Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Nonary Game Jinchuriki Edition ❯ Chapter 1: Time and Date Unknown ( Chapter 2 )

Going to be honest. I was not sure how long it'd take me to write another chapter. But it seems that once I'm in my groove, it's hard to get me to stop.

Disclaimer: In no way, shape or form do I own the rights to Zero Escape or Naruto.

Chapter 1: Time and Date Unknown

KABOOM!

A loud sound woke Naruko, whose eyes shot open in a panic. As she blinked the tiredness away, it dawned on her that she didn't recognize her surroundings in the slightest. Still groggy, Naruko lifted her head, only to bang it on something metallic.

“OW!” she groaned. Had her thick hair not cushioned the blow, she might have bruised the skin underneath. Wincing slightly, her still-groggy mind tried to make sense of where she was, slowly taking in the room she found herself in now. She was sitting on what felt like a rather flimsy bed, and peering over the edge, her theory was confirmed. In fact, she on the top of a three-level bunk bed, and her poor head had had the misfortune of hitting against the low ceiling.

“What the…What the hell?” she muttered. “Where…Where am I? What the hell is the place?”

The next she noticed was that the whole room felt like it was shaking, and rather violently at that.

“An earthquake?” Naruko wondered aloud. But much to her growing confusion, the tremor gradually ceased. Overtaken by curiosity, the young woman climbed down the ladder next to the bunk bed, and stepped onto the cold grey floor. Patting down the top of her head, she began to truly take in her surroundings for the first time. The walls were a dull beige, and the room was furnished with an antique stove, a busted sink, a bulletin board, a large mirror, a white closet, a wooden table, and two triple decker bunk beds she been in was one of two. There were various other features of the strange room that stood out, but none more so than the rather dirty iron door in between the beds. Emblazed on the door in dark red paint was a large, rough number…

- - - [ 9 ] - - -

Immediately, Naruko rushed over and began slamming her fists on the door. “Hello!? Is anyone out there!? What's going on?!? LET ME OUT!!!” she yelled to no avail. But in the midst of her attempts to force open the door that Naruko noticed something on her left wrist. For some reason, she was wearing a weirdly colored bracelet. It was shaped like a digital watch, but the LCD screen displayed only one number rather than the time.

“A 9, just like the door…” Naruko mumbled, closing her eyes while she attempted to put the pieces of this strange puzzle. Just as she began to think, however, she noticed an odd sound from the other side of the room. Turning around, she noticed something she had missed in her earlier examination of the room. Near the sink and above the wooden table, there was a round window.

“That looks almost like a…” Before she could complete her train of thought, the glass of the window, or rather porthole, began to crack. While Naruko may not have been the smartest person in her class, even she was beginning to understand that she was in great danger.

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!” Naruko screamed as the cracks deepened until the glass finally gave way to an incoming stream of salt water. The water began pouring onto the floor, encouraging Naruko to turn back around and redouble her efforts into breaking down the door. Unfortunately, the door refused to budge. But it was when the water was already ankle deep, her sandals completely drenched, that Naruko noticed what looked like a card reader. Understanding shining in her eyes, Naruko took a deep breath and steeled herself. Naruko may have had trouble studying for school, but when it came to areas like debating and solving immediately pressing issues, few could match her ability to think on her feet. And fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), having her life be in rapidly increasing jeopardy was no exception.

“Alright, time to get out of here. Believe it!” Raring to go, Naruko began searching every nook and cranny of the room for hints as to how to escape. Above the sink was a shelf with a picture frame on it, and when she removed the picture from the frame using the screwdriver hidden inside the stove, the back of the picture was shown to have ten shapes, half of them shaded in and all numbered 0 through 9. When combined with the scraps of paper she found on the bulletin board and beneath a pillow on one of the beds, she was able to crack the codes needed to open the blue and red briefcases on one of the beds and inside the closet. However, that alone wasn't enough.

Atop the stove was a kettle, inside of which was a blue key, which was the last requirement for opening the blue briefcase. Inside were some blue colored key cards numbered seven through nine and a file detailing something called a digital root, a concept Naruko had never heard of before now.

“Add all numbers in a set together, and if you get a number with more than one digit, add the digits together. Keep adding numbers until you have only one digit. That final sum is the digital root,” Naruko read aloud. Clearly, this was something she was going to need to know if she were to escape, and with the way it was written, the concept was pretty simple to understand, but in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder if this would be useful in any situation other than the one she was stuck in right now.

