Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online, Naruto and Ragnarok Online. I only borrowed the concept and characters from Sword Art Online, the characters from Naruto and the world of Ragnarok Online.

CHAPTER 14

Within the world of Midgard, Louyang is a city located at the east of Payon. It takes roughly a week to travel from Payon to Louyang. However, unlike the previously freed city or town, Louyang is a city that is relatively unknown to the players. Not even the beta testers knew much about that city. That's because during the beta phase, the players expand more of the southern and western part of Midgard. Hence, due to the unfamiliarity of the terrain, it took roughly 3 weeks for the players to find that Louyang. When the players found the city, they immediately posted a request to recruit players that are interested in the Raid.

Among the notable names that join the Raids are the Seven Swordsmen. Since no teleportation service will be provided to Louyang until that city is free, these players will have to walk for 7 days to get to that city. Due to that reason, most of the players participating in the Louyang Raid didn't hear the failed Alberta Raid a few days ago.

On the day of the Raid, even with the Izlude Seven Swordsmen leading the Raiding group, they failed in their Louyang Raid challenge. In the beginning of the raid, the morale of the players were high with the Seven Swordsmen at the helm of the battle. Their morale keeps soaring when they defeated waves after waves of bandits. However, unlike Izlude, Louyang is a large city. It is so much larger than the Izlude town. Therefore after defeating the unrelenting waves of bandits, the stamina of the players starts to run low. About an hour into the battle, the players start to be more sluggish in their movements due to their empty stamina bar. It isn't long when they called for a retreat when the Raids start to get too tough. As a result, the raiding party suffers massive loss as more than half of the players had perished in that Raid. The Seven Swordsmen survive the battle but their reputation took a hit. When the news of the Raid is announced the next day, the morale of the general players suffers a great hit due to the consecutive loss in the Raids.

Meanwhile Kirito, Asuna, Naruto and Hinata are walking out from the Kafra Office after updating their maps. As of now, the world map completion progression is at about 11%. From the map, the expansion effort is more concentrated at the eastern side of Midgard. The western side of Midgard is also expanding quite well. Kirito and Naruto would have contributed more on the expansion at the south if they didn't take most of their time training Asuna and Hinata. The fact is, their next destination should be Alberta, however with the detour in their training, those unlucky players that died in the Alberta Raid reaches that city first. With that said, their detour is not a wasted effort. The overall combat capability of the party has improves drastically. Both of the girls now could be considered among the upper tier players in the game. They are nowhere near the level of the Twin Heroes, but if push comes to shove, they can probably hold themselves against the Seven Swordsmen.

Since Kirito and Naruto are quite well known in Midgard, being constantly seen around them, Hinata and Asuna are also being noticed by the populace. They are all the more noticeable as it is not often you meet girls as pretty as them especially in an online game. Due to their constant presence around them, the players come up with a name for them as the Twin Beauties, just to complement the Twin Heroes. However, the title is more of a way to refer to them rather than a title gained from their accomplishment. This doesn't sit too well with some of the jealous female players of course, but there's nothing they can do about it.

"I can't believe the Seven Swordsmen failed the Raid" said Hinata in a worried tone.

"Yeah and they are supposed to be really strong too" said Asuna worried about their chances in their upcoming Raid.

"Don't worry too much, Hinata-chan, Asuna-chan. You have trained with us for more than a month now. Trust me when I say the both of you can handle Raids just fine" assures Naruto.

"Naruto is right. Both of you had faced worse situation during our training. Furthermore, we still have our tactics. We stick to the plan and everything will be fine" Kirito gave his assurance.

"But…" said Hinata still doubting her abilities.

"Let me tell the both of you something. Both of you are already much stronger than most of the players in the game. And that's not just in the numerical value of your stats and levels. Your skills had already surpassed most of the players in the game. I would say if I want to rank your combat abilities, you would be on par with the members of Seven Swordsmen" said Kirito.

"But Kirito-kun, the Seven Swordsmen lead the Louyang Raid and they suffered massive loss. There are seven of them along with more than 20 other players whereas there's just the four of us. It's hard to be optimistic when the numbers are stacked against us" said Asuna halting with Hinata stopping beside her as well.

Both of the boys are still walking until they stop a few meters in front of them, their back still facing them.

"Asuna-chan, this may sound a bit arrogant but I would prefer you to not compare us with the Seven Swordsmen. They are good. I'll give you that but… we are on a whole different level. It is the truth" said Naruto.

"Besides, we have some solid formation to handle most scenario during a Raid. We have sufficient preparations and…" Kirito added.

"Most importantly, we will protect you with our lives" said the Twin Heroes together this time turning around to face them.

That does it. Both of the girls are flushed and all their worries earlier were washed away, replaced with nervousness that had nothing to do with the Raids. The girls then started walking towards them with their head looking down not wanting them to see their flushed face.

"So, Kirito. What do you think that made Louyang Raid fail?" asked Naruto.

"Well, I thought the Seven Swordsmen would be able to handle the Raid just fine. But if I have to guess, then I would say they are probably not prepared for a city-scale raid. Izlude is just a town and is pretty small. Finding the boss and defeating him shouldn't be too much of a problem. I had never seen Louyang but since it is a city, it should be pretty big. My guess is that they didn't fully understand that the point of the Raid is to seek out the boss immediately and skip the others to conserve their stamina. That should explain why they fought everything there like it's a free for all. Even Heathcliff's raid was organized and they don't fight every other bandit they saw" Kirito gave his deduction.

