-At a Family Restaurant Near Uzumaki Ramen-

"So you have no idea what you wish to do for Naruto-san, just that you want to do something for him?" Dert raises one of his eyebrows in questioning as he gathers what the nervous boy before him said. He then smirks connivingly and says "My, my Issei-kun. How daring of you to make the first move. Why, not even Matsuri-san, whom lives with Naruto-san, had mustered up the courage to do what you're subtly implying."

"Tch. Are you helping me or not old man? Cause if not, I can always find someone else to get help from." Issei scowls at the middle aged man with a twitch of his eyebrow. Honestly, he had a hard time debating on whom to ask for help in finding Naruto a gift and Dert came out as number one simply because he knew Naruto the longest (tying with Issei). Matsuri was out since she's the type to think of everyone and will only advice Issei on getting something mundane while Koneko barely knows the blonde for more than a month.

"Ahahaha, it's just a little joke Issei-kun." Dert chuckles lowly from the top of his coffee cup and smiles at the brunette in a grandfatherly way. "But why would you want to buy him a present? If it's about him saving you from the near-accident, I'm sure he did it without expecting a gift. Anyone with a proper conscience would, after all. I think a polite thank you is all that's needed as thanks for someone like Naruto-san. Well, that or an orange whoopee cushion and a box of readymade instant ramen."

"...It's not just for him saving me. He's done a lot of things for me since I've first met him. He gives me advice and accommodates me with my high school lessons as well. I just want to thank him for helping me out so much." The teen furrows his eyes at the look the middle aged man is giving him. Somehow, he doesn't think that what he's thinking is what the man's thinking.

"What youthful innocence... Ah, how good it is to be young~" The man sighs with a grin and takes a long sip of coffee from his cup before slamming it down onto the table. His grin becomes a wide ear to ear smile as he proclaims "Very well Issei-kun! This Dertearg is willing to help you in your endeavors in any way possible! Be it money to resource to the greatest technologies in the world, I give you free range access to use it all!"

"Eh? I don't really need any of that. It would defeat the purpose of me being the one to get Naruto a gift. Just a little advice is all that I need. Thanks for the thought though." Issei waves off the generous offer from the extremely wealthy coffee addict and slouches back into his chair to get into a comfortable position.

"Muuu, if it was money, it would've been a lot easier." Dert pouts as he sits back into his chair and takes another draft of his coffee cup. Issei raises an eyebrow at what he says and he clarifies. "In case you haven't noticed, we know next to nothing about Naruto-san. It's not that we're bad friends but rather, it's because he never tells us anything about his past. We merely know some random facts that could be found in his registries and government kept paper works like his birth date and schooling but no real personal experience. From my memory, I only know for a fact that Matsuri is an unofficial relative of Naruto's and that he traveled the world before opening the ramen shop."

"Huh, you're right..." Issei holds his chin in between his thumb and index finger and tries to recall what he knew about the blonde in topic. Nothing pops up and it only reminds him of the reason why he's looking for help in the first place. He throws his hand into the air in surrender and sighs out "Dang, so I'm at a dead end huh?"

"Hmmm... not exactly, no. I think I might have an answer to our predicament." The middle age man rubs his stubble and mutters something. He then stands up and goes to pay the bill for the curry and hamburger that both he and Issei ordered before walking out the door of the restaurant with the brunette following closely behind. As he walks towards the direction of his van, he asks his brunette friend "Issei-kun, can you call Koneko-san and acquire her help as well? I have an idea that just might work."

"Huh? Koneko? Sure, if she's free I guess..." Issei follows the man with a questioning raise of his brows as he pulls out his phone and complies with the man's request.


-Unknown Hospital Basement-

"...We're what?" Koneko pinches her cheeks and slowly pulls as she muffles out her question to what Dert just said. Issei did the same thing as well.

"I want you and Issei-kun to use these untested virtual reality mind jacking machines that my company had made a few weeks earlier to access Naruto-san's memories and dreams. Once inside, I would like you to look around and find any information about a good gift to give Naruto-san." The middle aged man replies simply as he types on a keyboard in front of a glowing futuristic looking machine.

"...And pray tell, what is a virtual reality mind jacking machine and how does it enter the mind of someone?" Issei asks as he pinches the bridge of his nose. Honestly, there were plenty of other questions he wanted to ask as well like: Why are they in a creepy basement under an abandoned hospital, why Dert's company felt the need to make something that's basically an interrogation tool, why they thought it was a good idea to leave something so ominous sounding out in the middle of nowhere and so many other questions. He just felt that these two questions were the slightly more important and on topic ones. The rest might give him more of a headache than an answer.

"Well, the virtual reality mind jacking machine is just what it sounds like. It hijacks the user's mind and inputs it into a virtual reality that is closely akin too a mirror of the mind. As for the memory and dream programs-" Dert stops typing and looks up from his keyboard filled with too many buttons to turn his gaze at the pair of observers. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a plastic card with a single strand of yellow hair in between it. "-it is just a gimmick that one of the lab monkeys created to get to know his girlfriend better. It ended up with him breaking up with his girlfriend immediately after."

The middle aged man walks past the white and brown haired pair to access another machine that's held together by lots of wires to all the other machines. He puts the plastic card into the new machine and continues typing while giving Issei and Koneko a sideway glance as they starts talking.

"So we're going to look into Naruto's dream to find a perfect gift for Issei to buy?" Koneko tilts her head sideways in confusion as she doesn't quite understand the urgent need for her own presence in this situation.

