What If?

Some time later, the sun had begun to set over the Leaf Village.

In the apartment shared by Jada, Alice, and Margaret, there were clear signs of apprehension.

Everyone had gathered to discuss the encounter they had faced with Arthur and the recently escalating strength of what some believed to be mere NPCs.

Jada leaned against the kitchen counter, arms crossed. She was still trying to cope with the events of today. Alice herself sat at the dining table, while William paced the floor.

Alexander and Jasper were also present. The latter was lounging in a chair and was clearly unfazed by the seriousness of the situation.

"Where's Redhead?" he asked.

"She needs time to herself," Jada reiterated. The three who were in pursuit of Arthur all understood the depth of Margaret's disappointment; losing in such a fashion could feel crushing. "We can't blame her for needing space."

Truth be told, Margaret was more upset that Jada had placed a Flying raijin mark on her without being told, which the latter removed upon returning home.

"Still," Jasper replied with his arms crossed. "She could have at least shared her side of the story after Alex healed her."

"Babe," Alice responded. "She fought hard; she's just being hard on herself."

"Yeah, bro," Alex added. "She'll come around when she's ready."

Jasper wasn't one to get emotional, so he stopped pursuing the matter. His attention was now on the person who defeated her.

"What's actually going on with these characters?" he asked the group. "They're not your typical NPCs."

Jada flinched a little, having forgotten that she was in the virtual world. And quite frankly, she disliked the term "NPC."

Alex, however, agreed with Jasper.

"I've been thinking the same thing," he added. "I was even more struck when Will lost to Sasuke in the exams."

"Exactly!" William shouted after stopping in his tracks. "Wai—what?!" Then he fidgeted nervously as if not wanting to remember that moment.

The room fell silent momentarily before Jada broke it. "So, what are we saying? That someone's pulling strings behind the scenes? That there's more players here or something?"

Jasper scoffed at those questions. "Other players? Give me a break. It's not that deep, people. Redhead lost because she was weak. That's it."

Jada shot him an incredulous look.

"That's a ridiculous conclusion!" she countered. Everyone was a tad taken aback since that was the first time she'd gotten mad when she was often the innocent type. "Marge fought hard, and this isn't just about her, Jasper; it's about everyone. You don't just chalk it up to someone being 'weak.'"

"Both sides have a point," Alex jumped in, willing to steer the conversation away from confrontation. "Only we have the power to do things like that John-fellow, so it actually could be a player."

A thoughtful hush settled over the group until William asked, "What about Arthur?"

"Him again," Jasper groaned, dramatically rolling his eyes. "I already took care of him ages go, so why even bring up his name?"

"Well, when he died, almost everything changed. I'm not saying he's at fault or anything; I'm saying to look at everything we've done so far: we told my cousin the truth, prevented lord Third's death, and more. What if all our actions are just butterfly effects from having tampered with the story?"

That was quite the daring statement to ponder until Alex asked the one question to stir their minds: "What if Arthur's character is still alive?"

The group all looked at him, yet no one said a word for a moment. Of all of them, Jada's expression was the most intense.

"Explain," Alice challenged, "since you seem to have all the answers."

"What if he somehow came back? I mean, if he was a player like us, he could've respawned, right?"

Alice shook her head with a stern expression.

"No one comes back from a death like that," she argued. "The rules are clear: when a player dies, the grid lines appear. It's part of the system. And plus, we've already seen that Lars, a Tekken fighter, exists in this world. If other characters from different franchises are popping up, there's the possibility of overlap. But Arthur? No, I don't buy it. He's gone."

All sides were valid. This world did indeed have characters that would otherwise not ever make an appearance in the official story of Naruto.

"But still," Jada interjected. "There are so many characters literally showing up that are way too strong for their own good."

"Like who?" Jasper challenged.

"Kaito and John," Jada answered. "They never existed in the main storyline. If they had, they would've been major characters. But they weren't, so how do we know they have nothing to do with Arthur?"

"Then that would bring up the notion of Hoshikaze," Alex added.

With that, Jada was placed in a corner.

Jasper, clearly disdainful, laughed, "Dudes, I could take them on, no sweat. If I just knew where Kaito and John were, I'd go and finish them off myself."

Alice shot him a glare and said, "No you won't…"

"What?" he sneered. "You don't think I'm strong enough?"

"That's not what I'm saying," she softly said, pulling him in closer. Then she kissed him before slowly pulling back. "I'm saying that you don't need to be stirring up trouble."

William looked away, feeling disturbed by their romantic encounter.

"Good to see you're taking this so seriously," Alex sarcastically replied.

"If I may ask," Alice said, looking at Alex. "Why do you two think Arthur's behind all this?"

Jada answered for him by reminding Alice that Arthur's a Christian. The first "Christian" encounter she had with someone was with Hoshikaze, when the latter told someone to only bow down to God.

"That's not really a good reason," Alice countered. "God exists everywhere, so it's no surprise that characters would say something like that. Besides, didn't you say that he saved you, like, twice?"