Everyone of them ponder on Kirito's reasoning on the failed Raid.

"Ne… Kirito-kun? If the blinding tactic is so effective, why didn't you spread it around? Wouldn't it speed up the exploration process in Midgard? And then the number of casualty wouldn't be so high as well isn't it?" asked Hinata.

This time the boys are sweating bullets. Yes while they are fighting in the interest of the other players, it doesn't mean they didn't want the extra advantage privileged only for the city heroes. If the news that the blinding tactics is to spread around, everyone will be want a piece of action in the Raids. Furthermore while the live stream of the Raids broadcast in the real world, they don't broadcast it in Midgard. So, only the players that are directly involved in the Raid knew the full story for that Raid. They have no idea why ARGUS is willing to broadcast it to the real world but not in Midgard.

"Err… Umm… I-I… we…" stammered Kirito.

"Err… You see… it's because of-of-of-of-of-of…" Naruto keep repeating himself thinking for an acceptable answer.

The girls seeing the boys are sweating bullets have a sweat drop. Then both of them said "It's because both of you want to monopolize the Raids as much as you can right?"

"Hai" answered both of the boys not unlike a child being caught red-handed by their mother doing something that they are not supposed to be doing.

Hinata scrunch her eyebrow together to show her displeasure at their actions. That is quite a selfish thing to do in her opinion.

Asuna sighed. "Such arrogance. Well, at least we will have more time for the video".

The four of them walked out of Payon's main gate and travel to their next destination, Alberta.

Six days later

Four figures are seen sitting together in a clearing. Surrounding them are tree and bushes. Occasionally some monsters would find their way to the clearing but there is nothing that they can't handle. The trees are tall and densely packed together. Their surrounding are only illuminated by what little light left after being filtered by the canopy of the trees of the forest. They can already see the peak of some building not too far away through the thick branches.

For the past 4 days Naruto, Kirito, Hinata and Asuna have been trekking in this forest heading towards Alberta, their next destination. They are resting to replenish the HP and stamina for their Raid later. They are also discussing their strategy and tactics that they will be using for the Raid.

Due to the consecutive loss in Alberta Raid and Louyang Raid, the morale of the general populace is quite low. So, during their travel for the past few days, they hadn't met any other players on their way towards Alberta. Since Alberta Raid is the raid that annihilated the whole raiding party, is only natural for people to stay away from Alberta.

"All right! That's enough. Let's get this started! If Alberta is where we fall, then it is Alberta where we shall rise again" said Naruto.

Motivated by Naruto's speech, Kirito, Hinata and Asuna rises from their seat their face showing determination to complete the Raid. With that determination they march towards their goal, Alberta City.

In real world

Suguha is currently in her school cafeteria having her lunch with her friends when her phone buzzes. Before she can even get her phone out, someone already shout out loud "OH MY GOD! IT'S THE TWIN HEROES AGAIN!". The reaction is instantaneous. Everyone in the cafeteria takes out their phone and murmurs of excitement floods the cafeteria.

Suguha whips out her phone and watch the livestream intently. Her friends around her are concern for her as they knew Kazuto is her brother and Naruto can be considered her brother as well seeing she always call him Naru-nii. Suguha noticing her friends are giving her a worried look, she just smile back at them and said "Don't worry. I'm fine. Kazu-nii and Naru-nii will definitely make this a good show".

The appearance of Kazuto is a little different from what they appear during their first Raid. Kirito now sports a black coat. Naruto meanwhile still retain his orange jacket during his first Raid though there are some minor differences in his appearance. Accompanying them are two girls wearing similar leather tunic only with different colour scheme. The one with the chestnut hair wore red while the other one wore lavender to match her midnight blue hair.

The four of them, standing side by side stare down the group of bandits in front of them. When the bandits notice them, they all took out their weapon and start charging at them. The four of them didn't even flinch when the group starts charging towards them. When they are halfway towards them, all four of them took their stances. Then without any warning, the four of them dashes towards the charging group.

And thus began the most one sided battle the viewers had ever watched so far.

In game

Kirito is the first to reach the group hence he attracts the most attention from the bandits. Kirito first parry an overhead strike which he then counters with his second sword straight to his eyes.

"One down" breathed Kirito before he spins clockwise while he position his right sword to his back to block a strike to his back and his left sword strike his next opponent's eyes.

Before the other bandits can gang up on Kirito, the other three already intercept their respective opponents. Before the bandit can complete his swing, Naruto rushes in to grab the bandit's arm using his unarmed hand. His armed hand meanwhile guide his sword and blinded his enemy. Hinata meanwhile uses her flexibility to avoid thrust from her opponent. When she is in range, sticking to their tactic, she immediately launches a horizontal slash at her opponent's eyes. Asuna on the other hand blinded her enemy even before her enemy can launch its first attack. Her speed in thrusting her rapier is even faster than Kirito slashing his sword. The group of bandits stands no chance against them.

In just a few second, all the bandits in the group lost their sight. All four of them proceed to leave the blind and disorientated bandits. When they almost reach the end of the street, another group of bandits appear from the other end of the street. Seeing the blind bandits are disorientated at the moment, the new group of bandits runs towards the blind bandits.