"Ah, that's where the problem comes from. Navigating the memories and dreams of someone is like sorting through a complex puzzle. It's hard, so the tech monkeys decided to turn the thing into a literal puzzle and made the whole machine into a sort of puzzle game." Dert finishes typing on the keyboard and gestures the two to follow him towards two beds with weird helmets attached to it. "As I expected, Naruto-san's memories is sorted straight forwardly into a dungeon that only goes down. It has one hundred floors and each floor has a guard of sort. The guards are a part of Naruto-san's dreams and are either a person or an embodiment of his memories of some sort. Your goal is to navigate to the end of the dungeon and complete the navigation. From there, we can collect the data of the dream and pull out the potentially perfect gift."

"That's sounds needlessly complicated." Issei scrunches his eyebrow and looks at Dert suspiciously as he pats the beds, gesturing them to lay down on it.

"Nothing I can do. This is the best bet we have." Dert shrugs his shoulder and takes a sip of his coffee as he moves sideways to make room for Koneko. Issei soon follows the white haired girl's lead and sits on the bed.

"Don't worry about time. I've regulated it so that the dream is much longer than reality so unless you spend around ten years in there, we'll have enough time to by the gift as you finish." Issei and Koneko gives the middle aged man one last slightly doubtful look and puts on their helmets. They both lose consciousness immediately and Dert smiles mischievously. He walks over to one of the machines, tap a few buttons and falls backwards as a large cushioned chair appears underneath him. He pulls out a large tub of popcorn and slumps backwards as a large flat screen television slides down from the ceiling, showing the image of the two teens looking around confusedly in a stone cavern/ corridor.

"Separation from reality, check. Time flow stop, check. Record function, on and check. Popcorn, double check! Haaaah, it's good that I have the power to basically do whatever I want but really, it's so tiring~ I guess I can indulge my friends from time to time though." With a large content sigh, the humanoid dragon amongst dragons pops a small piece of popcorn into his mouth and watches the chaos unfold.


-Cavern of Memories-

"Whoa..." Issei blinks a few times as his surrounding changes from a technological madman's lab in a hospital's basement to a large cavernous corridor. He looks besides him as Koneko grabs his sleeve and steadies herself. Apparently she couldn't take the sudden change in environment as well as he had.

"It feels so real..." Once steadied, the white haired girl looks around the cavern and touches the wall.

"Yeah, this is pretty amazing." Issei nods as well as he taps the floor with his foot and hear the echoing thud rang through the corridor as a result.

RINNNNNG~ RINNNNNG~ RINNNNNG ~

""..?"" The two looks at each other in confusion and looks down at their own perspective pockets as something in it vibrates and rings. Reaching for the pocket, the each find a ring and a small folded note. Quizzically they both open the notes at the same time and reads them.

'Koneko-san, put on the ring. It will allow you to access your rook powers as well as chakra and senjutsu for the upcoming challenge.' Koneko blinks in surprise at the note and rereads it a few time to figure out that Dert knows of her abilities and current race. She scrunches her eyebrows as she figures that Naruto probably told him and puts on the ring. Immediately, a rush of power enters her body as chakra flows evenly through her veins without her guidance. She mentally puts a stop on it and glance sideways to blink in surprise when Issei puts on his own ring.

'Issei-kun, put the ring on your left hand. It will allow you access to a tool call the Boosted Gear. Just focus on your left hand, think the words Boosted Gear and it'll work. Use it for the upcoming challenge.' Issei raise a brow at the note as it catches into flames and lets go before the flames touches his hand. Following the note, he puts the ring on the left hand and thinks the word Boosted Gear. Immediately, a red flash appears with his hand as the center and when the light dies down, his hand is covered in an extremely decorated red gauntlet with numerous green jewels imbued into it.

"Whoa..." Issei blinks as the jewels glow a bit after the word "Boost" echoes through his mind and feels himself grow more energetic. He feels his muscles grow stronger, his limbs grow limber, himself grow more powerful and many more. He whistles inside his head as he feel one of the many things the strange middle age man can do with a bit of effort. He turns around to see Koneko not having a similar weapon but just the ring on her finger. He raises an eyebrow at this and asks "You didn't get a weapon?"

"...Status upgrade. I'm more... durable." Koneko blinks in surprise at the question and answers with a bit of deliberation. She assumed that Issei knew of her powers but now doubts that as he just asked her if she had her own Sacred Gear. The fact that he's marvelling his own weapon with such interest tells her that he didn't know he owns a Sacred Gear at all either. She makes note to not speak of the supernatural around Issei, assuming he doesn't know about it already. She secretly wonders why Naruto hasn't told Issei already.

"Oh, looks like the first stage is ready. Let's get this over with, right Koneko?" Though he says it like it's a chore, Issei is literally bouncing down the newly lit path in the corridor. Koneko rolls her eyes at the boy's liveliness and jogs after him.


Floor 1: Ebisu

"Issei! Behind!" Koneko gives a quick direction as she senses the man wearing the shady looking shades move quickly behind her friend.

"Guh!" Issei lifts his gauntleted arm up just in time to block his neck as the man appears at his back and strikes with a knife. He grunts while holding his ground as the force behind the attack was surprising strong and attempts to grab the man's arm. The man disappears again in a burst of speed and reappears on the other side of the room. The man discards the knife which broke from the confrontation with Issei's gauntlet and pulls out another one before disappearing.

"Left... right... front... UP!" Koneko tracks the man's movement and expertly makes an uppercut timed using only her senjutsu as her sense. She grunts as her strike matches his and the ground she stands on craters.

"DRAGON SHOT!" A red beam of energy blasts towards the shaded man and strikes him with a satisfying roar. Issei whooped in victory as he fell to his knees in exhaustion of the "Reset" as he calls it but Koneko kept her senses on full throttle.

