A young boy, around thirteen years of age and stood at height of five feet, four inches walked through the streets of Konoha with a backpack hung across his back. He had tanned skin, on his face were three markings on each cheek that would remind one of whiskers, like that of a cat or fox. On the boy's head, wild, spiky blonde hair that jutted out in all directions like a wild storm of gold. Saphire blue eyes that once shone like crystal dulled down to show a mix of emotion, hate, anger, grief...and sorrow. He wore a pair of orange pants with a dark blue shirt which was fully covered by a matching orange jacket. A pair of dark blue sandals donned his feet and a necklace made with a leather cord was wrapped around his neck, a green crystal that shone in the sunlight was what made said necklace, standout. This was Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze...former shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. Naruto stopped at the main gate of Konoha and looked to see the large crowd that had gathered to see him leave, most were smiling in joyous glee as they watched the blonde about to leave the village, while only a select few... the ones that he could call friends, were filled with distress and sadness towards his current predicament. Naruto sighed as he remembered the earlier events that transpired yesterday afternoon.

Flashback

A large crowd had gathered in front of the main gate of Konohagakure no Sato because they had heard from a shinobi scout earlier that the squad that was sent to retrieve the traitor Sasuke Uchiha, of course not many saw him as such, from going to the village of Otogakure to join Orochimaru. Everyone watched and gasped at what they saw. They saw two figures, one was walking while the other seemed to be supported on the other figure's shoulders as the walking towards the gates. One wore an orange jacket over a dark blue t-shirt and orange pants, a weapons pouch attached behind him on his waist with blue ninja sandals, a Konoha hitai-ate tied around his forehead and had wild blonde hair that spiked up in every direction. The second was a black haired boy, the hair looking like that of a chicken's ass, who wore a blue t-shirt with the back having a small red and white fan imprinted on the back of it and a weapons pouch on his left thigh. White pants and blue ninja sandals completed the boy's outfit. These were Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. The crowd immediately went into an uproar as they saw the scene, both boys were coated in red liquid...blood.

A pink haired girl with emerald green eyes and a red dress, eyes wide with fear and shock at the scene stood at the front of the roaring crowd. Two other girls stood with her, a platinum blonde with sky blue eyes that wore a purple tanktop and skirt. The second being a pale eyes girl, the eyes of a Hyuuga, with bluish black hair and wore a tan jacket and short navy blue pants. Both girl wore ninja sandals that were blue and had weapons pouches on their right thighs. As Naruto walked through the gates of Konoha, the blonde boy gasped in exhaustion and fell to his knees before gently resting the barely alive Sasuke on the ground next to him. Sakura ran up to them and knelt on the ground by Sasuke's unconscious form. Naruto showed his foxy grin to Sakura's trembling form.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan he's only unconscious...I kept my promise" Naruto said with pride. However, that was ruined as Sakura turned and glared at Naruto before slapping him hard in the face that caused silence to form among the throng that watched the scene. The sound of the slap echoing for a while.

"I ASKED YOU TO BRING SASUKE-KUN BACK HEALTHY AND WELL, NOT BARELY ALIVE...YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HIM, THE ONE TIME I TRUST YOU TO DO SOMETHING AND YOU MESS IT UP JUST LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO, I HATE YOU...YOU...YOU DEMON!" Sakura yelled before focusing back on Sasuke. Naruto recoiled from the words, especially when he heard the words demon. Ino and Hinata were shocked at Sakura's behaviour. The two walked up to the pink haired girl and looked down at her with wide eyes.

"Sakura, sure Naruto beat up Sasuke-kun, but it was for the good of the mission, to help bring him back. I mean sure it's Naruto, but not even HE deserves what you just said" Ino said. Sakura turned and glared at Ino and Hinata.

"Ino, he hurt Sasuke-kun, he needs to be punished for hurting him" Sakura said. The crowd behind the girls heard this and yelled in agreement. Hinata's eyes widened before seeing the villagers grab various weapns that they had on hand like knives, shovels, kunai and other things. Ino and Hinata watched in shock at the villagers before looking at Naruto who looked like his soul had been ripped from his body and he was now a motionless puppet on the ground. Hinata stood in front of Naruto and got into the Jyuken fighting stance and her Byakugan blazed.

"I will not let you hurt Naruto-kun" she said in a firm voice.

"The demon has brainwashed the Hyuuga heiress, we'll have to punish him even more and have to kill the girl too" a villager yelled. Ino looked in shock at what was happening and she quickly ran to go tell Tsunade, but she didn't need to because the area was suddenly filled with killing intent, all coming from one angry Godaime Homage, Tsunade Senju.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?" she yelled.

"Hokage-sama, the demon has brainwashed..." the man didn't get to finish before Tsunade punched him in the skull sending him into the crowd and knocking back the mob. Tsunade then turned and looked at Sakura before grabbing her by the throat.

"You dare insult my shinobi, if memory serves it's because of Naruto I was here as your Hokage...I could kill you right now" Tsunade said as she applied pressure causing Sakura to become blue in the face.

"But I won't, but this may serve as a warning to ALL OF YOU!" Tsunade roared before throwing Sakura down and then causing the girl to bounce back up into the air from the recoil force before punching Sakura in the face and sending her nearly half way across the village. Tsunade then picked up Naruto and carried him to the hospital along with Sasuke.

Hokage's Office

Tsunade was angry about what happened during the earlier transgressions in the streets, but now she was down right pissed off because of what she and Jiraya, who had joined the meeting, heard.

"YOU WANT TO WHAT?" Tsunade and Jiraya yelled.

"We have decided, we the elders and the civilian council have decided that Naruto Uzumaki is to be banished for injuring a fellow Konoha shinobi" Koharu said.

"WHAT, that was the mission and I specifically said that extreme force could be used if necessary and from what I've heard from Shikamaru Nara, the team leader of the mission, Sasuke Uchiha used the Level 2 of the curse seal mark." Tsunade said.

"True, but Shikamaru also told us about the situation in which he had seen Naruto's using the Kyuubi's chakra during the battle and he is now proven dangerous from what we have seen of the Uchiha's body at the hospital" Homura said.

"What the fuck, the boy should be rewarded for bringing back your precious Uchiha and instead you banish him!" Jiraya yelled.

"It's the best course of action" Danzo, the one eyed war hawk said. Jiraya growled.

"That boy is not who you think he is, in fact he is not even a he...IT IS A DEMON!" the civilian council said.

"That 'demon' has save d this village more times than you count and he was the one that helped bring back Tsunade-sama as our Godaime Hokage" Shibi Aburame said. The arguemenjt between civilians and shinobi began and Tsunade looked at the arguement before finally having enough of it.

"ENOUGH!" she roared slamming her hands on the meeting table causing it crack straight down the middle and break in two.

"We'll take a vote then" Danzo said, "Who votes that the Kyuubi jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki be banished?" Danzo asked. The three elders and the entire civilian council raised their hands.

"Those opposed?" he asked. Jiraya, Tsunade and the shinobi council all raised theirs, but they dropped their heads in disappointment, they were outnumbered.

"There, it's settled, Naruto Uzumaki is to be banished" Homura said. Jiraya looked at them and muttered one word.

"Namikaze" he said. Everyone turned to look at the Gama Sannin.

"Excuse me, Jiraya-sama?" Tsume Inuzuka asked.

"Hid GODAMN NAME IS NAMIKAZE, NARUTO UZUMAKI NAMIKAZE, SON OF KUSHINA UZUMAKI AND MINATO NAMIKAZE, THE YONDAIME HOKAGE!" Jiraya roared before leaving the room in a poof of smoke not able to take the foolishness of these people any longer.

"Is this true Tsunade-sama?" everyone asked the Hokage. Tsunade looked downcast before looking up with tears in her chocolate brown eyes and nodded.

"Naruto...is Minato's son" she said, "and you all just banished his legacy" Tsunade said. She then walked towards the door and opened it.