Then something that they had never taken into account happens. The reinforcement bandit uses a status healing item which restores the sight of the blinded bandit.

"What the hell? They aren't supposed to do that" said a shocked Naruto.

ARGUS HQ

"Sorry, Hero-kun. Our investors find it boring if the both of you keep exploiting this blind loophole. They wanted to see more actions. I admit that your blind tactic caught me by surprise during your Payon Raid. However, it's just a simple patch work to fix it. Come, show me what you can do" said one of the programmers in charge of programming the mob's algorithm who is watching the battle intently.

Back with the Raid

Both Asuna and Hinata are starting to get worried as they never expect the AI to use status healing items. According to Kirito and Naruto, they rely on this tactic heavily in their successful Payon Raid and not once the bandits use any items to cure their blindness.

Kirito immediately scan his surroundings. Noticing there's an alley that they can use to cover their retreat, he yells out "Go to that alley where we can cover our retreat. We will have to reorganize our strategy and decide if we will proceed with the Raid at a safer location. Let's move. Kill any bandits that approach us."

Before they can run into the alley however, two groups of bandits intercept them. However, these groups of bandits stand no chance as they are aiming to kill now.

Naruto shouted "Hinata, follow me" before he ran towards that group of bandits. Hinata hearing her name, she follows after Naruto.

He slashes down his sword towards his target that is in the middle of the formation of four bandits. His target blocks with a sword. This however is Naruto's intention as he closes in and opens his left fist directly at the bandit's torso where an explosion blasts the bandit with so much force that the surrounding bandits are knocked back and stumbles. The bandit that got hit with the explosion disappeared into fragments of polygons.

Right after Naruto blast away his first target, he immediately engages his next target. While the bandit is still stumbling to regain his balance, Naruto holding his sword in a reverse grip, slashes his blade through the bandit's neck. Knowing that is an instant death for the AI, he looks at Hinata to see her already engaging the last bandit of the group.

Hinata on the other hand, took the moment the bandits are knocked back by Naruto's close range [Fire] rune to take out one of the bandits by striking at the bandits' throat. Immediately after her strike meets her mark, she didn't wait to see her target disintegrate into blue fragments and engage her second target. The second target is a bit further hence, the second target manages to block her first swipe. However Hinata presses on and with a clever twist using her wrist, she move her opponent's hand out of the way and using her second dagger stab right at the heart of her opponent dealing an instant death towards her opponent.

Kirito and Asuna meanwhile are running towards the alley with Kirito a little behind Asuna to cover their retreat. Running towards them from the front is a lone bandit trying to cut off their path. Her opponent then uses an overhead slash which Asuna blocked with her rapier. She then immediately strikes her left palm onto the bandit. In just mere seconds, the icicle that gushes out from her palm instantly freezes her opponent. That is the [Frost Diver] rune. She then runs her [Wind Fleuret] through the ice, killing the bandit instantly.

Kirito on the other hand is fighting two bandits that are chasing Asuna and him. Seeing Asuna already took care of her fight, he finishes his fight by yelling out [Explosion]. When the blades clashes, Kirito's [Crimson Edge] glowed and an explosion causes the bandit to be thrown in the direction of the other bandits. Kirito who planned to fling the bandit at that direction uses his other sword, and yell out another skill [Vorpal Slash]. With the system guiding him, his speed is boosted tremendously and his sword slashes not one but two bandits in one move. What's even more impressive is that he manages to control his aim while being guided by the system and slashes at both of the bandits' neck.

Naruto and Hinata are running towards them when Kirito finishes his opponent. Naruto said "Nice…"

Kirito's reply is only a smirk. "Come on, let's hurry before they spot us." With that said all four of them went into the alley and reorganize their battle strategy.

In real world

Kushina is currently waiting for her husband so that they can have lunch together when she remembers her smartphone alerts her about something when she is driving to her husband's company. She reaches for her phone to see what the alert is only for her to shout out loud surprising everyone nearby.

Minato heard her shout, immediately run out from his office and asked his wife, "What happened, Kushina?"

Her eyes still glued to her phone replied in a worried tone "Naru-chan and Kirito-kun is fighting… again."

In game

The four players attempting the Alberta Raid is huddling together in an alley somewhere in Alberta discussing their options.

"I guess we have no choice. Since this tactic no longer work, we will have to change our approach or we will have to retreat" said Kirito.

"No. We are not retreating. We are so close… I am so close…" said Asuna.

All of her party members can feel Asuna's sorrow. They know it is Asuna's greatest desire to tell her family how she is doing. They knew it since the first day they met and they all promised they are going to help her fulfill her wish.

Standing by her best friend side, Hinata asked the boys "Kirito-kun. W-What are our chances of zero casualties if we are to fight them head-on?" While she wants to beat the Raid, she prefers that everyone will survive the Raid. There's no point of winning the Raid but losing all of her friends.

Kirito think hard as that is not an easy question to answer. "If we fight them head-on, no tactics, no strategy… we will be the same as the previous group, total annihilation" answered Kirito after a while of pondering.

The look of disappointment is shown on the face of the girls hearing Kirito's anwer.