"Issei! Behind!" The white haired girl screams in urgency as the brunette turns around at the same time only to meet a kunai to the face. A burnt piece of wood falls from the dissipation of the earlier energy blast and the brunette falls. "ISSEI!"

Koneko didn't make it very far either as the man takes advantage of the moment of pause to trap her in a rope of hidden wire with pieces of paper on it. The man puts two fingers in front of his face and announces "Katsu." Everything went white.

...

"GAH! That's the seventh time we've lost to him! What kind of dungeon is this?! The first level is a last boss level! What happened to the slime level dammit?!" Outside the entrance of the first level, Issei tears at his hair and rolls around in frustration.

"...He's a part of Naruto's memory." Koneko mutters in wonder as she re-evaluates the challenge of the task before them. It's just the first level and they've already met someone who's stronger than her and as fast as Kiba. She narrows her eye as the hurdle raises itself higher when she figures out that the man is probably only the tip of the iceberg. If Naruto can use senjutsu, his teacher who taught him is probably somewhere within the dungeon as well.

"Well at least I'm catching up to him. I can react to his speed at the fifth boost and sort of match him on the sixth boost. His strength can be reached on the sixth boost as well but..." Issei makes a gesture while trying to find the word that he needs. He gives up in the end but Koneko got the gist of it. Fighting experience, the man is full of it while the pair has a grand total of a few small scuffles in comparison.

The man fights with grace, technique, decisiveness and absolute certainty of his victory. Meanwhile, Koneko and Issei flounders around to keep up with the man as he slowly chip away at their defence, waiting for the chance to strike a killing blow. The difference between reaction time and strategy trumps over them even if they were a match in terms of strength and speed.

RINNNNNG~ RINNNNNG~ RINNNNNG ~

"Hmm?" Issei stops his floundering as he feels his pocket vibrate. He reaches in and pulls out a note. He opens it and holds it so that both he can Koneko can read it together. Not ten second later, Koneko grabs the note and punches it to oblivion, it along with the ground under it.

'It seems that you're having a lot of trouble. Since I'm generous, I'll tell you this after watching you for so long. First, he doesn't have any memory of previous fights. Every time he fights, he has to re-analyze your fighting style, use that time of analyzing to your advantage! Second, Issei-kun gains access to a new boost the longer time goes on, each time is around ten second so stall if you can until you can outspeed him completely! Third, Koneko-san should be careful about your kicks. He's been getting sneaking peeks under your skirt. On that side note, cat patterns fit you!

Good luck! Dertearg.'

"So he has been watching us this whole time... Che, he only choose to help us now?" Issei sighs exasperatingly and looks over at a steaming Koneko. He chooses wisely to not mention anything near her lower body and instead planned for a strategy against the enemy. Secretly, he wants to just give up and buy the blonde a box of ramen but that would insult everyone's help. "What do you think we should do?"

"Do you think you can beat him after two minutes of using your "Boost"?" Koneko asks as she realizes that each fight so far has lasted for a minute at most. If what Issei says is true, then twelve boosts is more than enough to outrank the opponent in terms of strength and speed. Hopefully, it is enough so that he can ignore the handicap of experience in fighting.

"No, at the rate "Boost" was powering me up, seven...maybe eight is all that's needed to outmatch him. That's what I feel anyway." Issei determinedly says as he rebukes Koneko's claim. The girl nods in acknowledgment and frowns in concentration.

"We have to hold him out for a minute at the least..." Koneko feels a slight touch of encouragement from the brunette's words but squashes it down as a wave if depression hits her. In comparison, her sister, the person she wishes to catch up to and reunite with, is much stronger than this man and here she is, planning to stall him rather than defeating him. If it continues like this... she'll never catch up her Nee-sama.

"...We'll think of something. After all, we still have ninety nine more floors to beat, right?" Issei notices the white haired girl's melancholy and pats her head with a stupid grin (so told by Naruto). She looks at him in surprise before nodding her head once with a little smile of her own. They take another moment to calm themselves then stand and face the door to the room once more.

'Phew, I gotta finish this quickly and find a gift for Koneko and Dert for helping me as well! Yeah, let's do this!' Issei pumps himself up and pushes the door open while taking steady strides into the room.

'I'm not by myself... There are others to help me reach Nee-sama. Together, we can reach her. This is just the first challenge!' Koneko nods at the solution. She reaffirms herself when Issei patted her and walks in after the brunette.

...

"Three." Issei mutters as he keeps look at the man and another "Boost" rang through his mind. Unlike the other times where they both rushed in to attack the man, this time they waited back. Seeing as the man isn't attacking, it's safe to assume that Dert's advice is correct and that the man is analyzing them before attacking.

"..." Besides the brunette, Koneko stands completely still as she process nature energy into her chakra. Her senses heighten and she enters a stage of awareness that Naruto trained her to use for advantage. In this stage, she can predict movement and sense energy almost at a high Bishop's or Queen's level. This is a stage that she only managed to reach twice during the seven fights against the man. Naruto had said that there were higher advancements in using senjutsu but recommended that this stage is the one she stops at until she gains more experience at using the art. She silently apologizes to the blonde as she broke the rule and continued to process nature energy.

"Six." Issei feels another rush of energy as a "Boost" occurs and tenses his muscles as the plan is now at the critical stage. The moment he shifted however, the man disappears in a burst of speed and appears in front of the both of them with a knife readied. Issei foresaw this move ahead of time from experience and swings his fist at where he felt the man would most likely be at.

CLANG!

"KUH!" The sound of metal hitting metal echoes outwards from the point of impact. Issei grimaces as he feels the recoil of the strike rippling through his arm. Using the recoil to his advantage, he quickly pulls back his left fist and leans his upper body backwards with it for a kick. The man spins once to roll past Issei's sloppy attack and uses the momentum to swing another knife that he pulled out from his waist bag after discarding the one Issei broke on contact.

