A/N: Thank you for all your support so far!

If you notice any kind of discrepancy with any of the stats, please do let me know!

Longest chapter to date, and we introduce some of the supporting cast. More exposition, less Game-y.

Naruto's Thoughts

Game Text

On with the story!

He should have known better.

Buoyed by his initial success and in haste to make more money, Naruto had quickly ventured deeper into the Dungeon. He had forgotten the cornerstones of good Dungeoneering - research, preparation and, most importantly, caution.

At first, all was well. He encountered six more zombies, one after the other, identical to the first and dispatched them much the same way. Even when his first kunai broke on the fourth zombie, he only took a punch in the shoulder while he fumbled to pull out another one.

Every time, the zombies disappeared like ashes on the wind and left behind a modest sum of money on the ground. The stacks varied in size, but none were as large as the first. Each time, Naruto hastily stashed the money in his Inventory before moving forward.

He should have known better.

Naruto was blinded by his greed. As an orphan boy that lived on a stipend, he barely had the money to pay rent, buy just about enough food to survive and replace the clothes that became unusable. He wanted more money. The allure of completing a Dungeon in real life and the level up he got along the way didn't help matters any.

Alarms bells should have started ringing when zombies started appearing in pairs.

His first fight with them had gone well enough. Naruto wasn't the most skilled shinobi out there, but he was fast enough and strong enough to overpower two zombies with nothing but some minor bruising. One of the zombies had nailed him clean in the face while he was taking his kunai out of the nape of his partner, costing him a solid tenth of his HP in one go.

Small mishap aside, he dispatched the first pair he met with little further fanfare. He took a small breather on a crate of Log-knows-what before moving forward.

He should have known better than to ignore the principles of good Dungeoneering.

And now he was surrounded by eight zombies with barely a kunai to his name.

I´m such a fucking idiot. He looked at the semi-circle of undead with fear clear on his face. They had him surrounded against the left-side wall of the alley, the zombies standing in a loose-knit formation that was slowly closing in on him. Naruto had never felt claustrophobic until that moment.

What do I do? He had little no experience in fighting against groups of opponents. The spars at the academy had always been one-on-one, and sometimes they performed drills on how to survive being assaulted two-on-one, but he had never been in a situation where he was outnumbered so heavily. Gotta move, they'll pile on me if I wait too long.

Naruto spied a larger than normal gap between the sixth and seventh zombies, towards his right. If I can make it through there, I can outrun them to the entrance. Dungeons typically had a forfeit system, where you could leave without having completed the Dungeon or killing the boss, but you would fail the Dungeon, receive no clear rewards and be locked out of trying again for some length of time. Naruto was banking on the fact that if he could make it to the entrance, he could get out of here. Unless I can just leave the Dungeon from here?

You cannot leave a Dungeon while in Combat

So that means I can leave wherever I want, just not while I'm surrounded by these goons. Naruto made a mad dash towards the gap between the zombies, who made no attempts at closing the gap in their ranks. The undead continued their march towards him, fists raised and ready to pummel him to paste.

As he came within arm's reach of the zombies, the one on his left took a wide swing at him with both of its hands, trying to grab onto him. Naruto veered quickly to his right and ducked under its arms. The young shinobi was about to launch into a sprint from his bent knees when he felt a solid impact on his head.

-512 HP.

What? He had fallen backwards onto his butt and his head was spinning. The zombie to his right was lowering its leg from what appeared to be a kick. They can use their legs to attack? Of course, it made logical sense they could kick, there was no reason why they couldn't. Naruto had mistakenly assumed that they could only use their arms to attack - the zombies he had encountered so far had done nothing but slap, punch and swipe with their arms and it was typical for monsters in games to have set attack patterns.

Naruto scooted backwards on his butt to give himself time to gather his bearings. Shit, I'm taking too long. The zombies were slow, but he had wasted enough time in his attempt to escape the circle that they were almost bearing down on him. He used the wall behind him to scramble back to his feet.