"Damn. How we are going to take down unlimited number of bandits? Even if we had the skills to pull it off, when our stamina reaches zero, our movement will be severely limited. It'll just be a matter of time before those numbers will swarm us" groaned Naruto.

Hearing Naruto's speech, gears start turning in Kirito's mind. Without him realizing himself, he mumbles out "There are probably not as unlimited as we thought they are. There can only be a limited numbers of bandits at a time. So, as long as the rate we take them out is faster than the rate they spawn, we will be reducing their numbers. But that just decreases our stamina at a much faster rate and if we slow down, the number will just increase again…"

"Err… Kirito-kun. You told us before that they spawn near the boss. If we take them out, doesn't that mean the boss will be even more protected? You said yourself that the point of the Raid is to go after the boss, ignoring the others" said Asuna trying to contribute as much as she can to clear the Raid.

"Hehe. Kinda ironic isn't it? Seeing how often Kirito tried to think of stuffs that he says not to do. And bro! Stop mumbling out your thoughts. It's creepy" said Naruto.

"Huh? Wha-" said Kirito snapped out of his confusion.

"Ano… Kirito-kun, if blinding didn't work? What about other status?" suggested Hinata.

Suddenly Kirito's eyes widen and he smacked his head with his palm. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Aww yeah… Hinata-chan. You are awesome. Man! Kirito, Sometimes you really over think stuffs. So, how are we doing this? Freeze them with Frost Diver? Paralyze them with your Stinger?" Naruto asked Hinata.

"Ano… I-I didn't really thought so far ahead. I-I just thought by giving some random ideas, it will help you think of an idea" said Hinata blushing while twiddling her two index fingers together.

"It's a good idea nonetheless. While Freeze and Paralyze is an effective immobilization status, its effect is far too short. Freezing from Frost Diver only last at most a minute while Paralyze will take at most 10 minutes to wear off, which is not enough to find and defeat the boss. Furthermore, now that they can cure Blindness, who is to say they won't cure Freeze and Paralyze too? An effective status to inflict them would be Disable. Even if they have an item to regrow a limb, it takes a night sleep to regrow them back. It's one of the most annoying statuses after all" said Kirito.

He then looks at his party members. "Out of the four of us, only Naruto and I can do this. Our strength parameter and our weapon make it easier for amputation. Since the both of you focus your growth on Agility, both of you lack the Strength to effectively cut off limbs in one stroke. So, Hinata and Asuna. Both of you will be supporting us. Asuna is with me and Hinata is with Naruto. Is that ok?" Kirito explained their new strategy.

"Umm. What about the bleeding status from the amputation? If they die, wouldn't they spawn back?" asked Asuna trying to find flaw in the plan so that they can cover every loophole they can think of so that the strategy don't come back to bite them.

"We will let them spawn back" answered Kirito which get a confused look from all of them including Naruto. He then further explains "While we are fighting them, we will be too busy to find the boss. If we leave them to bleed to death, we will have enough time to get to higher ground to look for the boss."

While the girls are still confused, Naruto get what Kirito meant. "I see" said Naruto before he notices both Hinata and Asuna is looking at him. "What?" asked Naruto.

"What does bleeding to death got to do with finding the boss?" asked Asuna.

"Oh… Haha. I kept forgetting this is the first time you are doing a Raid. Hahaha... You girls improve so fast that I find it hard to believe you girls are newbies. The way you fought seems like you have been in the beta. You girls just grow up so fast." said Naruto while acting as if he is wiping some fake tears from his eyes.

Asuna's eye is twitching while Hinata just sweat drop after hearing what Naruto said. "Ano, Naruto-kun. You and Kirito-kun have been training us the past month. You should know better."

Kirito just sighed and said "And… Hinata just stroke Naruto's big ego".

"Hahaha… C'mon I'm just joking to lighten up the mood. Being all tense and jumpy will not do any good. Anyway, what Kirito meant is that when a bandit spawns, they will generate some sound and light. Since they will spawn near the boss, it will indicate the location of the boss when a new bandit spawns to replace the dead bandit. That said, if we let them bleed to death, we will have enough time to get to higher ground and scout where the bandits will spawn. With the sound and light as indicator, locating the boss would be quite easy. It would be much easier if it's the night, but it's not hard in the day either. After that, all we had to do is keep track of the boss without it noticing us and launch an attack at a place where we will have an advantage" explained Naruto.

The girls nodded at Naruto's explanation.

"You know, it is lucky we are selfish. Imagine if we spread the blind tactic around and people die because of it. All the players in the game will definitely be gunning for our head for spreading false information" said Naruto.

Kirito just shiver thinking about it and the girls just look at Naruto.

"Nice try, Naruto-kun. Both of you are still pretty selfish of keeping the blind tactic to yourself" said Hinata.

"Hinata-chan" cried Naruto comically.

With Kushina and Minato

"Minato-kun. Drive faster" said an anxious Kushina while watching her phone hoping that her son will appear any moment.

15 minutes ago, when Naruto and the others retreat into the alley, they have lost sight of them. They were nowhere to be seen since then. That's the reason why they are rushing towards the facility where they will know if their son is all right or not. It seems ARGUS purposely edits out the scene where they are discussing their strategy to keep the element of surprise to the viewers.

