Kamui: And now we can really game start *smirks*

"Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and conviction."

-JFK

~Unknown~

The sun is gone, I'm always amazed by how realistic the night sky is within this virtual reality. I've been here for about a month, searching. But I haven't found who I've been looking for.

I wasn't one of the ones who got trapped in this game. No, to be honest, I'm not much of a gamer to begin with. The truth is I returned home on that horrible day after kendo practice, and found someone very dear to me in their bedroom, stuck in the NerveGear.

I decided then and there that I would be by their side. It had taken quite some time to get my own NerveGear considering the mass panic the device had caused, but I pulled a few strings.

My boots crunch against the dead leaves on the forest floor I'm traveling over, my black cloak billowing around my legs as I move.

Now here I am, climbing the ranks and leveling up with my skills so that I can find him.

My brother.

~Konohamaru~

I tend to the fire roasting our dinner, jars of fireflies provide a little light as Naruto and Gaara continue hammering and sawing away at the trees and boards. Their chests heave as sweat lines their brows and drenches their clothes. They're finishing up the final touches on what Naruto's calling our secret base, which is super cool, but really is just a treehouse.

My two older friends told me that they'll be heading to town in the afternoon tomorrow because there's supposed to be some kind of meeting, and they think they'll have to fight. Of course I wanted to go but that was shot down since I haven't completed all of my training. I managed to cut the boulder Gaara-nii told me to slice in half yesterday but I still have more tasks I need to finish before they deem me ready to do real quests with them.

It sucks buttcheeks but honestly I don't wanna get murdered out there so if I'm not ready I'll take their word for it.

On the bright side the tree house is looking awesome as all heck. It's about the size of a standard log cabin, sitting atop several semi-cut down trees but still kind of hidden in the foliage. It has a rope ladder that you're supposed to pull up behind you but Naruto said she was thinking about just making an actual staircase. I was thinking maybe just normal wooden planks up a tree trunk but nobody ever listens to kids.

I shrug to myself, poking a stick at the fire I've been messing around with.

"Hey squirt." Naruto calls, catching my eyes as she approaches.

"Yeah?"

"Remember how you said to bring you back something nice earlier this week when Gaara went to town with me?" She asks.

"Uh huh." I nod, frowning a little. "What's up?"

"Well I did what you wanted." She says, standing up and dusting herself off a little as she makes her way over to me. Gaara silently keeps working. "Yesterday I noticed you managed to cut that boulder in half, so I thought I should give you a little graduation present."

"Not that I don't love free stuff," I begin. "But shouldn't you wait to give me a graduation gift until after I'm done with all my training and I'm ready to start doing quests with you guys?"

"That's the thing little dude." She says, smiling as she places her hands on her hips. "You won't be able to do quests with us until you become good at using the present I got you. So, instead of thinking of it as a graduation gift, think of it as a promotion gift to the next stage of your training."

"When you complete this stage, you really will "graduate" and be able to follow us to quests." Gaara adds his two cents.

"Mhm." Naruto nods, smiling more. "So what'd you say kid? Wanna see what I got ya?"

"Well duh." I laugh, tossing my stick aside and pushing myself to my feet.

Naruto laughs a little, and I have to say, I am a little excited to see what she got me. These two have been nothing but nice to me, and it just makes me want to blow all of their expectations for me out of the water.

"Alright then, I'll show you." Naruto says, dragging her player menu up and selecting a few options.

I'm a little startled as I hear my notification bell chime. I pull up my own menu as Naruto swipes hers away, and then I tap on my inventory, seeing I've been sent a gift.

Kyu has sent you an item, accept? The screen asks me.

I click 'yes' of course and then gape as a weapon is spawned into my hands from flickering, multi colored digital static.

"Holy crud." I breathe, eyes sliding over the absolutely dope dragon naginata in my hands.

"Well what are you waiting for? Try it out." Naruto says, smiling.

"Dude, Naruto, how much was this?" I can't help but ask. "This is a weapon that automatically levels up with the wielder, so I didn't even have to use it and it's already lvl 16!"

"Oh? You're lvl 16 already?" She hums, impressed as she crosses her arms. "Good job Kono."

"Hey, focus!" I say. "Seriously, you bought this for me? How much was it? I didn't really think you would bring me something like this…"

"Hey hey," She soothes, coming closer to ruffle my hair. "None of that Kono. You're our little dude, of course we're going to take care of you. Don't worry about money, it's not like it's real. We can earn it all back in like two seconds."

I look down at her feet, feeling my ears get a little hot. Honestly, she is too nice.

"She's right you know." Gaara speaks up again, though he doesn't move closer, just continues to do what he's doing. "I thought we already told you that you're ours now."

My whole face gets completely hot and Naruto chuckles, giving me a noogie that has me pulling away from her in a huff.

