Capítulo 93: Ready Player Five Pt. I
William sat on the edge of his seat while the players continued to talk. Among all the players, he was the biggest fanboy of the Narutoverse.
If it involved Japanese comic books, he's read them; if it involved a movie, he's watched them; and if it involved attending press conferences or interviews, he's taped them.
"We should go search for Tsunade," he suggested.
Alex disagreed, saying, "It's too soon… The village needs time to recover first."
Alice agreed with Jasper, so she added, "We can't risk going out there anyway. Not without proper preparation."
William felt disappointments. He had wanted to help, to make a difference. But he understood their concerns.
"I'll help train Naruto then, I guess…" he said, trying to salvage the situation. "He needs to get stronger, right?"
The others looked at him, a tad surprised by his declaration.
Jasper used this opportunity to spite him, saying, "Naruto doesn't need more training. He already knows the Rasengan."
"It might break his character," Jada added.
William was starting to get frustrated. He wanted to do something, anything to help.
He looked at the others, searching for a solution. They were discussing the battle between Hiruzen and Orochimaru.
"Ya heard me," Margaret addressed. "The Hokage tried to summon Enma, but nothing happened."
"What do you think caused that?" Alex wondered.
"I dunno," she gestured in confusion. "It was the biggest lie in this world if I'd ever seen one."
Suddenly, an idea came to William. When Margaret had said "lie," he wanted to reveal the truth to Naruto, to tell him about his Uzumaki heritage!
It was a risky move, but it was also the key to unlocking the main character's full potential.
While the group was discussing other matters, William stood up and said, "I'll tell Naruto the truth about his parents then! I am his cousin, so he trusts me a lot."
The others looked at him, staggered by his sudden decision. They knew that revealing the truth to Naruto was a delicate matter, but they also knew that William was the right person for the job if the time ever called for it.
Now that Arthur's gone rogue, perhaps advancing the main character's morale wouldn't be such a bad thing.
"Be careful with that," Jada said. "Doing that might have some serious repercussions."
William nodded and replied, "I know, but he's not like Sasuke. I promise. We can't hide him from the truth for the next three years."
The meeting eventually concluded with everyone given their respective tasks.
Jada exclaimed that she needed to grow stronger, so she was planning to learn some techniques from the Scroll of Seals. No one objected. Jasper desired to head out of the village to find some artifacts to boost his arsenal after gaining the village's approval. While it was no one's business to know what he wanted, Alice felt the need to tag along.
William couldn't remember what Alex and Margaret's tasks were. All he knew was that he had been given approval by the others to reveal certain truths to Naruto. Being able to tell the boy about his past was more than enough for him to take up the job.
While William was walking home to where Naruto also resided, he considered the main character's story. It wasn't difficult to recount.
Naruto Uzumaki's path was marked by adversity from the start. Sealed within him was the Nine-Tailed fox who had attacked the village, resulting in the death of his parents. This tragic fate led to a childhood filled with isolation and prejudice.
As a kid, he struggled academically, failing to graduate from the academy on multiple attempts. However, his persistence and determination eventually led to him becoming a Genin.
That was the original tale.
In this world, however, Naruto was given a cousin, whose name was William Uzumaki.
William's background was simple. His character was programmed to have moved to the Leaf Village after his own village was destroyed. Upon arrival m here, Iruka introduced him to everyone as Naruto's cousin moments before Mizuki's betrayal.
Naruto, excited to have someone by his side, learned a lot from Willaim. And because William was partners with the other players, Naruto became cherished, no longer ostracized.
That alone allowed the main character to mature quickly.
Naruto was eventually assigned to Team 7 exactly as it was intended, and he was able to learn the concept of teamwork.
Throughout the original series, he faced numerous obstacles and adversaries.
Recounting events from the original sorry, he encountered powerful opponents, such as Zabuza Momochi and Gaara, and overcame them through willpower.
This time, his defining battle against Gaara never happened.
Gaara was rehabilitated without the need for violence, allowing the Chūnin Exams to continue regularly. At least until Orochimaru's surprise invasion.
That's as far as the players got into this world.
For William to reveal the truth to the main character, he had to understand who and what Naruto's continued story was all about.
If his years of binge watching the show and being a die-hard fan of the series ever came into account, now was the time.
Three vital things happened to help the main character become who he was: searching for Tsunade, departing the village with Jiraiya, Pain's assault on the village, and his Jinchūriki training.
The search for Tsunade and the subsequent training under Jiraiya were crucial steps in Naruto's development. He learned the Rasengan and gained a deeper understanding of the Nine-Tails' power as his story progressed.
Pain invading the village was also pivotal because Naruto got to meet with Nagato. During which, it forced him to confront the complexities of the world and the consequences of war.
It was also this battle that Naruto finally met his father, Minato.
Without all those events happening, Naruto's journey to overcoming adversity might have never happened. It was a tale of a lonely outcast turned to a valued hero.
William continued to trudge down the familiar path to his apartment.
Every step he took felt heavy. The truth gnawed at him, twisting his insides.
He'd rehearsed it dozens of times in his mind, but none seemed fitting enough to convey what he truly needed to say to Naruto.
"What if he doesn't take it well?" he muttered to himself, raking a hand through his hair. "What if he thinks I'm crazy?"