Then Naruto is seen walking out from an alley. What's worse is that when he came out, there are three groups of bandits at the vicinity of the exit of the alley. Noticing Naruto, all of them charge towards him. Naruto rather than running away, he unsheathes his sword and starts fighting with the group of bandits. There are at least 12 bandits that Naruto is fighting against. He deals some damage although he is taking some in return. It seems Naruto isn't a bit concern with the attacks he is receiving. Kushina is worried at Naruto's suicidal act. What's even more worrisome is that Kazuto is not there to back him up. "Kazu-kun… Where are you?" thought Kushina. Then Naruto manage to kill bandit that he is focusing on.

Then the nightmare of every mother happens. She saw her son being killed in front of her. A blade stab Naruto from the back and he shatter into pieces of polygons along with the shattered polygons of the bandit he just killed.

"NARUTO… NOOO…" cried Kushina as she witnesses her son is killed right in front of her eyes.

With Suguha

"NARU-NII" shouted Suguha as she witness Naruto being killed. Tears start to pool in her eyes.

With Tsunade, Jiraiya and Hiruzen

"NARU-CHAN" cried Tsunade seeing her grandson being impaled.

"NARUTO" yelled out Jiraiya as he too was shocked that his grandson will be defeated just like that.

Hiruzen meanwhile is speechless. There's no way Naruto will die like that. He is in denial of Naruto's death.

Back with Kushina and Minato

Kushina starts to cry "My baby, my Naru-chan" and dropped her phone. She then cried out loud. Her cry is full of agony. No one should outlive their children and here it is, her son, her baby died in front of her, through a screen.

Minato meanwhile park his car at the sideway as he is in not in the right state of mind to drive a car as his son just died. He felt like something within him had died and without him knowing, tears start to flow from his eyes.

Then Minato notices some orange blur from the edge of his vision. "Orange?" though Minato. Hoping that his son is still alive and his earlier death is just a trick, he immediately took the phone that is dropped by Kushina. To his immediate relief, his son and his comrades are fighting the three groups of bandits and they are dominating the fight.

With Suguha

When Naruto is impaled by a sword from his back, Suguha is stunned for a moment. There's no way Naruto will fight like that. His stance, the timing of his attack is all off. But nevertheless, he is Naruto. His appearance proves it. That is until, four players run out from a different alley and ambush the groups of bandit from their rear.

Suguha eyes widen. Just a moment ago, she saw Naruto is impaled by a sword. Then, there he is now, fighting the bandits that just killed him just now.

The four of them, working in a pair is taking out the bandits one by one. The bandits didn't even know what hit them. Hinata strike a few hit on the bandits before she move towards her nearest opponent. Naruto on the other hand is fighting in a very savage like manner as he aim for their limbs. His first victim has its leg cut off. Before the first opponent even drop to the floor due to the loss of its leg, Naruto already cut off 3 other bandits leg off.

The same could be said of Kirito if not even more savage. Kirito's with his dual wielding ability slice off his opponents' leg two at a time. Like Naruto, before his first victim fall to the ground he had already taken down 4 different targets in the same manner. His partner, Asuna meanwhile did something where she palms her opponent and the opponent freezes in an icicle like what she did earlier. Rather than finishing her opponent, she then touches part of her equipment with her left hand and in the same manner keeps freezing her opponent. In just less than 10 seconds, the four of them had already neutralized three groups of bandits.

Then the four of them look at each other before all of them nodded. Kirito and Naruto walked towards the bandits that are [Paralyzed] by Hinata. Then in a swift slash, both Kirito and Naruto cut off all four limbs from the [Paralyzed] bandits. Asuna on the other hand move towards the [Frozen] bandit. With several thrust of her rapier, the bandits shatter into pieces of polygons. Hinata meanwhile touches a part of her equipment like Asuna did just now. She then raise her fist and seems to crush something before she open her palm and bolts of lightning shoot out from her palm hitting the other [Frozen] bandit. That is the [Thunder] rune. Like Asuna's bandit, it too shatters into blue shards.

"Holy fuck. They just took out 3 groups of bandits in less than 10 seconds. These people are fucking insane man" shouted one of the students in the cafeteria.

Suguha meanwhile is still stunned, myriad of emotions running through her. She just witnesses someone who is like a brother to her died, who miraculously survives and then fought his killer in the most savage method she had ever seen in these Raids.

With Minato and Kushina

Kushina's cry of agony hasn't subsided. However, Minato himself is too stunned to tell her that their son is still alive. Since he didn't see Naruto getting impaled as he is driving, the reaction from Kushina is more than enough to make him believe that his son was killed. However, since he didn't see it with his own eye, he recovered from that stunning news much faster than his wife. He is now speechless because of the brutal method Naruto and Kazuto used to dispatch their enemies. To borrow a quote from one of his friend, it is not very youthful.

"Kushina. Listen to me" said Minato while he shakes his wife shoulder.

Kushina raise her head and look directly into Minato's eyes. Her sadness was reflected in her eyes. "Mina-kun. My Naru-chan… Our Naruto, he's…" sobbed Kushina unable to finish her sentences.

"Kushi-chan. Naruto is not dead yet. I don't know what he did to make you believe it. But he is not dead. Of that I can be very sure. I saw him fighting and winning after you dropped your phone. See, that's Naruto right there" said Minato while showing the live stream on her phone.