"Oh Gaara, ever a way with words you've got brother." She says fondly, and then looks back to me. "Now stop being a goofball and try out your new weapon kid. The suspense is killing me!"

"Well… alright." I concede, stepping back to give myself more room.

I give the staff an experimental twirl, amazed by how easy it is for me to handle and how fluidly the blade at the end slices through the air.

"Get fancy kid I know you want to." Naruto goads, waggling her eyebrows.

I snicker, flipping the naginata around like a total badass. I get a feel for the weight, the balance, how long it extends past my arm when I hold it a certain way. I feel it, the slight grips in the designs, the way I'm able to hold it firm but easily without hurting my hands. I swing it behind my back gripping it with my other hand as it changes sides. I bend back ever so as I swing it out and around me. I land the butt of the naginata on the ground and look up at my two friends, at my two siblings. Naruto's face is lit up in a giant iridescent? Smile, Gaara-nii has a very pleased toothy grin showing he's happy with my current ability.

I flash them my own toothy grin and ask, "So? How'd I do?"

"How'd you do?" Naruto asks, starting to chuckle. "You're a natural with that kiddo. How does it feel? Do you like the balance? Can you grip it okay?" I nod to her inquiries

"It feels natural." I tell her, looking at my hands as I grip and un grip the handle. I allow it to balance in my hand. "It feels perfect, like it was made for me."

"The girl who sold us the weapons told us she made it herself. The metal is high grade and shouldn't rust easily." Gaara intones as he places a hand on my left shoulder, Naruto does the same on my other side.

"We believe in you, Konohamaru." Gaara-nii tells me. "We know you'll go far."

I can't help it, I feel a slight flow of tears stream down my cheeks at the amount of faith they have in me. They saved me, then they took me in. They've accepted me, made time for me, they're training me. They take me seriously.

'That's more than Jiji was able to give me. I know he loves me but he still saw me as a little kid. These two see me as an equal. They don't let my age change how they treat me, they treat me based on my skill. At least that's how it feels. Jiji… I miss you.. I miss your lessons… Just wait. I'll make it out of this and show you how grown up I am.'

And maybe when I proved myself by making it out of this, my parents might stop traveling so much and talk to me more. All I know for sure right now though, is that I'm the farthest thing from lonely. And even though I'm stuck in this crazy game world…

I'm happy.

~Naruto~

The next day, our treehouse is complete and I stand back with Gaara on my right and Konohamaru on my left, our backs facing the river that our new home overlooks.

"It's freaking epic." I say, cheeks hurting a bit from how big I'm smiling.

"Yeah… It did come out pretty cool." Kono says.

"Hm." Gaara hums, nodding once.

I check the time, it's another somewhat sunny day with clear skies, and I see it nearing 1 pm.

"Hey bro," I call, catching Gaara's green eyes. "We should start heading out, the meeting's happening soon."

"Alright." He agrees, looking to our little buddy. "Konohamaru, you should train a little with your naginata while Naruto and I are gone."

"Okay." Kono nods. "Hey, you guys mind if I try out fighting against boars?"

"Eh…" I say, scrunching my face a little, unsure. "I dunno, I really wanna supervise or whatever while you train with real enemies but… well, you are level 16. Maybe it's fine? Gaara?"

He shrugs, saying, "He should be fine, as long as he stays within the general area of the treehouse if he needs to he can run away to its location since it is now a safe zone."

"Come on guys." Kono groans, rolling his eyes. "It's boars, and there's only really really low level monsters deeper in this forest, there is no way I'm gonna get bodied training with them."

I look into his brown eyes, seeing how serious and exasperated he is. He has a point… I'm being a butt.

"You're right." I concede. "We trust you Kono, you can hunt boars and low levels if you want. Just be careful okay? Oh but here, take this healing elixir."

I quickly drag up my player menu and type a few things out, sending him the item. Kono accepts it with another sassy roll of his eyes.

"Like I'll even manage to get hit by one of those things but fine." He begins, and then his eyes pop out of his head as he exclaims, "Naruto, when you said elixir you really meant elixir!? I thought it was just a standard healing potion, this is a freaking platinum ranked potion that heals all types of wounds and damage. Where did you even get this!"

He was right, I did send him one of my platinum elixirs. Oops. I wasn't really paying attention. There were several ranks for healing potions. You've got the colors ranking from lowest to highest starting at green, bronze, silver, gold, then it ranks up to elixir and becomes platinum, a potion that heals almost anything. Doesn't matter what it is, if you can use the potion in time it reverses the effects of the damage.

"My bad kid, here lemme give you two green healing potions, but you can keep the elixir just in case." I say, doing just that.

Konohamaru just gapes at me and accepts the things I sent into his inventory.