What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? He was out of options. He'd lost his last kunai in the melee at some point, had no hope of beating the zombies in eight-on-one unarmed combat and the gap he was hoping to run through had closed. Am I gonna die in my first Dungeon? To zombies, of all things?

He was too young to die, dammit. He hadn't even graduated as a ninja, let alone achieve his dream of Hokage. Sakura-chan hadn't agreed to go on a date with him yet either.

As his thoughts turned bleak and he was starting to lose hope, he spotted salvation. A log, moderately sized and perfectly placed behind the group of zombies.

Tiger, boar, ox, dog, snake. Naruto was never the best at hand seals, always found them a little awkward to manoeuvre his hands into, but he got through these ones at blinding speed. The zombie closest to him brought its hands down on Naruto's head, fully intent on squishing it like a pumpkin when he disappeared in a large puff of smoke.

Holy Log, you are almighty and merciful. Naruto would swear to his dying day that the placement of the block of wood outside the circle of zombies was an act of divine intervention.

The zombie alternated between looking at the log and his brethren a few times in utter confusion. It was expecting dinner for itself and its friends, but all it got for its efforts were splinters and mangled hands.

Naruto wasted no time and used the confusion to make a mad dash for the entrance of the Dungeon. He had killed everything on his path here, so as long as he could put enough distance between himself and the large group of zombies, he should count as out of combat and be able to make his escape from the death trap.

Introductory Dungeon my ass. He would take this experience to heart. Never again would he overestimate himself, get greedy and ignore basic principles that had been drilled into his head over countless hours.

As the entrance came into view, Naruto took a moment to rest with his elbows braced against his knees, taking deep, ragged breaths. He'd sprinted like his life depended on it, and even his well-conditioned lungs were burning in protest.

He stood back up and looked to the sky, vowing to properly plan and prepare for his next excursion to the Dungeon. I can get through the trash with basic firebombs, but I need something bigger for the Boss mob that's gonna spawn.

Exit Dungeon.

The pale red of the Dungeon sky bled into an inky blue, signifying that time had passed in the outside world while he was busy hacking his way through the undead.

Quest Complete!

Prank Inuzuka Kiba!

Rewards: 20% EXP, 5 smoke bombs.

Level 9 (35.7%) - Level 9 (55.7%)

At least something good happened today. He'd almost died at the hands of the zombies thanks to his hubris and lack of foresight, but at least he got a decent chunk of EXP and money out of it. The smoke bombs from pranking Kiba he could repurpose into firebombs with a little bit of work, and the added EXP didn't hurt matters.

That can all wait for tomorrow. Naruto ran an exhausted hand over his face and through his blond locks. For now, it's time to go home and sleep in my bed for once.

You have slept in a bed. 25% of missing HP and chakra has been restored.

Naruto sat up in bed and yawned, stretching his arms above his head to work some mobility back into his shoulders. He had kept his promise to his body when he got home the previous evening and went to sleep in his bed. The temptation to boot up his trusty old console was almost overwhelming, but he managed to beat it for once in favour of proper rest.

For all of three minutes.

He made his nightly instant ramen and booted up his favourite fantasy RPG as soon as he was done consuming the best food humanity had ever invented. He lost himself in the process of preparing for his next Dungeon and killing his way through hordes of goblins for the next few hours. To his credit, he remembered to actually go to bed, even if it was in the small hours of the morning.

The blond was getting out of his bed at a leisurely pace when he caught sight of his alarm clock. Or more precisely, what time it was. Oh shit Iruka-sensei is going to kill me. He made to sprint towards his bathroom before his brain kicked back into gear and he remembered that it was the start of the weekend.

Which meant getting to see his favourite person in the world.

For as long as he could remember, he had an arrangement with the Hokage where he would go speak to the elder every week. They would talk about anything and everything, but most of their conversation consisted of how he was doing, how his week had been and how training at the Academy was going.

Naruto loved their talks.

The old man was the one of the few people that would talk to him willingly, let alone actually listen to him. To a young orphan boy, starved of love and attention, the Hokage was practically worthy of worship.