Kushina immediately wipe her teary red eyes and look at her phone to see that her son is still alive. She clapped her hands to her mouth and cried in relief. "My boy. He's… He's still alive" said Kushina to no one in particular.

In game

"C'mon let's get up to higher ground to see where the boss are" instructed Kirito as he went up to the highest viewing platform in the city. On their way there, they encounter several groups of bandits though each encounter only consists of a single group. So, they are easily dispatched and didn't pose too much of a problem. They did left one or two of them to be severely crippled though.

Reaching said platform, all four of them look over the city to see where the lights and sounds of bandits being spawn. Since each of the bandits take different amount of damage, the amount of time for them to [Bleed] to death varies.

"Some of the earlier ones that we disabled should have died before we even get up here. So, if I would hazard a guess we will probably need to wait 3 or 4 minutes when the next bandit will respawn" said Naruto.

"By the way, Naruto-kun. That distraction you used just now? What is that?" asked Hinata.

"Oh that? Hehehe… That is called a [Shadow Clone]. It's a level 3 rune. Using that rune will duplicate an avatar of the user. It will have a copy of all of my current equipments equipped on me and half of my stats. They are controlled by AI so they basically fight like any other human-class mobs we fought. The materials for the rune are pretty easy to come by but the recipe is a different story. The recipe of this rune is obtained in a quest further in the game. It's one of the last runes we created before the beta ends. So, that's why I still remember the recipe. Even Kirito knows them" answered Naruto.

Both of the girls look at Kirito who just shrugged his shoulder. "In any case, it is not a really powerful early game rune. The rune would be more powerful when used during the end game. So, we didn't bother using it at the moment" said Kirito.

The girls are a little confused by Kirito's statement. However, the answer quickly comes to them when they remember Naruto's earlier explanation.

"I see. If you used [Shadow Clone] during the end game, even when your stats is halved, your clone will still be quite powerful as your stats by end game would be ridiculously high" said Asuna.

Hinata then continued "Furthermore, since they duplicate the equipment you held at that moment, with all the end game equipment stats, the [Shadow Clone] can probably take on all the lower level mobs even if they don't have the skills of the players. The numerical value of the stats is enough to overpower the other lower level mobs."

Both of the guys just nodded. Naruto is about to praise them when suddenly they saw a bright light suddenly light up somewhere at the left side of the city.

"Hey, the boss is near the harbor of the city. Come to think of it, the harbor would be a nice place to take him out" said Naruto.

"Sure" Kirito reply. "All right, let's go. We wait until the bandits leaves their boss alone, then we lure the boss to the harbor. For now, avoid any encounter with the bandits if possible" said Kirito.

The rest nodded their head to indicate that they knew the plan and move out towards the boss.

20 minutes later

For the past 15 minutes, the four of them had been hiding themselves while observing the boss. For the first 10 minutes, there will be a bandit spawn near the boss every once in a while.

"Hey, Kirito. The bandits have stopped spawning for the last 5 minutes. I think the last spawn had replaced all the bandits we have taken out earlier" said Naruto.

"Yeah. The problem now is that they are still quite near to the boss. Furthermore, it is not advisable to fight them now. This place has too many junctions. The bandits can come from any directions and we don't have enough man power to guard of each entrance" said Kirito.

"But the boss are getting further away from the harbor" said Asuna.

There is a silence for a while before Naruto said "Kirito, let's lure them to the harbor. We can use our [Shadow Clones]. Since we are kinda over-leveled, our clones should be able to buy us some time for us to set up another clone a little further away. We just keep luring them towards the harbor using this way."

"That is a valid plan. So, how many [Shadow Clone] runes you have left in your inventory?" asked Kirito.

"Hmm… Let me check… I have… 29. You?" answered Naruto.

"I have… 25 but we still can make more if we wanted too, but what we have is more than enough to lure them to the harbor. This is how it will goes…" said Kirito and went ahead to explain the strategy to Naruto, Hinata and Asuna.

In real world

Kushina and Minato are currently in the boys' room at ARGUS facility. After learning that Naruto is still alive, Minato immediately drove to the facility to check up on him.

They are now watching their son and Kazuto setting up some trap to lure the boss towards a certain location. Their boys will jump in near the group to lure them. Before they can get hit, the two girls that come with them will intercept to give time for the boys to create an identical looking clone before all four of them retreat. While the AI mobs are busy hitting the clones, the four of them will run away but still keep their distance so when the clones are defeated, these aggressive mobs will chase after them.

Every time a clone of their boys is taken out, Kushina felt like her heart miss a heartbeat. It wasn't long before they reach a place which looks like a harbor which seems to be where they are heading. Thinking that location will be the place where they will make their stand, Kushina gets even more edgy. It doesn't help when more reinforcement join the boss group.

"Naru-chan. Please be safe. Kazu-kun, remember your promise of coming back to us" said Kushina.

In game

"This is it" said Naruto looking at the incoming groups of bandits lead by the Alberta Bandit Leader.

"No turning back now" said Asuna as she knows that they have their back to the sea and their way to the entrance of the city is blocked by the group in front of them.

"Why did we choose this place again? It is a kill box for us. How is such an open place an advantage for us?" said Hinata meekly.