"Sasuke Uchiha is to stripped of his shinobi status and forced to live for the rest of his life in a jail cell with chakra restricting seals on his body, if anyone has a problem with that..."Tsunade let loose her rage at full blast, killing intent filling the entire Hokage Tower and then some, "TAKE IT UP WITH ME AND WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU!" Tsunade then left the room to go and tell Naruto the news.

Konoha Hospital

Naruto was sleeping in his room, but although he was physically fine, he was busy having a chat with his tenant.

Naruto stood in front of the cage of the demonic entity known as the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

"I can't believe she said that to me, after all I've done for her this is how she repays me...by calling me a demon" Naruto said as he knelt before the cage.

"Kit, don't worry yourself, she was bitch from the beginning and don't worry the best thing for you right now...is to leave this hell hole" Kyuubi said. Naruto looked up at the nine tailed fox and stared into the fox's large crimson eyes.

"Kyuubi why? The villagers, Sakura, Sasuke...they've all betrayed, I have only a few people here that I can call friends, maybe...maybe you are right" Naruto said. Kyuubi nodded. Although Kyuubi was a bloodthirsty demon, he was a bloodthirsty demon with a heart and although he despised his container in the beginning, the unshakeable determination and strength Naruto had was enough to actually earn the demon's respect for his jinchuriki.

"I know I'm right"

"And I should let down my mask...my mask of idiocy" Naruto said.

"You should, but are your emotions a mask too?"

"No, my emotions were real as you and I...my feelings for my friends were real..." Naruto said. Kyuubi nodded his large vulpine head before raising his head.

"Well that's enough chit-chat, now come on wake up, that busty Hokage of yours is here to see you kit. We will talk later" Kyuubi said and then there was a bright flash that burned Naruto's eyes before he found himself lying in a hospital bed underneath the bed sheets and covered in bandages. Naruto turned to face the door as he saw the knob turn and the door open to reveal the Godaime Hokgae herself.

"Oi Obaa-chan, what's up?" Naruto asked as she walked over to him. Tsunade didn't say anything until she reached his bed and then dropped to her knees and hugged the younger blonde. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her do this and then wrapped his arms around her as she stained his hospital gown with tears.

"Obaa-chan what's wrong?" Naruto asked. Tsunade looked at Naruto with tears in her brown eyes.

"I-I, I really tried Naruto, I really did, but they outnumbered us" Tsunade said. Naruto looked at Tsunade oddly, tilting his head to the side. Tsunade's information was confusing him.

"What do you mena, who is they?" he asked.

"The council...they...they've banished you from Konoha" she said. Naruto froze, shock-still. Then he cast his head down low and began to cry. After the two cried their eyes out, Naruto and Tsunade looked at each other.

"Naruto I have something to tell you" Tsunade said. Naruto nodded as he wiped away the tears from his eyes.

"It's about your parents" Tsunade said. Naruto's eyes seemed to have brightened up at that information.

"Really, you know who they are?" Naruto asked. Tsunade smiled and gave a nod, 'affirmative'.

"Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki from the country of Uzugakure and your father...he was the Yellow Flash and Konoha's Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze" Tsunade said. Naruto's eyes widened at realizing who is father was.

"Really, is this true? Am I really related to the Yondaime?" Naruto asked. Tsunade nodded and Naruto smiled before hugging the older blonde.

"Arigato, Obaa-chan" Naruto said. Tsunade smiled and returned the hug.

"Of course...you know I've always seen you as a little brother, Naruto" Tsunade said.

"And I have seen you as an elder sister, Tsunade" Naruto said. Tsunade backed up when he called her Tsunade.

"You just called me by my name" she stated.

"Yeah, well I can't call my sister figure by her name?" Naruto asked. Tsunade chuckled.

"Of course you can" Tsunade said. The two turned to hear the door opening and saw Jiraya walking into the room.

"Did you tell him yet?" Jiraya asked.

"Yeah, she told me, Ero-Sennin" Naruto said with a foxy grin. Jiraya chuckled and walked over to Naruto before reaching into his pockets and pulling out two scrolls, one with the kanji for Namikaze, the other for Uzumaki.

"Well then...I'm sorry I couldn't teach more Naruto, but here are the jutsu scrolls of your father and your mother. There's also a letter addressed to you from them at the beginning of each scroll" Jiraya said.

"Arigato, Ero-Sennin" Naruto said taking the scrolls.

"I will miss you, you would have been the best student I ever had, better than your father" Jiraya said. Naruto nodded and smiled.

"Well, how long do I have to get ready to leave the village?" Naruto asked.

"The council has given you enough time to pack your things and leave, you must leave by tomorrow afternoon though" Tsunade informed him. Naruto nodded and then Tsunade and Jiraya took him out of the hospital to help him pack.

End Flashback

"Get of here demon!" a villager yelled.

"Yeah, we don't need your kind in Konoha!" another said. Naruto sighed and then glared before unleashing some of the killing intent he had.

"You are all bakas, to think I even cared about saving your insolent and pathetic lives time after time. I'm glad I'm leaving this hell hole" Naruto said before spitting on the ground in front of the them. "May you all burn in hell" Naruto growled before turning to his friends of Team 8, Team 10 and Team Gai and looked at them as if to tell them, 'I still care for you though' The genin nodded and then watched as Naruto adjusted his backpack before channeling chakra into his feet and taking off at an insane speed so that in case anyone from the council was going to tail him, he would be far enough ahead to escape.

Naruto jumped from tree to tree before settling down in the forest as night began to fall.

Later

Naruto was sitting by a fire while reading a map. "hmmmmm. According to this It would take me 3 days to make it to Suna... maybe I can stay with Gaara for a bit before continuing my journey"

"Not a bad idea kit. You can use the opportunity to stock up on extra supplies." Kyuubi added as Naruto nodded "well I best get some sleep" as Naruto began to put the map away he heard the sound of thunder from nearby. He jumped at the sound and looked up, only to see a clear sky "that was strange"

As he said this a few bolts of lightning struck down in front of him as what appeared to be a cracking started to form and began to pull him in. Naruto tried to hold on to a tree but was eventually pulled in along with his backpack "AHHHHHHHH" he screamed as he fell through the portal

Elsewhere

A large white figure with glowing red eyes looked up towards the sky "It is done. Please help us. Young Uzumaki" The figure then lowered his head as he felt more of his conciousness begin to fade

Back with Naruto

When Naruto awoke he found himself in a strange place he found himself in what looked like a narrow alleyway surrounded by the two largest buildings he had ever seen in his life "where on earth am I? Kyuubi? You still there?" he shouted to the fox demon "Yeah, Yeah Kit. Stop shouting. I have sensitive hearing" the Kyuubi grumbles "where are we? The last thing I remember was that weird cracking thing showing up" Naruto asked scratching his head

"That was a wormhole Kit. A wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Basically we've entered another dimension." Naruto raised an eyebrow at the demon "how on earth do you know all that" the Kyuubi scoffed at his question "I've been alive a very long time Kit. I've seen other wormholes before. They show up at random."

"so does that mean you've been to other world's before?" Kyuubi shook his head "afraid not. Even I'm not stupid enough to go through one. You're just unlucky enough that you landed through one. We should look around the area." Naruto nodded and did a familiar hands in "Kagebushin no Jutsu!" he yelled as a clone appeared in a puff of smoke "what the hell? I thought more clones would show up" Naruto yelled in confusion

"Hang on Kit. I've did a small scan of your body. Somethings happened to your chakra coils." Naruto widened his eyes "what do you mean?" Kyuubi shook his head "It's either a side effect of the interdimesional travel or something with this world... basically you can't use as much Chakra as you used to. With the amount I can feel I'd say you could use the henge or create a few clones. But moves like the Rasengan are out. That's not all... the seal was damaged during the travel. Eventually I will disappear..."

