A/N: Here's the second chapter of the TWSGOK! Sorry (I bet you would hunt me down just to kill me because a sorry isn't enough, though, on second thought, I wouldn't be able to finish this so it would be a bad idea) about taking so much time before updating; it's because I was occupied with another (unpublished) project… and school... and homework... and summer camp... and tennis... and League of Legends... and, well, stuff.
Chapter One
Sitting on a bench, Elsie inhaled the sweet air of Konoha, thinking about what the term "ninjustu" could possibly mean. Keima, right beside her, was tapping furiously on the keyboard of his PFP. The atmosphere around them was filled with the sound of birds chirping, and of course, the clicking sounds of keys being pressed down.
"Nii-samaaaa… when do you think they'll come out? It's been quite a long time since they entered the hospital…"
Keima stopped typing, but he stared intently at the screen of his game console. He then sighed. Otamegane's eyes looked up, watching the clouds dance by.
"That heroine… She is one tough to conquer girl…"
"Nii-sama, you weren't listening to me, were you?" It was Elsie's turn to sigh. "How much longer do we have to stay on this bench? I want to go sightseeing!"
As if her pleas were heard by an unknown god (we are not considering the one who is just sitting next to her), the blond boy that they wanted to question pushed open the front doors of the hospital. The demon, overjoyed because her "prayers" have been answered, quickly wrapped her celestial robe around her partner and herself. Except… The guy they were waiting for was accompanied by five other people. There were the two people they saw going in with him plus a girl with long hair and two guys, one bulky and the other wearing a flak jacket. The latter left the group after a short exchange in front of the hospital.
"What do we do, Kami-nii-sama?"
Keima answered swiftly, while readjusting his glasses, "We follow them."
The group of Genin neared a restaurant called "Yakiniku Q" and entered. They sat around a long table with two round grills in the center of it. The two invisible followers removed the Hagoromo and took an open cubicle adjacent to the followed ones', separated only by a wall. They ordered some meat and vegetables and started to place them on the grill. Elsie ogled the food with big eyes.
"Wa~ This looks so good! Do you think it tastes the same as–"
"Shh! I can't hear what they're saying!" Keima cupped his hands around his ear and stuck that to the wall. He could only perceive faint bits of conversation.
"…start to… just now?"
"…nothing…"
"…Ino, daugh…flower shop…"
"Nice…Beautiful."
"WHY THE HELL IS IT 'BEAUTIFUL' WITH INO! SHANNARO!"
"Ow! My hearing!"
The sudden outburst surprised the whole restaurant, even passersby that were outside. The piece of meat that was dangling off Elsie's chopsticks fell off so she dived under the table to catch it before it touched the floor. Keima massaged the ear he stuck on the wall gingerly. Before he managed to recover from the shock, a parcel of green tissue darted by out of the corner of his eye.
"That was the color of the shirt of the guy we were waiting for… Guess he's going to the toilet, huh."
He quickly made a hand gesture to Elsie as to indicate her to follow him and went after the blond ninja.
…
"So, what you're trying to tell me is that… you guys come from another dimension?"
Naruto had his arms behind his head, walking alongside Keima and Elsie. The avid gamer and devil nodded in unison.
"And you're trying to make me believe that there are things called 'runaway spirits' that lodge in girls hearts and stay there unless they are forced out by the power of love and there is a dispatched squad just to capture them?" (And yes, he said that without pausing to catch his breath.)
The ninja had an incredulous look on his face.
"We're not 'trying to make you believe' that, it's the truth!"
Keima slammed his PFP, as if it were a harisen (paper fan), on Naruto's head, and the second afterward, dearly regretted his actions and was muttering consoling words to it.
"Ow! That hurt!"
A big red bump formed where the game console hit Naruto.
"Pardon him for his ruthless acts, Naruto-kun, but please believe us, we are telling the truth."
