"Are you alright, Nara-sama? You practically live here."

Shikamaru sighed. "Date nights once a week apparently means getting drunk and stumbling through the door hitting and flirting with each other. The traditional homes have very thin walls."

"Hitting?!" Sachiko voiced incredulously.

"Yeah. Dad says something snide, Mum elbows him, Dad pinches her, Mum smacks him, Dad knees her and before you know it, they're wrestling in the middle of the living room and I'm curled up with my blanket around my ears. They've also been a lot more… friendly lately. So I'm hiding out here until they get it out of their system."

"I… see. I suppose ninja are a little different. Still, it's not good for a young boy to be too far from his mother and father."

"I'll go back when Yoshiko comes back."

Sachiko sighed. "The two of you are really twins."

"Nah. I'm human. She's a solid block of ice."

"I'm sure she's the type of lady who's sweet to those she loves."

"Then she doesn't love anyone."

She startled as hands reached up from behind her and pinched her cheeks. She whirled around and backhanded the person who grabbed her only to freeze as Leo laughed and backed away.

He rubbed his cheek. "You really don't have much strength, do you?"

She lowered her hand and closed her book. "It can't be helped."

"No talent?"

"Did you need to come through the window? It's late."

"It's convenient. And I don't really pay attention to the time." He glanced at the clock. "You're up late."

"I don't need sleep."

"But you still feel sleepy, right?"

"Anyway, all doors are open to you here. There are more security measures on the window."

"I put them there. I know how to dismantle it."

"Really?"

"Well, my research team developed it and my talent for ninjutsu is pretty crazy. I may also have acquired some Uchiha sperm waaay back by getting one of my agents to jerk off a horny teenage genin and gotten some eyeballs out of the deal. Actually, I've gotten a surprising amount of power by jerking off people with fancy eyeballs and stuff. Bypasses a lot of the usual security measures."

"I would've thought that sort of thing would be much more common here."

"One of my breeders died when the babies literally ate its way out of their mother. So, you know. It's a bit harder to do that sort of stuff legally. Ethics and all that stuff but I'm sure they still try. They're just not that good at it because they haven't figured out how to poach the best medics and researchers. In general, it's much harder to do than normal because chakra compatibility and other genetic factors. Kekkei genkai pregnancies are full of shenanigans but my fertility lab is the best in this world. In order to-"

He spent the next two hours regaling grand tales of 'material acquisition' and 'standard procedure'. She sat there, nodding, humming and chiming in at the right moments while flipping through a few books. Leo didn't mind her multi-tasking and babbled on proudly about all the advancements he had made. He paused after a while and sat there, staring at her face.

"What are you reading?"

"A collection of taijutsu moves."

"But you can't use it right?"

"It's still interesting."

"Is that so?"

"I'd be a ninja if I could."

"You must have had a really bad dice roll on your stats."

"Pretty much."

Leo pouted. "That's such a shame. I would love to be able to punch you in the face without you dying on me."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I like punching things." He paused and thought for a moment. "Oh! Especially women I like! Maybe that's why I want to punch you sometimes."

"…"

"Oh, um… not in that way. Um… how do I explain it?"

"…"

"You're really not bothered?"

"About?"

"What I do."

"There is nothing I can do about it one way or another. Worrying about what you can't control is detrimental."

"That's not what I'm asking."

"Then what is it?"

"I meant… you know, morally. Don't you think I'm disgusting?"

"While you seem to vaguely acknowledge the existence of common moral doctrine, you do not stand by or even understand them at times. You do not make decisions in the moral realm."

"You like to use a lot of big words."

"… Simply put, you are morally no different from a cat that plays with its food."

Leo burst out laughing. "That's a nice way to put it! Are you calling me a monkey?"

"In the best way possible."

"But aren't you disgusted somewhere inside you? You may think that but isn't there an instinctual icky feeling inside of you?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"Hmm…" He stood abruptly and slung her over his shoulder before hopping out the window.

