Chapter 2: Welcome to the Chunin Exams Battle Royale!

[Chunin Exams Stadium- The Fourth Hokage]

Sometimes, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, thought that Fate really had something against him.

After all, whenever he was about to enter a new chapter of his life, tragedy seemed to struck out of nowhere.

And it was not some common tragedy either but one with world-shaking effects.

When he had finally asked out the love of his life, Kushina Uzumaki and started dating her, the Third Shinobi War started.

When Kushina was about to give birth to their first children, a mysterious masked man struck and the Kyuubi Attack happened.

If it was not for the sacrifice of his predecessor, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, he dared not think that his family would have survived.

And now, when the Five Hidden Villages had finally decided to sit on the same table and talk about peace, a mysterious voice had sounded out of nowhere with outrageous claims, ruining all of his plans.

"Any progress in finding the source of the voice, Itachi." Minato asked the ANBU Captain standing behind him, currently coordinating all the ANBU in the stadium to search for the mysterious voice's source.

Itachi Uchiha was one of the most prodigious Shinobi to ever come out of Konoha, already in line to be the next ANBU Commander despite being only a few years older than Minato's own children.

"No, Lord Hokage. The ANBU have not found any sort of device which could be broadcasting the voice." Itachi unfortunately answered in negative.

"But we have found something mysterious about the voice's broadcast. Everyone in the stadium has heard the voice equally, no matter what the location was. It was as if the voice was sounding right in their ears."

"Could the broadcast have been done through Genjustu? No, a Genjutsu would have been easily cought by the Kages. The only way would be Fuuinjutsu." Minato guessed.

Being a Fuuinjutsu Master himself, Minato knew that this Shinobi Art was capable of performing such an act.

"Lady Kushina had the same doubts. That is why she is currently sweeping the stadium to search for the traces of Fuuinjutsu. Though she has not found any meaningful results yet." Itachi reported that his wife had already joined the search.

Good! Kushina was the greatest Fuuinjutsu Master in Konoha, more knowledgeable in Fuuinjutsu that Minato himself. With her joining the search, Minato was sure that the culprit would be found soon.

"Hmph!! With the way the search is going, the ANBU will not be able to find the source today. Do you need my help, Lord Hokage? I could teach these young' uns something."

Surprisingly, Onoki, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure offered his help despite the fact that he hated Minato as well as Konohagakure to his very bones because of the crushing defeat his Village faced in the Third Shinobi War against Konoha.

"I thank you for your kind support, Lord Tsuchikage. However, it would not give a good message if the Kages stepped up just because of mysterious voice broadcast." Minato replied, kindly declining Onoki's offer.

"Then, hurry up. It is already getting late." A, the Raikage of Kumogakure said impatiently.

""Still, I am surprised that the perpetrator only performed a voice broadcast with how resourceful he seems to be. He could launch a surprise attack and we would not have any inkling of it even at the last moment."

Rasa, the Kazekage of the Sunagakure questioned the motive of the perpetrator in a rather creepy voice. He looked rather suspicious today since he had not revealed his face ever since he took a seat. However, Minato knew that it was no time to investigate.

"I am sure that we will learn his intentions once we find—" Minato's remaining words remained stuck in his mouth as several pillars of light emerged from the stadium, with most of them appearing from the finalists' stands!

When the pillars of light disappeared, none of the people who were there were left. They had simply disappeared without any trace!

Realising the graveness of the situation, Minato immediately used his Space-Time Jutsu, the Flying Thunder God Jutsu and teleported to the finalists' stands.

However, to his surprise, he couldn't find even a single trace of any kind of chakra being used, much less a Space-Time Jutsu.

"Minato…" It was at this moment that a familiar female voice called him sorrowfully.

Turning around to look at the source of the voice, Minato found that it was his wife Kushina who had called him with tears in her eyes.

"Our children, Naruto, Narumi….. They are gone!" Kushina informed Minato tearfully.

"Don't worry, dear. We will definitely—"

"Reporting to Lord Hokage, I was escorting my student Satsuki Uchiha for the Great Chunin Exams when she suddenly disappeared in a pillar of light. The ANBU have found that the same phenomenon also happened to several Genin in the village."

Minato had not even started consoling his wife when his student Kakashi Hatake arrived to report that the same incident had happened in the entire village.

Minato couldn't even begin to think about what he should do. All of a sudden, not only his children but also several Shinobi of his village had disappeared and he didn't have even the slightest clue regarding where they could be.

Ding!