Oh sure, the blond head presumed that whatever they were feeding him was as true as saying that the Akatsuki members were as harmless as newborn kittens! The teen that was about his age was pretty insane; he was as attached to that weird device of his as if it was his child. Still, the girl seemed convincing… and cute. Naruto remembered how briskly he was carried away from the BBQ restaurant. He weighed their arguments with his reality. If they really were from another dimension, he thought, it could explain how he was abducted: he was sure that it was no ninjustu.
-Flashback-
Naruto excused himself from the barbecue table. He absolutely did not want to get caught in the argument between Sakura, Sai, and Ino. He mostly didn't want to get slapped in the face by the fuming Haruno twice in the same day, by accident or not.
"Bathroom break," he muttered and proceeded to the restroom.
When he reached the cubicles, he couldn't think of anything to do. Coming here was only a pretense to get out of range of his strong, scary, and (maybe) future girlfriend (at least, that's what he hoped). He decided to try and evacuate his needs, even though he didn't have any. Just as he unzipped his pants, an invisible force grasped him. He felt his hands bind themselves to the sides of his hip and was unable to move. Slowly, he levitated and came level to the open window above the urinal. His rigid body did a ninety degrees turn and he shot out of the opening. His heart jumped to his throat after the abrupt loss of rapidly gained speed. When he landed, he realized he stood, as straight as an electric pole, outside, his fingers still frozen in a zipping-my-pants position. He thought that he'd lost his dignity and publicly humiliated himself. He closed his eyes, awaiting the screams and shrieks of women, imagining the pointing and laughter of men. To his astonishment, he heard (nor saw, when he dared to peek through the slits of his eyes) nothing abnormal. Only the sound of bustling villagers breached his ears. After a brief moment, someone decided to acknowledge his presence.
"Hey, are you going to zip or what? We don't have all day, you know?" hissed the voice.
Naruto turned his head towards the bushed under the window. There, crouched in the shadows, was a guy with glasses (for a split-second, he thought it was Kabuto, though he waved away that idea when he saw the unknown person's black hair). The stranger held in his hands an odd, rectangular-shaped with rounded edges object. It took him a while before it hit him that he was no longer frozen. He rapidly zipped his pants.
"Elsie, you can come out now."
A girl in a light purple yukata stepped out from behind the bushes. On her head she wore a skull shaped accessory, which, in Naruto's opinion, didn't go to well with such a charming teenager.
The boy nodded to who Naruto presumed as Elsie and stood up. The ninja felt instantly as if a thin sheet of cloth that shrouded him for a long time, dissipated. He could breathe more easily. As if on cue, some villagers called out to him ("Hey Naruto! Didn't see you there!") or nodded his way.
"What…? How…? Why…?" he stuttered. Herds of questions flooded his mind. His thinking process refused to function correctly; only bits of the numerous questions reached his mouth and were articulated, hence the stammering.
The bearer of the odd, silver object started with introductions. "I am Katsuragi Keima and this is Erushia de Luto Ima."
The little devil (of course, Naruto didn't know that at the time) advanced forward to her name and bowed lightly. He thought it to be polite to present himself too.
"I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Remember my name, 'cause I'm going to be the next Hokage!" He gave Elsie his famous foxy grin. This was the normal routine every time he gave his name.
The mysterious duo only stared at him in misunderstanding. The Jinchuuriki had gotten used to various reactions over the years. Their silence absolutely did not affect him.
"Uh, what's a 'Hokage'?" the gamer asked bluntly.
This time, it was Naruto's turn to gape at Keima and Elsie. He nearly fell on the grass floor due to the shock. "Wait, what? You don't know what a Hokage is? It's the most awesome job you can get when you're a ninja!" He looked them up and down repeatedly. "You have to be someone who doesn't live in the Five Great Shinobi Countries to not know what a Hokage is! Come to think about it, I've never seen either of you in Konoha before…"
"That's why we need you as a guide. We didn't come to this place, 'Konoha', as you call it, without a reason." Keima dropped his voice to a murmur, eyes back on the screen of his PFP. "… which is impossible, because I'd have a backlog of games when I'd go home…" Making his voice audible again, he proposed, "I think we have a lot to discuss about. We can take a walk, while we're at it; we'll tell you our story, and you'll tell us yours."