The red key was held to the mirror by a piece of tape, but as she removed the key, Naruko couldn't help but take a moment to glance herself in the mirror. Her normally beautiful, supple skin was strikingly pale, and her face looked sallow. As she racked her brain for how she could have ended up that way, the memories of the intruder in the gas mask resurfaced.

`That's right…That jerk in the gas mask knocked me out. They must be the one who put me on this…boat…' It was at this moment Naruko realized the water was already up to her knees, and if she wasted any more time, her shorts would be the next item on her body to be soaked through.

Quickly wading through the water back to the closet with the red briefcase, Naruko used the key to and the combination deemed through the cracking of the codes to unlock it for another set of key cards, only these were red and numbered one, two, and three. From what she could gather, the only thing left to do now was swipe the six key cards through the card reader by the door, but to her confusion, after swiping the three red cards, the asterisks on the card reader disappeared from the display after a loud buzzer sound, and the door remained locked. She tried again with the three blue cards, but ended up with the exact same results.

“Why isn't this working?” Naruko growled, the water just beginning to touch her shorts. After glaring at the painted nine on the door, a light bulb went off in her head. “Of course! Why else would they bother telling me about digital roots?” After a moment of thought, Naruko came to a decision and swiped the cards numbered one, eight, and nine through the card reader.

1 + 8 + 9 =18

1 + 8 = 9

This time, there was a small beep and the light on the card reader changed from red to green.

“Yahoo! I unlocked the door! Believe it!” Naruko cheered. Without further delay, she turned the door handle, and with a great heave, shoved the door open. Her joy was quickly cut short however, as a wall of angry water now shoved her through the door way and face-first into a nearby wall. Pushing away from the wall, Naruko began patting her injured face and then the top of her head as she looked around. The water that had followed her out of the room was now pouring into the hallway, splashing against a nearby set of steps. And at the top of the stairs was…

“Another door?” Naruko questioned as she made her up down the hall and up the steps. “Please please PLEASE be the exit! I want to get out of this crazy place!” Reaching the second door, she pushed it open, only to be greeted by quite an unexpected sight.

Before Naruko lay an ornate staircase, a polished floor, and beautifully decorated pillars. It was as though she had walked right into the entrance hall of a European mansion from the early twentieth century. For a moment, she couldn't help but wonder if she was truly onboard a ship.

“Am I really on a boat?” Naruko pondered. She turned around and stared down the hall she had come from. “Yeah, looks like I really am on a WHAT THE HELL?!?” she finished with a roar as a wave began to form at the end of the hall, fast approaching her. Freaking out even more than before, Naruko slammed the door shut before bolting up the stairs. Closing the door had bought her some time, for as soon as she reached landing, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she had an opportunity to catch her breath. Turning her heard, she saw a plate mounted on the wall next to the landing, labeled [D Deck].

“What the…What is going on here? Where am I” she managed to choke out. Sadly, her moment of reprieve did not last. Before long, the door was forced open and the water came rushing towards Naruko in full force. Without further motivation, she sprinted up the staircase, taking two steps at a time. Before she knew it, Naruko had reached the top of the staircase, passing by landings with plates labeled [C Deck], [B Deck], and finally [A Deck]. She had barely begun to walk down the hallway to the left when she saw the silhouettes of four people making their way toward her at a fast clip. Before long, she began to make out more details of the four new presences.

The one closest to her was a man in his forties with thick red hair worn in a short ponytail, as well as a beard and mustache of the same color. He wore calf-length black boots, and a long-sleeved shirt and pants a shade of red so light it was almost blinding. Consequently, Naruko mentally dubbed him [Pink].

He was followed by what looked like two teenagers, one boy and one girl. The boy had messy grey hair with pink eyes and a scar running down the left side of his face. He was dressed in brown boots anda grey shirt covered in a bright green poncho. The girl was petite, with a deep tan that reminded Naruko of a surfer, orange eyes, and an orange hairclip in her spiky, short mint green hair. She was dressed in a short sleeveless white midriff shirt, long white armlets, and a short white skirt over it. Naruko mentally labeled them as [Poncho] and [Surfer].

Behind the pair of teenagers stood a reserved man in his mid twenties, with pale golden eyes, stark-white skin, and brown hair that reached down to his shoulders and parted in a manner that covered his left eye. He was pretty thin, and dressed in a bright blue kimono with an orange sash so long that Naruko couldn't see his feet. Impressed by the fact that he was able to navigate so well without tripping on his clothing, Naruko gave him the name [Kimono].