Naruto felt like his heart had just shattered. He became unable to use his best techniques, he's become severely weakened and he would lose his best friend. Tears started to form around his eyes as the kyuubi sighed "Im sorry kit... i wish it could have been different. There is a plus side however. i wont disappear right away... it will take a couple of years before my soul vanishes. I will teach you the best I can. Naruto wiped his eyes with a nod and looked out the alleyway and saw a lot of people wearing strange clothes. He decided to use a henge to make himself look older and wearing a suit with his hair combed back "this should do"

Kyuubi snickered at how silly he thought Naruto looked "so what's the plan Kit?" Naruto scratched his head "Well, first we have to buy a place, an apartment maybe luckily I still have my backpack and I had enough money in there to at least may one month's rent depending on the type of apartment we're buying" Naruto said as he began to walk around the town until he found a newspaper stand. Naruto took one and scanned through it until he found the section about homes for sale. There was an apartment which had one bedroom, a couch, television, air conditioning and a kitchen/living room, costing just the amount of money Naruto had in his bag.

So Kyuubi what do you think of this world so far?' Naruto asked his tenant as he entered the appartment after buying it

"It seems nice, really nice, the pollution leaves a lot to be desired, but other than that it's nice. You should use your henge to try and find a job. Youre money wont last forever" Kyuubi said.

'Yeah, alright, damn you and your persuasive nature, damn it' Naruto thought before cutting off his connection with Kyuubi. Naruto bserved the apartment. It was small, larger than the apartment that he had in Konoha so it was pretty much okay to him. The kitchen had no food in the fridge so Naruto knew he had to go out shopping sometime later as well as for some clothes since the ones he was wearing now were the only set of clothes he had. There was a microwave and an electric stove too with a small kitchen table for two. "this will be my new life" Naruto thought "this is my second chance" he thought to himself. He began talking to the Kyuubi again. "So how long exactly till your soul disappears?" he asked with a devestated look on his face" the Kyuubi sighed "it's hard to say, I'd say around 2 years... so I'll teach you the best I can until then" Naruto nodded "thank you Kyuubi" the fox smiled "Kurama. My real name is Kurama." Naruto widened his eyes and smiles "Thank you... Kurama"

3 years later

It's been 3 since Naruto entered this world. The now 16 year old stood at a nice 6ft 3in due to him getting better nutrition and his training. Kurama soul vanished a year ago and the blonde still missed him to tbis day. He now wore a black T-shirt with an orange fox on it as a way to remember him. Thanks to his henge he's been able to make a life for himself doing a number of odd jobs. What awed Naruto the most about this world was the Internet. Due to a company called Kamishiro there was a place called Eden were people could meet and communicate from anywhere. Naruto had never been to Eden before but he had heard a lot about it from everyone in his favourite chat room.

After accessing his usual chat site, Naruto quickly logged into his account. The monitor went blank for a while before a yellow logo greeted him with a cheerful voice. "Enjoy Chat!" He quickly tapped on the screen to access the server. "Welcome," the voice continued, "To Enjoy Chat!" A carousel of icons appeared before him. "Select a chat room."

Naruto maneuvered his cursor over a few icons before he spotted the private chat room he usually accessed. "Ah! There's Blue Box's icon!"

With a click, the voice made itself known again. "Please enter the password!"

After a few hesitant strokes on the keyboard, the former ninja quickly typed in the rest of the long string of characters Blue Box set as this week's password. The light blue loading bar gradually filled as it verified the code and soon, the lock on the corner of the chat room's icon undid itself with a click.

"Welcome!" the Enjoy Chat voice told him as Naruto was finally let into the chat room.

Naruto blinked as a slew of messages from the other visitors scrolled past him. He quickly skimmed through them, trying to get a grasp of the current happenings between all of his online friends. As usual, it was just a slew of random conversations, but Naruto took it all in before he saw two avatars chatting.

Hattie: You watch TV yesterday?

yuki: I did! It was awesome!

The teenager ignored them though as he dove further into the chat room where the rest of his online friends were gathered. He brightened as he found a spot for his avatar in their circle. Everyone seemed hyped up for some reason and Naruto quickly did his best to catch up on the conversation.

Dark Night Satan: What? What is it?

Akkino: Hey guys! Ever heard of Digimon?

Blue Box: What's this all of a sudden?

Old Man Fanta: You're talking about Digimon programs, right? Those dangerous programs used by hackers.

"Digimon…?" Curious, Naruto asked a question of his own.

Kurama10: Dangerous? How dangerous, exactly?

Old Man Fanta: They can break through security, steal data… enter password-protected forums with ease…

Old Man Fanta: Those programs can do all kinds of nasty things! They're behind most of the incidents that have been happening.

Akkino: Wow, Digimon sound nuts!

AlgerN0N: My friend got his account targeted by them. (;_))

Love Crusher: No way…

U Starving: When did this happen?

Dark Night Satan: In some areas, Digimon roam around on their own…

Akkino: Wait a minute, Digimon can move!?

Old Man Fanta: It sounds like these programs have avatars. Kinda like monsters.

AlgerN0N: Digimon… like "Digital Monsters"?

Akkino: Exactly!

U Starving: When did this happen, exactly?

Naruto blinked when a notification popped up with a chime. "Eh…? 'Navit-kun has logged in?' I've never seen that name here before…"

To his surprise, a saw popped up in the middle of the chat room floor and began cutting out a circle. A sleek robotic figure came out of the resultant hole and its LCD face display read "EDEN" before a pinkish purple smiley face replaced it. To everyone's surprise, it began to chat with them.

Navit-kun: Yoooo, what's up, people!

AlgerN0N: Whaaat, it's Navit-kun!

Love Crusher: Huh? You mean that EDEN mascot?

Akkino: Sorry man, no solicitations! Haha!

Old Man Fanta: What the heck? Why would an EDEN official come all the way out here?

Blue Box: …This was a private room, y'know? Just who are you?

U Starving: And what's with that greeting? Hardly suiting an official…

Akkino: Wait a minute… is he a hacker!?

Love Crusher: Speak of the devil…

AlgerN0N: For real!?

Navit-kun: That's right! I'm Navit-kun, the hacker!

Navit-kun: I have a fantastic present for all of you! Be sure to log in to EDEN tomorrow!

Navit-kun: Don't forget, now! If you don't login, I'll hack you!

Navit-kun: Buh-bye, now!

With that, the mysterious Navit-kun left the chat room the same way he entered. Naruto blinked at the screen as another chime and notification revealed to him that Navit-kun logged out. Everyone else in the chat room remained silent for a moment as they all took in what just happened.

Old Man Fanta: What the heck… Was that an actual hacker?

Akkino: No way, dude!

Love Crusher: Think someone's playing a prank on us?

Akkino: Sounds fun, don't it? Let's check it out!

Nobody responded for a while. Naruto lightly drummed his fingers on his keyboard as he figured out how he wanted to respond. "Eh…? It seems interesting…"

Akkino: What, don't tell me y'all are chicken?

Blue Box: You want to go, Akkino? What'll you do if it's a real hacker?

Akkino: This is just PR for an EDEN event, ain't it? A REAL hacker would be cooler, though…

Blue Box: …Sounds like I can't stop you. Fine, then I'll come with.

Akkino: What, is this a date now? You asking me out all of a sudden!?

Blue Box: …Anyway.

Akkino: Anyone else gonna come with us?

Old Man Fanta: Better safe than sorry. I'm out.

AlgerN0N: I'll pass!

Love Crusher: Me, too.

Naruto watched the other avatars scatter. He smiled though as he finally came up with his decision. He made his puppet-like avatar jump before replying.

Kurama10: I'm in!

And so the chatting continued for the three of them, although Naruto didn't comment much. He much preferred just listening while giving his opinion every now and then. Still, Akkino and Blue Box went on with their late-night gab fest. As always, topics were loose, with no real focus.

Eventually, dawn broke outside their windows. That was the day they were finally going to meet in EDEN. They spent the day much as they did the day before. And then, the appointed time drew near.

