Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Stay Alive.

Warning: Contains violence, gore and strong language.

"Shit," Chouji swore, as he almost accidentally knocked over his glass of water across his desk.

Phew. Okay. Never mind. Disaster averted. Years of gaming had sharpened his reflexes, so he had managed to grab the glass before it could spill, lifting it to his lips and downing its contents in one go. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Speaking of gaming, that reminded him. He turned his attention back to his computer screen, where his character had just finished its conversation with a NPC, who was supposed to be the town's mayor. The large-breasted blonde had just given him the key to the local haunted manor as a reward for returning to her a necklace with a long, crystal pendant, a gift to her from her late fiancé that held a lot of sentimental value.

"Sweet." Chouji grinned and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. With his left hand, he held the direction controller of his gamepad (firmly, but not too tight, otherwise it tensed up the muscles, making jerk reflexes slower) and steered his character towards the manor the NPC was pointing to, and with the other, he reached into a half-eaten bag of potato chips, taking out a handful and stuffing them into his mouth, all the while not taking his eyes off of the computer screen. Crumbs fell from his mouth onto his desk, which he wiped off absentmindedly.

"Well, fuck me," Chouji murmured, as the door to the manor creaked open and his player stepped inside. "The designers really went all out for this."

It was perfect. The foyer was dark and dirty-looking, and an eerie tune started playing as soon as he stepped onto the faded carpet, a tune so terribly sad and hauntingly beautiful, it made him want to cry. He could practically see the virtual cobwebs hanging from the chandeliers on the ceiling above his character, years of neglect taking its toll.

Chouji was almost scared.

Almost.

Psh, as if he was going to pussy out here. His game wouldn't be saved until he reached the next checkpoint, and the last one he reached was two hours ago.

Anyway, he wanted to see how much better things would get. Chouji pushed his thumb forward, causing his character to walk past a couple of tasteful (dusty) antiques and a large, broken mirror (also dusty), towards the grand staircase and a gold-framed painting of what was possibly the most beautiful woman Chouji had ever seen, in-game or in real life, which was hanging on the first landing.

So preoccupied was he, that he didn't notice the image of a young, dead child appearing in the mirror as he walked past it.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he turned right and walked down the corridor. He paused, contemplating which door he should open first when—

JIZZ IN MY PANTS
This really never happens you can take my word
I won't apologise, that's just absurd
Mainly your fault from the way that you dance
and now I
JIZZ IN MY PANTS—

"What?" Chouji snapped, irritated at being interrupted during his game.

"Yo, Chouji."

"Hi, Shikamaru. What do you want?"

"Heh. Now, Chouji, is that really how you speak to the person who just spent a bundle on your birthday present?"

"No fuckin' way." Chouji's eyes widened, and a maniacal grin made its way across his lips. "You did not manage to get it, did you?"

"No," Shikamaru drawled sarcastically. "I did not manage to get it. That's precisely why I called you in the first place and warned you not to talk to me like shit."

"No fuckin' way," Chouji repeated.

"Yes fuckin' way."

"B-But. How?" Chouji spluttered, his grip on his controller relaxing.

"Eh. It's too much hassle to explain. But whatever, I know this guy, Inuzuka Kiba, who works in LeafGames, so I got him to sneak in another copy of the game for me when he had to fill in the order sheets. No need to thank me."

"Don't worry, I won't. But seriously, man, how—oh fuck. Fuck shit fuck."

"What? Chouji, you okay?"

"Mm, yeah, just gimme a sec—"

Chouji promptly dropped his phone onto the desk and watched his computer screen intently. A young girl had appeared from the shadows and was following him.

Must be an Undead, Chouji thought, remembering what the NPC had warned him. Undeads were lost souls, most having had been killed so brutally when they were alive that it became impossible for them to move onto the afterlife in peace, so they wandered the planes of the earth, searching for victims to kill in order to try, in some way, to complete them. It was another classic case of the bullied becoming the bully, to some extent.

Yep, this girl was definitely an Undead. Deathly pale skin, bloodshot eyes, ragged clothing and limp, matted hair; this child ticked off all of the requirements.

Well, there was only one thing to do, really. Chouji's hands tightened his grip on his controller and his thumbs instinctively flew to their place on the gamepad. Hitting the direction control up, he fled further down the corridor, where he was pursued by the Undead.