"...Done, nyah." Koneko sensed the man's intention and punches at the knife before it touches the brunette. She widens her eyes in surprise as her fist didn't just knock back the knife but broke into it and continues to strike the man in the stomach.

BAM!

"...Close..." Koneko lowers her fist as chips of wood falls from where she landed her punch and turns towards where the man reappeared, on the other side of the room. She feels her ear twitch and tail sways and wonders when they got loose from the bindings used to hide them.

"Seven." Issei straightens from the odd posture he gotten into during the conflict and punches his fist into the gauntlet's palm. Beside him Koneko nods in acknowledgement and settles into what looks like a modified boxing stance.

"..." The man pushes up his glasses with the index finger of his left hand and uses the other hand to pull out another knife from his waist pouch. A moment later, everyone moves into action.


Floor 2: Jiraiya

"In my defense, I did not know he could breathe fire." Outside the room for the second floor, Issei tries to placate a glaringly mad Koneko. The battle lasted longer than they had both thought due to the man having more tricks up his sleeves than just disappearing and attacking from behind or replacing fatal hits with wood. The clash ended when Issei calls forth a rather ingenious plan from the deepest crevices of his brain where Koneko box the man in from the front and he blasts him with a "Dragon Shot" from the air (don't ask how he got into the air). What he didn't account for though, was that the man can breathe fire. The "Dragon Shot" landed head on and disabled the man but the impact caused the flames to spread out and hit Koneko, burning... most of her clothing in the process. Funnily enough, the man's first and last words were "Cat panties, moe." Issei gave him a discreet thumbs up in agreement as Koneko landed the finishing blow, repeatedly.

"..." Koneko continues to glare at the teen as she moves slightly but noticeably away from the teen while hugging her uniform (which repaired itself after walking out of the floor's exit). She harrumphs and pushes the door open, ready to vent her anger not on the boy who was technically at fault but on the next target.

WHOOSH!

""!"" A strong gust of wind blows into their faces the moment they step into the room and allow the door to close. They both cover their eye and began their own perspective battle mode initiation. By the time the wind dies down, Issei gathered his first "Boost" and Koneko juggled between preparing to fight with and collect more nature energy.

Dum badum dum dum dum dum ding~

""?"" While still in battle mode, the two confusedly looks at the direction where music of some sort is coming from. Since the gust earlier knocked up a lot of dust, they didn't see much. Another gust of wind blows by and knocks away the dust, showing a giant frog at the far end of the room with smaller frogs surrounding it, playing... music?

"Listen up, you chicks! Open up your beady little eyes and take a good look! Behold, the divine ninja Jiraiya's... Free and uninhibited, wild dance!" Atop the giant frog, a man wearing a green kimono and matching pants with a red haori over the kimono dances on his gettas. He exclaims something completely incomprehensible and flips around his ridiculously long spiky white hair.

""..."" Koneko and Issei stands stalk still in battle position and gives the man a dual "The Hell?!" face. The music dies down and the small frogs bows before disappearing in plumes of smoke. They stood silent still. A tumbleweed passes by somewhere in between.

"...Lord Jiraiya. Why are the enemies not doing anything?" The large frog shifts from its still position and whispers as quietly as it can. Issei's and Koneko's "The Hell?!" face gains a new level of intensity.

"They're just wallowing within our amazingness, Gamagachi. It is honorable to give them a moment of reprieve to burn my gallant figure within their mind." Without shifting from his one legged pose, the man whispers back just loudly enough for the teens to hear with a completely serious look on his face

"Like hell!" Issei, being trained for a year to be Naruto's straight man, throws a five "Boost" "Dragon Shot" at the man from across the room. He immediately falls on his face as he loses all the energy he had gathered into the shot and was only saved when Koneko lowers herself to heal him with her senjutsu technique.

"...Not enough." Koneko narrows her eyes as her senjutsu given sense locks back onto the strange man's energy. She quickens Issei's stamina recovery by offering her own store and while continuing her multitasking of gathering natural energy and locking onto the man.

"Hoh? Not bad kid." The smoke blown up by "Dragon Shot" settles to show the man standing crossed armed with not even a scratch on his body. The only relieve they have is that the giant frog is gone. "That would've ruffled my clothes if you hadn't done it so far away, hahahahaha!"

"Why the hell is everyone in Naruto's memory so overpowered dammit!" Issei shakily stands back on his feet as his stamina recovers and he summons the gauntlet again with a quick mental order. He stands straighter after the first "Boost".

"Of course I'm strong! I would've whooped the brat's butt more if he'd thought otherwise, hahahaha!" The white haired man laughs loudly and disappears from their sight. From their previous meeting with disappearing characters, both Issei and Koneko quips their head behind them only to meet two large palms tapping their center and push them down onto their butts effortlessly.

"Eh?" Koneko widens her eyes as nature energy leaves her energy at a rapid pace and kill her ongoing momentum, leaving her effectively disabled until she can balance her internal storage back to normal. She flinches when she feels the man pats her head gently.

"You're good to be able to control senjutsu like that at such a young age but don't overwork yourself. It'll be a shame for a cute kid like you to turn into a statue before you even hit puberty, hahahaha." The man takes two long steps from behind the two downed teens and flops on his butt after turning around. He puts on a huge smile and leans his head into one hand while propping the arm on his knee. "So! What're kids like you doing here in the shades of the brat's memories?"

"Huh?" Issei blinks in confusion as he looks at the strange man with a slight tilt to his head.

"Well that intelligent answer rules out that you're a Yamanaka." The man mutters under his breath before rubbing his chin a bit and asks with a raised eyebrow "You kids do know where you are right?"