"Haha… For starters there is only one entry point, albeit it is a large one. We can see exactly how many bandits we have to fight. I rather know how many more of them I had to fight than to not know how few of them I had to fight. Remember, it is the element of surprise that will get us killed. Being overwhelmed comes much later when we run out of stamina" answered Kirito.

"Hehe… Also, it allows us space to move around. With this number, I guess there is no need to hold back eh, Kirito?" said Naruto while he get into a stance neither girl saw before. He place his right hand on the hilt of his unsheathed sword with his right leg bended on the front and his left leg stretched, his body leaning forward a little.

"I guess it is time we let loose a little, Naruto" said Kirito standing with his right hand in front of him holding his sword in a 45 degrees angle and his left hand holding his sword in a reverse grip with his right leg at the front and left leg at the back, leaning his torso slightly to the front, a stance similar to Naruto's.

Both of the girls are looking at the male members of their party and see something they hadn't seen before. Before this, they had always thought both Naruto and Kirito were exceptionally good players with advanced knowledge in sword fighting. But the Naruto and Kirito they are looking at now are giving out a different aura. They are totally different from the boys they knew for the past month. They immediately realize this is not Naruto and Kirito, the Ragnarok players. This is Naruto and Kazuto, kendo prodigy. Even if they are in a virtual environment, both Hinata and Asuna can feel the boys are giving off a very intimidating presence. They are just glad these presences are not directed at them as the presence seems to gives the vibe of a hungry predator.

In real life with Hiruzen, Jiraiya and Tsunade

"Hoho… I can't believe it. Even when I'm watching it through a screen, their presence can still be felt. That is really something. This is going to be very interesting to watch" said Hiruzen.

"Is th-that really my Naru-chan? I just felt some shivers on my back just looking at them" said Tsunade.

"I can't explain this very well as I don't understand this too much either. Sometimes, there are some things even science can't explain. Back in during the warring periods, do you know why there are some heroes that mark their name in the history books winning battle and wars, were respected and feared? While their skills are one of a factor, don't you think among the hundred thousands of soldiers, there should have a handful of people that can match those heroes' skill? What makes the heroes stood out among the other elites is what the kids are showing to us now. That is the presence that will send fear into their opponent. The fact the boys are prodigies is not merely because of their skills, but it is their presence which strikes fear into their opponents. To be honest, when they have that look on their face during their Kendo matches, they have already won half of the match" said Hiruzen sagely.

Both Jiraiya and Tsunade just stare at the screen with disbelief after hearing what Hiruzen said.

That moment, even if Naruto, Kazuto and their friends are outnumbered, they understand they will still be victorious. They just didn't realize by the end of the Raid, the Twin Heroes will have a new title to themselves. A more appropriate title as the name Twin Heroes didn't do justice to them after what they are about to do.

With Suguha

"Iai" shouted Naruto in the screen Suguha is watching from. Just moments before Naruto used his technique, he was suddenly covered by a red substance which oozes out from his body giving him an outline of a fox. A fiery fox.

"HOLY FUCK" shouted one of the boys in the cafeteria who is watching the same live stream.

Indeed, HOLY FUCK seems like an appropriate response to Naruto's technique as Naruto's quick draw technique pack enough power to blast off the charging bandits, killing them in an instant.

In game

"Iai" shouted Naruto.

Hinata is looking at Naruto who is being surrounded by a red fox-like cloak using a quick draw technique which is meant to hit one opponent but instead hit all of the charging bandits. What surprises Hinata is that [Iai] is a single target technique which deals critical damage. It is not an instant kill, multi target attack as Naruto has just performed. Yet, the result is in front of her eyes as no less than half a dozen of the charging bandits break off into millions of blue polygons.

Then Hinata remembered something that Naruto told her back in the first week after they had met in the game.

Flashback starts

"Well, I'm sure you have heard of this stupid myth that the harder you smash your button when playing a fighting game, you will deal more damage right? While that might just be a myth in other games, in this game, the harder you hit, the more damage you deal. So, go ahead and go crazy. Let out all your stress you had and just hit as hard as you can. You'll be surprise how therapeutic it is by swinging a deadly weapon at animated data could feel" said Naruto

Flashback end

It is only then Hinata realize how powerful Naruto's attack is. [Iai] is not an instant kill technique. This means Naruto's hit is so hard that the numerical damage of the attack is large enough to instantly deplete half a dozen of bandits' full HP.

Asuna who is standing beside Hinata meanwhile have her attention being captured by the other boy, Kirito.

Kirito is running at a much faster speed than she had seen him run before. So much faster than the fastest she had seen him. While in the past, she always thought Kirito was fast, that speed is incomparable to the speed Kirito is currently fighting. All she can see is a black blur that is tearing the bandits a new one. Every where the black blur goes, following the trail is shattered blue polygons. Asuna then remember something Kirito said a few weeks ago.

Flashback starts

"You must understand this is a game. Our body is just data and they are only limited by our imagination. While the AGI stats cap the speed we can run at, at a certain point in the game, when our AGI is high enough, it will be our experience in our real body which limits our in-game speed. That is to say, when a certain AGI is reached, we can run at a much faster speed than we thought we could. However, since our body never experience running at that kind of speed so, our brain will subconsciously limits the speed of our in game avatar. The same could be say of flexibility. Our body is no different from Hinata's as it is only digital construct. It's because Hinata is flexible in the real world, that she can be flexible here. Her brain can imagine that to happen, that's why she can do it so easily here. We can too, but out brain will subconsciously say that is an impossible feat, thus making it hard for us to do much acrobatics moves. So, to be able to run at insane speed, you first must push the limits of your imagination and force your brain to believe you can run that fast which I would say is no easy feat. But it is not an impossible task either" said Kirito.

