Sword Art Kitsune

chapter 1: the trap is sprung

Sword Art Kitsune: Chapter one- the trap is sprung.
Uzumaki residence november 6th 2022 12:55 PM
A world of swords and monsters, where you could be whoever you wanted. That's what Sword Art Online was.
Because of Naruto’s family he was able to get an advanced copy and not only beta test it but alpha test it too. His mother was the one that helped Akihiko Kayaba finance his company and his technology. It helped his mother was the head of Uzumaki industries, and also the head of the Uzumaki Yakuza crime family. Which made Naruto not only the heir to a multi-billion dollar company but also the heir to the most powerful crime family in Japan currently. Naruto tossed his copy of MMO today onto his desk as he looked at his clock to check the time. Naruto was a handsome young man of fifteen years old. He was tall for his age at 6’ and had a head of long shoulder length spiky red hair with a small number of blond streaks, he had six whisker like marks on his cheeks three on each side and he had a rare disorder called heterochromia where one eye was blue and the other purple. He got a message on his phone and smiled. “Looks like she’s gonna use her brother’s old beta tester account Akamaru.” He said softly as he pet the white dog laying down beside his chair. Akamaru was a gift for his 13th birthday from Tsume Inuzuka the head of the Inuzuka clan, and his mother’s right hand. She was a vicious woman and was never convicted of a crime because she fed the bodies to her dogs. Akamaru was a rare breed of a great Pyrenees mixed with a Tibetan Mastiff that Tsume bred just for him. Akamaru just looked up at his master and licked his hand giving off a soft whine. Naruto chucked as he stood up and hooked his nerve-gear up before sitting in bed. He looked around his room and smiled wistfully at the swords and other weapons hanging on the walls. But the weapon he stared at the longest was a beautiful scythe in a glass case. He then put the nerve-gear helmet on and laid down. “I’ll see you in a few hours when Kaa-chan and Kakashi-nii get home Akamaru.” Naruto said before he shouted “Link start!” colors flashed before him before he was set at an empty space with a screen in front of him. He logged in and agreed to use his beta test avatar which looked exactly like he did in the real world except he had more blonde highlights in his hair than in real life and he didn’t have his whiskers. He smiled as he ended up in the town of beginnings again. He looked on his back and frownwed as it was bare. ‘Guess I'll have to go down there when I level up higher to get it.’ Naruto or Kitsune as his character was named. Naruto ran off from the starting point and blew through the market as he knew where to find the strongest weapon on the first floor. He could handle and wield any weapon in SAO and with his luck stats he was sure he’d keep getting rare drops. He heard a ping and checked his messages. He opened the message and saw it was from his godfather Akihiko Kayaba. Naruto, so glad you decided to come and join the first day, because of your ungodly luck in the real world and the fact you were the only beta player to reach a double-digit floor I've given you a bit of trump card, a high luck stat and the unique ability to wield any weapon. But dungeons and quests will be a bit tougher for you than others. But if you party up the quests will lower in difficulty. Also because of your high luck stats you cannot make or join a guild until you get to the last floor you cleared in the beta. Good luck nephew. Your uncle, Akihiko Kayaba. Naruto groaned but gave a toothy smirk. “Bring it on uncle. Okay so go get this weapon then go meet up with miss Bossy skirt.” he said before running off towards the devil ruins area. He got there and smirked as he read the names on the graves. “Link of Hyrule- trapped forever in a loop of time, Cloud Stryfe- bearer of a great blade. Ezio Audutore De Firenze- master assassin. Olay here we are Dante son of Sparda- mercenary, world saver, one classy son of a bitch.” He tapped the grave and drew his blade as demons and undead surrounded him. Naruto grinned and said. “Bring it you undead shits!” the demons launched into the air dive bombing him as Naruto activated his sword skill and slashed at the undead turning them into pixels. His health lowered a bit as he killed the last of the demons before a man appeared over Dante’s grave. The arrow over his head was green for a second before turning red. He was a muscular white-haired man wearing a red duster jacket and leather pants and boots. He had the blade Naruto was here for in his hand. “So you’ve come for my sword huh? I won’t give up without a fight kid.” Dante charged at him and Naruto blocked his overheard strike before parrying and slashing at the well known video game character. “I wonder how Uncle Aki got the rights to use you? Let alone using the name of Link.” Naruto said as he charged his sword skill up again and shouted. “Devil strike!” He hit Dante dead center in the chest as Dante began to disappear from his feet into pixels. “Good job kid, as thanks for helping free my spirit I give you my signature sword Rebellion. You can gather my other items as you get higher up, you’ll have to defeat my father to get his sword Sparda to create the ultimate sword, Dante.” He then disappeared and and a screen came up. CONGRADULATIONS! You defeated Dante Sparda! He read down the list and noticed the XP he earned and his eyes bugged out. His eyes bugged out further when he saw the item drops he received. Rebellion and Mercenary Duster. “I just went up from level one to ten in one quest and got Dante’s jacket too!? Uncle did say my luck was high, I should check my stats. HOLY SHIT!” he shouted the last part as he looked at his stats.
