Where are we?
What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to form
Crop circles in the carpet
Sinking, feeling
Imogen Heap: Hide and Seek
Blink…Blink…Blink…
"When did I…?" I spoke. Or rather, thought. I think? I'm pretty sure I meant to speak it, but I'm also pretty sure I didn't have a mouth.
Blink…Blink…Blink…
Focusing my… eyes? Never mind. In front of me, there was a sign flashing, glowing blue eerily in the dark expanse. It was strange that there was a glow to the sign, despite there being seemingly nothing to refract off of.
Are you ready to continue?
Please select:
Yes or No?
Interesting.
Still unknowing of whether my voice was projecting, I asked "What do you mean by 'continue'?" To which there was no response. Had I the shoulders to manipulate, I would have shrugged, before saying:
"Yes."
There was a sound, reminiscent of a large switch being flipped, which kind of reminded me of the old Frankenstein movies I watched. Right before the monster came to life.
After a few seconds, the glow returned, but this time now in the form of a 2-dimensional rectangle. In the middle of said rectangle was a stereotypical smiley-face emoji, which would slightly flash and wobble as it began to speak.
Hello, and welcome to your afterlife.
A vague panic arose within me when it mentioned afterlife, but that feeling was quickly quelled as if the news was nothing more than a mention of the weather. I made to speak again, but before my words/thoughts could form, it continued.
Your mental state has been altered with the effects of The Gamer. It mentioned, as if it already knew what I was going to ask. Anything that puts the mind at imbalance is negated, such as extreme emotions and mind control.
I guess that explains that…
Its voice was cheery and clerical. Reminding me of C-3P0 from Star Wars.
This, of course, is not the only alteration that was made to your person. A complete list of alterations can be found in your Menu under Passive Effects. I would recommend you take the time to peruse your Menu while your world is loading.
As soon as it finished speaking, a long tube-like bar appeared in my periphery. Turning for a better look, I noticed that underneath the bar it currently said:
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The number itself was slowly ticking up by tenths of a percent, while the bar was being filled in by neon orange to signify the progress.
My attention turned inwards, scrunching my theoretical brow, "What happened to me? I'm not- I don't remember my name." I felt cold. No. Cold wasn't the name for it. Empty maybe? Like I was missing something. How did I die?
We've removed any memories pertaining to your former individuality. In past trials, we've noted that the implantation of a lived personality into a new body with a new name can lead to identity issues and undue stress. We would like your new life to be as enjoyable as possible!
"But I can still remember some things." I noted, tone contemplative. "My favorite movies, video games, shows…" I trailed off.
Of course! It would be undue to rid you of those sources of inspiration! Only memories of your identity, family and friends have been sealed away. The Game may determine in the future if you're ready to rediscover that information.
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Even with this supposed Gamer Mind, it felt as though this should be a bigger deal. I had died. Or at the very least, I've ceased to be my former self. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to mourn over the fact. The thought was more disturbing than what provoked it.
Am I to be some emotionless husk? Or is the detachment a product of the memory wipe?
Being lost in thought, I yelped when the sign started to speak again.
Worry not, Gamer. You will still lead a fulfilling life. It is normal, even without the Gamer's Mind, to be apathetic in your current state.
"Speaking of-" I started, before being quickly cut off.
You're in a metaphysical limbo. To put it simply, your cognitive center has been given mass itself, with which you can facilitate logic, thought and speech. Although, the former two are much the same function currently. So, yes, I can effectively hear your thoughts, as you've yet to find the skill to differentiate them from talking aloud in this state.
It gave me a moment to digest before continuing.
Although, I doubt you'll have enough time to figure that out before moving on. Especially since you really should be reading up on your new world.
Before me appeared another screen, this one complete with selectable options and a scroll wheel. "How do I-"
You can simply speak or think of a command such as Select while looking at the option you'd like to look further into. Or by thinking Scroll Up, it will scroll up. It's all fairly intuitive.
Easy enough for you to say…
I snuck a look at the smiley-face to see if it heard my snarky thought, but it gave no indication, before turning my attention back to the screen. Scrolling through the menu, I started reading all the options. There were dozens of links or files, or whatever you wanted to call them, but some stood out to me more than others.
Notable Characters
World Map
The Plot
History: As taught by each of the Hidden Villages
Actual History
Chakra Theory
List of Jutsu
I'd been a little too engrossed in the fact that I was pretty much dead, to realize that The Voice-
You can call me The Administrator
-okay, The Administrator, had mentioned that I was being reborn into a new life. And this new world was one I was familiar with from my past life. A brief glance at the notable characters list was enough for me to realize, with the very first entry being a blonde-haired and blue-eyed individual whose mouth was twisted into a toothy grin, and cheeks were etched with what appeared to be whisker-like marks.