She sighed and stored her book away. "Must you?"

"It's faster this way!"

"Where are we going?"

"The dungeons! We're going to torture someone!"

The scenery zoomed by too fast for civilian eyes to catch and they arrived at a building to the left of the food hall. He opened it. Everyone bowed as he walked past them.

"Could you put me down now?"

"Oh! Yeah, sure."

She walked beside him. The facility was brightly lit and most people milling about were Class 4s and slaves. Many slaves were naked with protruding bones and bowed heads. A few flicked their eyes up to meet hers before averting them. Her gaze locked onto a shelf.

"That's…"

Leo followed her gaze. "Yeah, those are guns."

"You made them?"

"Stole them from Princess. She was suuuuuuper pissed about that. Had to buy her three new castles. Most jounin have techniques to enhance their kunai throws so it's kinda useless to them even if the fire rate is higher than they can throw. Still, we're working on combining the bullets with seals and such stuff. It's super expensive at the moment but I'm really wanna see how insane we can make guns. For now, we give them to zombies."

"That sounds interesting. How long does it usually take to train a zombie?"

"Depends. A month to fully train them to do stuff but maybe a week to break them enough. They learn pretty quick to obey and keep their head down, especially the little ones. My director only needs three hours! Her genjutsu is really scary."

"Do you usually use genjutsu?"

"It's much faster and cheaper than the old fashioned way. Medicine is crazy expensive and medics are so hard to get. I've managed to poach a few righteous ones for medical research but surprisingly few people are willing to heal my zombies. Kids are also really easy to kill. This is basically the genjutsu training ground. The old fashioned stuff is for the tougher ninja with high genjutsu defences."

"I see."

She was led to a cell with around a dozen kids crammed inside. They shrunk back a little as they entered the cell, their eyes tracking their movements. Leo glanced over them.

"Umm… well, they're quiet enough but not quite zombie enough. My genjutsu is only okay but…" Leo placed his hand over the closest kid. The girl backed away but Leo grasped her face tightly so she couldn't move away. "Listen up, kid. When a superior grabs you, you don't run away. Got it?"

The girl started screaming and thrashing about, her voice shrill, cracking and chocking as bile burned her throat. Her gnarled fingernails tore at her captor, chipping and breaking as they did little more than mess with his clothes. She kicked and bit and cried and screamed and puked, all to no effect as he tilted her head to the side to avoid any bile and saliva.

He lifted his hand up and sighed as the girl turned to the side and retched. "You're lucky it's me. You struggled too much. You could've scratched someone up like that, you know? That would be nasty for you." He fished her up by the hair. "Let's try that again, shall we?"

Her sobbing intensified. "No… please! No! Please! I'll-"

He sighed impatiently. "Why do people always misunderstand when I try to be nice? That wasn't a request. I was kindly informing you that we will be doing this again. You do not have a choice. You will not beg, you will not struggle and you will not try to change the mind of your superiors. Got it? We are doing this again until you stop struggling."

The girl started her shrill shrieks for a few seconds before her voice gave out and she coughed and choked on her own liquids. Her stick arms flailed with less force each time and her legs scraped against her captor's boots.

Leo paid her little heed. Instead, his eyes were trained on the expressionless face behind him.

"You really didn't react."

"If I thought this was distasteful, I wouldn't react. It would just give you ammunition anytime you want to disturb me, ultimately resulting in more casualties. Either way, I wouldn't react."

"You say that but natural human reactions aren't easy to suppress. Look," he said, waving the girl about by the hair. "I'm a man of my word… mostly. Well, not really but I'm gonna have to put her under again because she struggled. I doubt she'll get it this round so I'll just put her under until she passes out. Either you really don't care or you've seen some shit."

"I don't see why it can't be both."

Leo laughed and released the girl. She collapsed into a pile, sobbing and coughing. Leo looked down at her. "Hey, could you die quieter? Thanks." The girl put her hands over her mouth and curled up into a ball.