The thought of revealing such monumental news filled him with anxiety, but he gathered his resolve.
"I have to tell him. He deserves to know."
By the time he reached the door to their shared apartment, his heart raced. He fumbled with the keys, and they dropped to the floor.
"No, I'm crazy," he said to himself, picking the keys back up. "I should have never acted so confident in front of the others; I just wanted to contribute something."
He opened the door and stepped inside.
"How am I gonna tell Naruto?"
"Tell me what?" came the cheerful voice of Naruto, who sat cross-legged on the living room floor, a bowl of ramen cradled in his lap.
The boy's eyes sparkled with curiosity. William's heart leapt into his throat.
"Naruto! What are you doing here?!"
"I live here, remember?" the boy answered in a playful yet mildly exasperated tone.
For a brief moment, William felt like a complete fool. In his spiraling thoughts, he'd forgotten the simplest of truths—they were roommates.
"Right. Of course. I just… got caught up in my own head, is all!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, slurping loudly from his bowl.
"You okay, Will? You look like you've seen a ghost."
William took a deep breath, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Yeah, just... I need to talk to you about something important."
Naruto put his bowl down on the table and said, "This sounds serious. If it's not about my ramen, can it wait? I'd really like to finish it."
That statement was a tad contradictory, given his well-known playful attitude.
"Wait—no! It's really important!" William blurted out, the urgency in his voice startling even him. "It's about the Nine-Tails."
Naruto's brows knitted together as he asked, "What do you mean? What about it?"
William felt his heart race more than he was at the door. This was a sensitive topic, especially since Arthur's betrayal had left them all shaken up.
Naruto had taken it particularly hard since Arthur had also put Sasuke in the hospital, crippled Lee, and killed Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba.
Taking a deep breath, William pressed on: "Remember that time you fought Mizuki? How he talked about the Nine-Tailed Fox inside of you?"
Naruto nodded, a look of nostalgia crossing his face.
"Yeah, I sure beat the crap outta him for what he did to Iruka-sensei."
William gave a bittersweet smile and said, "You see, that wasn't just a random coincidence. The Nine-Tails is a part of who you are, but there's more to it."
"What are you saying?" Naruto frowned.
William closed his eyes for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Blurting out the truth, he said, "Naruto… you're the reincarnation of Asura Ōtsutsuki, whose father is Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, and there's a group known as the Ak—!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Naruto interrupted, disbelief clear on his face. "Just hang on a minute. You're confusing the crap outta me!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to throw that on you all at once," William said, shaking his head. "I'll back up a bit… Look, let's start with your parents."
"My parents?" Naruto repeated.
"Yes, your father is the fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and your mother was the previous Jinchūriki for the Nine-Tails, Kushina Uzumaki."
Naruto's eyes widened. Then he doubted as he asked, "Wait! How did you find this out? Is this some kind of joke?"
"No joke," William explained in an earnest tone. "It's something that the third Hokage had to keep a secret to ensure your safety. Minato had a lot of enemies, and he wanted to protect you."
Naruto blinked rapidly, processing the influx of information.
"You're serious?" he asked. "You really think the old geezer would keep something like that from me?"
"I would never lie to you, cuz," William replied firmly. "Besides, all our adventures together have shown you that I know a lot of things, sometimes more than you even realized."
Naruto's demeanour went from skepticism to hope, a burning desire to uncover everything he could about himself.
"But why would he keep it a secret? And what does the Nine-Tails have to do with this Asura Oatmeal guy?"
"Ōtsutsuki, not oatmeal," William corrected.
He took another deep breath, trying to gauge Naruto's shifting emotions.
"It's complicated," he finally said. "The Nine-Tails is a manifestation of your chakra, tied to your lineage. Asura was known for his strong will and the ability to balance chakra, which you inherited. All that fighting you did? That was the essence of Asura within you surfacing."
"Okay, so if I'm Asura's reincarnation, does that mean I can use a super cool jutsu that he knows?"
"Sort of. I mean, I think so," William answered. "What it really means is you've got the potential to tap into something even greater, but I think you have to come close to death or something."
William's eyes shone with regret after saying that.
"Eh!" Naruto said with a confused face. Concern was clouding his features.
"Ugh… That's not what I meant!" William tried correcting.
"Do I really have to go through all this?" Naruto frantically said, scratching his head with both hands. "This is too much. What if I can't handle it, or worse, what if my cousin's secretly trying to stop my dreams of becoming the Hokage because he's jealous?!"
William leaned forward, steadying his own voice as he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulders.
"Hey, it's like you said: we're cousins, and I'd never steal your dreams. It's what you do with the truth that matters. You're not alone, Naruto. You've always had people who care about you—friends, family. Just like back when you fought Mizuki, you can harness your potential. But first, you need to understand where you came from."
Naruto rested his chin in his hand, his expression thoughtful. If this was his older self, it might have been easier to explain things. Or perhaps having someone like Jiraiya present could help validate things.
At the thought of Jiraiya, William was wondering why that Sannin hadn't revealed anything to the boy in the three years they were with one another.
I mean, this was the main character, the son of his own student who became the fourth Hokage.
"Wow…" Naruto said. "This really is a lot to take in."
"I know. Take your time. I just wanted you to know the truth. You deserve that much."
William knew he had to be careful like Jada exclaimed. He had to use his words carefully.
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