The ones and zeroes lined up in a non-descript pattern before breaking apart. The EDEN logo appeared before Naruto as he waited for the access point to fully activate. He blankly stared at the company name at the bottom of the logo as he did so.

"EDEN… by Kamishiro Enterprise," he thought aloud to kill the time. "An apple logo… Ah…? Like Adam and Eve? Kami is God, isn't it? I never realized that connection until now…" He smiled to himself as he further considered this line of thought, but suddenly the logo disappeared. "Ah… Time to go."

Naruto held up his hands and watched as the access point seemed to suck him into EDEN. He watched as the world around him turned white and soon it felt was as though he were zooming through the air. A great white sphere floated before him and he guessed that his destination was there. He stared at it in awe as he took in the wonders around him.

"So this is EDEN!" He brightly smiled at the sensation of flying through the digital landscape. "I never really had a reason to log on before, but this is amazing!"

As it was his first visit, an introductory AI began speaking to him via his goggle-style Digivice. "Welcome to the digital garden of EDEN! EDEN is a metaverse providing several revolutionary services in a new generation of digital content. Bountiful entertainment, including shopping and movies… Everything from corporate transactions to political administrations… Everyone's needs are met. I will be more than happy to introduce some of the available services that will be a part of your daily life."

"Eh…? Daily life? So some people log on every single day, huh? That's pretty impressive…" Naruto mused as he continued skimming through the world.

"The future of the net is not behind a screen. It is intuitive virtual reality through the use of avatars. I do hope you enjoy using our cutting-edge cyberspace services."

The curious boy waved his right arm a few times. "This really does feel like my actual body… That's pretty cool…"

"EDEN is a human network connecting the world to the future, run by Kamishiro Enterprise," the AI concluded as he landed on what felt like solid ground.

"And touchdown!" he smiled, his bright blue eyes gleaming in excitement. He reached a hand up to his goggles and cut the introductory transmission before it could offer him anymore help on the workings of EDEN. "Well… I'll get a better feel for EDEN by experiencing it myself. Now… Let's see…" He took a good look at his surroundings. "The entrance to EDEN. This is where we promised to meet." Naruto tapped his goggles to have a display of the time appear before him. "I'm here a little earlier than we'd agreed on. I'm guessing Akkino and Blue Box still aren't here." He then heard a chuckle He glanced around him again and didn't see anyone who could be his chat friends. "This'll be the first time I've met them outside a chat room." He closed his eyes and sighed as he considered something. "I don't know what their avatars look like, though." He opened his blue eyes again and smiled. "But I should be able to figure it out! I'll try making small talk with the EDEN avatars in the area!" With a nod to himself, he quickly set off in search of his online friends.

Naruto spotted a man wearing an orange hooded vest and blinked as he seemed out of place. The man stared back at the red-haired boy but said nothing.

After a few more seconds of staring, Naruto decided to walk past him with a shrug. He's a bit suspicious, but I guess he's not doing anything wrong…

The teen asked around if anyone had seen or knew anyone by the handles "Akkino" or "Blue Box" but didn't discover anything. He did pick up a few interesting rumors about EDEN though, although how monsters and ghosts worked in a cyber world eluded him. Eventually, Naruto let out a sigh as he stood in front of the entrance pavilion.

"They aren't here after all…" He crossed his arms and looked out over the entrance from his high vantage point.

Nearby, a boy noticed him. "Looking for your friends?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am," Naruto nodded.

"If they're not here, did you try looking in the community area?"

"Community area?"

"It's an open area just like the entrance, so you can get there from any terminal." The boy pointed at the round access point Naruto had noticed earlier when he landed.

"Oh, I see…" Naruto nodded. "Alright, thanks." He started down the stairs again and laughed at himself. "I guess I showed up too early after all." He tapped his goggles again. "There's still time left before our meeting!" he told himself. "Let's check out those other areas then!"

"This is the Community Area," Naruto said to himself as he landed. He curiously looked around and noticed the atmosphere here was much different from EDEN's entrance. "I like this place. It's quiet and relaxed." He flinched when the calm tranquility was sharply interrupted by his Digivice's Talk feature. "Who could it be?" He accepted the call only to see Navit-kun appear on the digital screen. "Huh!?"

"Hey there! It's me, Navit-kun!" The robotic figure happily jumped up and down as he reintroduced himself. After a while, it flashed Naruto an annoyed frown. "Just one sec~ You're behind schedule, silly! You're gonna be late! Hurry up! Come to Galacta Park in Cron!" Navit-kun began smiling again. "Your two friends arrived a little while ago and are waiting for you! I have a gift for you all, but everyone has to be there first! Buh-bye!"

Naruto frowned to himself when the call was abruptly cut. "Cron?" His eyes widened as he recognized the name of the area. "Isn't that the dangerous area full of hackers? Even I've heard the rumors of that area…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, calm down. No need to panic." He opened his eyes and smirked. "I wonder what he meant by a 'gift'? Anyway, let's go to Galacta Park in Cron!" He started for the terminal but paused when he realized he had a slight problem. "I've never even been to EDEN before, let alone anywhere near Cron. How do I get there?" He scanned his surroundings again and noticed people scattered here and there. "There might be someone here who knows though. I'd better ask around!"

The teen frowned as he wasn't really getting the information he needed, but he pressed onward anyways. Everybody seemed too focused on their own enjoyment of EDEN but it was abundantly clear that the vast majority of users tend to avoid the deep underbellies of it. This only fueled Naruto's curiosity over whether Cron was truly deserving of such a reputation. Eventually he found someone who seemed to know something so walked up to the businessman standing near the scale replica of EDEN.

"Excuse me? Can I ask you something?" Naruto tapped him on the shoulder.

"Kinda busy here?" the man glared at him.

"Sorry, but it's my first time in EDEN and I wanted to know how to get to Cron," Naruto politely smiled.

The man's eyes widened. "What? You want to go to Cron!? But why!? It's lawless, and filled with hackers, besides!"

"So I hear, but…"

"If that's what you're into, we're done here," the man shook his head. "Go talk to a hacker if you want to know about it. There's a hacker-looking thug near the entrance."

"Hacker…?" Naruto blinked as he remembered the suspicious hooded man from before. "Oh! I see! Alright! Thanks, mister!"

The man sighed as Naruto started for the terminal. "Don't blame me for your foolish decision. Grow up and take responsibility for yourself."

"It can't be that bad," the teen shrugged as he returned to EDEN's entrance. He looked around for the hooded man and approached him without reservation. "Excuse me!"

The man frowned as he lifted his head to look at Naruto. The high school student stared at him with curious blue eyes before the hacker smirked at him. "Heh… 'I want to go. To Galacta Park, in Cron.' That's what you think you want. Isn't it?"

"That's right!" Naruto nodded with a smile.

"I'll show you the way." The hacker took out his cell phone model Digivice and sent a link to the curious teen. "This is the URL. To the area. Take it."

"Alright! Thanks!" Naruto verified the link and hurried towards the terminal. "Now I can go to Cron!"

The hacker crossed his arms and smirked at the younger male's excitability. Heh… Another hacker is to be born, huh?

Naruto couldn't help but let out a yell as he glided through cyberspace. He watched layer by layer of EDEN pass him as he dove further into the world. He soon noticed though, that the deeper he went, the darker EDEN seemed to get. "Huh… I suppose it is sketchy-looking… but it still can't be that bad…" He felt his body begin to slow down as he neared his destination and he spotted a hooded black-haired boy. "Huh? Could that be…?" The taller boy on the ground looked up at him with a scowl on his face. "Blue Box?" Naruto guessed, but he couldn't confirm it as he continued past him.

The boy wearing the hooded coat raised an eyebrow as he studied Naruto. "Kurama10, huh? So he's finally here…" He shook his head as he returned to the park. "Well… I'd better give up my ghost hunt…"

Naruto continued his examination of his surroundings as he prepared to land and spotted the decrepit park as well as someone already there. "Ah…! This must be Akkino then!"