"We're in Naruto's dreams and memories, correct?" Koneko answers this time with more certainty to her voice than her brunette friend but still kept it a question. The situation is strange enough as it is. Talking to Naruto's memories isn't exactly making it worse, in fact, it might actually clear up a few things.

"To an extent, yes. So that means you're here on purpose. Seeing as you don't mean much harm though... why are you looking through the brat's brain?" The white haired man continues the back and forth questioning session with a raised eyebrow.

Koneko narrows her eyes as she feels something... off about the casual tone he used. Before she could put any thought into it however, Issei answers.

"Ah, we wanted to find a good present for Naruto. I kinda feel like I owe him, haha." The brunette teen rubs the back of his head sheepishly and lets out a dry laugh.

The man pauses for a moment, as if trying to process the words the teen had spoken and asks for the brunette to say it again. After Issei repeats himself, the man blinks owlishly at the teen and looks over to the girl for confirmation. The girl slowly nods her head while not meeting the man's eyes. "...You used an advance Ying-release technique to infiltrate the brat's brain and find him the perfect present?"

"...Yes?" Koneko nods again as she looks over at Issei, who looks confused about the phrasing as well but nods anyways.

"HAHAHAHA! That's hilarious! The boy struck gold! He's found comrades who have even less common sense than he does!" The man laughs loudly while rudely pointing an index finger at the two teens before him. The laughter did not die down until a good minute later and Issei contemplated throwing a 15 "Boost" "Dragon Shot" at the man before deciding to save up some more for a sure kill blow. "Have you tried treating him to a full course of all-you-can-eat ramen fest? The brat used to love it when he ate me out of my money."

"I would but he owns a ramen shop. There's not much of a point." Issei sighs as he slumps over and leans his head onto his gauntlet hand.

"...Hoh? So he stopped and chose another career path?" The man straightens his posture immediately and solemnly asks the teen in a soft spoken serious tone.

"Aren't you his memory? Shouldn't you know?" The brunette asks with a confused look on his face.

"I'm a part of his memory, not his whole memory. Remember what I said before? You're in the shades of the brat's memory. Everyone here, excluding you two, is a portion of the brat's memory dedicated to keeping notes of what that person is like. Think of us as folders for sorting out faces." The man takes a moment more to contemplate what he should explain next before pointing a finger at himself and saying "We're not him. We're what he remembers us as. We're the embodiment of memories, the shades of memories. Therefore, anything he thinks we don't know, we won't know."

"But... you sound like you're close to him. Shouldn't you know that he had... quit his career?" Koneko slowly asks as she still finds what the man says to be slightly paradoxical. The man sounds so, cheerful, when talking about the blonde. If Naruto remembers the man as someone who's close to him then shouldn't his memory of the man be more caught up to current time?

"I've said it before. If he thinks I don't know then I won't know. The only reason we shades won't know something is because he thinks he's keeping it a secret from the real us, because he's lost contact with the real us somewhere down the line or most like..." The man speaks softly, almost melancholically, and puts on a smile as he sadly trails off the last one. Koneko widens her eyes as a thought reached her mind.

"...Or most likely?" Issei puts on a grim face as he too understood the underlying tone.

"...Because we're dead." The man completes with certainty, implying to them that he's one of those within this category.

"""..."""

"Well enough about that! I've kept you kids waiting long enough. Just go ahead downstairs and have your adventure!" Quickly putting back on a bright smile, the man stands up and pats the dust off of his pants. He points at the other side of the room and an entrance into the walls materializes out of nowhere, similarly to the first floor after Koneko defeated the man wearing the sunglasses.

"Are you sure you're supposed to just let us pass?" Issei raises an eyebrow at the blatant disregard for the built in rule (abiet, there isn't any written but it's implied).

"Meh. If you mean any harm, one of the other shades will just kick your ass til you give up. It doesn't really make any difference since you're low-jounin level at tops. I'm sure Hatake or Tsunade will be happy to take over." The man shrugs and says some incomprehensible but ominous sounding words.

"...You both have such a carefree attitude towards the important sounding things." Koneko states with scrunched eyebrows and a small scowl.

"It runs in the family. He is my godson after all. Now, go on. Shoo. Find a shade that knows the perfect gift for the brat, I never really gave him anything good anyways so I wouldn't help much. If all else fails, just treat him to a popsicle. The brat has a sweet tooth for the orange flavored ones... though, blue ones are good too." The man makes shooing motions with one of his hand while using the other to push Issei, who in turn pushed Koneko, towards the exit with a small piece of advice.

"Sure thing. Thanks for the info old man!" Issei grins and thanks the man before running towards the exit.

"...Thank you." Koneko gives a slight bow to show respect and follows the brunette.

"..." Jiraiya looks at the two teen as they jog towards the entrance and watches as it closes behind them. The room grows dimmer and he feels his own presence fade. He smiles fondly and says before disappearing "You've found good friends, Naruto."


Floor 3: Boxing Kangaroos

"URAAAH!" "...Shou!"

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

"Gah!" Issei flies back towards the entrance of the cave after taking a hit on his unguarded stomach. He slams onto the closed entrance of the room and staggers back to his feet as a "Boost" flows through his body and reinforces his stamina and endurance. Even with his fifth "Boost" though, he still feels an pain wracking his body.

"Gu!" A moment after Issei got knocked back towards the entrance, Koneko follows as she's unable to match the flow of the five gloved pair of kangaroos. She twists her body in the air and lands in a crouching position with one hand holding her throbbing sides.

"It's no good. We can't beat them like this. Their combination attacks are too synchronized for either of us to keep up with." Issei glares at the kangaroo wearing three boxing gloves.