"Ah crap." Chouji bit his lip. Dead end. Game ove—

Wait. He turned to his left. There was a door—

(the Undead was only a few steps behind him)

—which Chouji grabbed, frantically turning the doorknob with one hand and banging it with the other—

(she halted, right behind him, sobbing and tugging at his shirt)

—but it wasn't budging, so he started kicking at it—

(before opening her mouth to reveal horrible, bloody fangs)

—until it gave way, and he stumbled into the room, where two dead bodies, covered in blood, hung from the ceiling.

"Damn—"

Out of the gloom, a woman with long black hair lunged at him.

Chouji ducked and turned around, speeding off from the direction he came from, knocking the young Undead off her feet in the process.

When he got back to the staircase, the main door just in sight, the eerie music that had been playing since he stepped into the manor suddenly stopped. Chouji paused briefly and looked down at the foyer.

Too late.

The woman appeared as if from nowhere, and pushed him over the staircase banisters. Before Chouji hit the ground, however, the woman swooped down and caught him, dragging him by his collar up to the chandelier.

"Game over," she whispered, and, with a wicked grin, conjured a rope out of thin air.

Tales Told By Dead Friends

by allurement

Prologue

GAME OVER

"Aw, fuck." Chouji slammed a hand down on his desk in frustration, before sighing and picking up his phone. "Yo, Shikamaru. Sorry about that."

"What were you even doing?"

"Oh, this new game called KONOHA. It's immense, man. Just died, which really sucks," Chouji said, looking at his now-deceased character who was hanging from the chandelier, a red rope around his neck. His eyes were bulging out of his head and his tongue hung out of his mouth. "So now I'll have to repeat everything all over again from the last checkpoint, which took two fucking hours just now. Great."

Shikamaru sighed. "You live such a fulfilling life, Chouji. You're way too competitive when it comes to gaming, y'know. If you were half as zealous when it came to, I don't know, real life, then maybe you wouldn't be unemployed right now."

"Pfft, says the laziest bastard I know. Hey, why don't you come over and we can watch a movie, have a couple of beers, maybe you can even have a go at KONOHA."

"At least I have a job, as fruitless as it may be. And as tempting as your offer sounds, I'll pass. It's almost midnight, and I can't be bothered to get out of bed and hop down to your place. Especially since the weather is shit right now. Maybe if you tore your eyes away from your computer screen for a few seconds to look out of your window, you'd know that. But I'll definitely see you in a couple of days at Sakura's party, yeah?"

"Sure. So you gonna call it a day now?"

"Yeah. I'm exhausted." Shikamaru yawned, as if to prove his point."You?"

"Mm. Same. My eyes have gone funny staring at my screen all day. Maybe I'll go to the kitchen and make myself a Nutella sandwich or something first. See you around."

"Bye."

Chouji hung up and, after switching off his computer, got out of his seat and made his way to his kitchen. Most of the items in there were his, as his roommates always preferred to eat out. There wasn't much in it—a small stove, which had hardly ever been used, a kettle, a well-worn microwave oven, a large pantry (mostly full of potato chips and other fried snacks), and a medium-sized fridge. He opened the fridge, and stuck his hand in it, fishing around chocolate bars and packets of microwaveable food until he felt the tub of Nutella.

"Hello, baby," Chouji murmured, as he unscrewed the lid to the tub and placed it on the counter before opening up the pantry to look for some bread.

Crap. None.

Chouji eyed the Nutella longingly. "Oh, screw this," he said, slamming the pantry door shut. He walked over to the counter and shoved two fingers into the tub. He took them out and licked them.

Mm, 'tis the good shit.

After one last dip, he screwed the lid back on and put the chocolate spread back in the fridge. He was already chubby enough as it was. Any more, and he'd be fat.

Walking back into his room, he looked at the alarm clock on his beside table. 12:08AM, it read.

Meh, might as well call it a night. Then he could wake up early in the morning, refreshed, and ready to get past the next checkpoint in KONOHA.

Now that was one freaky game. In a good way, of course. Chouji had played a lot of computer games over the years, but never had he played a game like KONOHA. One of his roommates, Kankuro, had introduced him to the game over a week ago, but he hadn't started playing until yesterday, and damn, was it addicting. The graphics were nothing short of amazing, and everything was just so… realistic. From the characters to the scenery to the manor where his character died. There were times (which occurred quite frequently) where Chouji felt like he was the one in the game, not the one playing it. Hell, he even styled his character so it looked like him.

12:26AM.

Chouji closed his eyes. He'd have all of tomorrow to think about KONOHA. Plus, it would be better to knock off now rather than wait for his two roommates to get back, what with the racket they made whenever they came in.

