"Has anyone else felt anything off here?" Arthur began.
Jasper raised an eyebrow, asking what he meant by "off."
"The pain threshold… Don't any of you think it's a tad high?"
A murmur of agreement spread. Jada answered, "Yeah, it is a little weird. When I slammed my thumb in the door earlier, it definitely hurt, more than I thought it would actually. But it was only a little pain before it went away."
"Agreed," William said. "But I don't think I felt anything as hard as that."
Alice chimed in, "So some things feel real. What of it?"
Arthur shook his head. "More like everything feels real. And the problem is, I haven't been able to log out."
Margaret then burst into laughter and said, "Log out? Arthur, this isn't some cheap VR game. It's all part of the fun we're supposed to be having."
"Fun?" Arthur repeated. "We weren't told anything about the pain being set on high."
Margaret waved him dismissively and said, "Come on. Think about it! The whole thing about getting to choose your clan and jutsu—it's all about immersion. They want us to feel like we're actually living in the world of Naruto. Ya can't just log out of something this big."
Her explanation didn't quite hold true. So Arthur didn't buy it.
He glanced at Alex, searching for any sign that he was in on it. But Alex simply shrugged, saying, "She's right, Arthur. It's all about the experience. Worst comes to worst, they'll unplug us from the pod and say that we failed."
'Bullcrap!' Arthur immediately thought.
A cold dread settled in his stomach. He couldn't trust anyone. None of them knew what he had gone through, nor had they felt the surreal pain that awaited them. They'd been living in a fantasy, a comfortable lifestyle, blinded by this treacherous world.
Who was behind this scheme? Alex surely had to be playing a role with his convenient lack of a seal and suspiciously fast learning curve.
But Arthur couldn't call him or anyone out right now. Accusations would brand him a paranoid fool, or they might think he was insane—a tactical error on his part.
What was he going to say? That Dr. Kapoor told him that he'd die for real if he died here?
Alex might interject, or they would claim she was likely using psychology to make him take the game more seriously.
Arthur knew better.
The searing pain from being captured by bandits, only to be thrown in jail—those weren't things people messed around with. They were visceral reminders of his precarious existence in this world.
The hunger pangs, the bone-chilling nights spent in the cell—these weren't virtual inconveniences; his life was on the brink of death, and he didn't like that one bit.
As such, he forced a smile of acceptance and said, "Yeah, you're probably right, Marge." Inside, however, he was indifferent. All of this reeked of a deviously crafted plan. "Gotta go all in for the fun, I guess."
Seven strangers, handpicked from hundreds of millions, all fluent in English? Of whom he was the only one not to have watched Naruto? It was a statistical impossibility bordering on a conspiracy.
Were they also pawns, or were some of them more knowledgeable collaborators? For now, Arthur had to play along and learn everything he could about them.
"So what's happened in the story so far?" he asked.
"Well," William started, "turns out I'm Naruto's cousin and that we now live together. Believe it!" The others sighed upon hearing that overused catchphrase. "My background was that I arrived in the village a few weeks ago. The first thing I did when I spawned in was go looking for him. Since then, we've been somewhat training together."
All that didn't really answer Arthur's question.
"He asked about the story," Jasper said with disdain.
"We're letting it progress a little normally, Arthur," confessed Jada. "Naruto's taken care of Mizuki already."
Arthur remembered that character. A disloyal ninja named Mizuki used Naruto to acquire a secret scroll containing forbidden jutsu. The plot failed, and Mizuki was defeated by him, saving his teacher, Iruka Umino, and becoming a Genin in the process.
"That happened yesterday," Margaret added with a hint of boredom in her tone.
"Anything else I should know?" Arthur asked.
"Yeah!" William energetically said. "Naruto taught me the shadow clone jutsu from the scroll!"
The shadow clone jutsu was a powerful technique that creates physical copies of the user. These clones share the user's memories, chakra, and even jutsu abilities.
However, the chakra is split evenly between the user and each clone, so creating too many clones can quickly leave the user drained if they don't have an abundance of chakra stored.