Without awaiting an answer, he proceeded to the main street, followed by Elsie. Naruto, still in a state of confusion, chose to go after them and try to understand a bit more about them.
-End of flashback-
Considering the turn of events, Naruto examined the possibility of Keima coming from another parallel universe. Keima and Elsie did have proofs: the 'PFP', a technology not yet present in his world; the 'Hagoromo', a scarf/cloth type of thingy that enclosed an assortment of features; and most importantly, the fact that the two newcomers had no clue whatsoever of the definition of the words 'ninjustu' and 'Hokage'. Those two were common knowledge in the Ninja Realm, even to the villagers and non-ninjas. All this thinking turned his brain into a mashed potato-like substance; he never actually pondered that much (Kakashi, Sakura, and Shikamaru always planned the tough stuff). So, like a simple-minded idiot of a ninja, he embraced the reality according to two people who kidnapped him and befriended him a good sixty minutes ago.
"So what do you want me to help you guys with? Capturing the Weiss?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll need information about the hosts and maybe some help from your part."
"Did Elsie-chan's runaway spirit sensor catch anything yet?"
Earlier, the devil explained how she and her buddy worked together to catch the escaped spirits.
"In fact, it did," replied Keima, without his eyes ever leaving his console's screen. "And the girl should be one of your comrades, too; the one with the pink hair."
"Do you mean—"
"Hey! Naruto! We've been looking everywhere for you! Where'd'you go? We've already finished eating and even paid your part of the bill!" called out a girl, waving towards them, standing in front of the library.
"Speak of the devil", Keima said mentally to himself. He put his gaming conquest on pause to observe his next target.
DORO-DORO-DORO-DORO-DORO-DORO-DORO-DORO—
Keima cast a sideway glance at Elsie. The latter hastily wrapped her skeleton hairclip with her Celestial Robe. Naruto and Sakura cringed at the sound.
"Did… did you hear that?"
The spiky-haired ninja feigned to not have heard any weird sound. "He-hear what?"
"A loud, bizarre, creepy sound."
"It m-must have been your imagination, Sakura-chan."
The kunoichi didn't seem to have bought that, but she let it go for this time.
Naruto judged it prudent to change to another subject. "Where are the others?" he asked.
"They've already left, seeing that you've been missing for a little over an hour." Sakura paused. She looked over Naruto's shoulder and glanced at the non-ninjas behind him. "Who are they?"
Naruto had temporarily forgotten the visitors from another dimension. He decided to hide the truth and give them partially fake identities, because if he did tell the truth, she surely wouldn't believe her (and Keima would give him a long rant about ruining his plan, since he'd already imagined that Naruto would lie about where they came from).
"Uh, they're just some friends of mine."
Sakura arched her eyebrows. "Friends?"
"Yeah, I met them… when I was training with Ero-sennin! They came to the village to visit me, and are, er, wanting to spend some time here."
"Hi~ I'm Elsie de Lute Ima! And this is my partner, Katsuragi Keima!"
Like usual, the gamer continued gaming (after analyzing with incredible speed his first ninja host), without paying attention to his surroundings.
"Hn."
Naruto and Sakura sweat-dropped. Why do his apathetic face and his 'Hn' remind me vaguely of…?
Somewhere in Orochimaru's lair, the snake Sannin's disciple sneezed.
…
"Make yourself at home!"
The two teenagers entered the cramped, messy apartment.
"This… this is where you live?"
"Yup!"
Keima nearly did a face-plant on the wall. I wonder how Elsie's room's like… At least, it's going to be a lot better than here. He forgot to consider where he would lodge during his stay in Konoha. It was easier to crash with the blond head, since the latter was willing to help him in capturing the runaway spirits. On the other hand, Elsie was unable to live with them, because they were both guys. The residence problem was mentioned by Sakura while they were having a short conversation. The kunoichi got along surprisingly well with his buddy. Sakura gladly let Elsie stay at hers when she learned that the two visitors didn't have a place to stay. They couldn't rent a hotel room; they didn't even have the currency used in the Ninja Realm. And that's how he ended up in this place…
"I should have an extra mattress here somewhere…"
Naruto rummaged through his closet and pulled out a large futon cushion and a blanket. "You can sleep here," he said contently.
