"What is reality but the dreamworld of a limited imagination?" ~Robert Brault

ONE

Ignus Fatuus

There were simply no words.

It was impossible to explain how it felt, or how it even seemed like, to be placed into a virtual reality game. Words were next to useless when it came to describing it. The event was was just too... much. It was vast and all-encompassing yet at the same time intimate and very, very personal. The experience of being placed from one world to another, of her senses disconnecting and reconnecting and becoming something else, of her perception and thoughts and her reality being erased and rebooted like some computer program… it was just something that words cannot possibly express. It was disorienting and thoroughly disturbing in the most primitive way, because the cessation of thought, that little pause in awareness, however short it was, eerily resembled death. Or at least it resembled what she thought death must be like, she didn't really have any prior experience to compare it with. The horror she felt (after the fact, of course, since she couldn't have felt anything during)... it was as old as time, and the disquiet was instinctive. Which was decidedly strange - she thought that having already lost half of herself (her twin brother Rollo) to death, she would have welcomed it with open arms. She wasn't suicidal in the slightest, and she never sought death, but she thought that by now she would at least be apathetic to it.

Which was definitely not the case.

The living do not wish for death - they never do, not really - as much as they might be fascinated by it.

While her consciousness (or lack thereof, it was impossible to describe) was being transported into virtual reality there had only been a vast nothingness, in which she felt nothing, thought nothing, and basically was nothing. It wasn't like being asleep or unconscious, because when you were asleep there's this little hum of consciousness which this pre-game death-like state most certainly did not have, although nobody who hadn't died before would ever understand (which contributes to its unexplainability). She didn't know if all VR games had the pre-game death she'd just gone through or if it was just this one game, not having played any VR games before, but she hoped this didn't happen with all the other games. Or to anyone else, really. The thought that a bunch of kids and teenagers were encountering this momentary oblivion on a regular basis, and that it didn't faze them at all, was a terrifying thought.

As quick as it came, however, that nothingness was gone, and in its place was the realization that she was in a white hall - well, in a white hall wasn't the exact description as the walls appeared to be made of a bright, luminescent material that only seemed white, and she was certain that she wasn't really in a hall and she was only in a mindscape of sorts - and right in the middle of that hall and only ten feet away from her, was a mirror.

Huh, she mused with a slight twitch of her lips. The mirror was familiar to her, gilded frame and all, although what exactly made it seem so eluded her mind.

Not knowing what to do, she cautiously approached the mirror - the only thing in the hall besides her naked self - the bare skin of her soles slapping the floor (which strangely enough felt neither warm nor cold). It only took a few steps yet it felt like a long march, her feet slowly growing heavier and her heart hammering faster and faster as she neared it.

It looked like an ordinary mirror, and it seemed to do what normal mirrors did. It reflected things. Royce tried not to cringe at her naked body's reflection.

"NARPG ni, purēyā o kangei shimasu."

"GAH!" she yelped, jumping in her skin and looking around the hall for the source of the weird, disembodied male voice.

"Dobro pozhalovat' v NARPG , pleyer."

"The heck?" another wary glance at the walls, as if they had been the ones that had spoken. The voice was the same male one, but he (it?) spoke fluent Russian too, it seemed like. "Anyone there? Computer-person? Hello? How do I do this game... thing?"

"Bienvenidos a NARPG, Jugador."

Spanish this time? she thought incredulously. Really now? And what's a Jugador?

"Uh, hola?" she ventured uncertainly. "Hello? Speak in English, please? Me no speak-o Español."

"Bienvenue à NARPG, Player."

Was that... French? "I said English, dammit! ENGLISH!" annoyed, she kicked the mirror and accidentally hit her toenail at its frame. Searing pain shot up her leg. "Ow, motherfucker!"

"Willkommen in NARPG, Spieler."

She threw a baleful stare at the mirror in front of her. "I said English, you cyber-dickwad. Where the hell are the controls in this thing? I swear to God, if-"

"Welcome to NARPG, Player."

Royce scowled. That. That was definitely intentional.