The clones themselves are useful for various purposes, such as fighting alongside the user or completing tasks.
They also hold a unique advantage for training. When a clone disperses, its experiences and remaining chakra are transferred back to the user, allowing them to compress years of training into a short period.
It's also one of Naruto Uzumaki's most overused techniques.
"Do you all know shadow clones, too?" Arthur asked.
"Not all of us," Alex answered. "Only Will and Jada know it."
Margaret blurted out, "I'm just saving myself for wood clones. They're so much better."
A strange statement to make since it hadn't been confirmed if she could use wood style yet, a prerequisite to wood clones.
William continued, emphasizing that Naruto and him make a great team. The two had even shared ramen and engaged in childish pranks around the village just for fun.
"Best be careful," Jasper reminded him.
The insinuation was that if William's not cautious enough, Naruto might see him as his best friend, preventing Sasuke from reawakening the Sharingan.
Arthur found it strange that they were trying to follow the story. Before interjecting anything, he allowed Jada to speak.
She softly said, "Sasuke's still Sasuke: very closed off. I'm sure we can help him stay in the village without the two needing to become best friends. But it's sort of a problem since he avoids me most of the time."
"Did you at least awaken your Sharingan yet?" Alice wondered. "That might help convince him."
"No, not yet. I don't really know how. I mean, everyone in the village's so nice that I can't find myself getting too emotional over anything right now. Haha."
Jada seemed to be innocent in all of this.
Margaret, however, said in a bashful tone, "Who cares about Sasuke or the Sharingan? I'm just waiting for Tsunade's arc to unlock some cool jutsus." She then leaned toward William, holding him by the arm. "Speaking of, did you know Will emptied his entire savings to buy us this fancy apartment?" Arthur asked why William would do that. "I suggested it, of course! We can't very well stay apart, can we?"
Arthur cast a bewildered glance at William, who looked embarrassed. But when Margaret had said "we," she was truly referring to herself, Jada, and Alice. Arthur looked at the two, waiting to hear a better explanation.
"Apparently," Alice began, "since I'm a distant cousin of my clan head's daughter, I have my own place and all. But Marge didn't like the idea of Jada living in the Uchiha district with Sasuke; she thought sharing a place together was better."
"And you two?" Arthur asked, turning his attention to Alex and Jasper. "Where do you guys stay?"
Jasper smirked, answering, "The village has no idea what an Ōtsutsuki clan is, but like the rest of us, I'm still registered as a ninja. No family or anything. Hyūga-boy here suggested we bunk together in the apartment next door."
Arthur looked to Alex, who explained that since he was in the main family of the Hyūga clan, they funded their living arrangements.
Based on those explanations, it seemed like the players were all in it together. The females stayed in one apartment, Alexander and Jasper in the only apartment across from them, and then William resided with the main character.
Yet Arthur pondered Jasper's words. "You said 'by the rest of us.' I assume I'm also registered as a ninja?"
Alex couldn't help but marvel at Arthur's wisdom, so he answered, "Yep, you are. We're all Genin. Iruka told us that you went missing, so he couldn't hand you your headband. Safe to say it was all part of your story."
Arthur decided to go deeper and test them more. Casually, he asked, "So with living arrangements aside, what's the end goal exactly other than just 'having fun'?"
Margaret stretched languidly, letting out a yawn before saying, "The end goal, Arthur? Come on, you're not seriously asking that, are you? It's Naruto! We live out the story and become heroes. What more is there?"
Arthur wasn't remotely convinced. Naruto was a story that spanned three years. He countered, asking about how their bodies will fare once they finish things.
"Pretty sure we're not gonna be in the pods for that long," Alex answered. "I think I read somewhere that one hour in the pods is like one year in here or something."
"Where'd you read that?" Jasper wondered.
"It's in the technical designs written on the Enclave Mk. II, duh?"
Arthur would remember Alex answering that since no one else in this room knew those details. As for Margaret's answer, it lacked any real depth to quell his beliefs.
William's nerdish enthusiasm stood up to explain, "The end goal is actually to rewrite the story."