"Unbelievable." The kid mutters with a slight shake of his head. "Just unbelievable."

I smirk a little in response before Gaara catches my attention again by calling my name.

"We should go now." My brother says. "We'll be late."

I pull up my screen again watching my brother teleport into town as I look at Kono one last time and say, "Be careful out there kid. Catch ya later."

"Yeah, catch you." He says, waving.

I click on the depart option and I'm gone.

In the Town of Beginning the cobblestone paths are crowded. More crowded than they've been in weeks. Most of the players abandoned this town in favor of exploring and leveling up after the first day.

'Most of them must have been called by their friends. They've all heard about the meeting and want to help beat the boss. I don't blame them, they want out.'

"Kayaba is fucked once we get out of here." I grin as I look at the crowd. "All these people are pissed at being trapped here, all of us get out they're going to tear him to shreds."

"Providing of course Jiraiya hasn't already disposed of him." Gaara chuckles.

"Or Kashi-nii hasn't got him locked in some hidden place to torment the fucker. I'm thinking Pakkun wouldn't mind a new chew toy." I idly comment remembering Kashi-niis jokes about the times he's sent Pakkun on some poor soul.

"You're twisted you know that?" He asks, I shrug but we both know Kakashi likes us, it's the reason why we were able to keep having pizza parties at the precinct even after we were told we couldn't.

"I miss them." I mumble.

Gaara places a hand on my head as he replies, "Me too. But we'll see them soon enough. We won't be here forever, we'll make it out."

I smile and we continue our way to the town square. We both take a spot in the middle and miraculously make it to the front row even though it's crowded. The murmurs, deafening from the sheer volume of people, suddenly stills as the bell tower chimes. A man with blue hair steps up.

"Welcome. My name is Diavel, my role is a knight."

"There are no roles here dude!" Yells someone in the crowd, the guy in the center just laughs it off. "I'm just trying to break the tension. Seriously, I called this meeting because some adventurers found the boss's hiding place."

'Knew it would be about the boss. Gaara and I weren't sure where they would put the damn thing since they moved a bunch of things around so the betas couldn't have it so easy this time around. Honestly they practically had that thing spawn in the middle of town during the beta."

Diavell pulls out a guide book and reads off one of the pages, "The boss is known as Illfang the Kobold Lord. He's going to be surrounded by his minions the ruin Kobold Sentinels. He wields an ax and a buckler. He's got four health bars and when he's down to red on his last one he switches to using a curved weapon, talwar. He changes his attack patterns. That's all the information we have on him. I'd like everyone to who plans to go with us to form parties of six members. We're going to attack together and take him down."

"HOLD UP!" An angry voice shouts out. "Wait just one minute. I want to talk about something first. Beta testers. I know there's some of them here. The Beta testers grabbed all the best jobs and leveled up while the rest of us were running around trying to figure out where to go."

The crowd is captured by his speech, and I could even see some people nodding in agreement, others mumbling a little to themselves. This won't be good for us, or it wouldn't if Gaara and I didn't know how to act and slip through the cracks.

"They abandoned us, they let us struggle and people died because of that. I say any beta testers cough up their equipment and money. There's no way we'll be able to trust them unless they prove themselves to be willing to work with us, to help us."

"Now wait just a minute." A cool voice slips in through his scathing rant.

'I know that voice. There's no way...' I tell myself, eyes widening. In a crowd of people this big he was bound to be here but for him to actually speak loud enough for us to recognize him? What are the odds?

"The beta testers didn't abandon us you moron. I've seen plenty of beta testers helping people out with quests and taking little in return. I've seen beta testers giving stuff out for free. I've seen little kids getting money and food and equipment from beta testers. I've seen them do chores for the elderly who are stuck here while the rest of us just leave them." Shun tells them with a shake of his head. "They were the ones passing out the guide-books that everyone has access to."

"He's right." A man with dark skin and a bald head supports. He stands off to the side with his arms crossed over his broad chest. "I think you're trying to punish the many for the sins of a few. It's not okay man, that type of thing is small minded."

"Well said." Came another calm voice, this one sounding somewhat arrogant.

I feel my eyes flitting over the crowd, finding the owner of the voice. It's an average height man decked out in a billowing black cloak with blood red clouds. His face is hidden by a large sugegasa, or pointed straw hat with what looks like paper charms hanging around its circumference. It casts his features in shadows.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Asks the midget man with the strangely styled chestnut hair that had been riling everyone up about the beta testers.

Straw hat steps forward, and I can see a pair of blue sandals on his feet covered by white leg warmers. His toenails are strangely painted blue. I trade a look with my brother, who I can tell is also intrigued.

"My name doesn't matter, hm." He dismisses. "You can just think of me as a representative of my party, Akatsuki."