Player: Kitsune
Lvl:10
XP to next LVl: 15000
Strength: 25
Stealth: 30
Health: 500
Dexterity: 29
Wisdom: 14
Endurance: 34
Charisma: 45
Luck: 999
This was blowing his mind. Naruto decided to head back to the town of beginnings to gather up healing potions and more crystals aside from the weapon and coat Dante and the demons and undead dropped a crapload of Col. Naruto saw a gambling parlor on his way back and bankrupted the place so much he ended up owning the property. He then headed back but saw two people in the fields outside of the starting city. One was a pink haired man with a red bandana he’d never seen before probably a newbie. But the other guy Naruto recognized. “Oi Kirito, I never thought of you as the type to help newbies out!” Naruto said as he approached them. Kirito was a fellow beta tester Naruto had met. Kirito called himself Naruto’s rival but he’d only ever gotten as far as clearing the eighth floor by himself. The only person to get as far as Naruto had was his friend’s brother and a girl whose avatar name was Argo, she’d told him she’d decided to start an information gathering network in game once the game launched. Kirito turned and smirked as he saw Naruto approach. “Ah so his highness decided to grace me with his presence after all. I'm guessing you went to go get that weapon huh?” Naruto nodded to which the pink haired guy scratched his chin and said. “Kirito who’s this? Another beta tester?” Naruto grinned at the guy and said. “Name’s Kitsune nice to meet ya. Yes I was a beta tester, that’s where I met tall dark and broody. This guy could put batman to shame with how much he broods.” The pink haired guy fell on his ass laughing before he stood up and extended his hand. “It’s nice to meet you Kitsune, Name’s Klein. I was just about to friend Kirito but I think you’d be even more fun of a friend. Friend request me!”  Kirito and Naruto both accepted Klein’s friend request before Klein said. “Okay it’s pizza time. Later guys.” he then tried to log out but saw the logout button was gone. “There’s no logout button.” Klein said and the two beta testers checked their own screens and saw it was the same. Naruto decided not to use his credentials to check the cardinal system for bugs figuring his godfather decided to make an event before you could log out. They then heard bells ringing before they were teleported back to the main square of the town of beginnings. Although Naruto wasn’t near Kirito or Klein. He was next to a chestnut haired girl. “Oh Asuna-chan.” Naruto said as the girl turned to him and hugged him close. “Naruto-kun!” she said as she buried her head in his chest when he wrapepd his arms around her in a hug. Then the sky turned dark as a screen came up in the sky saying warning. Naruto stopped Hugging his friend but kept one arm wrapped around her waist. A blood like substance dripped down from the screen forming an orb before it turned into a red hooded figure. “Don’t remember seeing this in the coding.” Naruto whispered as it spoke. “Attention players.” it said in his godfather’s voice. “I welcome you to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world.” Naruto heard people murmuring and muttering but Naruto knew this wasn’t just an opening show. Something was going on. ‘What’s your plan uncle?’ he thought as Kayaba began speaking again. “I’m sure most of you have noticed an item missing from your main menus.... the logout button. Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This was how “Sword Art Online” was designed to be.” Asuna flinched and clung to Naruto’s side. “Naruto-kun, tell me he’s joking please.” Kayaba continued. “ You cannot log yourselves out of “S.A.O.” and noone outside from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the nervegear from your head. If anyone attempts to do so, a transmitter inside the nervegear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life.” Naruto grit his teeth as he stared up at his godfather. “Damn you uncle, I helped you build this death trap, mother funded your company. You're family. How could you do this?” he said under his breath. “Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the nervegear, an unfortunate decision to say the least. As a result, the game now has 213 less players than when it