Pink ran up to Naruko, took a brief look at her and sighed sadly. “I guess there's yet another victim,” he muttered.

Poncho was the next to come up to Naruko, muttering as well. “One of us, I take it?” he grumbled. Something about the way he spoke and carried himself indicated experience that contrasted greatly with his youthful appearance, making Naruko question whether or not he really a teenage boy or a (rather short) young man.

Next to speak was Surfer. “I wouldn't recommend staying here,” she said. “We've already tried to the doors on this side of A Deck, and they won't budge. Hopefully, the others had more luck than we did.”

“Wait a minute, there are more people here?” Naruko asked incredulously.

Kimono was already brushing past her, but his face and tone were surprisingly calm, despite the circumstances. “I am not waiter, nor do I believe we have a minute to waste,” he said. “But I do believe I understand your confusion. As she just said, however, standing here won't do you any good, especially if you truly desire answers.”

Frustrated, Naruko resisted the urge to snap back at Kimono and felt in pace just a few feet behind him. Once they were back on B Deck, she was about to open her mouth and demand an explanation when she heard the sound of urgent footsteps coming from the staircase behind. Turning around, she looked up and saw three more people appear from the right side of the stairs, on the side of A Deck opposite where she had gone.

The first two people she saw were a woman and man in their late twenties and mid-thirties respectively. Like Naruko, the woman was a blonde, only she wore her hair in a single long braid that reached down to her waist, her eyes were dark and unusually narrow, and her skin was far paler. She was dressed in a dark purple and black short-sleeved blouse, black pants with cloud prints on them, a red belt, black shoes, and several strings of blue beads that adorned her left arm. Naruko decided on the name [Beads] for her.

The man next to Beads, meanwhile, looked quite different in comparison. He had chocolate colored skin with several tattoos, hair so blonde it looked as though it had been bleached white, and his eyes were hidden behind dark tinted shades. He wore a white scarf and flak jacket, grey colored pants and sneakers, and a red belt made from rope. For some reason, Naruko couldn't help be minded of a performer from an over-the-top music video, and thus named him [Rapper].

Behind Beads and Rapper stood one of the tallest people Naruko had ever seen. At over seven feet, Naruko had to crane her neck even further in order to gatch a glimpse of his brown eyes. The rest of his body was hidden behind various pieces of clothing, even more so than Kimono was. The giant wore a red, bulky coat; tall, crimson boots; a black vest and matching pants; and a red scarf that completely hid his nose and mouth. Atop his head was a large red straw hat. Only one name could possibly do the man justice, Naruko felt: [Volcano].

“Those doors were all locked, talk about lame! And from the looks on ya faces, it musta been the same!” Rapper shouted.

“Come on! Don't any of you have some good news?” Beads growled in frustration.

Volcano, meanwhile, looked down at Naruko and grunted. “So that makes nine of us in all,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Nine?” Naruko quickly counted the number of people present. “I only see eight! Where's this ninth per…” She trailed off, as a fourth person appeared on the stairs behind Volcano.

The newcomer was a young man around Naruko's age with a shock of red hair and dark, heavy bags around his green eyes, indicating that he had a very difficult time sleeping. He was clothed in a crimson colored long sleeved buttoned down shirt, with matching pants and a brown belt. On his back was a large brown knapsack, and like Naruko, he also wore black sandals. But his physical appearance had little to do with Naruko's gasp. Rather, it was because Naruko recognized him. His gaze met Naruko's, and he blinked in surprise.

“Naru-chan?”

(To be continued)

Next time on Nonary Game Jinchuriki Edition: 9 PM.

Alright, so here's where all nine players meet up for the first time, and from here on out, it might be a little harder for me. Quite frankly, I've always wanted to see more interactions between the Jinchuriki in the source material, but you can't always get what you want. So I'm both looking forward to and am outright terrified by the prospect of seeing how everyone interacts here. For one thing, there's not a whole lot to go by regarding certain characters personalities, but at the same time, that mean I have a relatively clean slate to work with. On the other hand, certain other characters are going to be MUCH harder for me to write BECAUSE of what is established about them. I may need a LOT of help with one character's speech patterns in particular, since I am not that good (or at least all that confident) when it comes to rhyming in general.

As always, if I missed any spelling or grammar errors while editing this (or if anyone thinks I may have botched up the physical descriptions of everyone while I tried to write their introductions), don't hesitate to let me know and where and when I made such errors.