It was at this moment that a blue translucent screen appeared in the sky suddenly.

[Welcome to the Chunin Exams Battle Royale!]

Minato had just begun analysing the blue screen when he suddenly felt a huge surge of chakra along with the smell of ozone filling the air.

A humanoid figure covered in blue lightning jumped from the stands and headed right towards the blue screen!

The figure punched the blue screen but his body passed through it as if the screen didn't exist.

"Tch! Genjutsu!" The figure cursed as he landed in the stadium, revealing that he was actually A, the Raikage.

"Calm down, Lord Raikage! This opponent is far too tricky to be defeated by pure force." Lady Mei Terumi, the Mizukage of Kirigakure advised as she landed in the stadium with the rest of the Kages arriving right after her.

It was at this moment that the words on the screen changed.

[The Chunin Exams Battle Royale is the first event held by the System with unimaginable rewards. The participants are Genin Shinobi who are borderline Chunin level or already at Chunin level but have not been promoted.]

"A Battle Royale? You dare to pit our Shinobi against each other in a deathmatch and we are supposed to just watch!" Onoki said furiously as he read the words on the blue screen.

As if hearing Onoki's words, an extra set of words appeared below the previous text on the blue screen.

[Note— The Chunin Exams Battle Royale is an extremely realistic simulation world similar to a Genjutsu where Death is but a temporary defeat. Upon their defeat or death in the Battle Royale, the participants will be returned to the real world without even a single scratch on their body.]

"Not a single scratch, huh! This so-called System dares to abduct our Shinobi, put them in a deathmatch and then says that the deathmatch is just a Genjutsu. And we are supposed to believe it?" A, the Raikage said furiously, not believing system in the slightest.

However, the System seemed to have unheard his words as the words on the blue screen continued.

[Here is a Glimpse of the rewards the participants can obtain from the System!]

The words on the screen disappeared as the pictures of the supposed rewards appeared on the screen.

As soon as they saw the rewards, everyone's eyes widened in shock. For the rewards included several techniques which were near impossible to obtain in the entire Elemental Nations and some were outright impossible.

Hidden Villages' secret A-Rank and S-Rank Jutsu, including Raikage's 'Lightning Armour' and Minato's own 'Flying Thunder God Jutsu' and 'Rasengan'!

Not only that, there were also extinct Jutsu of former Kages such as Third Raikage's 'Hell Stab'. There was even Uzumaki Clan's Fuuinjutsu and Kenjutsu on the list.

"H-How did this System obtain our personal Jutsu? And these extinct techniques! They were buried in the history a long time ago. If this system really has such rewards, then—" Mei Terumi didn't there to even finish her words, realising what kind of effect this System could have on the Elemental Nations if its claims were, in fact, true.

At this moment, the Five Kages had realised that this System was definitely not the work of a man. Its origins were not simple if it could abduct so many Shinobi effortlessly and offer Jutsu of such tremendous power as mere rewards.

"Look! The screen has changed again." Kushina pointed at the blue screen as its contents changed again.

This time, there were no words but rather moving pictures on the screen. The screen was now divided in multiple parts, with each part showing a different Shinobi.

Though the multiple screens were now focusing on different Shinobi, there was one thing common in all of them. The environment was a giant, dense forest which actually looked rather similar to the Forest of Death, the exam venue of the second phase of the Chunin Exams.

"Look! There are Naruto and Narumi. Thank goodness they are alright." Kushina pointed two particular screens to Minato which showed their children.

Both Naruto and Narumi were combat ready, kunai in their hands as they looked at their surroundings warily.

"So, what should we do now, Lord Hokage? This System seems to be far more powerful than we initially thought it to be." Onoki asked Minato about their future plans since this incident had happened in Konoha.

"While this System's workings and intentions are unknown, we simply can't believe its words. We have no way of currently approaching our abducted Shinobi. But we will not lose hope. We will sweep through the entire Konoha, try to find even the slightest trace of this System. There is no way that we are going to let this System lord over us while we do nothing."

Minato declared as he looked at the giant blue screen in the sky, at his children which were currently trapped in a deathmatch.

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Author's Note— I wanted to show how everyone reacts to the System's actions and doesn't simply accept it as many stories of these genre show.

Some perceptive readers may have found that there is Satsuki Uchiha rather than Sasuke Uchiha in this world.

The main reason for this genderbend is that I have not seen the Naruto anime and have only read several fanfictions along with a few snippets on YouTube. Though I would try my best to give you all a great experience.

If you want to read 7 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / DragonsEye