He walked away from her, instead choosing to pinch the cheeks and disturb the neutral face in front of him. She stared down at him, utterly unimpressed by his attempts as he slung his arm around her shoulder.

"What would disturb you?" He whispered conspiratorially in her ear.

"What would I tell you that?"

"Because I can take away everything you have and throw you in a dungeon?"

"A valid point. Living a life with no adequately spiced foods."

"Come on, you know what I mean."

"I'm not sure. If the world were to end in an hour, I would simply accept it and move on. It can't be helped. Why panic?"

"Hmm… what if I destroyed all your businesses and killed all your acquaintances?"

"There's nothing I can do if you decide to do that. I'll just have to build new businesses and find new acquaintances."

"Seriously?"

"Is it not perfectly reasonable?"

Leo shrugged. "I suppose. But that's boring! Even I have things that disturb me!"

"Like?"

"Dog killers."

"And?"

"Umm… people who eat with blood on their hands and under their fingernails."

"Fair enough."

Leo sighed. "Ahhh… I'm bored. Say, what do you find interesting?"

"… Learning… perhaps."

"That's boring… no, on second thought, I like that too. I just don't like reading stuff. That's boring."

"You just have to flip through it."

"But then you aren't absorbing it, aren't you?"

She looked at him weird. "You just have to activate auto-memory and-"

"You have auto-memory?!"

She blinked. "… Yes?"

"I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised. You would do that."

"I'm surprised you don't have it."

"Levelling up memory is soooooo tedious. I've tried it a dozen times but my brain cells died after like 15 minutes."

"But you've been around for a while, haven't you? Just from the passive gain and everyday casual use, I'd have thought you'd have gotten it by now."

He shrugged. "Turns out, alcohol and drugs give you a serious debuff to a ton of EXP gain. Especially memory."

"It's very useful and not that hard to get. It's just a lot of grinding."

"If it's not fun, what's the point? I hate grinding. I let other people do the grinding for me and then I just suck their brains out."

"We are… much more like zombies than they are."

He laughed. "Yeah, we're not really human anymore. After all, we-"

"We shouldn't talk here."

Leo looked down at the girl who curled further into a ball. "Well… the zombie training can be left to the scrubs."

He slung her over his shoulder again and stepped out of the cell only to stop to wave at a woman. "Oh, Kokomi-chan! So nice to see you! Lemme read your mind!"

The woman turned around, her movement stuttered a little as Leo invaded her mind. "Reonarudo-sama. And that is?"

"Oh, that's Anoushka."

Leo put her down and she straightened herself. She glanced at Kokomi's headband. 1A. "I am Anoushka. I do food research. It's a pleasure to be acquainted with you."

"You too. I'm the best mind breaker around and I'm in charge of networking. I've heard some things about you."

"Only good things, I hope."

"I've heard you're close with Reonarudo-sama."

"I-" She was cut off as Leo squeezed her within an inch of her life.

"Anushika is my new toy and food dispenser! She's a VVVVVIP. She is a completely unique fountain of knowledge when it comes to food. One of a kind. Can't find it anywhere else. Completely, really, truly, irreplaceable. No… Actually, it's technically possible but statistically speaking… hmm… someone of her type with her food knowledge would come maybe once in 3 centuries. Basically, I will be very pissed if anything happens to my paella machine. Much more pissed than if someone killed you, Kokomi. Oh, but I still love you, don't worry. You've been very useful and it's going to be pretty hard to replace you when you die. I'll ruin whoever kills you. Actually… hmm… nah, even if it's Princess, I'll at least give her a bit of trouble."

"… The message has been noted."

"Good!" Leo re-slung her over his shoulder. "Then, bye-bye!"

He hopped out of the building. When they were a little further away, she whispered into his ear.

"That woman is an Uchiha. And her name is not Kokomi."

