, not real life.

Hinata stopped walking and looked to her watch. She ignored the people annoyed with her for stopping and began calculating. The banquet started in twenty minutes sharp. Jacque's was a 15 minute walk from here. All of her family members and friends would be at the banquet. She was supposed to walk home alone today. That meant she was free.

Hinata took off running with a small smirk on her lips.

Yes, Naruto would have chosen friends over games. And yes, she admired his loyalty and respected all of his decisions. In fact, she'd managed to adapt to his way of acting. His beliefs were her beliefs.

But just not this time. This time she was following her beliefs, her instinct. She chose… both.

Solice chuckled. "Nice to have you back."

Sipping some of the non-alcoholic champagne offered, Naruto frowned.

30 minutes. 30 minutes went by and the Solice guy wasn't there yet.

From all the faces seated around the tables, none of them were Solice. He'd know because the seat Solice was supposed to sit in was right beside him, in between him and Sasuke.

The name written in golden cursive, stitched into the white cushion of the fancy chair, rubbed him in the wrong way.

Sure he was always excited about new competition, but he always managed to beat the new competition and he was not one for losing. Ugh. Losing. That word was so detestable, so vile.

The grand, pure white ballroom engraved in golden patterns was put to use effectively. Five large rectangular tables were pushed together by their shorter sides, each dressed in fine white cloth and bathed in pounds of gourmet food. Approximately 99 gamers sat at their named seats, the men dressed in black and white tuxedos, the women dressed in white.

Everyone was matching. No one wore different colors except for the Gamemakers from the Namikaze, Uchiha and Hyuuga corporations. Their outfits had touches of red lace on it. The Gamemakers stood upon the stage, conversing amongst themselves as well as making serious expressions.

They were itching to find out Solice's identity too. He could tell.

Maybe Solice really was a mystery. No matter how good the person was, the stakes the banquet set were too high for the guy to actually pass it up. Solice had to be coming. Had to.

And Naruto had to know who it was. Who it was that cancelled out Sasuke's genjutsu in one move, who it was that defeated the both of them so easily it was disgraceful.

He could tell Sasuke was anxious to find out who it was too.

The both of them had kept their eyes focused on the entrance to the ballroom ever since they sat down.

But what would they do when Solice's identity was revealed? He honestly didn't know. Maybe he'd challenge him or find some way to prove the guy was cheating or maybe he'd just become his new rival upon his already long list of rivals.

Naruto was not in the least nervous about his ranking. He was sure he'd pull up to a position higher than #15 at least. He wouldn't be amongst the 70 to get dropped.

Oh yeah. That was the new ruling the Gamemakers added. Those who didn't make the top 30 would have their game files erased anyway.

He definitely wouldn't be amongst the bottom 70. He was sure of it. He just had some competition for the top 10 spots.

First off was this Solice guy who beat him like it was nothing. Next were Itachi and his friends. Itachi was a mastermind. He definitely did not pride himself in the game nor did he invest countless numbers of hours into trying to get better at it like he and Sasuke did. Instead, as soon as he got hold of the controller, he became a pro.

That's what ticked Sasuke off about Itachi. He might've tried to hide it but as his best friend he could clearly see it. Sasuke was jealous.

Itachi's friends were weird as hell but skilled as fuck. And they were all at the banquet, seated next to each other, conversing, arguing and smacking each other.

Konan was the girl in their circle of friends. She had shoulder-length blue hair, amber eyes, and always wore ultramarine eye shadow and a labret piercing. She was calm and stoic but also evil and plotting then cheerful the next second. Naruto had his fair share of her personality when she stole his clothes after he showered and demanded $100 or else he'd be running around Sasuke's home butt nekked. Naruto shuddered.

Nagato was Konan's boyfriend. He had red hair and grey eyes. Nagato was Naruto's distant cousin and the opposite of him. He was sensitive and insecure but also could be cold and a smartass the next minute. He was the perfect match-up for Konan.

