AN: This is a new story I came up with because I'm tired of the stories that has Naruto paired with Asuna. In my opinion, I don't think Naruto should ever be paired with Asuna, mainly because Kirito fought tooth and nail for her, and I'm not gonna be the one to take that away from him.

AN # 2: I'd like to thank MistahWompah for helping me with this story, you were definitely a good sounding board I could bounce ideas back and forth from, and for that i'd like to thank you.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own either Naruto or Sword Art Online. They are owned by whoever wrote and drew them I'm just writing this as a hobby.

Naruto stared into the dark cave before him. After looking at it for a few seconds he slowly made his way in. It started out the same way it always had. The same ominous breathing coming from deeper in the cave bouncing off walls creating an echo-like effect. The same dull red glow reflecting off the stalagmites blanketing the cave in its eerie presence. All of this Naruto shrugged off, for he was used to it at this point having been through it many times before, and used the dull red glow to navigate his way through the maze of a cave.

After what seemed like hours of walking he walked into an opening that widened into a cavern where the source of the red glow seems to be coming from. After he took a couple more steps inside he gasped. There at the end of the cavern laying underneath a ledge protruding from the cavern wall in a way that resembled a giant snout from some sort of vulpine creature, laid a giant fox with nine tails curled up around it.

This was new. Considering all the times he'd been there, this was the first time he had actually seen such a cavern. Let's also not forget the giant fox sleeping at the end. 'So this was the source of the demonic like glow that's been pervading the whole cave system.' Naruto mused. ' It definitely freaks me the fuck out!'

Naruto deciding he had enough of staring at an animal that would more than likely devour him than engage him in an exciting debate about ramen and other food assorted items…..mostly ramen though. Took a few steps back and turned around to get out of the cave, that is, until a gravely voice spoke up freezing him in his tracks.

"SO SOMEONE ACTUALLY MADE IT INTO MY DOMAIN FOR ONCE. THAT…IRRITATES ME. SINCE YOU'RE THE FIRST TO MAKE IT TO MY DOMAIN ALIVE, I'LL BLESS YOUR EARS WITH MY NAME. I AM THE GREAT KURAMA-SAMA, NINE-TAILED FOX, DEMON KING OF HELL, AND…..THE ONE WHO WILL MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A BLOODSTAIN ON THE FLOOR!

After the great Kurama-sama's speech he lunged at Naruto with his claws descending upon Naruto's skull. Naruto looked at the incoming claw in fear, and made to move his body out of the way, but his body was frozen stiff. Taking his eyes off the sharp claw for a second, he stared down at his trembling legs and urged them to move in his mind.

move.

Move.

MOVE!

MOVE! Naruto gasped as he woke up in his bed cold sweat covering his whole body as he looked around his semi-messy room. He reached a hand up to touch the part where the claw was supposedly going to penetrate his skull, and rubbed the spot letting out a sigh of relief when he found nothing wrong.

He looked up at his ceiling knowing he wouldn't be going back to sleep at this rate, so he mused over what happened in his dream this time. Naruto for as long as he could remember had been having dreams about that cave, but never had he actually reached the end to see the inside. Why now? There was nothing really special going on in his life at the moment except for the release of Sword Art Online coming out in a few days. Though he doubted his dream had anything to do with that, it was just a videogame. The first of its kind maybe, but a videogame none the less.

Naruto shrugged it off, and went to get ready for school. He dressed in the regular Kawagoe middle school uniform except for the orange hoody he wore underneath the blazer. On the way out of his modest house he grabbed his keys, and phone and left for his school.

On the way past his neighbors house he looked up to the second story window, and made eye contact with a teen around his age with jet black hair, and black eyes. Kirigaya Kazuto. A budding computer prodigy at his school. The guy didn't have much in the way of friends because of his love of computers.

They maintained eye contact for a second more, then Naruto nodded at him, and went on his way to school.

~ Line break ~

After a boring day at School, all Naruto wanted to do was relax, but he had to make it home first. So in a rush he took a path he didn't usually take on the way back from school. He ducked into an system of assorted alleyways, and came upon a group of thugs picking harassing a girl around his age. She had Short brown hair, and pink eyes and stood at around 5'3. On top of that she had a killer figure for her small petite frame. After a couple of seconds of staring at her beauty Naruto shook it off, as he wasn't some pervert, and walked up to the group of thugs.

"Hey beautiful, why don't you come home with me and my friends tonight, eh?" Unnamed thug #1 stated. The girl not wanting anything to do with them, yet still tried to be polite answered in a sweet tone.

" Sorry, I have things to do, and its late." She started to walk away, but Thug #1 didn't like that. So he nodded to Thug #2 to stop her. He did so by gripping onto her wrist, and tossing her into Thug #3's awaiting arms.