My breathing hitched—which wasn't that so weird? I don't have lungs, but the motion was so familiar, I had been imagining breaths the whole time—this was Naruto!
I have a lot of memories of Naruto. I don't exactly know what my feelings towards it are, as those must have been locked away with my individual thoughts, but I do remember seeing a lot of Naruto in my time. If memory serves, I've watched Naruto from OG through the end of Shippuden more times than I could remember. Although, I always skipped the filler, and my last few watches were more background noise than anything, so let's just hope that the details aren't too fuzzy.
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I caught the loading screen out of the corner of my eye and felt a little stressed. I wasn't going to be able to get through all this information before I was ready to… spawn? Be born?
Past trials have indicated that putting the player through childbirth is not conducive toward an enjoyable experience. In fact, most players feedback describes it as claustrophobic, asphyxiating, traumatic and generally unpleasant.
Uhh, yeah, I would imagine so…
Instead, the player will have the choice of spawn time. Your choices are:
6 months: Those pesky arms and legs still aren't working! But at least you can produce little blubbering grunts and giggles that might sound like "Ma," or "Pa." And, you have all the more time to figure out the intricacies of your chakra network when all you can do is lay around.
2 Years: Your words are slightly less garbled; you can effectively crawl or shakily walk. From here you could start communicating and learning more about your family, while still having ample time to explore your chakra.
4 Years: The earliest it is socially acceptable to start training your children in this world. You've missed out on a few years to start forming connections with your family or to start tampering with your latent chakra abilities, but now you can start doing all those things in earnest!
6 Years: Let's skip all those boring formative years, and head straight to the academy! Sure, you'll hardly know your family or have any friends, but at least you can make some knew friends at school!
12 Years: Equipped with your family's techniques and the academy teachings, you're ready to take the Genin Graduation Test, and become a fully-fledged ninja! Or maybe you'll bite off more than you can chew by jumping straight into the deep end.
Random: For those who can't decide, just leave it up to chance! You'll still be dropped in one of the above-mentioned options.
The options will of course be reiterated after you've finished loading in.
"So, my life got turned into some kind of game? Kind of like that Solo Leveling anime? And you keep mentioning the other gamers, how many others have done this?" I asked, semi-absentmindedly, as most of my attention was still on the information screen. Currently, I was reading through plot to refresh myself, and most of it was as I remembered.
It is reminiscent of your worlds Solo Leveling, with a few alterations. In Solo Leveling the protagonist would gain attributes entirely through training those stats. In your edition of The Gamer, you'll be able to train your stats as well as earn attribute points to spend in increasing those stats via levelling up, finishing quests or using consumable items.
I hummed a confirmation and finished reading the plot. It actually did include sub-plots for the filler I had always skipped. There were a few I recognized, like Itachi and Kakashi's ANBU filler arcs, but the rest—like Naruto, Hinata and Kiba going on a hunt for buried treasure, lest they be returned to the academy—we're completely foreign to me.
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I couldn't help the anticipation building up at the prospect of living in the Naruto world. It was dangerous, yes, but could you imagine learning how to walk on water? Or how to sever a tree by blowing wind out of your mouth? Or forget walking; you could teleport around in this world!
But speaking of the world, where in the world am I going to end up? Considering it's a game, I'd imagine I get my choice of spawn.
Actually, your spawn has been predetermined. Fret not, though. In all our testing, this spawn point has a 91% approval rating among all Gamers.
"Yeah, you never did answer that question about how many other Gamers there's been." I asked once more, now moving through the history of the world, as taught by the different Hidden Villages. It was funny how each of the Villages tried to paint themselves as the Heros, and everyone else as someone to either be treated with caution or subjugated. Trust didn't run deep in this world.
That is because the number of Gamers is ever-increasing, as people die, they may be brought to this afterlife, if it is deemed best suited towards them. With the increase in popularity of video games, anime and other fantasy-depicting media in your world, the numbers have increased dramatically in recent years.
Pondering that for a moment, I then replied, "That makes sense, I suppose. It's not like there was much fantasy in the world before 1937, with Tolkien's The Hobbit." Shrugging my shoulders mentally.
You'd be surprised; people have been fantasizing about their lives for as long as there's been something to covet. Thousands of years ago, one might have been reincarnated in a baser version of The Game where they were just given a goal of becoming a Pharoah or the Halach Uinic of the Mayans, just without all the current features such as stats and side-quests. We've taken a great deal of inspiration from your peoples' invention of the RPG.
It seems like even when dealing with something like cosmic reincarnation, it paid to be born later in time when a lot of the kinks have been worked out for you.
The read through world history, whether from a village's perspective or the actual history, was neat. I remember there being a lot of characters who hadn't been given much detail in the story who were listed here with feats, abilities and notable battles. Such as the Third Hokage in his prime—and man was he a beast—or Sakumo Hatake, with prowess to rival the Sannin. Madara's battle with Mu and Onoki. It was all here.