Naruto walked slowly towards his shower. It wouldn't do for him to stink like a street urchin when visiting with the supreme leader of the village.

After fully cleaning himself and having a nutritious breakfast of cup ramen and possibly spoiled milk, Naruto set off towards the Hokage Tower with a skip in his step.

Naruto walked up to the desk of the Hokage's secretary at a brisk pace, almost running in his excitement to see the old man.

"Naruto-kun, go right in, Hokage-sama is expecting you." Naruto took a moment to nod respectfully in the woman's direction before bolting through the door of the Hokage's office.

He stepped into an airy, circular room that was well-lit by sunlight streaming in through the tall windows behind the Hokage, who was seated behind a large oak desk, signing away at stacks of paperwork. The room was otherwise empty, the walls only adorned by moderately-sized portraits of the three other Hokage that had served the office.

By the time the elderly man looked up from the document in front of him, the young boy had already taken a seat in front of him without invitation. "Morning gramps, sorry I'm late, I slept in longer than usual."

"Good morning Naruto-kun. Don't worry, you're not late, I just got in early to get a head start on my work - I swear I need to have some people investigated for treason, my workload seems to be increasing with my age." He didn't really mean it, he loved every bit of work that was required to take care of his village. Sarutobi found that the young Uzumaki was always a little uncomfortable to start off these meetings, so a little complaining to humanise himself went a long way to get the boy to open up. "Enough about this old man, how have you been?"

"It's been pretty good," Naruto nodded enthusiastically, remembering all of the good things that had happened during the week. "I beat Kenji in a taijutsu spar pretty handily, so that was good. Training at the academy has been going pretty well, I've been getting better with shuriken and kunai and I think I've got Transformation Jutsu down completely." Naruto put his finger to his chin and looked towards the ceiling, trying to think of anything else that had happened during the week that he needed to get off his chest. "Ah, Sakura-chan rejected me again and those annoying people messed up my apartment again."

The Hokage's eyes darkened, and the air in the room almost seemed to heat up in response. "They did, did they? The same nonsense they've always written?"

Naruto didn't say anything, just nodded in response.

"I'll have someone come clean up, and find out who did it this time." The old man's eyes returned to their usual kindly self. "Rest assured Naruto-kun, whoever did this will be brought to justice, and it should go without saying that the idiotic things they've written are not true. You're a wonderful young boy with a bright future ahead of you."

Naruto's face brightened slightly.

"But that's not everything, you're hiding something from me, Naruto-kun," there was no accusation or judgement in that even, grandfatherly tone, just curiosity.

Shit, does he know about the Game? "No idea what you're talking about, gramps," the blond tried his best to not look guilty, but his shifty eyes might have given him away.

"Naruto-kun," he cringed at the almost chiding way the Hokage said his name. "When have you ever managed to lie to me?" Naruto refused to meet the old man's eyes. He was a fantastic liar dammit … just not when it came to lying to his grandpa.

"I would never hide anything from you, gramps." Sarutobi didn't respond verbally, just sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"Fine, but you're gonna think I'm crazy." The Hokage said nothing, just continued to give him an expectant look. "Please don't think I'm crazy." His pleading got him a nod.

"You know how I play those games all the time? The ones I begged you into buying?" Another nod. "I'm kinda sorta seeing my life as if I was a character in those games." He almost stumbled over the words with how quickly he said them.

Sarutobi blinked at him slowly. "What?"

"It started a few days ago," once he started speaking, a dam broke and everything came out in a rush. "When I woke up, a bunch of game windows showed up. I thought they were part of a genjutsu, but nothing I did got rid of them, so I ended up messing around with them for a bit to figure out what was going on. Turns out, something turned my life into a video game and I'm living my life as if I was the main character."

The Hokage didn't look like he believed him, but humoured him nonetheless. "So, how does this thing affect you?"