"So they did send someone to check this out." Shun observes. "Can't say I'm all that surprised."

"Hm." The cloaked stranger laughs. "Anyway, lets not get off track yeah? We're all here 'cause we wanna know about the boss location, so instead of complaining about things that can't be helped, let's talk about the fun stuff."

"What a peculiar uniform." Gaara murmurs at my side.

"It might not be a uniform." I say. "That guy could just be the weirdo of his party."

"Fair enough." Gaara snorts.

"Everyone." The blue haired dude calls, clapping for the attention again. "Please, this man is right. We're getting off track here. I called this meeting because I wanted to show everyone in Town of Beginnings that this death game can be cleared. It's our responsibility to do so, don't you think everyone?"

A few unsure people grunt, trading glances as others sweat a little. But then I see a few people nod, and then more brave souls stand up, applauding. This seems to boost the morale of mostly everyone present.

"Well that went from zero to one hundred to what the fuck." I mutter.

Gaara snorts in agreement as people cheer and whistle at the "knight's" speech. I incline my head to him in respect as I cross my arms. Gotta say, he did slide himself into the drama and diffused it expertly.

"So what do you all say?" Blue hair Diavel calls. "Are you with me?"

"YEAH!" People cheer.

"Alright!" He grins, and then sobers with, "So, if you all don't mind. I'd like to begin discussing battle strategy."

"Oh? So prepared already?" The smarmy "Akatsuki" guy hums, moving back into merge with the crowd. "This'll be a blast hm."

Shun and baldly move to settle down again as well, and I focus my attention back on the blue haired guy who called the meeting.

"For starters, remember I mentioned we're going to split up into parties of six." He begins. "Of course we'll be in the same party…"

"Eh?" Some mangy dude sitting in the row behind me mutters to his friend. "The floor boss can't be defeated with simple parties."

"That's true." Diavel admits, offering a winning smile. "We'll need to assemble multiple parties to form a raid group."

I can already hear clusters of people linking up, and I even see people pulling up their player menus to form groups.

"Of freaking course." I mumble.

"We don't need to go along with this." Gaara says. "At least not in the conventional way."

"True." I say. "We're already a party, aren't we bro? And the best one there is."

"Naruto, don't be so arrogant." My brother chides softly.

"I know I know." I hum, smiling a little. "I'm not being serious. Well, not completely. We're still pretty savage if I do say so myself."

Before Gaara can passive aggressively sass me Blue Eartails Diavel speaks up again.

"Yosh!" He pulls the attention to himself once more. "Are you guys done partying?"

A round of agreements commences and then the guy places his hands on his hips.

"Then this concludes the conference." He says. "Though concerning the loot distribution… the money is automatically distributed, EXP goes to the party that lands the last hit, and items belong to whoever gets them first. Any objections?"

"Sounds good." Some people agree.

A few more mutters and nods are traded at this.

"Yosh." Diavel nods. "Okay, we'll leave at ten in the morning tomorrow. You're all dismissed!"

I watch Diavel gesture in a way that tells everyone to disperse, and I calmly stand, Gaara following my lead.

"Let's head back to the treehouse for the day." Gaara proposes. "We need to let Konohamaru know that we'll be going on this quest with these people."

"Okay." I nod, following after him as we leave the town square.

Come tomorrow we're going to the boss's lair. Once we clear it, we're a floor closer to getting home.

I finish giving Konohamaru his training exercises for the day and telling him that they had better be done by the time Gaara and I come back from the boss fight. The kid pouts at me.

"No fair, I wanna fight with you guys." Kono huffs, crossing his arms.

"Don't be a brat Kono you know you're not ready to be throwing down with bosses." I frown.

Konohamaru frowns and looks away, but he doesn't say anything because we both know I'm right.

"Alright." Gaara passively placates. "It's time for us to head out Naruto, if we wait any longer we'll be late."

"I know." I sigh. "Okay Kono. We'll see you later. Finish up your training for today and be safe while we're gone."

Kono looks between us both, and I can't really tell what he's thinking, but suddenly he's not pouting anymore instead he's crashing against my stomach, hugging me tight as he buries his face into my abdomen.

"You guys had better come back, you got that!" He huffs.

I feel my heart and expression soften, looking over to Gaara who's already making his way over. My brother places a gentle hand on top of our little friend's hair and pats it once.

"We'll come back." He assures.

Kono looks up, brown eyes holding a slight wet sheen, but he's too stubborn to let it become anything.

"You promise?" He wheedles.

"We promise." We both say.

"Well.. okay then." Kono lets go of me and steps back, scuffing his shoe on the grass. "I'll finish my exercises for today by the time you get back, so you guys better praise me."

I snort, flicking him in the forehead as I reply.