Although it had been her idea to check it out in the first place, the girl wearing the pink hooded jacket seemed rather lost and clearly out of place. She glanced around herself nervously, unsettled by the thought of being alone in such a seedy area. "Where did everybody go?" she whined before a moving dark grey and yellow mass caught her eye. She brightened when she spotted Naruto coming in for a landing. The girl puffed up her cheeks in annoyance as soon as he was close enough. "You have gotta be kidding!" she called out to him. "You're late! Soooo late!"

Naruto only gave her a bright smile as he placed his hands at the side of his hips. "Sorry I'm late! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, but call me Naruto. Would you happen to be Akkino, by any chance?"

The girl smiled back and nodded. "Oh, hey! Yep, I'm Akkino! This is your first time in EDEN, right? My real name's Shiramine Nokia! Nice. To. Meet. You!" Naruto flinched when Nokia suddenly blew up at him. "NOOOOT! You're late! What were you doing!? Leaving me alone in such a dangerous place. How would you feel if you were in my shoes?"

The blonde boy let out a nervous laugh. "I guess it is dangerous for a girl like you to be out here alone…" Naruto curiously looked around. "But what about Blue Box?"

Nokia paused. "You're asking if Blue Box has shown up yet? Oh, he showed up all right. But what does that even matter?" She crossed her arms and pouted. "Like, can you believe this? He's all, 'Oh, I've got to go and find a ghost,' and all of a sudden he's running off by himself. That's how he rolls, apparently! One hundred percent full of himself! Thinks he's all that just because he's got good looks or whatever. And so like, what? The Ghost of the Pale Boy? I've heard the rumors but don't know the details. What does he even plan to do if he finds it? I mean, ghosts in cyberspace? That's unscientific! It doesn't even make any sense! Not that I'm scared or noth—

The boy with black hair from earlier suddenly appeared behind her. "Boo!" Nokia let out a terrified shriek and hurried to Naruto's side. "Whoa, easy," the older boy smirked at her. "Overreacting a bit there, aren't we?"

"Oh, jeez, Arata-chan," Nokia frowned. "It's just you. I… I thought you were a ghost."

Arata rolled his eyes at her. "Sheesh. You don't have to act all tough by coming to a place like this if you're chicken, you know."

"Hey now! You're the one who ditched me in that 'place like this', Arata, you slimy little no-good—"

"Oh, just shut your trap. Anyhow…" The raven-haired boy looked over towards Naruto. "We've never met before, have we? I'm Sanada Arata. Nice to meet you and all that."

"Likewise," Naruto cheerfully smiled. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Arata decided to ask his own question "What's with your nickname online? It's kind of a weird nickname" Naruto gave a sad smile "It's a reminder of someone dear to me" Arata could tell this was bring up bad memories and left it at that

"Hey now, that's no proper introduction!" Nokia shook her head. She waved her hand towards Arata as she spoke to Naruto. "You must've put two and two together by now, but this is the person behind Blue Box! He's not what you imagined, is he? In the chat, he's kind and considerate, like a reliable big-brother figure, right? When I first met him, I was really weirded out! He's surly, self-absorbed, got this weird look in his eye… I mean, talk about a waste of good looks, right?"

"H-huh…?" the blonde boy crookedly smiled as he didn't know how to answer her.

Arata shook his head. "Leave the stupidity for later, okay?" He looked around the area pensively. "So, while I was waiting, I took a little look around. I thought that 'Navit-kun' fellow who called us here might be around."

"What!?" Nokia seemed surprised at that. "I thought you were looking for a ghost!"

"Well, I was doing a little of that too," the older boy shrugged. "But in the end, I found neither. Rather, there wasn't anyone around to be found. You'd think there'd be one or two hackers in an area like Cron, no matter how dangerous it is."

"So the rumors are true then…" Naruto wistfully breathed. He flinched when his Digivice rang again, but even though he didn't pick up, the phone function activated itself.

"So very sorry to keep you waiting. I'm Navit-kun!" the cheery robot returned. "I've got something for all you good boys and girls who showed up here today! This is the miraculous power to change the world!"

Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine as his avatar began to flicker with static. "Eh!?"

"Huh? What?" Nokia stared down at her own avatar. "What is this?"

Arata scowled. "It's hacking! We've all been hacked!"

Naruto quickly took a quick look at his account settings. He became confused when he didn't really notice anything out of place, but he soon paused when he found a new program listed in his Digivice menu. "This looks like it's been forcefully installed… Digimon Capture?"

"Whoa. This Navit fellow is no slouch," Arata said, a bit impressed. "He broke through my firewall like it was nothing."

"Digimon… Capture?" Nokia frowned at the program that was now on her phone-like Digivice.

"It's a hacking tool that's been making the rounds with hackers lately," Arata explained.

"Wait, so when you say 'Digimon', you mean like, 'Digimon' Digimon!?" Nokia asked.

"Yes, those Digimon. The ones you're so interested in," Arata sighed as he pulled up a few digital displays and began checking out the program for himself. "Hmmm… There's a certain kind of data known as 'Digital Monsters' that you can 'capture' by scanning, this thing says. Ah, so 'Digimon' IS short for 'Digital Monster'."

"What?" Nokia didn't seem to believe it at all. "Whoa, hey, hang on! Digimon are like nasty programs that hackers use, right? So then…!? That means…" She shook her head. "Have we become hackers!?"

"Well, I suppose you could put it that way," Arata shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal. "Well, it's no big deal. Hackers are nothing out of the ordinary nowadays."

Naruto closed his eyes as he took in the situation. "I suppose…"

"No way! Nuh-uh!" Nokia frowned. "Hacker's are bad news! I am NOT doing this! I don't want any part of this!" She pressed a few buttons on her phone. "I'm gonna delete this program!" She tapped the screen a few times but blinked in confusion. "Ah, what? No way, you've gotta be kidding me! I can't uninstall this thing!?"

"Leave it be," Arata warned her. "The program's protected. Who knows what'll happen if you force-delete it."

"W-what do you mean?" Nokia asked in panic.

Naruto opened his eyes and shook his head. "It's alright. I mean, just because you have the program, it doesn't mean you have to use it. Still… I think it's worth—" he paused as something caught his eye. He looked over towards the path leading deeper into Cron and noticed someone running away. "H-hey!" Nokia and Arata turned towards where he was looking at. "So that was Navit-kun? Or could that be the ghost everyone's talking about?" No wait… Both those things don't really have solid footsteps… A hacker then?

Before Naruto could voice the rest of his thoughts, Arata immediately took off after whatever it was. "Don't let him get away!"

"Arata, hold up!" Nokia tried to reach out for his jacket but just missed. "Why are we chasing him?" She turned towards Naruto and shook her head. "I… I'm out of here! I'm going home, you hear!?"

"That's alright," Naruto shrugged. The two turned towards the path leading towards the terminal point but they saw something that made Naruto pause while Nokia froze up. "Huh… A firewall?" He frowned as he looked back towards where Arata disappeared to. So it was a hacker…

"W-what is this?" Nokia frowned. "It wasn't here before. What's it doing here? Did some hacker do this too?" She nervously looked behind them at the path Arata took. "Is… is this telling us to keep going onward? Are they not letting us go home?"

Naruto brought a hand up to his mouth as he considered his options. "Arata could be in trouble. Let's go after him!" He took a few steps forward but noticed Nokia wasn't following him. "We might find an exit there too. Let's go look."

"No," Nokia shook her head and took a few steps backward. "I'm not going. I won't."

Naruto frowned as she was clearly shaking like a leaf. He sighed as there was no helping it if she was too scared to proceed. Still, it wasn't as though he could just leave her here. "Alright, then I'm going on ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come back, okay?" Nokia responded with a nod and Naruto made his way deeper into Cron.

Naruto stopped walking after a while and frowned when he realized Cron was more expansive than he thought. "Does the Cron area stretch all the way back through here?" he asked himself as he stared at the path before him. "It feels totally different from the cyberspace areas on the upper part of the EDEN Network." He brought a hand up to his mouth as he scanned for any sign of his friend. "There's no trace of Arata. He may have gone further inside." He sighed before starting off again. "I should be careful," he told himself.