"Yeah! She's the one who jerked off… a whole bunch of people actually. The Konoha boys trusted her because she was an Uchiha and they thought she knew the importance of keeping the bloodline within the clan. Combined with scary acting skills, alcohol, drugs and genjutsu, lots of little genin fooled around with her. In fact, the eyes I have in my personal inventory are one of her son's. It's a shame human generations are so far apart. I have to wait like twelve years before the boys are fertile enough for me to basically have an infinite amount of sperm from all the bloodlines. She didn't bare all of them, obviously. I have many nice women who will bare kids for me for dirt cheap prices. I have a few dorms dotted around the country just for those lovely ladies. I'd show you but they are really quite plain and boring buildings."

"I'm surprised Konoha hasn't tried to raze you to the ground."

"They don't know. Kokomi faked her death splendidly once the fact that she was a whore and a cheater spread around. The whole 'I-can't-get-married-and-my-honour-is-ruined' shtick. A lot of committed guys who thought she was in love with them were feeling very betrayed and it was getting a bit suspicious."

"How did you get her on side?"

"Oh, that was easy. While she was out, I murdered her sensei and genin team then broke and enslaved her. She was like 13 and very insecure. Cakewalk. Didn't even really mean to. I was just enjoying a walk and saw she had some really nice stats in the right places. Did you know that random walks are a great way to get random encounters?"

"… I see. That's… that's interesting."

"Good afternoon, Anushika-san."

She looked up to see Hitoshi, the second-in-command and personal babysitter of Leo. "Good afternoon, Takayama-san."

"What are you doing in the library?" He asked, peering over her shoulder to look at her choice of literature.

She shut the book and let him read the title before putting it back on the shelf. "On my quest to browse through every book in every section in every library I'm authorised to be in."

He raised his eyebrows briefly. "That's going to take you a few years to get through this base alone. This base has one of the most extensive knowledge networks."

"I'm a fast reader. What about you? What brings you here?"

"I was just wondering if you were up for lunch."

"What about at my residence? I've been training my maid's culinary skills and getting her to learn the new recipes I've been creating. Would you like to try it out?"

"That would some time and I wouldn't want to trouble you. I can get room service to deliver any time."

"Actually, it's about my lunchtime and I always get my maid to make extra. There's more than enough for the two of us and it should be fresh and hot by the time we get back. Wouldn't you help me eat some of it?"

"… Very well. I look forward to seeing your work."

She turned and walked in the direction of her residence with Hitoshi beside her.

"Speaking of your work, shouldn't you be working now? Why are you reading about ninjutsu?"

"After popping in at various hours of the day for well over two months now, it has occurred to Leo that I never seem to be sleeping or otherwise unoccupied. He is rather astounded, and delighted but mostly astounded, at my ability to resist the forces of sleep. Told me I was 'crazy' and that he 'didn't actually expect me to work 24/7 but whatever'. I took that to mean that an hour or two outside of work was permitted."

"Your lab is 24/7?"

"Yes. I have four shifts. Leo did grant me near infinite manpower, after all."

"He is a man of instant gratification. I suppose it's no surprise he prioritises food so highly."

"It's a little more than that but yes. How is your work going?"

"Thankfully, Reonarudo-sama hasn't come up with any overtly insane ideas recently." He looked her dead in the eye. "That rushed Konoha invasion was a complete pain to organise and he was absolutely convinced it was a good idea."

"Well, was it?"

"It turned out… alright. We had some losses and some gains. I am not a fan of making enemies of Fire though. In that sense, it's almost worse that we're allied with Earth."

"Wouldn't they attack if there is no alliance?"

"Maybe. Probably not. They obviously have internal problems now. That's the only reason why they haven't declared war. That and because Reonarudo-sama's organisation is officially not affiliated with Meadows. If they attack us, we can do enough damage that Earth will be ready to pounce either way. It doesn't benefit Meadows to be caught in a proxy war between the two. Earth is… well, the daimyo isn't pleased with what we did but the Tsuchikage was all for it. He was very happy that we gave them a smack, that warmonger."