"Yeah, yeah. But don't hold your breath. We wouldn't want your head to get any bigger than it already is." I grin teasingly.

"HEY!" He protests indignantly.

I snicker behind my hand and dance back as Gaara just shakes his head. I just pull up my options so I can teleport to the Town of Beginning, offering Kono one last smile before I click, depart.

"Catch ya later squirt."

Gaara follows my lead, spawning at the town gates a few seconds after me. He must've given Konohamaru his own Gaara trademark see you later.

We meet up with the group of players that decided they'd help clear the floor with Diavel yesterday. It's yet another clear blue sky day it seems, and the parties that stand around us murmur to one another. Looks like the weight of the mission is already weighing on some minds.

"Hopefully none of them crack under pressure." Gaara intones, as if reading my mind. I just grunt in agreement.

"Oh?" A delighted voice greets from behind us as the owner of it enters town square. "Kyu? Ichi? Small world huh?"

I turn around to face the smiling face of Shun beside my brother. I feel my brows raising to my hairline to see a black cloak with red clouds obscuring his usual dark getup. The straw hat man wearing sandals and blue nail polish from yesterday trails beside yet slightly behind Shun.

"Hey Shun." I greet. "What's with the edgy getup?"

"It's a party requirement made by the party leader." Shun explains, rolling his eyes before smiling again. "When party members go out on quests they have to wear the Akatsuki cloak."

"That's… different." I offer blankly, unsure of how I should be reacting.

Shun shrugs.

"It's weird, I know." He says, waving me away.

"Who's your friend?" Gaara speaks up.

"Oh, that was rude huh?" Shun chuckles and rubs sheepishly at the back of his head. "Sorry, Ground Zero, these are friends of mine that helped me out when I was new to the game. The blonde is Kyu, and the redhead is Ichi."

"Oh? Well hi there." The newly revealed Ground Zero drawls.

He sounds just as laid back, yet self assured as he did yesterday, and I can't tell who he's looking at with that strange hat covering his features.

"That's some nice looking armor you two are wearing, hm." Ground Zero comments. "Seems like you've been doing pretty good for yourselves during the first month trapped here."

I'm not 100% sure what he's insinuating, but I'm pretty sure he's saying he thinks we're rich beta testers. He's not wrong, since everyone else present wears standardized equipment except for maybe Diavel, Baldy, and of course the two Akatsuki Ground Zero and Shun.

"You could say that." I smile innocently, looking back to Shun. "But you definitely have. Got yourself a party, huh Pansy-boy?"

"You're still not gonna let that go?" He asks, slumping a little in defeat as I smirk and his party friend snickers at his expense. "Besides, I'm not a full time party member, they just call me when they need me for certain stuff. I mostly do my own thing if I'm not hanging out with the leader."

"Huh, whatever floats your boat I guess. But also, no. I am not letting that go. It suits you too much." I grin.

"Ichi help me." Shun whines to Gaara. "Defend my honor as a fellow man!"

My brother says nothing, just crosses his arms and looks away.

"Oh ouch, you just speared my heart with an icicle dude." Shun says, grimacing a little.

"Everyone!" Diavel calls for attention. "Are we ready to move out?"

Agreements are passed around the square before everyone quiets down again.

"Guess we'll catch you guys later?" Shun offers quietly. "We should hang out."

"Sure, I'm cool with that." I shrug.

Gaara says nothing, and Ground Zero waves lazily as he saunters away, Shun following after him. They disappear into the crowd and Gaara and I move closer together so we're not separated.

"So I want every party that's been made to cluster together so I can count you." Diavel projects. "Then I will label you as squads accordingly. That way we can organize our battle plan in a way so we have attackers, support, and then those that switch out to fulfill these roles should the need arise."

Once everyone is counted, we have squads starting from A through F. Gaara and I are squad D along with two other people I've never met before, how it happened, I'm not quite sure. One of our party members is a dude with really dark hair and a penchant for long thoughtful stares. He's got the usual sword strapped to his back. The other is a chick who seems to refuse taking off her hood, she has a sword strapped to her side and I can tell it's meant for speed.

We're told our primary purpose will be to keep the minions off of everyone else while they fight the boss with squad E and F. I can understand, at this point the minions are all pretty weak since we're still on level 1. Honestly the boss is the biggest threat to us and they'll need more people to help fight it so no one dies.

We march, steady and sure, nervous and hopeful all at the same time. That's the human condition, we're contradictory. We fear and hope. As we enter the dungeon most of the lights go out as the door slams shut on its own. The large space illuminated by only two things, small torches and the glowing crimson eyes of the beasts within.

"Holy fuck." I whisper as I take a look around. Gaara grunts in agreement as his eyes go wide.

Dungeon beasts in every corner and all along every wall. They cover the ground for about half the room. They each have their own sword, armor playing covering their chests and arms.