"Well it breaks my strength as a shinobi down into a bunch of categories, gives me a bunch of quests that make me stronger or gives me items when I complete them and I get access to Dungeons where I can kill monsters to get loot and get stronger." Naruto scratched his head in thought, trying to remember if he forgot anything. "Oh yeah, and I have an Inventory where I can store stuff. That's all I've figured out so far."

"So you think there is more?"

Naruto nodded with enthusiasm. "I think so. I haven't had that much time to play around with it, but games like these usually have a lot of different mechanics."

"How do you feel about it?"

"Well it's fun. I love video games, and this is making me train more to get better at the game." His expression turned a little downtrodden. "It's scary though. I almost died in a Dungeon by being stupid."

The Hokage's eyes widened in alarm. "Naruto-kun, you must promise me to be more careful. You can't die before you take the hat from this old man, you hear?"

"Don't worry, I won't make that mistake again," Naruto shook his head resolutely. "And you can't die before I take the hat from you, either."

They both nodded at each other in unison.

"Is there anything I can do to help you along with the … Dungeon, was it?" The old man stroked his majestic beard, seemingly deep in thought.

"Well…" again, Naruto's shifty eyes gave away his guilt. He hated asking the old man for anything, thought the Hokage already did too much for him, but he also knew the village leader had a near infinite treasure trove of jutsu.

Like every other young boy, Naruto loved ninjutsu.

"The zombies in the Dungeon are weak to fire," Naruto turned pleading eyes on his grandfather figure, the one that turned him into pliable jelly. "And I need something to deal with them. You don't have a fire jutsu you could teach me, do you?" He even did that finger poking thing he'd seen that blue haired girl do at the Academy.

"I … could give you something." The old man took a minute to root around in his desk drawer, coming away with a slim scroll tied with a piece of twine. Naruto immediately went forward to grab it, but the Hokage held it away from his reach. "But before I give you this, I need you to promise me to be responsible. This is a secret jutsu passed down the generations of the Sarutobi clan. It's a rite of passage that proves a Sarutobi has become an adult. When fully mastered, it can cause great damage. I'm showing you a lot of trust by giving this to you. Use it wisely."

Naruto sobered at this revelation and nodded, before reaching for the scroll, more slowly this time. "I promise not to misuse it. You know I'll never let you down, gramps."

You have acquired the Skill Book for "Fire Release: Great Flame Jutsu".

Skill Books can be consumed to instantly learn the Skill described within.

Would you like to consume the Skill Book "Fire Release: Great Flame Jutsu"?

The blond blinked owlishly. "Say gramps, do you need the jutsu scroll back?"

"I'm the one who wrote them, so I can make plenty more, but that's no reason to mishandle or misplace a gift, Naruto-kun."

Seeing the Hokage's disapproving expression, Naruto quickly backpedalled. "No no no, that's not what I mean. I think I just found a game mechanic that lets me instantly learn the jutsu, but it destroys the scroll."

Sarutobi's wizened face clearly showed his alarm. "That seems … preposterous. You can circumvent weeks, maybe months or years of practice, by just destroying a jutsu scroll?"

"I don't think I'll completely master the jutsu from this, just learn to do it at the basic level." He held up the scroll questioningly. "Can I?" The old man waved him on, anticipation clear in his eyes.

Naruto didn't react physically. Consume the Skill Book for "Fire Release: Great Flame Jutsu". The scroll in his hand crumbled to ash, much the same way the zombies in the Dungeon did when they were killed.

You have learned the Skill "Fire Release: Great Flame Jutsu".

Fire Release: Great Flame Jutsu: knead chakra in the user's stomach and expel a large stream of flames that widen with range. Range and damage increases with user skill.

Current range: 10m.

Current damage: 500 per second.

Current chakra usage: 250 per second.

Young boy and an old man looked at each other in equal parts amazement and excitement.

Gai watched from afar as his best friend stared at the Memorial Stone forlornly. It had become an almost daily occurrence for the past few years - the Hatake genius would stand and stare at the same three names for hours and days on end, often with a bottle of sake or something stronger in hand.