"But—"

"And let's assume Arthur survived all of this," she continued, cutting Jada off. "How would you explain Kaito and John, whom Marge saw together? There'd be no way the Akatsuki would be fooled by shadow clones. And last I checked, no one except Will has authentic clones."

"I guess that makes sense…" Jada said, looking away.

Alice had done well defending Arthur's many identities. Truly, she simply didn't want them to keep mentioning his name.

"Whether there's someone behind all this or not," Alex intoned, "it doesn't account for our weaknesses."

"I don't think it's our weaknesses, but…" Jada insisted, ignoring his retort. "I think I should go investigate them."

"Why?" Alex asked, feeling curious about her intentions. "What're you hoping to find?"

She hesitated for a moment as if trying to cloak her real reasonings. Then she said, "I just need to know if all these characters are connected somehow. I mean, Hoshikaze-sensei, Kaito, and John… Who's to say they aren't related in some way?"

"You're diving headfirst into unknown territory," Alice cautioned. "If you go after something like this alone, you might end up in deeper trouble."

As they pondered this, Alice could see beneath Jada's motivations. She was worried about the implications of Arthur being alive.

After a moment of silence, William broke in, "If we're all agreeing to let Jada investigate, then I want to join her. Ugh! Ya know, just to keep her safe, of course."

Jasper shook his head due to the man's clear infatuation with her. Jada herself couldn't help but giggle in all this drama.

"It's sweet that you wanna to protect me," she replied while expressing her gratitude, "but I'd rather do this alone."

Her smile was warm, and she seemed adamant about the matter, which made William's face fall.

"But-but what if—"

"Will has a point," Alice said, interrupting him. "I get that you want to investigate things, but you don't have much of a lead to go off of."

Alice was right. While it didn't quite align with what William was thinking, Jada knew little about the people she was looking to pursue. "How 'bout you let me help with tracking at least one of them down?"

After a moment of contemplation, Jada considered Alice's impeccable sensing abilities. It might make her mission a lot easier.

It was a truly a compromise, and if Alice had sound reasoning behind it, Jada could see the logic.

"Okay," she conceded. "You can join me then."

"Oh, come on!" William exclaimed, but his sudden excitement made him trip over his feet, landing comically on the ground.

Both Alice and Jada chuckled, while Alex rolled his eyes and suppressed his smile.

"Classic move, man," Jasper teased.

"Just wait a second!" William said, pushing himself up from the floor, brushing off the dust with mock dignity. "My Sage Mode's sensing ability is just as good as Alice's sensing. I could help you, too, Jada. I mean, if you'll allow it."

"Dude," Jasper interjected. "You're just a carbon copy of Naruto; you can't help them."

"I beg to differ," William retorted.

"Weren't you like the only man attacking that John guy?" Jasper added. "Pretty sure you'll be of no help trying to hunt him down again."

"Jasper!" Alice tried subduing.

But it was too late. An argument ensued, and both Jasper and William grew more ridiculous as they defended their respective powers against one another.

"I'm not scared of you, Jasper!" William rejected.

"Enough!" Alex yelled after a moment. "It's late, and I'm tired. Let's just trust in Jada and Alice to figure this out. They'll report back to us once they have something."

This caused William to quiet down, while Jasper only snickered.

It took a lot for one player to calm down another. It took even more for that same player to calm down two players.

After the group gradually settled things, they wrapped up the discussions regarding William's current involvement with Naruto, as well as the potential of rescuing Sasuke from the Sound Village early.

As everyone here knew how the story went, the two-and-a-half-year time-skip in the series marked a significant period of growth and transformation for both Naruto and the others in the world of ninjas.

Under the guidance of Jiraiya, Naruto embarked on a training regimen designed to enhance his abilities, particularly focusing on overcoming the limitations imposed by his connection to the Nine-Tails.

He struggled with understanding and countering genjutsu, a skill crucial for his eventual confrontation with Sasuke.

This struggle led teacher and pupil to the genjutsu Tree Village, where Naruto's development was showcased when he managed to defeat Kandachi by using the Giant Rasengan technique.

There were also some events regarding video game scenes, yet none of them needed to transpire since the players had helped Naruto progress early.

The main character was now very skilled in taijutsu, somewhat understood Hinata Hyūga's feelings, and was quite attached to his home. He was even a lot more mature without losing his overall enthusiasm that made him who he was.

Needless to say, William did a great job ensuring that character stayed true to his written nature.

However, that was the big problem: because Naruto had changed so much and was robbed of his initial character development, he hadn't wanted to leave the village with Jiraiya; he sought to stay in the village and train here instead.

Jada had also expressed her undesire for him to leave after his encounter with John. Yet a vote was cast as to whether or not Naruto should go—she was outvoted.

That's not to say that she didn't take the biggest measurements of placing a seal on his Eight Trigrams Seal. Jiraiya was also informed about the threat of the Akatsuki on Naruto's head.

The Sannin was more than understanding and vowed to ensure Naruto's protection.

When it came time to determine who would be venturing with those two, William was unanimously decided.