'I don't know if we'll actually make it out of this. This….This isn't just over kill. It's..'

The atmosphere changes from drab gray to iridescent stained glowing glass as a massive red form launches out at the invading players. The Kobold lord is a towering blood red figure with a strange dog-like face, a large belly with a purple emblem on it, and rabbit-like ears under his helmet. He wears a loin cloth and carries an axe and shield as his minions spawn around him, letting out a gurgling roar.

'It's… insanity…' I think. 'What the hell was Kayaba doing adding this many creatures to the first boss fight? Raiya-ji better give him one hell of a beating.'

A hand squeezes my shoulder reminding me to not be stupid. I'm not alone. I'm surrounded by comrades.

'I refuse to die here. Gaara is with me. Together we will face the odds against us and run towards the fears we run from.'

A battle cries call out.

It has begun…

The minions are about the size of normal people, and with Illfang's roar they charge at the players, and everyone breaks off to tend to their designated duties. I let my right hand fall on my sword at my left hip, and a draw with a loud shiiing! Just in time too as an armored minion with a spiked mace leaps at me. We clash with an echoing clang and sparks as our weapons meet.

I grit my teeth, and it really feels as if my muscles are straining as I force the minion to stumble back, slashing left across its chest, leaving a gaping red wound with intertwining glowing lines within. The minion screeches, but I shut him up by slashing right this time at the throat, sending his head flying. The minion explodes in a show of rainbow glass-like shards, but I'm still on my guard as my brother splits his own adversary in two at my side. The other two on our squad hold their own, so we probably don't have to worry about them, it looks like they have good skills.

Diavel stands a little ways away, pointing with his sword and shouting directions to the squads whittling down the healthbars of the Kobold lord.

"Squads A and B, switch in!" Diavel yells. "Here it comes, squad B block!"

They follow his orders to a T, and I have to say I'm really impressed, things are going really smoothly with this battle plan. Why was I so worried again…?

"Incoming!" Gaara huffs.

'Now all I gotta do is my part!'

I whirl around, sword a blur as a new minion descends from above, mace overhead with the intent to crush my skull. We meet halfway, and I almost feel my knees buckle. With a grunt I knock the minion back and give chase. I jab and it blocks with its tail, so I back off, then faint right, only to carve into his left side. While he cringes from the blow I firmly grasp the hilt of my sword with both hands and swing, slicing his head off. Gaara and I fight our own minions until they're mostly gone, sometimes offering assists when something unexpected happens, but we're not having a hard time by any means.

"Squads D, E, and F keep those minions off us!" Diavel orders.

"Yeah, you got it!" Black Hair grunts, charging at a minion and knocking it back when it jumps. "Switch!"

Cloak Girl glides in on command with, "I'm on it!"

Her sword pierces the enemy in the chest, causing him to fly back and explode into rainbow sparks immediately.

Our squad beats down a few more small fry and suddenly we hear another roar from Illfang. In a fit of rage, the demon red boss tosses his axe and shield across the dungeon, and they clatter uselessly to the floor.

The minions are mostly gone at this point. We've done our part well, so now it's up to the rest of the raid party to take the sucker down.

"Looks like the guidebook was right." Smirks weird hair instigator guy.

"Stand back!" Diavel suddenly commands, running forward. "I got it!"

I blink, trading a look with Gaara, who shrugs ever so slightly. I could've sworn the plan was for everyone in the group to surround the bastard and then take him out. What's up with that? Before I can wonder about it more Diavel stops before Illfang, holding his shield in front of his face as his sword begins to glow with ominous yellow light. Illfang reaches behind him, grabbing the bandaged hilt of his backup weapon. With a flourish, the enraged boss draws the blade.

'Wait a second…' My eyes bulge when the dark weapon catches a menacing gleam. 'This isn't like the beta! That's not a fucking talwar it's an odachi!'

I turn on my heel, sprinting across the room and cutting down everything in my way while praying I get there before anyone gets hurt or worse. I hear someone shouting a warning in the distance but pay no mind to it. I need to get there fast. I don't want anyone dying. Please. Don't let him die before even having a chance.

Illfang is swifter than anything his size has any business being, launching himself up and bouncing between the white pillars holding up the sides of the room. He comes down like a guillotine, and Diavel is too slow, too startled to evade before he's getting slashed across the chest. But in a blink I'm there, in the beast's guard before he can finish Diavel off, and my sword glows gold as I slash up, carving a deep red gash up Illfang's bulbous belly. The boss roars in pain and launches himself away from me, his last health bar winking tauntingly at his side. I glare after him as I kneel at Diavel's side, where he's fallen to clutch at his wound.