Arthur immediately knew what he meant by that: he wanted to eliminate all the tragedies that unfolded. And despite everyone's silence, they appeared to have accepted this task.
Naruto's story was riddled with hardship and loss.
From the very beginning, the main character was ostracized by the villagers due to the Nine-Tails sealed within him. This isolation fueled a deep loneliness that he carried throughout his childhood.
Sasuke Uchiha was consumed by vengeance, unaware of Itachi's true motives for slaughtering their clan. He believed his brother to be a villain, a misunderstanding that fueled his hatred and drove him away from the village.
Neji Hyūga, born into a branch family of his clan, endured prejudice. This treatment instilled a deep-seated resentment within him. He would also die in the Fourth War three years from now.
The tragedies didn't end there.
Orochimaru, obsessed with immortality, attempted a village invasion, leading to the death of the third Hokage. In the Land of Wind, Haku, a loyal but misguided young man, died from acting as a shield for his partner, Zabuza Momochi. Chiyo, a renowned user of puppets, sacrificed herself in a forbidden jutsu to revive Gaara, a Jinchūriki like Naruto. Asuma fell victim to the Akatsuki, a criminal organization. Jiraiya, Naruto's godfather and a Sannin, perished in a desperate attempt to gather intel on the leader of the Akatsuki.
Even political corruption wasn't shied away from.
Danzo Shimura, a power-hungry elder of the Leaf Village, manipulated others to serve his own dark agenda. Onoki, the Kage of the Stone Village, secretly worked with the Akatsuki. Rasa, the Kage in the Sand Village, died by the hands of Orochimaru, which in turn led to the Leaf Village being invaded. Mei, the Kage in the Mist Village, would be trapped in a genjutsu by Danzo during a Kage meeting. And lastly, A, the Raikage in the Cloud Village, held a prideful grudge against the other ninja nations.
"Fixing the story makes as much sense as anything else," Alice said. "No more detested Naruto, brooding Sasuke, or Neji's whole family drama. Plus we could prevent the Fourth War."
Alex, in agreement, chimed in, "We can stop Obito and Nagato before talk-no-jutsu."
"Hmm…" Margaret added, "I guess we could stop Haku from sacrificing himself. Oh! And protect Hiruzen from using the Reaper Death Seal on Oro (short for Orochimaru)."
Each player started a train by listing all the possible ways of preventing the heartbreaking moments, possessing both knowledge and assured clarity on how to thwart them.
Arthur's mind reeled.
Rewriting a whole narrative? It sounded ludicrous, even bordering on arrogance. They were talking of saving this world and playing along with its preordained story, while he was still focused on tearing it apart and exposing the truth about their predicament.
"I see," he said in a neutral tone. "That's certainly ambitious of you all."
"Don't tell us you're not gonna help?" Jada wondered.
"I'll help," Arthur admitted. 'Help end things before they start…'
The others seemed oblivious to his internal struggle.
Margaret clapped her hands gleefully, saying, "Then it's settled! All we have to do is nudge a few things while things progress."
Jasper, however, remained skeptical. He knew it was easier said than done.
In case anyone else felt indifferent, Alex assured them that they wouldn't be manipulating the entire world, just making some adjustments for a better ending. They would be subtle, influencing events without rewriting major plot points.
Remembering that their choices can have unintended consequences, each of them agreed to let their fellow players know of any game-breaking actions.
After this introduction on things, everyone informed Arthur that Iruka was going to announce the Genin teams two days from now.
Two days was more than enough time for him. He couldn't risk revealing his true agenda, but he could certainly play along with their plan until the time was ripe.
For the remainder of their meeting, they revealed their tactics, formulating a well-thought-out strategy to help them make it to the end of Naruto's story.
Arthur absorbed their plan, feeling disappointed at their naivety. They each had potential, and they would surely become apex ninjas eventually, thanks to their character's background and foreknowledge.
But what will happen if one of them dies? Would they truly be released even if they make it to the end? Arthur didn't believe that. The only thing he had in mind was to dismantle this whole world.
Even if it meant going against everyone in this room.