"What do you think we should do?" Koneko twitches her ears and sways her tail while she wearily keeps the bouncing kangaroo in sight. She pulls back into her modified boxing stance and chance a look at Issei.

"..." Issei grinds his teeth as he wracks his brain for a plan that could counter the multiple hits. Suddenly, a lightbulb appears out of nowhere and smashes into his head, "Ding." He widens his eyes as the answer comes to him from nowhere and turns towards Koneko with a serious look. "Koneko, I have a plan. Work with me on this one.

"..." The girl looks into the teen's eye and sees firm determination. She smiles slightly and nods.

Soon after, the two of them rush back into battle. Koneko, who hanged loosely from the straps that Issei tied to his front to hold her (think baby strap carrier), blocked all attacks from the blind spots while Issei engaged the Adult Kangaroo in a straight out fist fight with his continuous "Boost". They won beautifully with their teamwork.


Floor 4: Genzo

"Stay still you two! This is a serious picture for your future career!" An old man pokes his head out from behind an old fashion camera and berates his two newest clients.

"..." Koneko inwardly raises an eyebrow as she stands without movement. Besides her, Issei fidgets some more before stopping and looks anxiously at the camera, as if expecting a beam to come out of it or something... Though knowing Naruto, the chances aren't that slim.

"On three now. One, two, four." The man speaks in a monotone voice and says his lines. He clicks the picture on four and sends them out of the room to the next level.

The whole way to the door, Issei keeps looking behind his back, his gauntlet readied and "Boosted" the whole way through.


Floor 5: Issei Hyoudou

"Wait a minute, why the hell are we fighting me?!" Issei yells loudly as he points one gauntlet finger at himself across the room.

"The same question goes for me. Why would I be inside Naruto's shades of memories without his presence and with Koneko instead? Wait... could this be a date?! Real me! Dating a minor is illegal you know!" The other Issei exclaims loudly and looks at them in alarm. He uncrosses his arm and look at the pair in no hidden shock.

"We're here to find the perfect gift for Naruto. Can you let us through?" Koneko answers the other brunette with a twitch to her eyebrows. Though they are the same person, the other across the room is more... exasperating, than the one next to her. Is this what Issei is like from Naruto's point of view?

"A gift? What for? His birthday is not until October." The other Issei blinks in surprise and gives them a questioning look.

"A gift for saving our asses. Remember? The near hit and run car accident?" Issei looks incredulously at his alternate and explains the need for a gift.

"Oh... so the real me is still on that huh?" The other Issei ohs in understanding and takes a thinking pose for a few moments before snapping his finger with a large smile. "Have you tried giving him an orange whoopee cushion and a box of ramen?"

"Why does everyone think to suggest that I do something as insensitive as that?!" Stomping his foot down on the ground, Issei grabs his hair in frustration and screams aloud. First it was Dert, then Koneko and now Naruto's living personification of himself. Why does everyone think he'll skimp out on giving a well thought out gift?!

"Not good huh? Well then, I guess you'll have to pass me in order to get to the other shades!" The other Issei laughs sheepishly at his true self's reaction, it looks like he stepped on a landmine created by himself. Straightening himself, the teen pulls out a futuristic looking tranquilizer gun from his back pocket and aims it at Koneko.

BANG!

""!"" Through many hit and fail trials, Issei and Koneko shoots off immediately with their augmented speed and blitzes their enemy as he slowly initiates his attack. By the time that the shot was fired, the two of them were already halfway across the room and were still accelerating towards the other brunette.

"HA!" "...Hup!"

Quickly finishing the rest of the distance, Koneko and Issei punches forward as the other Issei lowers his hand with a surprise look on his face.

BAM! BAM!

"Huh?" Issei looks in surprise as his gauntlet fist strike a black wall where his other self's face was a mere moment ago. Before he could make sense of anything however, the black wall pulses and shoots him back to the wall of the entrance with a strong gust of wind.

"?!" Koneko, who's a step slower than her partner's "Boost" heightened speed, sees the teen as he flies backwards and immediately jumps away on instinct with widened eyes. Not even a moment later, a beam of red hot energy incinerates the floor where she stood. Not chancing something completely unknown, she pulls back for a tactical retreat and was at Issei's side a few instants later. She notes that the black substance to cause the retreat did not do anything else but cloak itself over the other Issei's shoulder. Her Issei heavily pulls himself onto his feet after the crash into the wall and together, they cautiously gauge their enemy.

"...Whoa. Did you guys train behind Naruto's back to get revenge on him for the pranks? Because you are fast~!" Alternate Issei looks at the pair with starry eyes as he whistles lowly and switches his gun to semi-automatic fire nonchalantly. "Seriously, that was like twice Olympic running speed. I didn't even see you move."

"The same question goes for me." Issei grunts as he straightens his stance after another "Boost" comes and reduces the pain from the attack. "What the hell is that thing on your back? I'm pretty sure I've never seen that in my life."

"Eh? You too? I have no idea what it is either." Alternate Issei shrugs his shoulders and looks at the cape in curiosity. A moment later, it changes into another gun similar to his first and then into a gauntlet similar to Issei's, both keeping the blackened shade. Alternate Issei whistles lowly and turns it back into a gun before pointing both at the pair. "Sure is useful though, apparently it can change shape."

BANG!

It took Koneko and Issei three retries to pass the level. On the second try, Koneko managed to pass the hails of elemental bullets and struck a lucky hit on the black wall/weapon, cracking it with her senjutsu augmented strength. On the third try, they took advantage of the knowledge restart on the Alternate's side and had Koneko attacked him first with a full out senjutsu blow, penetrating the wall and striking down the other teen. Alternate Issei's last words were directed to the real Issei. "At least wait until she's eighteen before initiating step 2.6B of the Harem Plan...Dies."