Illfang lands between the raid squad's attack formations, roaring at them, sending out a shockwave with his rot smelling breath and spraying them with his viscous saliva.

Gaara sweeps in at my side, giving Diavel a stern look.

"And that is why you shouldn't break your own formation." He says gravely.

I help Diavel up and he looks down, ashamed and embarrassed. We all know Illfang's follow up attack had I not gotten there, would have been his end. But we don't have time to discuss it further, because the boss lets out another reverberating bellow and starts swinging viciously at players who are now too frightened by the crazed attack patterns to defend. Diavel is too injured to assist, even with my help I'm amazed he's standing. I flag two people over and I tell them to head to the back so Diavel can rest. He tries to protest, however a very stern look gets him moving to the back of the party where he'll be able to recover.

Black Hair and Cloak Girl move as one, darting at the Kobold lord as he nearly slices someone in two, glowing eyes noticing their approach. Black Hair releases a battle cry, sword glowing blue as he meets the beast's odachi with a loud clang, forcing the monster's blade to swing wide and leave his chest open.

"Switch!"

Cloak Girl ducks in, rapier glowing pink as Black Hair stumbles back. The ugly tub of lard looks for a split second as if he has something up his sleeve, and Black Hair yells a warning, "Asuna!"

Just in time, the cloaked girl who's name is apparently Asuna ducks, the odachi slicing over her body and turning her cloak to shreds. Asuna pivots of her foot, and with a yell she thrusts her rapier into Illfang's gut, sending him blasting back. She stands firm as she waits for the boss to come at her again.

"He's coming back!" Black Hair huffs, getting up from where he's fallen and running at the boss.

Their teamwork is inspiring. Black Hair attacks hard, forcing Illfang's blade two swing wide when he attempts to defend, and while the boss is distracted and his guard is open Asuna ducks in and jabs him, whittling down his health bar. But it looks like Black Hair starts getting too confident, and he gets more aggressive, meeting blades with the boss again and again before he's taken off guard.

"Shit!" I choke, watching as Illfang batters the guy back into Asuna, sending them both flying with cries of pain.

"I think we've watched enough." Gaara intones at my side.

Asuna appears to be checking on Black Hair, but it doesn't look like she's going to die, thank god.

"Yeah," I nod. "Let's rock."

Gaara and I dart forward. I use my speed to gain an advantage just as Illfang decides he wants to finish the two off, looming over the fallen players menacingly. My brother intercepts the boss' swing with his own blade and a show of sparks, sending the thing skidding back on all fours. I leap over Asuna and Black Hair, applying pressure with all I've got on Illfang to keep him away from the other two.

"Switch!" I growl, gliding back.

Gaara smoothly slides into my place, defending me with his sand and sword from one of Illfang's wild swings. He trades loud clanging blows with the boss for a few moments, managing to cut its arm before ducking back.

"Let us help!" The dark skinned bald dude calls, bringing with him a handful of brave players.

"Go for it." I nod, falling back as they trade blows with Kobold in our stead.

Sadly tub of lard knocks them back after a little bit before leaping into the air, flipping as his odachi begins to glow a poisonous purple.

"Watch out!" Black Hair screams, running and leaping at the boss. "You're going down!"

He flips nimbly over Illfang, slicing deeply across the boss' back as he passes over him, sending the behemoth crashing thunderously to the floor, kicking up clouds of dust.

"C'mon Asuna, help me beat this sucker, one last attack!"

"You got it!" She cries, nearly a blur as they both end up side by side.

The Kobold lord lies on his stomach, struggling to stand after such a savage attack but he's not quite done yet. Black Hair comes in left as the boss finds his feet, slashing the beast, and then Asuna comes from behind at the right with a jab. They repeat this pattern one more time and for the last time Black Hair crosses in front of Asuna, yelling with all he's got as he carves a deep red furrow across the bosses flesh from his right hip to his left shoulder, nearly splitting his face in two.

Illfang doesn't stand a chance as the last of his health bar is ripped away and he blasts black, glowing like a star on its deathbed, exploding in a supernova of colors before he's gone in a flash.

Everyone stops for a moment.

Someone gasps, and then confetti and streamers spawn in the center of the room with a message of congratulations. I feel my brother take my hand at my side, and I squeeze back as everyone looks between themselves, not quite believing that it's done. That the first floor is officially cleared.

"W-we did it!"

Everyone shouts in celebration.

While the gloating and cheers are commencing Black Hair falls to one knee to catch his breath, and the glowing stained glass theme of the room dampens and becomes drab and gray again.

"Well, we know who's getting the last attack bonus." I joke, grinning at my bro as he rolls his eyes faintly.

We're still hand in hand as we make our way over to Black Hair, and Asuna has the same idea because she's making her way over to him too. Bald dude is also making his way over.