Naruto continued walking around Cron to look for any sign of Arata until he heard a screech from nearby and ran towards the source. What he saw shocked him. He saw a large creature with multiple thin tentacles coming out of it attacking two smaller creatures. The first one was a beast-like creature with purple fur on most of its body. It had two large legs and two arms, each of which has three black claws, as well as a large, vulpine tail. The fur on its chest, paws, snout, and the end of its tail was white. It had two pointed ears with black stripes and two very small black wings. On its brow is a triangular red gem.

The second was a yellow dragon like creature with a black underbelly and had two arms and legs as well. The creature also wore what appeared to be black samurai armour and had a red gem on its forehead as well. Both the smaller creatures were heavily injured so Naruto decided to jump in. He kicked the larger creature, causing it to slide back and picked the other creatures up before running with them

The larger creature began chasing him, so Naruto turned a corner and ducked into a hiding spot before holding his breath. The larger creature passed by him and he sighed in relief as the two smaller creatures looked at him

"y-you saved us." The purple one said as Naruto smiled "of course I did. I can't stand seeing people pick on others for no reason. Both creatures smiled at him as he continued "I'm Naruto... who are you guys?" The purple creature jumped up "I'm Dorumon, one of the coolest digimon ever. This is my good buddy Ryudamon!" he gave a grin as Ryudamon bowed "Thank you for saving us Naruto-Dono" Naruto chuckled and scratched his cheek "please just call me Naruto... so you guys are digimon?" Dorumon nodded "yup. We kinda got lost from home and don't really know where we are" He scratched his head nervously as Ryudamon lowered his head in shame. "wait... home? Digimon have homes?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow. Ryudamon nodded "indeed Naruto-Dono. All digimon come from a different world called the digital world. It's quite a beautiful place" before Naruto could ask anymore questions the large creature from before spots them and charges at them.

Naruto quickly grabbed Dorumon and Ryudamon and jumped out the way. Dorumon spoke up "that's Chrysalimon. He attacked us while we were walking through this place" Naruto nodded and was about to begin running again until Dorumon and Ryudamon jumped off of him "Run Naruto-Dono. At least save yourself. Iaijin!" Ryudamon shouted as he fired a blade of iron from his mouth. "Metal cannon" Dorumon fired a ball of iron from his mouth at the same time, both attacks hitting Chrysalimon at the same time, knocking him back. However he got back up and screeched before shooting his tentacles towards the two digimon.

Both digimon were surprised as Naruto grabbed them and jumped out the way of the attack "Naruto?! What the heck are you doing?! Run before he kills you!" Dorumon shouted at him. Naruto's response was a foxy grin "no way. I'm no letting a creep like that hurt my friends!" both Dorumon and Ryudamon gasped, clearly touched by this, as Chrysalimon readied another attack... only to be smacked away by a large grey hand. Naruto and the two digimon looked and saw a boy around Naruto's age with white hair wearing a white jacket. Behind him was a large mechanical dinosaur digimon with two cannons on his back. "fighting a champion with two rookies? A little absurd" the boy said as he handed two capsules to naruto. "give this to your digimon. It'll heal them" Naruto nodded and gave the digimon the capsules, causing their wounds to disappears. "thanks Naruto/Naruto-Dono!" the two digimon cheered as Naruto's digivice beeped. He looked at it and saw two notication which read "partner: Dorumon/Ryudamon".

Naruto widened his eyes ad he looked at the two rookies who just grinned at him "let's kick his ass partner!" Dorumon shouted with a grin similar to Narutos. Ryudamon nodded as did Naruto. The two rookies stood in front of Naruto and got into battle stances before attacking "Iaijin/Metal Cannon!" the two fired the same attacks as before and hit Chrysalimon, making it grunt in pain until the white haired boy shouted "Mugendramon. Attack!" the now identified Mugendramon grunted and fired the cannon from his back and consumes Chrysalimon, turning him into data. Naruto and his digimon stared in awe at the raw power Mugendramon held. It took the white haired boy clearing his throat to snap then out of it "It's very rare to obtain a Digimon without scanning it through Digimon Capture, and yet here you are with two of them. What's more," he pensively brought his hand up to his mouth, "for programs to like a person…" The Digimon smiled up at Naruto, causing the veteran hacker to shake his head. "Everything about this is odd. You'll probably be an 'irregular' element among hackers."

"Irregular?" Naruto blinked at that.

"Anyway, you are free from your shell now," the boy proudly told him. "The rest is up to you. I shall take my leave."

As he turned, Naruto called out to the odd boy. "Wait! I'm looking for my friend who came this way! He's a bit older than me and has a pretty mean gaze."

"A young man with a nasty look in his eyes?" the boy paused. "Ah, the other 'irregular' one. Him?" Naruto nodded and the boy pointed towards the path leading deeper into Cron. "He was headed to that area over there."

Naruto craned his neck to get a better look of how deep the area was and frowned. "Do you know what's over there?"

"That used to be the old EDEN entrance area," the boy answered. "The remains of EDEN's creation. Its forgotten dregs. Proof of that lies in the fact that an original logout zone remains there, untouched. It's lock-protected and can't be used, but a hacker could probably deal with said lock."

"I see…" Naruto crossed his arms as a thought came to him. For a hacker, he sure knows a lot about EDEN…

"Yes, if you wanted to leave this place, it would be a good idea to use that logout zone. That boy should be able to unlock it in a snap," the grey-eyed boy hid his smirk, "as long as his skills haven't waned, that is."

"You mean… Arata?" Naruto blinked. I know Arata is good at programming and stuff, but… is he a hacker too?

"Why are you surprised?" the boy asked with a slight frown. "Don't tell me… He hasn't told you?" Naruto shook his head. "In that case, it's not my story to tell," the boy stated. "It's better to hear it directly from him."

"I guess…" Naruto frowned as the other boy turned away again. "Hold on. One more thing…" The boy didn't move as he waited for Naruto to continue. "I didn't catch your name."

"That's right. I haven't introduced myself." He turned around to directly face the new hacker. "I am Yuugo," he nodded to Naruto. "Yuugo of Team Zaxon. If you want to become a top-tier hacker, then you should seek us out. Our doors are always open." With that, he finally left.

Naruto closed his eyes to take the time to digest all of the information he just learned. Yuugo… of Team Zaxon? Is that a hacking team? He's not a bad guy since he wants to protect EDEN, but he sure knows a lot about the network... Just who is he really? He opened his eyes and sighed to himself. "Well, no sense thinking up conspiracy theories. Anyway, Arata was headed to that area over there. Yuugo also mentioned that there's supposed to be an old logout zone there." He smiled down at his Digimon before remembering something else. "We might be able to log out so I should go get Nokia." Dorumon spoke up "Nokia? What's that? Is it tasty?" Naruto shook his head "No. Nokia is a friend of mine. I need to check up on her" the two digimon nodded and followed Naruto

Elsewhere

Nokia took a deep breath as she finally worked up enough nerve to go further into Cron. She looked around for a sign of Naruto or Arata but stopped when she didn't find anything. "Where did those two go? L-like, could hackers have maybe—" She jumped when she heard footsteps nearby. She slowly turned to face the direction the sound was coming from and distinctly heard two voices.

"Hurry! Hurry!" A small orange dinosaur ran across the digital field.

"Wait a moment!" Another strange creature with a horn and wearing a fur cape chased after him. They both spotted Nokia and quickly ducked behind a wall.

The dinosaur cautiously took a peak around the corner. "Quietly…" He let out a grunt when his friend pushed down on his head to get a look too.

Naruto retraced his steps through Cron carefully, but soon a scream caught his attention. Worried that Nokia was in danger, he quickly called out his Digimon and started running towards her. He paused though when he spotted her. The girl was being circled by two other Digimon and Naruto figured they were rather harmless, considering they didn't seem like they were going to attack. Still, he approached them cautiously with his Digimon out, just in case they were dangerous.