Without a doubt, I wouldn't be able to retain all of this with just a single read, but it was fun anyways, and a good way to pass the time while waiting for The Game to load.
Since we're removing your ability to choose your origin, we've found it prudent to still allow some form of customization. So, please select 3 perks from the following list:
Acrobat: Dexterity stat is increased by 25%.
Acute Chakra: Chakra control skill experience gained is increased by 50%.
Beyond Your Years…: Wisdom stat is increased by 25%.
Bloodline Child: Given random bloodline limit at game start.
Bloodline Prepper: Given choice of bloodline limit at game start. Requires Perk: Bloodline Child.
Brute: Strength stat is increased by 25%.
Chakra Monster: Chakra pool is increased by 300%. Required Perk: Large Reserves
Eidetic Memory: Can memorize what you see instantly and recall any memory perfectly.
Elemental Jutsu Specialist: Chose one of the five basic elements: Fire-Wind-Lightning-Earth-Water. Jutsu of that elemental affinity does 25% more damage and cost 25% less chakra to perform. Perk can be selected more than once, but only once per element.
Fuinjutsu Specialist: Formation and application speed of fuinjutsu increased by 20%, additionally, fuinjutsu skills experience gained is increased by 50%.
Genjutsu Specialist: Illusion success chance increased by 10%, additionally, once a genjutsu is successfully established, it will be maintained automatically, no longer requiring concentration from the caster. This applies to each new layer of illusion cast.
Intense Chakra: Chakra Potency skill experience gained is increased by 50%.
Large Reserves: Chakra pool is increased by 100%.
Ninjutsu Specialist: Chakra cost of all ninjutsu reduced by 10%, additionally, every 5 levels you'll be awarded with a random ninjutsu, the rank of which will be randomly selected from this table:
E-Rank – 20% chance to draw
D-Rank – 50% chance to draw
C-Rank – 25% chance to draw
B-Rank – 4% chance to draw
A-Rank – .9% chance to draw
S-Rank .1% chance to draw
Sensor: Gain a new skill: Chakra Sensing. At lvl 1, you can sense chakra in a 100m radius around you. Can be trained to increase distance and accuracy of sensing ability.
Sneaky: You are 50% harder to detect when actively sneaking.
Speedster: Agility stat is increased by 25%.
Studious: Intelligence stat is increased by 25%.
Taijutsu Specialist: Constitution increased by 10%, additionally all martial arts skills experience gained is increased by 50%.
Telekinesis: Ability to move things with your mind. Distance, velocity and carry weight scales with the intelligence stat.
Telepathy: Ability to speak with others through the mind.
Teleporter: Instantaneous movement techniques, such as the Body Flicker, Substitution and Flying Raijin techniques, are second nature to you. Experience gained for these types of skills is increased by 200%. Speed in casting these skills increased by 200%.
Thick Skull: Constitution stat is increased by 25%.
Weapons Specialist: Dexterity increased by 10%, additionally all weapon skills experience gained is increased by 50%.
Wow, that's a lot to go over.
I suppose ruminating over my perks was a pretty good way to spend the rest of my loading time.
While they were all good and powerful in their own ways, some were just a little too specialized. Such as Teleporter and the stat boosting perks. While yes, those are great buffs for those individual stats, I think something more general would always be better.
For instance, Large Reserves boosts your chakra overall. Having more chakra means more everything! It wouldn't matter what I specialized in if I didn't have the chakra to sustain my techniques. But it be worth spending two perk points to get to the next level, Chakra Monster?
Chakra Monster was effectively the same thing as Large Reserves, but provides twice the increase in chakra level, which means I'd be getting more bang for my buck on that perk point. It's certainly a strong contender but let me go through the rest first.
Access to new jutsu via the Ninjutsu Specialist perk could be quite powerful, despite the fact that it is overtly specialized.
My theoretical brow raised at Telekinesis and Telepathy. I wouldn't take these for the same reason I wouldn't want to take the bloodline limit perks. While having the abilities would be greatly beneficial, people with special abilities tend to garner international attention. And let's be real, everyone would just assume something like telekinesis is a kekkei genkai. Maybe they'd even confuse it for magnet release. And there's nothing like growing a tree or shooting lasers out of your hands to make yourself a target in the elemental nations.
Instead, I could just get my basic skills and abilities up to the point where I could match most, and then maybe find a flashy technique. This way I wouldn't end up some one-trick pony.
A brief thought of just taking all three Nin-Tai-Genjutsu Specialist perks, which would make me above average in each aspect, crossed my mind. And while I do want to be well rounded, maybe that was a little too far.
No, I think my mind was made.