began. They've been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world. As you can see, international media outlets have ‘round the clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point it’s safe to assume the likelihood of a nervegear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort. As you try to clear the game. It's important to remember the following: there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your H.P. drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever and the nervegear will simultaniously destroy your brain. There is only one way for a player to escape now.  you must clear the game. Right now your gathered on floor one. The lowest level of Aincrad. If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game. Last but not least, I've placed an item in each of your inventories please have a look.” Inside Naruto’s inventory was a mirror that wasn’t there before. He activated it and in a shine of light he saw his real face in the mirror. He noticed Asuna looked exactly the same but when he looked around a lot of the female avatars were now male and some of the as girls would saw hunky guys now were fatter and uglier. Kayaba started talking again. “Right now, you’re probably wondering why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of ‘Sword Art Online” and NerveGear, do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one. The reason I created”Sword Art Online” was to control the fate of a world of my design. As you can see, I have achieved my goal. I have removed all morality and profanity filters in the game so you may live your lives in any way you see fit. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of “Sword Art Online” Players, I wish you the best of luck.” The cloaked avatar of Kayaba disappeared into smoke and pixels as the warning panels disappeared and the sky returned to normal. People started screaming and crying and Naruto growled in anger. “Come on Asuna. I need to teach you how to play this game so you can survive.” Naruto said as he led her out of the square and past the main fields where most players would head to grind and farm for XP. He sent her a party request to which she accepted, and he helped her level until it got really dark. “Let’s head back to town. Even though this is just a game we still need to sleep.” he said as Asuna nodded her head an sheathed her Rapier. “Hey Naruto-kun?” Asuna said softly as he turned his head to her. “Yes? What's wrong?” Asuna asked her friend quietly. “How come you switched back to the starter gear Instead of that cool sword and jacket?” Naruto said as they entered the town and headed to an inn. “Because, if people were to see I got rare items this early they’d mark me as a beta player and I'd get the stigma of it or people would hound me for tips and advice. I want to fly under the radar and go after the rest of the demon gear. I do have a lead on where to find a rapier called Nubari. It's said to have a sword skill that pierces and sews a thread through the enemy. It's supposed to be cursed though, there’s also a quest called the winter wolf pups. The rewards are specific items depending on your stats. I'd probaby end up with the bastard sword or the greatsword, you’d end up with the rapier because of your dex and speed stats being higher. We can work on that tomorrow.” he said as they paid for their rooms and went to bed.
Back in the real world in Senju private hospital, a red-head woman sat at Naruto’s bedside in his hospital room. She wore a dark red kimono top with a short  black shin length skirt with leggings on undeneath. When she moved her legs you could see a long knife strapped to her leg. This was Kushina Namikaze Uzumaki, Naruto’s mother and the head of all organized crime in Japan. After everything that happened, she called in favors in the underworld to have Kayaba hunted down but he just turned into a ghost. Her company took over ARGUS and were doing everything they could to get the players out. But it was all for not. She held her baby boy’s hand and kissed it as she said. “I know you’ll win baby. You're gonna beat this like you do everything. Come back to Kaa-chan my Sochi.” tears flowed from her eyes and streamed down her face as she buried her head into her son’s chest.