For all his many gifts, Gai thought life had truly been cruel to his friend. Sure, he had every talent any shinobi could ever pray for - genjutsu prowess to give anyone nightmares, a ninjutsu arsenal that was the envy of the world and a proficiency in taijutsu that was equalled by few and surpassed by none. He was blessed with intellect and a strategic mind equalled by few Nara and a cold, dispassionate disposition to make the toughest decisions of shinobi life in split seconds. He had even perfected the use of his gifted Sharingan beyond what most Uchiha achieved in a lifetime. Truly, Hatake Kakashi was what many would consider a perfect shinobi.

But Maito Gai knew better; Gai knew Hatake Kakashi was broken.

Life had been cruel to his friend at every turn.

His father committed suicide after a botched mission's fallout became unbearable when Kakashi could barely walk, leaving him to fend for himself in a harsh world in an even harsher time of war. The war took his best friend a mere two years later, Obito dying in his arms from the consequences of his mistakes and hubris.

His grief blunted his instincts. A few months later, the girl who loved him was kidnapped on a mission due to his own negligence. The newly blooded Jounin got himself out of his funk long enough to rescue his remaining teammate, but not before she was turned into a Trojan horse. Rin used Kakashi's own hand to commit suicide.

After that, the silver haired teen served his village in the war with mechanical efficiency. He was a perfect shinobi - cold, ruthless, unfeeling. Only his mentor, now the fourth Hokage, noticed the truth. Kakashi was depressed.

When the war was won and a tenuous peace was achieved, Minato enrolled his protégé into ANBU in an effort to give him purpose and keep him close. By this point, Kakashi had cut off all of his remaining friends in some misguided attempt to protect himself from further pain, devoting himself to the service of his sensei.

Years passed and Kakashi, now almost a man, gained some semblance of peace with himself. Time heals all wounds, as they say.

Then when the Kyubi attacked, Namikaze Minato martyred himself while protecting the village.

All young shinobi were prohibited from participating in the attack and were sealed behind a protective barrier, regardless of their strength or rank. The future of the village was to be safeguarded at all costs.

Once again, Kakashi watched powerlessly as someone he loved, the mentor he was tasked with serving and protecting, was taken from him.

Most thought that this was the event that broke Kakashi once and for all. Gai knew more than most.

In the years after the death of the Hokage, Kakashi went about his work in ANBU with frightening zeal. His mission completion rate was inconceivable before and had not been equalled since. Gai speculated his friend was trying to commit suicide without explicitly doing so.

And then came Itachi. The Uchiha boy enrolled into ANBU and immediately approached Konoha's foremost expert in Sharingan use for guidance. The dog-masked operative, now a Captain after his many years of exemplary service, tried to shy away from all human contact outside of missions, but Itachi would not take no for an answer.

Over the next almost two years, Itachi spent every waking moment learning with Kakashi and dragged his best friend Shisui along for the ride. The two boys reminded him of himself and Obito at that age - one an aloof genius that could do no wrong as a shinobi, and the other a vibrant teenager brimming with energy and life.

The young man reluctantly took on the role of older brother and mentor, letting someone into his shattered heart after long years. Gai was thankful that someone could reach his best friend when he could think of no way to help.

He forgot that Fate was a cruel bitch.

Kakashi was away on a mission when the whole Uchiha Massacre debacle took place. He returned to the village and received the news of Itachi murdering Shisui and subsequently the whole clan, and something inside him just ceased to be. When he reached the Hokage Tower, he handed in his resignation from ANBU along with his mission debrief and refused to take a mission since.

That was almost four years ago.

Since then, what was once a perfect killing machine was rusted away by alcohol and apathy.

"How long are you gonna stand and stare, Gai?" It was a testament to Kakashi's skill that he could still sense Gai, hidden a quarter mile away in the forest canopy, even after so many years of inactivity. "I know you're there, come keep me company."

It took the taijutsu specialist a beat to register what his friend said. It had been years since Kakashi allowed someone to speak to him, let alone ask for human contact.