" You act like you have a choice in the matter. Come on guys lets take her home" leered #1.

As the girl was about to fight back, a cold voice interrupted the thugs attempt to subdue her.

" Hey idiots. I noticed that the girl over there said she didn't want to go with you guys. Then you had the gall to try and force her to come with you to do kami knows what at your house. Now I don't know about most people, but when I see a group of thugs try to force themselves on a woman it tends to get me incredibly pissed off." The thugs looked up to see who it was that decided to barge in on the middle of their "catch".

Standing in front of them calmly was a teen with spikey sun kissed blonde hair with the tips being red. The teen (at the moment) had cold blue eyes, staring down at them as if they were pieces of trash that he kicked out of his way on a daily basis. On his face were what appeared to be whisker marks on each cheek. The teen stood at an average height of 5'7, so he didn't really strike them as an intimidating figure. He was tossing a rock in his hands up in the air nonchalantly as if waiting for some type of response.

Thug #1, being the first one to shake out of his observations chuckled darkly." Look at what we have here boys, this kid here thinks he can play with the big boys. We might as well show him what it takes to enter the big league." All of the thugs cracked their knuckles and advanced on the(in their minds) poor fool.

Naruto sighed, and decided to just let his actions speak for him.

He took the rock he was tossing in his hands, and pelted it off #2's forehead knocking him unconscious. The rock rebounded off #2's head, and ricocheted into the back of #1's head, causing him to stumble forward into Naruto's knee. After being kneed in the face the thug got punched in the temple by via a haymaker courtesy of Naruto and joined #2 on the pavement in dreamland.

#3 seeing this was enraged, and charged at Naruto like a bull going after the color red. Letting loose a hook that Naruto ducked under. Capitalizing on this Naruto threw a barrage of punches into the final thug's stomach, and ended it with an uppercut directly to the chin knocking him out like a light.

Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, he walked over to were the girl was standing.

" Hey are you okay?"

The girl stared at him for a second, and nodded cheerfully. She stuck out her hand and introduced herself. " Hello, I'm Shinozaki Rika. Nice to meet ya!"

Naruto sweatdropped at the cheerful attitude. ' Why is this girl so cheerful after an attempted kidnaping!?' Naruto just shrugged mentally, and shook her hand.

" Namikaze Naruto at your service."

"Well Namikaze-san. Thank you for helping me out with those guys back there. Would you mind walking me home?" Rika ended in a hopeful voice.

" Sure, but just call me Naruto. I'm not one for formalities."

Rika just smiled happily, grabbing his hand, and dragged him onto the road that would lead to her house. They chatted about their lives, likes, and dislikes on the way to her home. Naruto learned that Rika liked to make things as a hobby, and she hated it when people didn't appreciate her creations. She talked about not really knowing what she wanted to do with her life after high school, but she hoped it involved something she loved doing.

Rika in turn learned that Naruto absolutely loved ramen, but didn't really eat much unless he wanted to reward himself. She also learned that Naruto used to be in the Archery Club, but got bored after awhile. He had a large amount of hate for perverts, but what he really hated were people who picked on defenseless people, and people who judged others without getting to know them. Naruto didn't really know what he wanted to do in the future either, but decided to cross that bridge when he got to it.

Before they knew it they were at Rika's house, and they were standing near the doorway. Naruto glanced at Rika, and said," Well looks like this is it."

Rika also glanced at Naruto, a bit shyly I might add, and quickly kissed him on the cheek and shouted out," Itwasnicetomeetyou!" and ran into the house.

Naruto stood there dazed with his hand on his cheek. He shook his head, chuckled, and headed on home.

~ Line Break~

It had been a few days since Naruto had met Rika, and it was also the release of Sword Art Online. Naruto had been saving up for months for the game, and pre-ordered it awhile ago. He also took the day off of school to go buy it, and had just arrived home recently from the local game store.

He already hooked up his nerve gear, and put in the game, but went downstairs to eat some ramen for lunch. He had a ominous feeling that he wouldn't be able to eat ramen for awhile so he decided to savor it.

After finishing up his ramen, he laid down and slid the nerve gear over his head.

" Link Start!"

Touch: Ok

Smell: Ok

Sight: Ok

Hearing: Ok

Taste: Ok

Language: Japanese

Username: Kaze

Password: ********

Naruto phased into existence in level 1 Town of Beginnings. He clenched his fist a few times to get used to the feeling, then started walking around to look at the sights. As he walked around he noticed the area looked like it came from the midevil era. There were fruit vendors everywhere, and everyone had some sort of bladed weapon on them.

Naruto kept looking around drinking in the sights, when a redheaded man suddenly shouted out wait to a black haired man running by him. Curious, Naruto followed them into alleyway they stopped at, and listened in. After hearing that the black haired man was a beta, he walked up to them.