"Good work." Asuna says.

"Yeah, nice job man." I say.

Black Hair looks over his shoulder at us, apparently surprised to see us.

"That was splendid swordsmanship." Baldy compliments. "Congratulations. This victory belongs to you."

"No…" Black Hair begins, but he's cut off by the raid party members applauding him and congratulating him as well.

"Stop cheering!"

I frown, because of course it's the same hating ass dude from yesterday who slandered beta testers.

"Here we go." I mutter, and Gaara snorts at my side in agreement.

"You almost let Diavel die!" He accuses, glaring as he sat on the floor surrounded by other people who seem to share his mentality. "Admit it, you knew the technique the boss was gonna use. You could've told us, then Diavel would've stood a chance and he never would have been put at risk like that!"

Murmurs raise up in the room as everyone trade looks and start to study Black Hair thoughtfully, seeming to realize that yeah, he was a little more prepared to fight Illfang than the rest. But so were Gaara and I.

"I know why he knew!" Another guy yells, pointing accusingly. "He used to be a beta tester! Think about it, he knew the boss' attack patterns, he knew and he kept it from us!"

People are starting to get outraged, and I've had about as much as I can take at this point.

"Hold up." I bark, pulling my hand from Gaara's to place my hands on my hips. "Everybody shut up, that's bull and you know it!"

"What?" The instigator snarls, shooting to his feet.

"Take a look around you!" I shoot back, pointing at Diavel, who is now healed. "Even if this guy knew the boss' attack patterns, Diavel isn't dead. The reason he didn't say anything is because there was no way to know how the boss would fight. Things have changed since the beta test dumbass. Illfang was said to have a backup talwar, but he used an odachi today. If you were told how Illfang would move and it was wrong, like it was, then a lot more people would be dead today instead of none from running into a fight thinking they knew everything."

"Oh yeah? I bet you're a lying beta too." Someone accuses scathingly. "That's why you're not mad at this guy for not even mentioning the boss' attack patterns, 'cause you knew too. And how else could you know things are different from the beta?"

"You're damn right I am." I scowl, taking a step towards the angry crowd, unmoved by their gasps. "I'm no liar, but you can bet your ass I was a beta tester. What of it?"

"There's more of you bastards here isn't there? Show yourselves!" Someone screams. "You damn Beaters, we could have died and you just hid in the crowd!"

"Hid in the crowd?" I say lowly. "I did what everyone else did. Followed orders. I was told to keep minions off you and I fucking did. It's no different than any other time that people form raids and follow assignments."

I glare at each of them in turn. My brother speaks up, taking over addressing them all.

~Gaara~

"Would you rather work with someone who followed orders or went off to do their own thing and left you to die?" I ask darkly. "My sister and I watched your backs. Would you have preferred to face both the boss and the minions alone?"

"That's—" Some attempts to argue, but I'm not having any of it.

"We're stuck in this game." I remind them all. "And I'll tell you this, the beta players are people too. Here it's fight or die. It shouldn't matter if you are new or not. We're all fighters."

I look at my sister. Some in the crowd look a little understanding. Most are still clouded by their rage. Battle high I call it. They won't understand, not fully, not today. Casting a look to the others I know they understand.

'They'll be divided unless they have a common enemy. If they don't come together then many of them will die and soon.'

"He's right. We're all just trying to get through this alive. Everyone lives to fight another day." Dark hair speaks. "But if you really want to blame someone go right ahead. You losers would be dead without us and you know it."

He strolls smoothly to the dropped item and picks it up. He pulls on the coat of midnight as he tells everyone, "Just know the other beta players were pretty green themselves. They hardly qualified as decent players. I leveled up so high others couldn't touch me."

He smirks a saccharine grin, it's somewhat sad, lonely but accepting. He knows this is what needs to be done, for everyone else to survive and aim to grow stronger. Even just to level up higher than him so they can make him eat his own words.

He slowly walks towards the steps to go to the next level but the girl Asuna calls him.

"How did you know my name?"

"Sorry did I mispronounce it? It's in the top of your screen. Look just below your health bar and you'll see it."

"Ki-ri-to. Haha. I'm so stupid it was in front of me the whole time." He smirks at her as she laughs.

"If you ever get the chance to join a guild. Do it. There's only so far anyone can go alone. Anyway. See you around." He heads up the steps and I look at Naruto.

Sure enough she's running after him. I smirk. I better go follow her, something tells me she's going to try to bring home a stray.

I smile fondly, life is always fun with her.

Nin: No. Naruto is not recruiting Kirito. Doesn't mean she'll just leave him alone after that whole angst fest. Naruto is a good person and in my opinion I can see her bullying him into a spar or buying him a meal. She's just kind by nature. But she also knows when people have journeys they need to take on their own.