Gai walked into the clearing at a sedate pace and stood behind his oldest friend, nose curling in disgust at the smell of stale alcohol wafting off the other man.

"This is new. Since when does Hatake Kakashi permit mere mortals to speak to him?" The sombre tone and the snark were both uncharacteristic of the leotard wearing Jounin, but even he couldn't muster his typical exuberance in the face of so many years of frustration.

"I've had a lot of time to think, these past years." The masked man rubbed a tired hand over the visible part of his face. "I'm sorry. I haven't been fair to you."

Gai's bushy-browed eyes widened in surprise. "You've had a lot to deal with. I don't blame you." Perhaps he wasn't being wholly truthful, but the truth would be unhelpful here.

"That's not an excuse. You've had shit to deal with too and you've been nothing but a perfect friend, while I've just wallowed in misery and drank."

Gai stood rooted to the spot, silenced by his shock. When did Kakashi become so emotional and talkative?

"I'm sorry Gai. You're the only person I have left in the world and I've treated you like shit." Here, Kakashi looked to the sky and took a swig from the non-descript bottle in his hand. "I know I don't deserve it, and maybe it's too much to ask, but can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

"What's there to forgive, you dumbass?" He could hash out his years of grievances some other time, this was his one golden opportunity to help his friend, one that he was searching for more than a decade. "And it doesn't have to be that way, you know. I don't have to be the only one."

Kakashi turned to look at him, confusion clear in his dilated eyes.

"Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Both of their legacies." Confusion bled to realisation and then to mild panic. "They graduate soon. Go mentor and protect them."

"I can't, Gai. I can't," Kakashi shook his head violently. "I'm not strong enough to do this again."

"So what are you gonna do? Give up on life and drink till you die a sorry death?" Gai grabbed the other man roughly by the shoulders and shook him once. "Copy-Ninja Kakashi, the greatest genius of his generation, wasting away as a drunkard."

"You don't know what you're asking of me, Gai."

"I'm not asking anything of you. I'm giving you a lifeline, a purpose." The harshness that had crept into his eyes softened. "Those boys need you."

"What if I fail again?" It shouldn't have been possible for a shinobi of his calibre to look so vulnerable.

"What if you don't? What if you're the perfect mentor and protector those boys need?" Kakashi didn't look ready to accept the possibility. Gai almost felt guilty for his next words. "You owe it to Itachi and Hokage-sama."

Gai internally cheered at the sight of Kakashi's fear and reluctance slowly melting away, replaced by steel and resolve.

Naruto used the back of a sooty hand to wipe the sweat from his hairline. As soon as he returned from his meeting with the Hokage, he set about working in the small workshop he'd set up in his living room to turn the smoke bombs he got from pranking Kiba into something more lethal.

He looked at the self-made firebombs in his hand intently, wondering how much damage they'd be capable of doing. He was confident they could do significant harm to the normal zombies in the Dungeon, if not wipe out entire groups in one shot, but the boss … he had no information about the boss at all.

A new Skill has been created through intense practice.

Unlocked the Skill "Observe".

Observe: the ability to look at an object or person with intense focus and discern information about them. More information can be discerned at higher Skill levels. Some information may be unavailable if the subject of Observation is a person of significantly higher strength than the user.

Expertly Improvised Firebomb

A firebomb improvised expertly from a smoke bomb. Deals 2000 fire damage in a 5m radius, dealing less damage further from the blast epicentre.

Naruto blinked a few times in surprise. A new Skill? Ain't you nice, Game. He read through the rest of the panels and smiled in satisfaction. Yeah these should be enough for the zombies, alright. Now I gotta practise that jutsu gramps gave me so I have a way to kill the Dungeon boss.

Try to kill me, will you? I'll show you.

A/N: It makes sense to me that the Hokage would have some sort of a relationship with and method of surveilling what amounts to his greatest military asset.

To people who will inevitably think I am unaware of the specifics of Kakashi's past - I'm not, this is fanfiction.

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