Summary: "A single death can change everything..." How would the Naruto world change if there was one life added into this world at a very crucial point for the future? If a single death can change everything, can the same be said for a single birth? Slow-burn Canon Divergence. Gamer OC.
Disclaimer: I find it easy to discover that I am, indeed, not Masashi Kishimoto so I do not have any type of ownership over Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. Nor am I the owner of the Gamer Manwa, from which this fic was originally inspired.
Chapter Notes: Mentions of death, anesthesia awareness, and just an intro to the main character. More will be covered in the next chapter.
Author's Note: So this is something that I have been keeping in my head for a while. I have been inspired by various fics and the general plot of having a gamer ability as a main power for a character. Fics I was inspired by will be listed at the bottom of the chapter if you desire to read more fics similar to this one.
Introduction
A Game Over? A New Game!
I never really imagined myself dying.
Alright, that's a lie. I imagined it constantly. With every waking breath I felt myself be pulled deeper and deeper into the jaws of death. I was on edge for a majority of my life. It was something that wasn't really avoidable.
… You know what, I'm slowly realizing that I don't ever really tell the truth. Though, I did spend all of my life doing that. Being insecure really does cut you down into pieces smaller than even the tiniest molecule in a table. I should know. I've been cut up on a table when they were taking away my kidney. Sitting through the pain of it all while the doctors thought I was under. But it was only my body that was unconscious, or rather, shut down. Thing is, even if your body is shut down, if your mind is even semi aware of what is going on, then you will feel everything.
Every single slice they make. Every single push of a scalpel to the skin and the force behind it to make sure it digs into you to cause a cut large enough for a hand to move around inside of your body. The effort it takes to force yourself to let out your pain filled screams so that they understand that you are awake. That you feel everything that they are doing to you. To let them know that you feel them taking the organs and maneuvering them around your body to get to the one that they desire. To feel that organ get slowly detached from your body. To immediately feel the sense of emptiness and feel lost in the sensations so much that you want your brain to shut down.
You want it to happen but you know that it never will. Because to you, there is only pain. There is so much pain that you want to end it all. You want to be the one that takes away the pain. Not the doctors that are only trying to save your father. Because damn it all, you don't want to feel like you are dying a slow, painful, and enraging death. You want to take the scalpels out of their hands and hold it to your own throat. You want to slash the tender flesh and watch as your blood, the blood that have soaked their gloves, flies at them. To watch as they look on in horror of what THEY did to you.
You want to show them. No matter how much pain, how much TORTURE they put you through, that YOU still hold the power over them, not the other way around. Because although they can put you through torture, OH SO MUCH FUCKING TORTURE, so much that I just wish they KILLED ME already, you will always come out on top. You will scar them worse than they are mutilating your body. No, it won't be the physical scars that they are giving you. But you will instead scar them for life mentally. The knowledge that they caused your death. That they are the ones who will suffer the rest of their miserable life knowing that they drove you to it. That they will be bathed in your blood like they did with their gloved hands. That they-
What was I talking about? Oh yeah. I never really thought that I was going to die like I did.
I thought I would die in my sleep. Considering I had sleep apnea and I often stopped breathing as I slept, it was very plausible to go out the way that my aunt had. Or go from organ failure. It had always been a possibility with the way that my dad became a vegetable after surgery on his kidney and afterwards died fully. Or the possibility of overdose. My mom had gone from that and with the combination of her family's addictive personality and my father's side having one as well, it would have been a matter of time.
Hell, I would have even thought of me having a mental breakdown before the way that I died. I was prone to those in waves. Since I had been the type to always just go into fits of depression at the drop of a hat. Or to have suicidal tendencies. Or even to fall into my thoughts and forget to eat for a day or three at a time. I wasn't really good at the whole living thing.
But of course, the thing that caused my death was not any of that. No, it was death from dogs. The thing that I actually loved is what killed me. I always had a better connection with animals than I had with people. I think what really contributed to it was the lack of awkwardness that I would feel with animals instead of humans. With animals, I didn't have to worry about how they were judging me. How I could spew lie after lie and they would just believe me. How I didn't understand why people wanted to be around me, knowing my quiet nature and…
Well, I was killed one afternoon when I was attempting to stop some dumb kids from throwing things at the dog. I guess the dog was already agitated due to the thrown debris and once I touched it, the dog pounced on me. It's all really a blur but I do remember feeling an intense pain in my neck before everything seemed to shut off.
When I finally came to, I was in a black room. When I looked around all I saw, or technically, couldn't see was anything at all. Everything was blank, without color, depth, or even texture. However, when I faced forward -or what I believe is forward- once more, I saw words in front of me that made my stomach drop.
Game Over
I don't know how long I just sat there, staring at the words, but I know that when my bottom impacted with the ground -that was oddly solid- did I finally realize that I had to have been dreaming.
I mean, why else would I get a FUCKING GAME OVER SCREEN WHEN I DIED!
I stopped breathing for a couple seconds to calm down my small spell of hyperventilation. I sat there, my body racking with each and every struggle for air. It took a few minutes for me to calm down and stop hyperventilating but, ultimately, I stopped. Now calm, I stood back up on my feet and looked at the words that had caused me to almost have a panic attack. I don't really know what that would have done, if I was actually dead or not, but I didn't really want to find out. Instead, I just hoped that the words would disappear. They did and in their place, popped up a list.
For completing the Game of the Modern Life: Earth, you have received 24,500 credits.