"You met the Tsuchikage?"

"No. I read the mind of our ninja ambassador but I would've known either way. The Tsuchikage has a long memory and a temper." Hitoshi sighed. "I hate being Head of All Things Diplomatic. Reonarudo-sama never makes my job easy." His tone was bitter and harsh.

"His job titles are very literal."

"Yes, they are. By the way, your official title is 'Head of Sunshine Foodies'."

"'Sunshine Foodies'?"

"He was drunk and staring at the sun at the time and he declared the start of a bright new world or something of that sort. That really scared me. You seem to provoke some unwelcome ideas."

"I've never been much of a destabilising factor. That is certainly interesting."

"In any case, I took the liberty to make sure all the nameplates said 'Head of the Food Department' instead."

"Well, thank you."

"Don't worry about. It's just part of my job description. I always print 'Head of Diplomatic Relations' on all of my name cards. A lot easier to garner respect that way."

"From what I've heard 'All Thing Diplomatic' is a lot more accurate. Why are you here?"

"My wife and two daughters are in the hostage building and I have a slave seal on me. I'm not sure but I think I've had at least three major memory wipes. Probably because of rebellious thoughts."

"I see. How many people are actually here of their own will?"

"Mostly the lower retainers. He steals a lot of the intellectuals. This is a research facility so there's a higher amount of them than usual. There's also a much higher level of security as well. Escape is not possible. Do you know why he doesn't impose the usual security measures on you?"

"The game won't be fun if you could impose permanent status effects on other players. I've never come across one that allows you to do so."

"So… he's created a game and that's why he doesn't want to-" Hitoshi shook his head. "He's so arbitrary. And what 'game' are you playing?"

"I'm not sure. He makes up the rules as he pleases."

"That's no fun."

"He has very little self-control."

"… Does he want you to escape?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I get the feeling he's disappointed you're not stronger."

At this, she paused for a second. "… I can see that." She mulled over it for a few more seconds. "I see."

She stepped into the training room and was hit with a burst of chakra and bloodlust. In the middle was Leo, throwing about intensive jutsu like it was nothing. Around him were ninja with the forehead protector of the meadows, doing their best to coordinate a plan of attack.

"Oh, Anoushka! Come in, come in! We're almost done!"

She stepped in and leaned against the side of the walls, arms crossed over her chest as she examined the fight. Leo's HP was full and his MP recharged faster than he was spending it.

He cast an area jutsu and all the ninja around him were thrown against the wall with incredible pressure, bones snapping. Her back was flattened against the wall.

"Leo, stop!"

His eyes met her's. They trailed up above her head, froze and he instantly cancelled the jutsu, horrified.

"NO ONE IS TO STEP NEAR ANOUSHKA! ANYONE WHO DOES IS WORSE THAN DEAD!"

He appeared in front of her, hand hovering and face white. "I thought you said you could withstand collateral!"

"From you haphazardly landing your pig. It was the pig's stats, not yours. If you intend to hurt me at any time, I will die from you pinching my cheek."

"How… how close was I?"

"12 HP."

His eyes were fixated on the nearly empty bar above her. "If a ninja accidentally bumps into you now, you are dead."

"Pretty much."

"You… you stay here. You stay away from the door." He turned to face the room. "All of you are to guard the door! No one is to come in!"

The ninja looked at each other and one hesitantly spoke up. "Most of us can't move."

Leo pointed at the medic. "You! You can move."

"I have to heal them-"

"I don't care! You go stand by the door and make sure no one comes in! Tell the first person that passes by that all jutsu is banned in this building!"

The medic looked like he wanted to protest but he hastily scurried away.

Leo turned back to her. "How long till you recharge?"

"About 15 minutes."

"… You really don't have much HP." He ran his hand through his hair. "Being around you is like being around a glass doll sometimes." He growled. "Why aren't there more, tougher people who also know how to make ravioli and pizza and dim sum?"