Keima eyed his make-do bed. It wasn't so bad, except for some yellow stains which he hoped were not what he thought they were.
Naruto saw the gamer stare at the splotches and he started sweating.
"I-it's n-n-not what you th-think it is! Definitely not!" he defended. "It's only ramen soup stains." He let out a few nervous laughs.
Keima shot him a questioning stare.
"Seriously! I swear it's only ramen stains!"
…
That night, the two boys ate instant noodles. The Capturing God, to Naruto's surprise, did not mind the non-nutritious meal. Keima sometimes cooked a cup or two and slurped it up while conquering virtual heroines in the process. He loved the time efficiency on preparing such easily made food: too complicated meals that take time to finish hindered his gaming schedule. Though when Naruto told him that ramen was and will always be his daily diet, he nearly fainted. During the time he would be living with this orange-ramen-freak, he'd have to survive on what his roommate adored the most. This aspect of staying in Konoha was less inviting to him. Eating bowled noodles a few times throughout the week, Keima could put up with, but not eating it on a daily basis. Despite for only being here half a day, he already reminisced about the home-made banquets his mother concocted. Oh, did he miss home!
Elsie, however, joyously looked forward to her stay. Sakura-chan, as she called her host, let her share her room. The latter had walls painted in a shade of pale pink, trying to cover up the original color, a golden-brown one. Sakura pulled out the extension from under her bed.
"Make yourself at home, Elsie-chan! We'll be sleeping in the same room, if you don't mind," she added.
"Not at all! Thank a lot, Sakura-chan. Sorry for my free-loading on you." Elsie wore an anxious expression on her face.
"I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind," reassured the pink-head, resting her hand on the devil's hair. "I'll explain it to them later."
"Sakura!" yelled the voice of a woman. "Get down here; I need your help to prepare dinner!"
Talking to Elsie, she said, "I'm going down and I'll tell them you're here. If you need anything, you can come down and ask." She hurried down the stairs leading to the first floor. In the staircase, she bellowed, "Right away mom!"
When her host disappeared, Elsie laid her broom on the side of the extension-bed. She sat down and thought of everything she could do in Konoha. Finding the Weiss was of course their main objective, but going sightseeing shouldn't be of much of a problem, right? And then maybe, they could go to the public bath she and Sakura had passed after a hard day's work… Focus, focus! Kami-nii-sama wanted to finish as soon as possible, so they should better locate the lost souls first, and then do other amusing stuff. The little devil concentrated on the task at hand. They already knew of one of the targets, the very girl who agreed to hospitalize her. Her sensor already registered Sakura's Weiss, so the annoying 'Doro-doro-doro' ring only turned on when a new kaketama was near (how convenient! Or else, Sakura would have been irritated to hell by the noise 24/7). Elsie racked her brains to think up something that could help with discerning the Weiss. After two, three minutes, she came up with a brilliant (maybe) plan: she was going to ask Sakura-chan about her female friends, and try to know more about the Leaf village. When all the information was gathered, she would report back to her godlike brother.
"Elsie-chan! Dinner is ready!"
Perfect timing, she thought. Time to put the plan in action.
"Okay~ I'm coming!"