Making it through the death of Aunt (Mother) - Childhood years - +2,000 credits
Making it through the death of Father - Teen Years - +1,500 credits
Making it through the death of Mother - Teen Years - +1,000 credits
Making it through the death of both parents within a year - Teen Years - +2,000 credits
Surviving Anesthesia Awareness - Teen Years - +500 credits
Surviving Kidney Failure - Teen Years - +1,000 credits
Finishing Doctorate - Adult Years - +750 credits
Becoming a Doctor - Adult Years - +750 credits
Living with three mental disorders - Lifetime - +2,500 credits
Help 50% of those in your presence - Lifetime - +1,250 credits
Saved thirty lives - Lifetime - +6,500 credits
Married - Adult Years - +250 credits
Had two children - Adult Years - +1,250 credits
Lived until adulthood - Adult Years - +10,000
Divorce - Adult Years - -250 credits
Suicidal tendencies - Lifetime - -500 credits
Toxic romantic relationships - Lifetime - -500 credits
Toxic relationship with mother - Teen Years - -500 credits
Organ failure - Adult Years - -500 credits
Died at forty-five - Adult Years - -2,000 credits
Died from dog attack - Adult Years - -2,000 credits
I… huh. I did remember a majority of those things. Though I didn't think I saved thirty lives. That one was surprising. I did know that I had some mental disorders, none of which I hope passed on to my kids, though since I did get them from my mom, it may have. I just knew that I was going to miss those two little demons. Luke and Sky, my twin boys who I knew would be devastated that I'm gone. I never wanted them to experience the same thing that happened to me when I was their age, 17. But I did know that, even if my ex-wife and I had a falling out and could not find out why exactly we loved each other, she would make sure they were taken care of and she loved them just as much as me.
But looking at everything, seeing all the highs and lows in my life splayed out as achievements, showed me how horrible things could get for me. I did struggle with suicide a lot in my life, mainly due to my self-confidence and the thought that I didn't really have an impact in my life or the people in it. It was the thought that I was just going to let everyone I ever knew down. That they would regret knowing me. I see now how biased as well as black and white that was. Those tendencies did go down a lot when I became a doctor and started to see the help that I had wanted to provide was actually physically there. Hell, even the list saying that I helped 50% of the people in my presence had to mean that I helped half the people that I was around in my lifetime. It showed me that my life wasn't meaningless. Having Luke and Sky had diminished those thoughts by an exponential amount but the thoughts would still pop up from time to time.
The list dispersed after a few seconds and I was surprised when a new text popped up.
Please choose a new life to live in one of the new games. (please note, since this is your first death, we will allow you to see the intricacies of the game from now on.)
Game of the High Seas: One Piece
Game of the Hidden Shinobi Naruto
Game of the Dragon Wishes: Dragon Ball
Game of the Feudal Era: Inuyasha
Game of the Philosopher's Stone: Fullmetal Alchemist
Game of the Elemental Disasters: Avatar
Game of the Grimm Eclipse: RWBY
Game of the Modern Life: Earth - (Please note, this will simply place you into the world, erasing your memory of the previous life, and choosing your species based on your credits, in what humans have now realized is reincarnation)
I blinked.
This… this actually happens when you die. You get to choose where you want to go after you die. You know, with all the religion in my world, I would have thought that you would just cease existing. There were too many different opinions on life after death for me to actually believe in one specific one so I just went with the cease of existence.
Anyway, I realized that the Games that were in front of me were from the anime and manga that Sky had always got me and Luke to watch with him. Sky had always been the one to love cartoons and anime while Luke always preferred reality television or sitcoms. Though when one of them wanted to watch something, the other would be right there with him to watch with him, usually dragging me along with them. It was especially helpful in maintaining a good relationship with the two, as I would often be away from them for a majority of the day and we would talk about anything and everything within those times.
Though, I would like to simply go back to Earth, I don't want to forget my kids. I don't want to forget everything that happened to me. I would rather be in a world I didn't know as well as Earth than to forget everything that has to do with it and my previous life.
So with that, Earth was out of it. Taking a look at the other choices, I could only see three that I had a relatively good idea about the world.
One Piece was by far Sky's favorite one and he would always run to me and explain new things that were being discovered throughout the manga and anime. It was about a pirate crew sailing to find the ultimate treasure and powers gained through fruits.
Naruto was Luke's favorite one. It was about a kid with a being in his stomach and his road to becoming the best in the village he lived in, to get acknowledged. I can see the appeal in that. I would definitely became a doctor again to see that I can help people. I wasn't as invested in it when I was younger but I've grown to love it.
Then there was RWBY. This one being a web series that was about a girl and her team as they become protectors against the dark creatures that roam the land. It was an interesting concept and the weapons were especially attention catching.
But you know what, I always wanted to be a ninja when I was younger. I don't know why but the thought of being able to pop up anywhere without making a sound was something that definitely appealed to me. So with that, I chose Game of the Hidden Shinobi: Naruto.
I instantly felt the area around me compress and the list disappeared. It felt hard to breath as I went on and on trying to escape the compressed force and finally breath again. After what felt like forever, I was able to escape, though over my whole body, I felt a deep chill and I let out a yelp at the sensation, barely hearing myself since it felt like my ears was filled with water. I managed to open my eyes-when had I closed them- and what greeted me was a screen with the words Character Customization at the very top.
Welp. I guess this is the memory that I am going to be repressing.
Inspired Fanfics
The Gamer of Sunagakure - Zturm
After his death by a sandwich, a SI/OC finds himself reincarnated in Sunagakure with gaming mechanics.
Shinobi: A Naruto RPG - Fulcon
A min-maxing Self-Insert screws himself over during character creation.
Strange Gameplay for a Ninja - Champygnakx
What if a random academy student got The Gamer ability? "That's it. I played too much RPG videogames and I became crazy. How else can I explain this blue rectangle in front of my head ?" OC Pov