The mirror suddenly glowed neon blue, and then images of various national flags filled it. Taking it for the "Select A Language" choice that it was, she scanned through the flags until her eyes landed on the one she'd been looking for. Hesitantly, she pointed a finger at it and touched the mirror's surface.

"American English, selected."

"Freaking finally," she muttered under her breath. "You stupid game."

"Please select your character's village of origin."

"What?" she frowned. Where did the makers of this game get off, starting character creation with a village? What about a clan? Gender? Hair color and skin color? Eye color? Bone structure?

Oh well, she sighed. I guess that sort of thing matters in a Naruto-based game. She thinks back on the pages of Naruto she'd blazed through more than a couple dozen times. Villages are like a religion in Naruto.

"I... uh, is there a list of villages I can choose from?"

A weird hologram-type thing suddenly popped up between her and the mirror. It was a map of the Elemental Nations, complete with minor villages and Zoom-In-Zoom-Out functions.

Let's see, she hummed thoughtlessly. Konohagakure no Sato (Village Hidden by Tree Leaves), or Konoha for short, was the more obvious choice. It was where the most pivotal events (and characters) were going to be at. Hell, it was the village where the Main Character lived. If there was one thing that guaranteed good chances at survival, it was being close to the main character. Not that it was the case for the Sandaime (third) Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, or the vast majority of the Uchiha Clan, but Royce's character won't be the Sandaime Hokage or an Uchiha, so there was that.

A quick touch in Konoha's general location highlighted the village.

"Village Hidden by Tree Leaves, selected."

Oh God, Royce thought with an inward groan. Don't tell me even the Japanese terms in this game will be translated too! That's so... insulting. She could just imagine it: The Akatsuki had missions across the Elemental Nations to hunt jinchuriki. Akatsuki, translated into English, was "Dawn," (which didn't quite sound as badass) and jinchuriki literally meant "Power of Human Sacrifice."

The Dawn had missions across the Elemantal Nations to hunt powers of human sacrifice.

Just thinking the sentence made her feel like a retard.

"Please select your character's clan."

This time, she didn't need to ask for it - an alphabetical list of clans (along with their sigils) popped up and replaced the Elemental Nations map hologram:

Aburame

Akimichi

Hatake

Hyuuga

Inuzuka

Kohaku

Kurama

Nara

Sarutobi

Senju

Shimura

Uchiha

Uzumaki

Yamanaka

Civilian

Orphan (specifications necessary)

You can choose to belong to a civilian family? Royce thought, incredulous. Ha. Fat chance anyone would choose that. Although she surmised being a civilian could be sort of useful, if only for the advantage of being a blank slate. Your character could be more... malleable, more undefined by set rules and technicalities. There was a freedom, she supposed, in that kind of personalization. Choosing to be a civilian would make the game more... realistic. You'd feel more you if your new identity didn't involve overpowered dojutsus or doggie breath or shadow manipulation, since those things didn't exist in the real world. Sure, being part of a ninja clan was advantageous in its own way, but Royce understood the charm of being... well, human.

And if you became powerful anyway even without the genetic backing? Then that would be an effing glorious achievement.

Being an orphan might have similar pros and cons, though the whole specifications necessary thing sounded downright boring. The specifications probably had something to do with choosing who your parents would be, if you want to have ninja blood in you or not,if you wanted to be an Uchiha bastard or a Hyuuga bastard, whatever. She wasn't interested in being an Uchiha anyway. Or a Hyuuga, for that matter. Too much angst in those two clans.

She didn't need nor want angst. She just needed to do this as quickly, and easily, as possible. Finding out what happened to Rollo was the priority here, not fun and games. Not even full-immersion in this virtual ninja world. She just needed to enter this game, solve the mystery, and get the hell outta dodge. Virtual reality was creepy as heck.

"Aburame," she decided. Nobody she knew seemed to want to be an Aburame, for some reason. Not even Rollo. Her brother was ridiculously enamored by the magic of Uchiha eyeballs. He'd talk for hours about the possibilities if the Sharingan really existed in real life, medical texts that implied its existence, possible political impacts of the dojutsu in the real world. Royce even sometimes caught him doing the same Sharingan sales pitch while jogging with some neighbors. It amazed her sometimes how Rollo managed to be equal parts jock and nerd. He was a societal oxymoron.