Then there was Zetsu. Zetsu had extremely pale skin and green hair. It reminded him of mucus -you know, the fancy word for boogers. Zetsu was a freak, a freak with a pint of crazy. He had split-personalities and sometimes talked to himself- albeit only in private. Naruto caught him in the act before. Other than that, Zetsu was also calm and collected.

Next was Hidan. He had slicked back grey hair and purple eyes. The dude was a total bitch. He was always cursing. Not one sentence had yet to leave his mouth without 'fuck' being mentioned. He was also impatient and disrespectful to everyone. But the guy was cool- to Naruto at least.

Kakuzu was dark skinned, had long brown hair and green eyes. The guy was a money freak. It was always money this, money that. He muggled kids without regret- Naruto, himself, had been a victim-, he tricked the elderly into giving him money and he was all about saving. He and Hidan would always argue.

Kisame was pale with dark blue hair and light blue eyes. He was one of Itachi's closest friends and was obsessed with fish. If you ate fish around him, he'd either get emotional or beat the crap out of you.

Sasori seemed normal at first. Bright red hair, good looks, brown eyes, calm personality and overall, collected. He had a passion for art. Sometimes Naruto would hear Deidara and Sasori arguing over it. But that's what made Sasori odd. When it came to art, he seemed to be more of a madman. He had a knack for puppetry. He'd design, sculpt and shape them, almost making them seem human-like. It was creepy. He treated them as if they were real. To Naruto it was real creeper material.

And then there's Deidara. Good ol' Deidara. Naruto had once thought Deidara was a girl since he looked like he could be Ino's twin brother but that disintegrated when Deidara nearly blew the shit out of him with DYNAMITE! The blond had a fetish for explosives. He said they were like pieces of art. To Naruto, it looked like Deidara needed serious help.

Tobi was the weirdest of Itachi's friends. He had short, spiky black hair and wore a swirled orange mask that a peep hole for his right eye. He was a grown man and wore a mask! But that wasn't the oddest part about him. He was bi-polar. He was always happy-go-lucky and goofy but if you pissed him off, and it was the dumbest things that pissed him off, he would turn serial killer on you and literally try to murder you.

Yeah. Itachi's friends were odd but they were just as good gamers as Itachi, and Naruto had yet to beat Itachi in a fight.

The others around Naruto didn't concern him too much since they either looked creepy like the weird guy with gelled pink hair (what guy had pink hair! Well, other than Sakura's dad… yeah…), emo like the guy with red hair and glasses or stupid like Konohamaru and his friends. He loved Konohamaru and the little brats but they weren't going to make it. They honestly sucked. The only people he could show some kind of concern for would have to be Hinata's friends. They were all exceptionally skilled at the game but he could tell he was better than them.

Hinata wasn't here. It was odd that her friends played and she didn't. Maybe she was like Sakura, Ino and Karin- not big fans of video games. But he was absolutely sure they'd reconsider if they found out that their precious Sasuke-kun was playing.

Sasuke had been his best friend since, well, forever. They were rivals and enemies at first but somehow they managed to become best friends only seconds later. He wasn't jealous of the guy or anything. He was just upset with the way Sasuke dealt with the natural attention he got. Naruto had to work hard to get people to start liking him, Sasuke held attention naturally but he didn't appreciate it or want it. What girls liked so much about Sasuke Naruto'd never understand. He was good-looking too. He might not have been as smart but he sure as hell wasn't going to treat those who liked him like dirt.

Distracting him from his thoughts, a security guard ran through the entrance of the ballroom and onto the stage.

"There's some girl out there, claiming that she's Solice, should we let her in?"

Before any one of his parents and Gamemakers could reply, the double doors to the ballroom busted open.

Immediately all attention had been cast in the newcomer's direction.

Naruto struggled to keep his mouth from hanging open.

At the doors stood Solice. Literally Solice. She was dressed in a tight-fitting body suit, wore a mask that covered every part of her face but her clear eyes, and had two swords sheathed behind her back along with two sharp knives placed within her belt holders. Solice rested her hand on her hip.

"I'm Solice, I'm here and I want my ranking. Now."