"About that… I actually came here to ask for time to train."

"I thought you weren't about that sort of thing."

"I don't have talent in many things required of a ninja. My multiplier on physical strength alone is probably enough to disqualify me. That doesn't mean I'm horrible at everything."

"I don't care, just get your defence up. I can't have you dying on me in my own base because I forget and smack you."

"Even if it takes away from the research?"

"If you die, all the food is gone! I'll get Hitoshi to arrange something for you."

"It's fine. As you know, conventional training methods don't suit us."

"Fine, whatever. Grab any trainer you want. You're a Class 1. You can just walk up and demand their attention."

"Can I read the books in the library?"

He thought about it for a while. "Most of it is fine. Go to Hitoshi for the authorisation."

"I understand."

"Boo!"

She turned towards him. "What do you want?"

Leo put on a fake pout. He knew he looked ridiculous but she still didn't laugh. He dropped it and sighed. "You're always in the library now."

"If you're worried about the food research, it's going smoothly. I've trained the staff to the point where they can carry out my orders competently enough. I just need to supervise."

"I know. I just came from the lab and I've seen the report."

"…"

"Anoushka… doesn't it get boring?"

"What gets boring?"

He waved his hand briefly. "Learning. Grinding. Life."

"… That's not like you."

He hugged her from behind. He wasn't quite sure why he liked to. She was warm but he knew if he cut her open, he's find nothing. They were zombies, through and through. "… You know, life was fun at first. Cracking my brains out on seals and stealing mind control jutsu from mind readers… the first years were hard. But I loved it. Now… now I have a cheat sheet. Once you have a slave seal, mind reading and someone's family, you can do anything you want. That's all you really need to start a nice little organisation. Once you find and enslave the right people, that's it. All you have to do is wait and not die and you'll see your empire rise. I have found someone who is better at seals than me. I've found someone who is better at mind reading than me. I've just about found the best people in every category. I'm not really needed." He sighed. "Life is boring sometimes. There's just not enough endgame content."

"Did something happen?"

"Not really. I just got bored of drinking."

"You're sober."

"Medical ninjutsu. I hate being sober. I hate being drunk slightly less." He squeezed her a little tighter. Her breath hitched and he dropped her faster than a blink, eyes darting up to her health bar in time to see her health recover just a blimp.

Still… he'd just hugged her a little tightly. And that had damaged her enough that he could see it. If he hugged her for long enough, she would die.

Die…

"Say… Anoushka?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think it's possible to revive a zombie? To revive us?"

"… As in?"

"There are techniques in this world that allow you to bring back the dead. From what I've gathered, when someone's HP reaches zero, their data gets stored and you can retrieve it with a jutsu. But I usually need DNA and all of our DNA gets removed when we die. If you stick around long enough, I will kill you accidentally. It would be very convenient if I could just revive you again."

"… My source of knowledge is not infinite. Eventually, I will run out of recipes."

"I know. But… I don't know. I don't know. If that happens, I think I'll just release you."

"… Really?"

"Really."

"Takayama-san will not approve."

"I know. But… like I said, once you figure out the basics, life is incredibly boring here. You're not annoying and you're smart. That's enough reason for me to let you out and hope you do something interesting."

"Do you just want to watch the world burn?"

He grinned. "Hell yeah!" He froze. "Oh. I…" He smiled. "I guess I do! Say, hypothetically speaking, what would be the most fun way to destroy the world?"

"… Enhance canine intelligence, enchant everyone to fall madly in love with dogs and welcome our new overlords."

He laughed at the image. "You know me so well!"

"You're not hard to know."

"I'm a simple man. You, on the other hand… why do women have to be so complicated?"

"I thought I was pretty straightforward."

"Yeah, but like… don't you get bored? You don't do anything interesting."

"These books are interesting."

"Really?"

"Some of them. Then what's interesting? Alcohol?"