Nokia looked at the two creatures circling her and let out a few squeals. "W-w-what are you!?"

The orange dinosaur stopped running and looked up at her. "Umm… Who are you?"

Nokia was a bit taken aback when it spoke to her. "It… it can talk!?" She relaxed a bit and blinked at the creature. "It's so… cute!" She nervously began to introduce herself. "M-m-my name's Nokia. What're your names?"

"Me?" the dinosaur smiled. "My name is Agumon!"

The fur-wearing Digimon shyly hid behind his friend. "I… I'm Gabumon."

"Agumon and Gabumon?" Nokia giggled. "What weird names!"

"Hey, they're not weird!" Gabumon looked up at her.

"You're the one with the weird name!" Agumon nodded in agreement.

"As if! My name's not weird!" Nokia chuckled.

Agumon paused. "Huh?" He looked over towards Gabumon and saw that he noticed it too.

The girl blinked at the two Digimon. "Huh? What's wrong? Have my totes adorbs good looks stunned you speechless?"

"I can smell something," Agumon whispered. "Something… familiar."

"Wait, what?" Nokia frowned. "Me?"

"Yeah," Gabumon nodded. "Familiar and reassuring."

"Uh, what!?" the girl's face went red. "Come on, this is kind of embarrassing…" She put on a big smile. "Sorry! Guess my naturally alluring pheromones are working full-force today."

Agumon laughed. "See, you ARE weird!" He noticed a weird human with two Digimon accompanying him and tensed up.

Naruto waved at them. "Nokia! It's good to see you safe."

"Oh, Naruto!" Nokia brightened when he returned. "Where the heck have you been!?"

"Yikes!" Gabumon shook his head. "It's another scary person!"

"I'm sick of being chased around," Agumon complained. "Run!"

"Wait! Calm down!" Nokia called out to them. "This is a friend of mine!" The two Digimon didn't listen though and ran off. She let out a long sigh. "They're gone. Just what were those cute little critters?" She shook her head before facing Naruto. "But never mind that. Who are they?" she asked, pointing at the two digimon following him.

This made Naruto grin "they're my partners" Dorumon jumped up "Yo! Names Dorumon" Ryudamon then bowed "I am Ryudamon. It's a pleasure to meet you Nokia-Hime." Nokia jolted with a small blush "H-H-Hime?! Heh heh. Even digimon can see what a beautiful princess I am" Naruto and Dorumon sweatdropped at Nokia words

Nokia then looked at Naruto "Having cute critters like them around could be pretty okay. Maybe this Digimon Capture thing won't be so bad after all."

"Well, not all of them are cute. We were attacked by a pretty nasty one earlier," Naruto told her. "It'll be bad if Arata encounters one on his own so we'd better get going."

"What!?" Nokia stared at him in surprised. "There was a violent wild Digimon too!? Whatever it was sounds super-duper scary!" She worriedly looked over Naruto's shoulder. "Arata's in the area through there? I'll go with you. Let's go find him!" The two then ran off to find Arata.

After a while of wandering through Cron, Nokia stopped to think something over. "Something feels really strange. Like this all happened before when I was a kid. It's like I've met Arata before…" she told Naruto who was staring at her curiously.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "We've met a bunch of times before in the chat."

Nokia shook her head. "No, not like we had met yesterday in chat or anything like that."

"Are you sure?" Naruto crossed his arms. "We're in the chat room so much that we're pretty familiar with each other."

She blinked at that. "Huh? Like, maybe… Yeah, maybe…" she paused as she couldn't come up with the words to explain it. "Something's strange." She took a moment to think it over some more let out a shriek when her avatar began flickering again.

Naruto winced as she shrieked and looked at her and saw her eyes glazed over as if she was seeing something

"What…?" Nokia looked around after snapping out of it. "What was that? Did… Did you see it?"

"See what? You just started staring into space" he told her as Dorumon and Ryudamon nodded

"Are you kidding?! How could you not see it!?" Nokia whined. "Honestly! What is WITH this place!?" She quickly started off again. "Let's go! Arata should be up ahead, right?"

Naruto stayed behind for a little while longer to check the area once more. "Is this related… to that ghost boy?" He shook his head as now wasn't the time to be delving into such thoughts. He quickly followed after Nokia but felt a shiver run down his spine. He simply dismissed it though before catching up to the red-haired girl.

Arata frowned as he looked around the old terminal point. "What was that image just now? A child? I am SO weirded out." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Damn it. I wanna know what that was!" He placed a hand on his head. "Whoa… This really does not feel right." A voice behind him caught his attention and he checked to see who it was.

"Ah!" Nokia let out a sigh of relief. "There it is! There!" she pointed at the old terminal. She spotted Arata and frowned at him. "Hang on! You're running off by yourself!? You can't just think about yourself, you know!"

"Well, at least we're all safe," Naruto shrugged. The two of them approached Arata, but Naruto soon paused when his avatar flickered. He looked over towards his Digimon and noticed they were just as tense as he was. "Something's wrong…" he muttered as he looked around for anything remotely dangerous. He lifted his gaze when a bright light caught his attention.

He watched as the light grew into a nautilus shell pattern. From that light, a strange creature emerged from it and landed before them.

Naruto quickly pulled down his goggles to run a scan but he blinked when the Digimon Capture program was unresponsive. Is that not a Digimon!?

Behind him, he sensed Nokia beginning to tremble. "What… is this…?"

Arata seemed confused too. "What's that? Is that another Digimon?" His eyes widened though as a horrible thought came to him. "It can't be! The 'Black Monster of EDEN' people have been talking about? They say it devours your data." He called out to the two younger teens. "You guys, this way! Run! Whatever that thing is, it's a real menace, that's for sure! I'll break through the lock on this thing! Log out, then get away as fast as you can!" he urgently told them before pulling up a few monitors to begin his work.

Naruto clenched his fists as he took Arata's advice. He started towards the older boy, but noticed Nokia wasn't following him. He turned to look at her only to see her frozen in place due to fear. "Nokia!"

"Hey, I told you to run, didn't I?" Arata called out to her. "Go on, get out of there!"

Nokia's knees shook as she willed her legs to move, but she was still rooted in place. "Uh… Ha… Ha…"

"Hey!" Arata yelled as the strange creature was now slowly approaching her.

Nokia watched as the monster inched closer but she still couldn't find the strength to move. She flinched when the slimy beast reeled back to attack, but suddenly, two Digimon appeared in front of her. Nokia gasped when she noticed it was Agumon and Gabumon. "H-hey… It's you guys…"

"We'll protect you, Nokia!" Agumon declared.

"G-get out of here, Nokia!" Gabumon bravely tried to exclaim.

"Ah!?" Naruto looked down at his Digimon and they nodded to him. He quickly rushed forward to join the battle. "We can't lose!" he told his team as they took their positions beside Agumon and Gabumon.

"Baby Flame!" the small dinosaur Digimon spit out a fireball as Gabumon quickly followed suit.

"Petit Fire!"

"Metal Cannon!" Dorumon offered his support.

Ryudamon fired his blade "Iaijin!"

Naruto frowned as the attacks didn't do a thing. "Are we not strong enough…?" he muttered to himself. "Everyone! Forget about doing damage! Just make sure you don't get hurt!" His eyes widened when he saw the creature prepare an attack his Digivice labeled as Erode Device. "Look out!"

The creature sent out its tentacles towards all five Child Digimon, knocking them backwards. Gabumon groaned as he picked himself up off the group. "What should we do? It's too strong!"

"I…" Agumon frowned. "Why am I so weak? We have to help Nokia and the others!"

Naruto knelt down to help his Digimon up. "Everyone…" Naruto frowned to himself before looking up towards the locked gate. "Arata! Hurry!"