Issei ignored all of Koneko's questions about the Harem Plan on their way to the next level.


Floor 6: Madara Uchiha and Jubi

"...I get the feeling that if we open this door, we'll be seeing immediate death." Issei gulps loudly as he looks at the innocent looking door handle. It might've been either his sense of self-preservation or his well honed Naruto trouble senses but something is telling him to use the "GTFO" maneuver.

"...I think we should follow Jiraiya-san's word and treat Naruto to some ice cream." Koneko vigorously agrees with the teen as she too feels something very wrong coming from the other side of the door. It might be because she's currently really in tune with nature right now or because her kind has sharper instinct than most other species but something is telling her to abuse the most used of the thirty six stratagems: Retreat... forever.

"So... retreat?" Issei gives his white haired partner a side glance and asks the most obvious question. She returns his look with a definite nod and together they turn around yelling

""DERT GET US OUT! WE'RE DONE HERE!""

Not a moment later, their vision blackens as if they blinked and wakes up in the beds under the hospital basement again.


-Uzumaki Ramens-

"The shop sure is empty today..." Matsuri sighs in the quiet shop. She looks down at her tea and raises the cup to take a sip.

"It's been a slow week... we've made enough from the lunch time rush." Naruto simply says while leaning his back against the chair. His head is tilted back in his seat with his nose facing the ceiling. His hands gingerly gripping the cup as the clock ticks by.

"Only enough to meet the quota for the month. We've been skimming by for a while now..." Matsuri frowns as she remembers her earlier bookkeeping. They've been barely making enough per month to keep the shop afloat on the green zone.

"Do not worry about money trouble. I can always find a way to work that out. You're young so you forget-" The blonde pulls his face back towards horizontal and smiles at his silver haired roommate. "That I've kept this shop running on worse condition."

"...In human years, you're not old enough to brag about age seniority, Naruto-sama." Matsuri playfully a smile back at the blonde before standing up and goes to make more tea for the two of them. As she enters the kitchen however, the doorbell rings open and the two of the missing group members' voice is declared throughout the shop's empty interior.

"Yo, we're here."

"...Hello."

"For five it is." Matsuri smiles as she pours more water into the pot on the stove. She then carefully goes to the cabinet to get more of Naruto's handmade tealeaves and waits for the water to boil.

"Hey, Matsuri. We've brought some of ice cream. Thought you might want to try the green tea flavored one so come out and eat before it melts kay?" Isse's head pops out of the entrance and the teen gives the silverette a greeting and a wide grin.

"Thank you very much Issei-kun. I'll be out immediately." Matsuri returns the smile and the brunette nods before ducking back out again.

"..." Outside the kitchen, Koneko plops into her usual seat and pulls a random stick of ice cream from the bag. She blinks in surprise when she pulls out a two in one futi bar packs and remembers Floor 2's old man's last word. "If all else fails, just treat him to a popsicle. The brat has a sweet tooth for the orange flavored ones... though, blue ones are good too." She looks down at her bar and sees that it's a light blueberry flavor. Inwardly shrugging, she pops open the bag and split the stick into two. Holding one out to her blonde friend she asks "Want one?"

"...Thanks, blue ones are my favorite." The blonde blinks at her for a moment and glazes over his eyes when he sees the blue bar. He quickly returns with a big smile and accepts the blue stick. As he ate, he turns on the television and the game system while handing the white haired girl the controller. In the game system, he inserts the newest version of "Love! School Fest!" which has been said on the net to have every route as hard as the regular tsundere route.

"..." Koneko narrows her eyes at the challenge and took the controller from the blonde before starting a new file on the game. She takes a peak at the other files and widens her eyes at the completion rate the blonde chef has on the game, especially since it only came out two days before. Firing up from the challenge now, she finishes her fruit bar and quickly grabs another ice cream stick while quickly reading through the walls of text.

Issei got out of the kitchen to join them when Koneko enters her third stick of ice cream and quickly makes to retireve at least one for himself. Matsuri came out of the kitchen with two buckets of Naruto's specially made ramen ice cream to share with the group along with her tea. She quite enjoyed the green tea flavored treat. Dert joins in on them after parking his van and treats the group to another bag of ice cream when Koneko decimated the first bag while trying to rush-clear the Kuudere little sister route. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as she reads the heavy but extremely emotional dialogue but she persisted with great determination. Kurama complimented her on her powerful gaming aura and Naruto smiles lazily while watching the scene, ensnaring the image into his mind for a long time to come.

Like that, they spent the rest of the day sitting around. Issei finally got what he wanted before he left with a quick thanks as he walks out the door.


-Omake: Extra Levels-

Floor 4 (alternate): Haido

"Huff... huff...huff... Do you really think you've got the best of me?!" The fake priest throws away his broken glasses and rips off his ripped clothes to show a lean body that's riddled with bruises cause from the fight he had earlier with the fools in front of him.

"Sorta, yeah. You're on your last leg, I'm on my last leg and Koneko's ready to go." Issei struggles back on to his feet while Koneko emphasizes what the brunette said by shadow boxing energetically next to him. The brunette straightens his back and gets into a stance that worked after another "Boost" ran through him. "Nevermind, now it's just you who's on your last leg."

"Hmmp, impudent fool. I've only begun to show my power. For you see, this-" The man gestures his body. "-Isn't even my final form! URAHHHHHHH!"

"What?!" Issei takes a step back as the man bends down and begins screaming. Before the teen, the man is engulfed within a giant spiking aura of green and he changes form. What was once human starts looking inhuman and by the time the aura dissipates a bit, the man is turned completely black.