"I have everything I want. What about you? Don't you want to be powerful? Don't you want to do anything? You're a player and you know how to gain the system. That's the best kekkei genkai in the game, easily. I'd trade a hundred sharingan just for our ability to see levels and talents. It's crazy OP. Yet you started a stupid orphanage and opened a bunch of schools. Why waste your time on them?"

"Leo… can we die of old age?"

"I'm not sure. I've never seen another player stick around for long enough to try it. For some reason or another, we seem to annihilate each other pretty quickly."

"If you had to guess?"

"No… no, I don't think we can. We can't grow and stuff. But I don't plan on sticking around for that long. I want to go out doing something crazy that I love. But I haven't figured out what yet."

"Then there's time aplenty."

"Maybe not. I could decide to kill you right now. Wouldn't even be hard."

"To live is to suffer. When I'm dead, I can't be upset about being dead so it's quite fine."

"… It's upsetting that I can't upset you."

"Why do you want to upset me?"

"Dunno. Cause it'll be fun? Is there anyone you love in this world?"

"Not particularly."

"Is there anyone? Anyone at all?"

"No. I have few people in my life."

"… That's sad. That's really sad."

"Do you have anyone?"

"I have Alma."

"And?"

"I had myself a girl a while back. She got killed. I set off three wars in her honour. Well… actually, nah. It was in my honour. If she found out, she would throw me out the window. Quite a few people she liked got killed, after all. But as you said, she's dead. She can't find out. So I should be safe."

"… Why do all the women you like have violent tendencies?"

"Who knows. Maybe cause they remind me of my Ma? If Ma could see me now, I'm sure she'd stab me to death. You kind of remind of the other girls I like but…" He gasped. "Oh! Maybe that's why I'm sad that you're not trying to stab me to death! Say, how do I make you want to stab me? You have no family and nothing you like a lot. Torturing you would just force you into sleep mode and you are so easy to kill."

Her face was blank as he paced about the room, working himself up to a frenzy and tearing his own hair out. The hair strands vanished as they left his head and immediately reappeared in their rightful place.

"I can't think of anything," he muttered. "The physical methods to deal with NPCs don't work because of the sleep function. The mental methods to deal with other players, other people of my world… those don't work because you just… you just don't do anything!" He whirled around, face red and mouth curled back into a snarl. "Why! You're not like Chris or even Princess! You could be- you're me! Why can't you just- argh! Why don't you have any ambition? Why don't you fight me?! Why don't you hate me?! Everyone does! Fight me! Destroy me! I want something in this goddamned world!"

"To be content with life… isn't that the goal? Isn't that your goal?" She closed her eyes. "I… work pretty hard to achieve that. I'm not always successful but that is the best route. And here you are, trying to destroy that for your temporary amusement. If you kill me now, I will have no regrets to tie me to this world. Aren't I… what you'd like to be?"

"…"

"Well, that's also a lie. I would lie if I said I was content all the time. I would lie if I said I was happy all the time or never experienced any sadness. I would be lying if I said the kidnapping didn't upset a number of my plans. But it can't be helped. This body knows no pain so if my mind knows no anguish, I am, in a sense, invincible. All things are transient. Remove your attachment to the current state of things and accept the inevitability of suffering. Change what you can and worry not of those you can't. That's the path."

"… That's… a lot easier said than done."

"It has been done before."

"… I was wrong. I was wrong. You are not like me. I… always wanted something to love in this world. Something to care about, you know? But there is nothing here for me. With a bunch of numbers, I can sum up every soul and overpower them. I want to go home."

"Can you?"

"… No. No, I don't think so."

"Then abandon that desire. It will do you no good."

"Easier said than done."

"I know."

"…"

"…"

"… Go. Go. Just go. Go back to Konoha, go anywhere. You can't stay here. I will kill you by accident during an episode and no one will stop me. No one will stop me."

She nodded and walked past him. "I wish you the best of luck."

Author's note: I have a few ideas, none particularly appealing to me. Where should the story go from here?