Flashback end

Asuna then finally understood what Kirito meant by then. He said that it is not an easy feat but it is not impossible either. That is because he had already done that, judging by the blur she is seeing now. In this game, they can be as powerful as their imagination can lead them. As long as they have the mental strength to push past the limits their mind sets, then their in-game body can be ridiculously powerful. What she saw is the testament to that belief.

These two boys are really in a whole different level.

"Hinata, Asuna. Both of you take care of the boss. Kirito and I will handle the rest. Don't worry. I'll lend you some help" said Naruto before he summons 4 clones of him. The clone like Naruto is being surrounded by a red fox-like cloak. Seeing the look on the girl's face, Naruto further explain "Shadow Clone imitates a copy of the user. So, when the users are in a certain condition when they use the Shadow Clone rune, the clones will inherit the same condition. Since I'm in my [One Tailed Cloak], the other clones will be in this state as well. They will have slightly heightened STR, AGI, VIT and regen. At this state, they should be able to deal significant damage before they run out of HP."

The clones then proceed to charge towards the boss which is the nearest target. Looking at each other, the girls nodded their head and join Naruto's clone to fight the boss.

Naruto still worried of the girls, proceed to use all of his [Shadow Clone] runes and summon another 12 more clones of his which proceed to fight the nearest target they have, which is the boss of the Raid. After finish using up all of his [Shadow Clone] runes, he proceeds to join Kirito in dealing with the army of bandits.

It is just a matter of time before the Kirito and Naruto combo finished dealing with all the bandits and join the battle with the girls against the boss. They defeated the bandits so fast that when they clear all the bandits nearby, there is not a single new bandit being spawned. It seems that the spawning of bandits is not automatic. It either requires the boss to do something or the bandits have a certain spawn rate and they just defeated all of them in a rate faster than the spawning of one bandit.

When the boys join the final fight with the girls, the boss stood no chance at all. Seriously. The battle is so one sided that it is sad. They simply overpower the boss and didn't even bother with tactics or strategy. With the four of them and a dozen of Naruto's clone attacking the boss viciously, the boss had no time to use any techniques at all. Every time they use a technique, another one will follow up on another technique. This repeats until the boss is defeated. By the time the boss is defeated, all four of them had full HP and no one was injured at all. What's more is that there are 8 of Naruto's clone left. The boss only manage to kill for of the clones. It seems the higher VIT stat and regen ability of Naruto's [One Tailed Cloak] mode make the clone more durable in battle.

However Kirito and Naruto are seen to be a little worn out as they are breathing heavily after the fight. It seems using the [One Tailed Cloak] and running at ridiculous speed is really draining their stamina.

"We-we did it. We… really did it. We beat the Alberta Raid" shouted Asuna in happiness.

"Yes. We really did it" said Hinata in tears before she proceeds to hug Asuna and both of them cried in happiness.

Both Kirito and Naruto are still sitting on the ground taking their breath, their stamina bar almost depleted and looking at the girls who are celebrating the success of their first Raid with a smile on their face.

A/N: Damn... It's a pretty long chapter. The longest chapter up to date. Hope it's an interesting read.

About Naruto and Kirito's selfishness to keep the information to themselves, I wanted to make them to have some flaws. They are still teenagers and they will have a sense of competitiveness. Make no mistake, they are perfectly capable of sharing. Just that they wanted more resource before they starts sharing them. How do one person share something that they are lacking? It's human nature.

Bear with me if you think Naruto and Kirito are Gary Stus. To be honest, you should see that coming since the first chapter. But it won't be long when other overpowered characters will start to appear. When everyone is overpowered, no one is overpowered.

I find myself not a very good action writer. :/ Probably need some help there to keep the fights interesting. I'm starting to run out of ideas for the battle scenes.

Once again thanks for everyone's review. Thanks for the long review again Superboy99. Other authors must love you for your reviews. Cause I do. But that is not to say I don't appreciate the other reviewers as well. Just that I wanted to let him know his effort in writing a long reviews is rewarded.

As for bringing other Naruto character into my story. The answer is I would if I can fit them. I'm just letting my story grow by itself and see what I can do from there. But if there is anyone I wish to bring in, it's Shikamaru and Temari...

As to Naruto being whipped... Hehe... I like to see some strong male characters being whipped by their girls. It just show that they are not just cool, but sensitive as well. Wait... What? Sensitive? Shit, I can't believe I just said that. Hope I didn't start growing some boobs with all this feely stuff. They will just be whipped for comedy purposes.

Yup, starburst98. That's the reason why I use such an approach to make runes. High leveled runes will be very powerful but they are costly as well, so players will have to judge whether the situation they are in is appropriate to use high leveled runes.

All right, leave some reviews. It's the season of giving, and I hope you can give me some reviews. *puppy dog eyes*

Hope I can get another chapter in before Christmas. Will be busy then...

Till my next update, Zephryc.