Arata finished inputting the string of codes necessary to activate the terminal. "Okay!" he called out. "The lock is taken care of. You can log out!" He frowned when Nokia still wasn't moving. "Come on, Nokia! Hurry!"

"But what about them!?" Nokia worriedly asked.

"Don't you get it? You're holding them back!" Arata scolded her. "They can't do anything until you get away!"

Nokia clenched her fists as she realized he was right. She looked over at Agumon and Gabumon. The two Digimon were pelting the monster with fire again but to no avail. She forced herself to turn away from them and ran towards the terminal to log out.

Once she was gone, Arata looked over to Naruto. "Naruto! Nokia's logged out! I'll go next! You hurry on after us, okay!?"

"Just get going!" Naruto called out before turning his attention to his team. "Everyone, we're leaving!" He recalled his Digimon back into his Digivice and pushed his goggles back up before looking over towards Agumon and Gabumon. "You two…!"

"Just run!" Agumon called out.

"We'll be fine!" Gabumon reassured him.

A part of Naruto didn't want to leave them behind, it took the shouting of Dorumon and Ryudamon from his digivice to get him to reconsider. "Alright!" He nodded and started for the terminal. He didn't dare look back at the battle or else he'd be tempted to rejoin it, but from the sounds of things, it wasn't going well.

"Ah! Agumon!" Gabumon cried out as his friend was knocked aside. He brought up his arms to guard against any incoming attacks now that he was alone, but to his surprise, the creature ignored him. His eyes widened as he realized where it was going. "No, wait!"

Naruto felt a chilling presence behind him and it caused him to lose his footing, still he remained steady. He thought he felt something brush past his foot and that moment of panic resulted in him tripping towards the terminal. He desperately reached out towards the access point but his vision flickered into static once more.

Within him, he heard the voices of children. "Find us…" they begged him as the world faded to black.

Naruto didn't know whether he had made it to the terminal or whether the monster had got him. All he knew was that his Digivice was giving him an extremely concerning message but that had to mean he was still alive in one form or another.

—Warning

An unexpected error occurred during the logout process for Uzumaki Naruto—

The logout process cannot continue…

The logout process cannot continue…

The logout process cannot continue…

…The logout process will continue.

Logout successful. See you at your next login. Thank you. EDEN is a human network connecting the world to the future, run by Kamishiro Enterprise.

Real world

Naruto took in deep breaths to calm his heart rate. He kept his eyes closed so he could reorganize his thoughts without visual distractions. Still, the noise around him didn't really help because cars were honking incessantly around him. I'm alive… he thought. But where…? The boy slowly opened his eyes and blinked when he noticed something strange about his hands. H-huh…!? It's not just my hands… My entire body…! He stared at the light blue mass that made up his being. W-what's going on…!?

Around him, the cars were getting even noisier and he sensed that he was drawing a crowd since he was keeled over in the middle of the street with such a weird appearance. He decided to ignore them though as he tried to make sense of what was going on with his body.

"Um, excuse me… Isn't that dangerous?" a woman nearby ask.

"What's up with that kid?" a man mumbled. "Yikes…"

Soon a shrill voice cut through the air. "You there! What's with making such a scene in broad daylight? You want me to arrest you? Do you!?"

"Um, officer!" a passerby kid called out. "Over here!"

A woman wearing an officer's uniform snapped at the boy. "Who you calling a police officer? I'm a detective! Don't judge a book by its cover! I'll arrest you!" She tensed up when she noticed Naruto's form on the ground. "Huh? What the…?" the woman stared at the boy with wide eyes. "What is that!? What's going on? Urgh, that's gross! So gross I'm gonna arrest you! Right here on the spot!"

Naruto remained still though as he continued taking deep, heavy breaths. In the distance, he made out a car speeding through the streets. Momentarily pulled out of his jumbled thoughts, he quickly focused on the sound to figure out where it was coming from. He tensed up when he realized the car was behind him, but he knew he wouldn't have time to react to it judging by how fast it was moving. He flinched though as a gleaming black sports car with gold accents swerved around him before it came to a screeching halt in front of him.

The boy blinked when the right car door opened for him, revealing a woman with long blonde hair, a pink lens sunglass-style Digivice, and a long black scarf with thin gold lines running through its length. The lady chuckled as she studied Naruto. "You have an interesting appearance… I'm very curious. Handle it! Before it gets worse!"

It seemed as though she were offering him a ride and seeing as his only other alternative was being arrested for no reason, Naruto quickly entered the vehicle, never mind the consequences. He pulled the door close behind him despite the detective woman's protests in the streets.

"Stop that car! I'll arrest you! Wait!" the woman screamed as the car sped off.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief but he couldn't fully relax yet. He looked over at the strange blonde woman with a frown, slightly grateful that his appearance made it difficult for any sort of expression to be discernible on his face. Just what did I get myself into? He studied the sports car for a while before making it out to be an imported Alfa Romeo Montreal. Well… this sure is fancy… but for some reason... I feel strangely at ease...

The woman curiously eyed him as she drove. "I'm more used to strange phenomena than most… but I've never seen the likes of this before," she mused. "Can you hear my voice? Are you able to speak?"

"Yeah, I can hear you…" Naruto blinked in surprise. "Huh… I can… talk…" He raised his right hand up to examine it. He opened and closed it a few times before deciding that he really was still in control of his strange body. It felt extremely different though. It's super light… like how it was in EDEN…

"That's good," the mysterious woman said, pulling him out of his reverie. "I wasn't sure what I was going do if you weren't human."

"Ah… would I still be considered human like this?" he humorously asked. "How did I even get this way?"

"I see," the woman smirked. "So you have no idea what it is that happened to you."

"Pretty much," Naruto nodded.

"If you have questions, ask them now," she told him. "I'll answer whatever I can."

Naruto's mind immediately went to Nokia and Arata. "My friends! Where have they gone!? We logged out from the same terminal in EDEN…"

"No," the woman shook her head. "There wasn't anyone else around. Just you. You're wondering whether the same thing might've happened to your friends?"

"Well, of course," Naruto sighed. He felt rather relieved since if Nokia and Arata weren't around, there was probably a high chance that they didn't end up with whatever condition he had.

The lady must have sensed his thoughts because she shook her head at him again. "I see… I can't tell you to not worry about them, but your first priority should be taking care of yourself."

"Then, do you know what's happened to my body?"

"It looks like your body is in an extreme digital state, as if it were a cyberspace avatar, yet somehow here in the real world."

"Ah…" Naruto nodded in understanding. "That makes sense since it feels just like when I was in EDEN."

"If that's true, then this is a very interesting phenomenon," the woman mused as she made a sharp turn.

Naruto glanced out the window and frowned as he couldn't recognize what street he was on. "Um… where are we exactly?"

"Shinjuku," she simply replied. "I was out working, looking for something, when I came across you here."

"Really…?" Somehow, Naruto found it very unlikely.

"You might not believe that, but it's the truth," the woman shrugged. "I'm headed to my agency's office in Nakano. You can tell me the details when we get there."

"Agency?" the boy brought his hand up to his mouth and closed his eyes. He opened them again when he had one last, very important question to ask. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the woman blinked at him before she realized something too. "Ah, I haven't introduced myself yet. I should have done that earlier, but you were such a curiosity it completely slipped my mind. Sorry," she said with a small smirk.

"Better late than never," Naruto shrugged. "But I guess it's rude to ask someone to introduce themselves without introducing yourself first. I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Well, Naruto, I'm Kuremi Kyoko," the woman told him in response. "I'm just a humble detective."

"A detective, huh?" Naruto crookedly grinned. This started like the beginning of a wild adventure

Hi everyone. For those who wanted the next chapter of my DxD kamen rider story I'm waiting for build to finish so I can make a basis... which admittidly is what I should have done before starting the story. Anyway I hope you like this story. I'll admit I am a massive digimon fan. I always like it way more than pokemon. My only problem with the franchise is the handling of X evolution as it's my favourite movie and the debut of my favourite digimon. Anyway see ya soon Darkness is off after this long story start