…
Morning came quicker than anticipated for Keima. He rubbed his eyes lazily, trying to shake away the drowsy feeling of sleep. When he fully awoke, he became aware of the kind of loud snoring of his roommate and that the sun shined directly onto his bed. Those were probably the two reasons why he was briskly pulled out of his slumber. Keima turned on his PFP to check the time. It wasn't even seven o'clock. Normally, at home, he would wake up at seven-thirty to prepare for school, but if he played games during the night and it was the weekend, sleeping until ten was the minimum. But now wasn't normal. He decided to get up and brush his teeth and then game for the while Naruto stayed asleep. The first level of "A Shinobi's Journey" was still unbeaten. The heroine, named Aki, gave the God of Conquest a really hard time. Pleasing her by buying what she wanted the most or by taking her out on dinners left him dumped. Refusing to obey her orders left him dumped. Basically, every route he took left him dumped. In his mind, he regrouped the most logical choices together and tried them, once at a time (since this game also doesn't have flags; it's either you conquer the girl or you die trying (just kidding, but seriously)).
"Aki-chaaaaaaaaaan! Why are you so hard to conquer!" whined Keima.
"Mmnnn…"
Keima stopped his complaining/crying and put on his regular, no-emotions-shown face. "Oh, you're awake."
The blond didn't answer. He lazily stood up and made his way to the bathroom.
Tsk. Ignoring me like that. The dimension-traveler looked around him. It was the first time that he truly observed Naruto's room. He turned to his left. A mirror, then a cabinet with a microwave and a calendar on top… a slip of paper with "Naruto" in katakana on the wall… the door to the kitchen… another cabinet, this time with an alarm clock and a picture frame. The latter caught his eye and he walked towards it. He picked the slightly dusty frame up. The picture inside showed a smiley, grey-haired, masked man with his hands ruffling to boys' hair. The masked guy's left hand rested on a young, pouting, whiskered kid, (that must have been Naruto, Keima thought); and his right, on an unhappy, raven-haired boy wearing an angry glare. In the middle of the two boys posed an extremely joyful rosette, her eyes smiling with her shining face. A cute, innocent, twelve year-old Sakura.
"Oi, whatcha looking at?"
Naruto approached him to get a better view.
"What's this picture about?"
"That's something we have to take every time a new team is formed."
"Team?"
"Oh right, you don't know how the ninja world functions yet." Naruto sat on his bed and took his time to explain every detail about the Academy, the ranks, the Chuunin exams, the missions, and eventually, the teams. "… And this guy's Kakashi-sensei, the Jounin in charge of our team. I'm here, next to Sakura-chan, and that is Sasuke."
Keima noticed his voice break at the mention of the other male member. Naruto continued, his face tinted with a shade of sadness.
"We were fighting that day, and the cameraman became impatient and snapped the photo with our expressions still glum." He laughed, though the gamer could realize it was a forced one.
Even though he knew it was impudent and nosy of him, he proceeded to push further into Naruto's relation with this Sasuke. He wanted to know more; the information could greatly help him in the future, who knows?
"What… happened?"
…
"Every one of the girls in the Academy had a crush on him?"
"Yeah. That lucky bastard… Leaving the village just for some snake freak…"
"Even Sakura-san?"
Naruto's head perked up when Sakura's name was mentioned. He furrowed his brows. "Even Sakura-chan."
Keima processed the information he had listened from his roommate. He muttered aloud, not consciously, "That's why she's one of the targets… Sasuke's leaving scarred her considerably."
"How are you going to get that spirit out of her?"
"By making her fall in love once more."
Making Sakura fall in love once more? Naruto didn't like the idea. What about his feelings for her? Besides, he knew that no one could replace the Sasuke Sakura nurtured her love for. "With whom will you make her fall in love?"
Keima cocked an eyebrow at him. "You… like her."
It came out more of a statement than a question.
Naruto's face showed a shocked expression. Pink flushed his cheeks. "N-no. N-n-not at all," he waved.
Keima sweat-dropped. What the boy was doing contradicted what he was saying. He pondered about the conquest for a while and arrived at a conclusion. Why not? He tried once with Chihiro (and failed), but this time, it was different. This time, he could let Naruto do the heart-filling work.
A/N: Almost a year. Almost. Sorry for the long wait (again) (I hope the story has progressed... even if it was only a bit...). The time between two uploads is undetermined, so please bear with me (yes, I am a procrastinate author, but I will not discontinue this story, that you can count on! For now, I'm making it up as I write)!
