III.

Naruto was not well at all from that moment on. His stomach ached, burned or itched constantly. He was constantly sick to his stomach and felt tired. At night, he was plagued by nightmares of a giant demonic fox trying to eat him or tear him apart from the inside.

At first, he thought he had been hit in the stomach as it looked like he was bruised at first. However, it had changed and darkened over time and now it looked like he had tattooed his stomach. He couldn't explain it, and he wasn't in the mood to play the game.

About a week later, while he was lying in bed, his phone rang. Naruto looked at what came to him and was actually surprised by the notification. He got a message from the game with a picture of Gaara and the text that he was waiting for him with another task. He wasn't really into playing, so he deleted the notification.

When he put the phone down and lay down again, he wondered if he had even given his phone number or email to the game. Sure, he specified these things when he ordered the game, but not anymore. He tried to figure out where Gaara could have gotten his number but then gave up.

Not even ten minutes later he received another message. Again from Gaara with a text that he was waiting for him at the clan. Naruto just read it before putting the phone back to the side. He didn't bother to delete it anymore.

Not even five minutes later, he received another notification. If he was well, he wouldn't mind, but right now he was tired and felt like he didn't have the energy for it. He picked up the phone and looked to see what it was.

He had a strong hunch that it was from Gaara again. And he was right. This time he asked him if he was alright. Naruto wondered if his phone was hacked. However, it was just an idea that soon evaporated.

He sighed tiredly and turned off all the volume on his phone, thinking that he would text him back later. He then put it down and rolled onto his other side before falling asleep.

When he woke up in the morning, he noticed that he had about five more messages from Gaara and three missed calls from Shikamaru. This surprised him more than anything, and even though he was still sleepy, he immediately went to call him.

His friend was relieved to hear him on the phone. He was worried about him as he too had received alerts from the game specifically from Gaara to check on him. He found it strange too and when the blond told him what happened to him, he was intrigued, or better said, he found it strange. However, he promised him that he would look into it.

🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉-🟉

Naruto had a long moment wondering if he should at least play Konoha for a while. What if there was a new event that would help him get closer to the title of Hokage? Or some new epic items that won't be much to get again?

Finally, he decided to play. He put on his glasses and logged into the game. Among all the players that appeared on spam, he immediately recognized Gaara. A smaller figure came up to him and immediately started asking him where he was and if he was okay. It was the most words he had ever heard him say at once.

"Were you worried about me?" Naruto asked him innocently. Gaara immediately fell silent and looked down. You could see his cheeks turn to the colour of his hair.

Naruto was about to say something else to him when the familiar dragon fight countdown appeared over their heads. He was about to suggest that they go watch the fight together when he noticed that his friend had disappeared.

Apparently, Gaara was still online so he didn't log out of the game. He wanted to teleport to him, but he couldn't. If it was for a task, the server would have written it to him. Now it just wrote him a message that he doesn't have access there.

So he tried to send him a request to teleport to him but without results. He didn't understand, and he didn't even want to watch the dragon fight. Instead, he embarked on another series of tasks.

After several quests, he finally managed to unlock a new level for his class and as a reward, he unlocked a new attack, Rasen Shuriken . He was excited about it. He would have told Gaara about it, but he was still unavailable. He wanted to test the new attack in combat, so he decided to try the weaker dragon-fighting tasks.

One of the tasks sounded rather simple. He was supposed to save some NPCs from enemy territory and not be seen. He thought that as a ninja this was a task just for him. When he got down to it, it seemed all too easy to him, as there were few enemies and no one was looking in his direction.

He made it to the given place, a kind of sandy hollow, where the NPC was supposed to be waiting for him. A figure in white tattered clothes and long dark hair was indeed sitting at the bottom.

Naruto jumped down to her and was about to take her hand when he noticed something was wrong with the figure. It wasn't until late that he realized it was a decoy. A mere puppet that began to twitch at his touch.

Naruto jumped a bit to the side as the puppet sank into the sand and the enemy's intro appeared in the background. This was happening only for the more important bosses. A total of three puppets emerged from the sand, and the strings glistened in the light, pulled by the puppeteer, who jumped out of the guts of the largest puppet.

Kankuro, the Puppet Lord, as he introduced himself was all black and had purple markings on his body. He wouldn't wait for anything, he went on the attack. Since it was like fighting three figures at once, Naruto found himself in a tight spot.

While he was fighting back, Kankuro got behind him and took the hero book from him to look at. He did this to almost everyone because he was bored and mainly wanted to see if they had what it took to let them complete this task.

He never let any weakling pass. There was an occasional chance that someone would beat him by pure chance, but he really hated weaklings. However, he loved matches where he could cut loose and not hold back with attacks. He went a bit overboard at times, but that was his mission, wasn't it?

Kankuro listed through a hero book while his puppets played with Naruto. He stopped his attacks when he noticed this ninja knew his younger brother Gaara. He was interested in this as it was the first time anyone had met him before defeating the dragon.

"Hey, I surrender, so don't attack!" Kankuro yelled at him, waving his book at him. Naruto looked at him as if he didn't understand what he was talking about and immediately ran over to him. Realizing it was his book, he tried to take it from him, but Kankuro held it out of his reach.

"Calm down, I wanted to ask about Gaara," Kankuro said, handing him the book back. Naruto immediately put it away in his inventory and looked blankly at the puppet master who wanted to know more. The ninja found it strange that the boss was questioning him like that. He still had no idea what program this game ran on, as he had never encountered this in any other game.

Kankuro finally told him that he once had a younger brother whom he had not seen for a long time and had no idea what had happened to him. He did, however, give ninja some minor tips and tricks for the game. How to level up faster, use special points, attacks and more.

It was weird getting advice from a boss, but whatever. Don't look at the teeth of a gifted horse. It was even more special when Kankuro wanted to give him a badge for beating him. Most players get it automatically when they defeat him, but the puppet master wanted to give it to him.

Naruto didn't want it. He wanted to come back here when he got stronger, or when he learned how to properly use Rasen Shuriken and really kick his ass. It would be against his internal rules.

Kankuro tried to convince him but to no avail. However, when Naruto was on his way out of his territory, using the strings he used to control his puppets, he secretly put his badge into his inventory.

He was happy that his younger brother was okay and that he had found such a friend. When he looked deeper into the archive he stole from another player, Naruto was the only one talking to Gaara. And according to the level of their friendship, it wasn't just once.