"Aburame Clan, selected."

"Please select insect breed for your character."

"RINKAICHUU." she snarled before the list of insect breeds even popped up, feeling pissed for some reason. It was Rollo's fault, the dead jerk. Royce hadn't really thought of Rollo's life before now, obsessed as she was with his death. It was strange how the thought of her annoying brother laughing hurt her more than the thought of him in a coffin. Did she really hate him that much?

No, she did not want to think about that.

She'd already long decided the traits of her character, the most basic of which included belonging to the Aburame Clan, hosting rinkauchuu, and being Shino's twin sister. Shino was an interesting character, and Royce missed being a sister.

"Phosphorus Destruction Insect Breed, selected."

"Please don't translate everything to English," she whined. She didn't want to have to call Naruto 'Cured Fish Surimi' whenever she talked to the guy.

"Please designate your character's relations in the chosen clan."

A quick finger-tap (or stab, as holograms were immaterial) on the image of what seemed to be the Aburame family tree, and she was now Aburame Shino's twin sister.

Apparently character appearances were game-generated if you chose a clan, since there was a certain genepool that you can inherit looks from. Royce donned a fierce scowl when the weird disembodied male voice boomed,

"Sorry, Character Appearance Customization is only available for Civilian or Orphan characters."

"Then how the hell do I get to choose what my character would look like?"

The voice then went on a barrage of explanations in that eerily calm monotone of his, on how clan-member character appearances were randomly generated to avoid physical discrepancies and to further implement the game's realism, because two black-haired individuals with a long family history of the same coloring, couldn't possibly have a child with neon-green hair (Royce tuned out after Mendelian Laws of Heredity - she was a biology major and didn't need a computer program to teach her anything about Mendelian Genetics, pfff).

Oh, well. It wasn't like aesthetics particularly mattered anyway, it wasn't like she was actually going to need her looks to get what she wanted. Wasn't like it should matter how she looked like to virtual characters. Only Rollo mattered.

Besides, who needed looks when you had the world's fate in your head? Who needed beauty when you - by all intents and purposes - knew the future?

Before playing the game, Royce took it upon herself to study as much as she could about the universe it was based on. She read the Naruto manga, she watched the Naruto animes (and movies),and she even read the Naruto Wikis. After Rollo's death, Royce studied everything related to the Naruto franchise with an almost angry passion. Personally she didn't really care for the story - it seemed more like mental masturbation than anything else, what with the characters in it saying each fight move that they did while they did it (seriously, the redundancy was ridiculous), but she knew she had to know every single facet of it, every nook and cranny and angle, every important event and all the major players in them, all the turning points and the vital actions. It was more paranoia than anything else that compelled her to all but memorize the story, but she kept getting the feeling that there was some serious danger in NARPG. She had doubts about that, of course. It could actually have been the OCULUS that killed Rollo, and not the game installed in it. It could have been an allergic reaction to the OCULUS-designed neurotoxin that induced a sleep-like muscle flaccidity (because you can't have your real body moving as you moved in the virtual world, can't have your body act out swordfights as you experience them in a game - that would be like a twisted version of miming an ax murderer or something), but what Rollo said before he died... what he screamed, implied that there was something happening in the game.

Something that Royce wanted - and dreaded - to find out.

A/N: Alright, I suck. Two chapters in and she's not even in NARPG yet! But I've been told that I write too little and too fast (I have another FF account that I don't plan on ever showing you guys because MY FICS THERE SUCK ASS, and my reviewers there all told me that I jumped the gun far too often), so I think here on NARPG I'll work on details and thought processes and... well, more words.

Also, there might be some grammatical/typographical errors in this one. I don't have a beta, and I'm just too much of a Nara (read: "lazy") to actually read my own work over and over again just to check for typos. Seriously, y'all, what's the damn point? Typos are living creatures that procreate anyway, because I wrote this one fic before (in my other account) where I could have sworn that there were only two or three typos when I posted it, then when I randomly wanted to spell-check it I FOUND LIKE A MILLION MORE.

And I was just like, HOW.(O_O)

Anyway, tell me what you think!

-Raven