"His power level... it's over nine thousand." Koneko stares in awed horror as her senjutsu senses give her an approximation of the man's dangerousness.

"What?! Over nine thousand?! But that's impossible!" Issei looks at his partner in shock.

"Kukuku, shall we begin?" The blackened man chuckles and disappears. The pair grits their teeth and moves as well.

After a while, they were able to win with using two "Dragon Shot", one completely normal while another made out of Nature Energy.

...

Floor 6 (behind the scene): Madara Uchiha and Jubi

"..." Posing in a rather dramatic fashion atop the Jubi, Madara intently stares at the closed wooden entrance with his Rinnegan eyes. Though the lights were dimmed for dramatic effects, he could still see relatively well past the marbled wall and at the intruders, or rather, their chakra outline.

"..." Below him, the Jubi prepares its giant party popper and holds it at the door. It's tail wags back and forth as it too, waits in anticipation for the enemies to come.

"...Hm?" He squints his eyes when the chakra shapes shift around in front of the door but didn't enter. After a while, the shapes disappear and he feels the Jubi drooping in disappointment underneath him. He pats the beast and says encouragingly "Maybe they're tired from navigating this far. Do not worry, a worthy enemy shall appear for us to fight soon."

"..." The Jubi grows a hopeful eye on top of its head and looks at Madara. The man puts on a reassuring smile and gives the eyeball a signature Good Gai thumbs up. The beast rumbles in joy at having such a great friend and turns around to put down the party popper.

Madara jumps down the beast and begins putting the food he had prepared away in the refrigerator. It was his hopes to celebrate with the intruders for being the first to enter his new humble abode (Hashirama did not count, he was an uninvited guest).

He pouts in a bit of sadness as he thought about how the other shades never visited him. It's not like he's going to try to kill them or anything... at first anyways. Behind him, the Jubi rolls in its cushioned bed and began gnawing on a bone it got from Gods know where.

...

Floor 32: Namikaze Minato

"Wow, you two have good teamwork! I might actually have to get serious, hahaha!" A blonde man who could almost be a clone of Naruto laughs aloud as he takes off his burnt overcoat and sets it aside. He then looks at the tired pair before him and nods. They were trying their best to defeat him so he should be doing the same.

"You mean you weren't?!" Issei squeaks he had just put his all into the last "Dragon Shot" in a beam shoot off with the man's "Rasengan: Beam". He had won the battle but the man came out relatively unscratched while the brunette is on his knees.

"..." Koneko does her first aid with senjutsu as the man says the ominous words.

"...Sha!" The blonde man angles his fist to hang by his sides and closes his eyes in concentration. He then opens them quickly as the ground cracks under him and a wave of golden energy surrounds his body. The energy swirls around him until it fully encases his body and dissipates slightly to show in within a new golden overcoat.

"Ra-Sen-" He bends his knees and cups his hands to his sides. A blue orb of energy appears within the two hands and the man tenses his body. "-Gan-BEAM!"

Issei and Koneko watches in awed terror as a beam even bigger than the first shoots itself from the man's hand and heads towards them with amazing speed.

...

Floor 55: Koneko Toujo/ Shirone

"Great, now we're fighting you. Anything you wanna tell me about that's up your sleeve before I find out the hard way?" Issei groans out as he looks at another Alternate Version of the two. Unlike Alternate Issei however, this Koneko is acting completely different from her usual self is and is literally running around in circles chasing a butterfly.

"...I punch hard?" Koneko raises an eyebrow at her Alternate's behavior and searches her brain for anything that might've made Naruto think that this is her. The search ended up inconclusive.

"NYA!" Alternate Koneko makes a mighty swipes and pins the butterfly down to the ground with a triumphant cry. As she was about to inspect her hunt however, she finally notices the two invaders in her room and stares at them. A few minutes passes by with her just staring unblinkingly at the two before Issei couldn't handle it anymore and raises a hand to slowly wave a hi at the girl. At the action, the girl's eyes shines and she leaps comically but mightily at the pair, the ground fractures under her power.

"Ramen, Transform!" At the apex of her leap, she pulls out something from her skirt pocket and holds it up dramatically. A flash of bright orange light shows itself from the thing in her hand and makes both Issei and Koneko look away. Immediately following that, a mighty crash sounds itself from the middle of the room. The pair blinks the dots away from their sight for a moment and looks back towards the sound.

They gape as they see Alternate Koneko wear a ridiculous ramen themed outfit. The Alternate gives the pair an impassive glare that resembles the real Koneko remarkably and points a wand with a large narutomaki on the end at them. Slowly, calmly and coldly, the Alternate declares in a tone that makes both the brunette and whitehead shiver in instinctive fear "...Magical Ramen Girl: Uzumaki Ramenyan."

Koneko was right. She punched hard.

...

Floor 67: Tsunade Senju

"Dragon Shot!" Issei throws all of his strength into hitting the woman with the greatest oppai he's ever seen in his life. Normally, this act would be a great sin for him to do but he has to do it lest he risks the danger of Koneko. He tries to reason with his mind that he's not actually hitting a woman with great oppais but rather Naruto's memory of a woman with great oppais. It worked somewhat as he gained the ability to fight again but it still pains his heart nevertheless. If he had Uchiha blood within his veins, he would've evolved his Sharingan from one tomoe to Mangekyou after the first punch.

"...Tch, not fast enough." Either ignorant of or ignoring Issei's pain, Koneko clicks her tongue as the woman disengages her and dodges the beam of dragonic energy with fluid ease. The middle school girl did not know why (Oppai) but whenever she looks at the woman (Oppai), she gains a strange feeling of hatred towards her (Oppai). Whatever the case she draws on more Nature Energy and starts furiously attacking the woman. Issei follows with tears streaming down his eyes.