And so, I selected Large Reserves, Acute Chakra and Chakra Sensing. These were going to be the best perks to improve the entirety of my skill as a ninja. Having more chakra to use meant I could train and battle longer, which is only made doubly so by increasing my control so that each bit of my chakra sees that much more use. Then, of course, there's chakra sensing. This will hopefully mean that no one will be getting the drop on me. After all, your power means nothing when someone sneaks a dagger between your ribs while you're distracted.
My decision came just in time, as the loading bar was filled, and replaced with the same first box I saw.
Are you ready to continue?
Please select:
Yes or No?
No time like the present.
And with the mental command, I pressed Yes…
…and nothing happened.
"Oh, right…" I forgot I had to select my starting point age. It was all a little anticlimactic, since I was expecting some kind of big flash of light or something as soon as I hit the button, instead there was just another screen asking me to pick my start.
When I had seen the options earlier, I had already made up my mind to start at 4 years old. I could potentially start my training under supervision, or at least have the motor skills to work on it myself.
Although, a random thought just appeared in my head.
Would I know how to speak? Do they speak English in Naruto? Or would it be some kind of Japanese?
The Game has already supplanted the knowledge of the spoken and written language of the world to you, so you'll be able to effectively communicate.
"Uhhh, but I don't feel like I know any other language." I countered, trying to conjure up any of the supposed knowledge it gave me.
You'll see once you start in the world, don't worry.
If you say so.
That all being said, I went ahead and completed my age selection, and officially moved forward.
Again, I didn't get the big flash of light, or closing of a screen, or whatever else I was thinking it would be. Instead, it felt like I just took a megadose of melatonin and was rapidly closing my heavy eyes. Before succumbing to the darkness, I heard one last thing.
Farewell, Gamer. Have a nice life.
The next time I opened my eyes was to a dimly lit room. Laying in a comfortable bed, I sat up to take in my surroundings. It was fairly spartan, all things considered, since I am a child. You'd expect there to be toys and things about, but instead it was tidy and clutter-free. Next to my bed was a small nightstand with a simple lamp, and next to the door, flat against the wall, was a dresser with a small stuffed monkey resting atop it.
The only thing to give away that this was a child's room was the mobile hanging above my bed, swirling in circles. On the ends of the strings were tiny plastic kunai and shuriken, which did in fact glow in the dark.
I guess the conditioning started early.
I was going to get up and explore more, when the screen appeared in the center of my vision. I noted that it didn't seem to glow as it did in the void, and on it read:
Welcome to The Game…
I couldn't help but read the text in The Administrator's voice.
Please speak or think Menu to access the menu. From there the options should be simple to understand.
Oh yeah, that's definitely the Admin talking.
After thinking the word, the first thing I saw was a clock, telling me that it was currently 4:26 in the morning.
"Woah! I'm an early riser huh?" I couldn't help but exclaim. I may not have remembered everything about myself from a past life, but I couldn't help but doubt I was the kind of person that wanted to get up this early.
Next down the list was an option that said Status and I went to check it out when—
The door opens quietly, and in walks a young girl, wearing a green tank top, cream-colored shorts and an orange bandana. Under said bandana was shoulder-length straight blonde hair which swayed as she moved. Warm hazelnut eyes focused on me, and a small smile formed as she said, "Ichi-kun, it's time to wake up. You know your father gets… upset when you sleep in."
The last part was said more quietly than the rest as she settled down next to me. She scooted right up next to me, and wrapped her arm around my side, drawing me in to lean against her. Her eyes gleamed a little in excitement, and her next words were whispered conspiratorially.
"Besides, today is your big day!" Her small smile grew into a large grin, and she stood and prompted me to my dresser to begin getting ready.
Suddenly, I was supplied with memories of this life. This girl, Fumiko, is a Genin who my father hired to watch over me, since he seemed to always be too busy doing whatever it is he does.
As was custom in my clan, today was the day I would start my—
"Training, right?" I asked, tilting my head up to look at her, only to see her brow furrow in confusion, before her lips made a little 'o' face of recognition.
"Right! I'd almost forgot you're starting that! But no, I'm talking about your birthday, silly!" Her voice was saccharine, certainly she was used to working with children. "Oh, you're just like my little brother! So serious all the time. Just wanting to do nothing but train train train!" Her head bobbed back and forth as she spoke, accentuating each train with a swish of her hair.
For as long as I can remember, Fumiko had always been kind to me. Like the older sister I apparently didn't have. In fact, I'm an only child right now. Just me and Dad. I'm not entirely sure what happened to Mom, but all I know is I've never met her.
Thinking back to the clan, and how training would begin, my eyes widened as I remembered exactly what clan I was a part of. In my head, I called for my Status screen, and read:
Status:
Name: Ichiro…
"Sarutobi!" I exclaimed.
Hi there. Welcome to the story. Let me know what you think so far.
Question: What perks would you have selected? Or were there some you think could have been added?
Thanks.