3:33AM.

Chouji downed his glass of milk and wiped his brow for the third time. That was the second time he had had that nightmare, the first time being the night before.

Whatever. Must have been all that excess energy the Nutella gave him. How many calories did the chocolate spread even—

Chouji froze. In front of him, there was a shadow, crawling across the floor towards him.

"What the shit?" Chouji yelped, dropping his glass. It fell to the floor, shattering into dozens of shards, some of which cut his feet. He paid no attention to it and ran around the shadow, speeding out of the kitchen and into the living room before stopping in his tracks altogether. "Holy fuck," he breathed, jaw dropping.

In front of him were his two roommates, hanging from the ceiling.

"Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fu—"

From behind him, the shadow morphed into a figure and put a hand on Chouji's shoulder.

Leaning into him, it whispered, "Game over."

The hand was as cold as ice. It felt… indescribable.

A few moments later, Chouji was able to identify that feeling as death.

"Urgh, this is so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, as his phone rang for what seemed to be the hundredth time that morning. "Hello, Nara speaking."

"Yo, Shikamaru! It's me! Remember?" blared an obnoxious voice from the speaker.

Shikamaru winced. "Hello, Naruto. How could I ever forget?"

"Whatcha doing?"

"Working. You know, the thing that most people have to do to earn a living so they can afford to eat something other than instant noodles."

"Whatever, man. Listen, you free for lunch?"

"Why?" Shikamaru asked. "So I can pay for your meal?"

"Maybe. Bet you're starving, anyway. I know you didn't have breakfast this morning. You never have breakfasts, do you?"

Shikamaru stared oddly at the phone's handset. "You are such a creeper."

"I like to think I'm a cute, cuddly panda myself. So, lunch at Ichiraku at one? Yes, yes?"

"See you there."

"So I need your help," Naruto said gravely, halfway into their lunch. "Seriously, I think you're like, the only person who can do this."

Shikamaru sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm going to regret asking you what this favour is?"

Naruto reached into his jacket and pulled out a CD case, grinning.

"Always knew you were smart, Shika, my man," the blond said, placing the case onto the table and pushing it towards Shikamaru.

"Dogs In Heat?" Shikamaru spluttered, uncharacteristically losing his composure for a moment. He looked at Naruto incredulously. "Ew, you're playing porn video games? Animal porn video games? That is disgusting, even for you."

"What? No! No no no! This game is actually really shit scary! It's about demon dogs and stuff. I suppose they're just demonic because of like… hormones? I don't know. But it's not porn! Yet. I think," Naruto said, looking puzzled. He scratched his chin and continued, "Whatever, so, can you help? I can't make it past Level 16 and it's killing me. Literally."

Shikamaru stared at the case, before pushing it back to Naruto. He took a sip from his tea, and said, "Sorry. Never heard of the game before."

"Aw, but you're a legend! Surely you can think of something!"

"Nope, sorry," Shikamaru said, shaking his head. "Anyway, what's the point in you playing the game if all you're going to do is make me do everything for—"

Riiiing.

"Hold on," he said. His screen showed an unfamiliar number. "Hello, Shikamaru speaking."

"Shikamaru?" came a raspy voice. "Hey—it's Chouza. Remember, Chouji's dad?"

"Ah, Akimichi-san," Shikamaru greeted, sitting up straighter in his seat. "How are you?"

"Not so good, I'm afraid. Have you got a minute?"

Shikamaru glanced sideways at Naruto, who was blissfully devouring his bowl of ramen, oblivious to Shikamaru's phone conversation. "Yeah," he said. "Why, what's wrong?"

Chouza's voice broke. "I—Shikamaru. It's—it's about Chouji."

Shikamaru stayed silent, patiently waiting for Chouza to continue. The older man took a few moments to compose himself enough to say his next sentence.

"He's dead, Shikamaru."

A/N:

I'm baaack. Somewhat. Kinda. Or maybe not. Yeah.

So, another horror fic! Somewhat based off of the film Stay Alive, where some video game is out to kill people. I will probably never update this ever again.

Or I may update it in a couple of days. One never knows.

Oh, and for those who don't know, a NPC is a non-playable character in a game. The sad part of this all is the fact that I actually had to look this up on Wikipedia to get the terminology correct. Woe.

Dedicated to: Ailey, Andrea, Annie, Iz and Pina. I think they should all know where they are mentioned.

So. How have you all been?