" You guys mind if I join this little group?" The two looked at each other for a second and shrugged. The redhead, being the more outgoing of the two stepped forward.

" I'm cool with it, by the way the names Klein." The black haired man following his lead also introduced himself

"I'm Kirito." Naruto looked at both of them before replying, " I'm Kaze."

After the introductions were out of the way Kirito led them to a field a little ways from the Town of Beginnings and started to teach them the basics of motion input. Naruto got it down pretty quickly, with Klein following almost as fast.

After friending both of them Klein went to log off for the pizza that would be arriving at 5:30.

"There's no button to log out." Klein stated. Kirito looked at him for a second and then shook his head.

" Look closer….Its at the bottom of the menu."

" No. Its not there." Naruto opened up his menu to check it too.

" Hey Kirito, Kleins right. There is no logout button. Kirito looked at his menu and confirmed the same thing. Klein just shrugged.

" Well it's the first day out of beta, there's bound to be some bugs. I bet the server people are gonna be freaking out." Kirito just smirked.

" They're not the only ones gonna be freaking out, look at the time."

" No! My teriyaki mayo pizza, and ginger ale!" Naruto just chuckled and looked at Klein also smirking.

" Heh. Good thing I ate my ramen before I got on. Now my tummy is all happy and not sad and dejected like yours." Klein just collapsed on the ground into a ball, rocking back in forth with anime tears flowing out from his eyes while mumbling about stupid blonds, ramen, dejected tummys, and his teriyaki mayo pizza.

Kirito just looked at the laughing blonde and sweatdropped at their antics. Deciding to get back to business Kirito told Klein to just call the gamemaster.

Getting off the ground Klein sighed," I tried, but nothings happening. Is there any other way to logout?"

Kirito sensing two pairs of eyes looking at him just shook his head," No. The only way a player can logout is through the menu, or if someone unplugs you from the outside."

"But I live alone. What about you two?" Naruto nodded and said," I also live alone."

" I have a mom and sister. So I think they'll notice by dinnertime." At this Klein ran up to Kirito and grabbed his shoulders and spoke in a pervy voice.

" H-How old's your sister? Kirito backed off a little bit shaking his head," She's on a sports team, and hates games. She has nothing to do with people like us." He then promptly kneed Klein in the nuts.

Naruto shuddered," I cant help but cringe every time I see a man nailed in the balls. Its just not right. Even though there's no pain here, just gah!" Klein got up from his ground rolling and gripped Naruto by the shoulders, and looked at him directly in the eyes while tearing up.

" Finally! Someone who understands the pain of this. From now on, were Ball Brothers!"

Naruto blanched," I don't think I want to-"

Klein interrupted with a"What was that Ball Brother Kaze?" Naruto just groaned while Kirito snickerd in the background.

" I should of just kept my mouth shut." Naruto sighed. At that moment a bell tolled in the distance, and as soon as everyone noticed it they were automatically teleported to main plaza of The Town of Beginnings along with a large group of people.

Kirito looked around," A forced teleport?" The sky suddenly turned a startling blood red, and a blood-like substance leaked out of the sky, and formed into a giant hooded, and faceless gamemaster. It spread out its arms and announced," Welcome players to my world. My name is Kayaba Akihiko. As of this moment I am the only person who can control this entire world. The logout button's disappearance is not a mistake of this game, its actually I feature I put in this game so you can't logout. You also can't be manually logged out by any outside source. If you are, the transmitter in the NerveGear will send out a powerful microwave, and effectively kill your brain. 213 players have already been attempted to be logged off by external sources, and 213 people have died. As you can see news reporters from all over the world have reported this, including the deaths."

Naruto growled," You asshole. What makes you think you can kill off 213 people like that!"

While Klein just didn't want to believe it, and Kirito just repeated the number in shock.

Kayaba just continued on after everyone settled down a little bit. " I want you all to remember this. If your avatars health drops to zero and dies. The NerveGear will destroy your brain. There is only one means of escape. To clear the game. You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, Floor 1. If you defeat the boss on each floor and advance all the way to floor 100 and defeat the boss, You will clear the game. Finally, I've added a present to you from me in your storage. Please see for yourself.

Naruto opened up his item storage, and selected the mirror, dropping it into his hand. He looked at his reflection, and saw his usual self but with a mask that covered half his face. A blue glow washed over his body, and revealed his true features. Naruto stood at his 5'7 height without his mask on his face, and had his whisker marks on his cheeks. He looked around for his two friends. He noticed a scruffy red haired guy that had his hair in a bandanna, and on his left was….Kazuto? What happened to Kirito? That's when it all connected in his mind. Kazuto was Kirito, he just put the beginning of his last name together with the end of his first name!

He looked to the redhead first, and shouted out his name. Klein looked at Naruto and just nodded his head as if confirming something, but looked shocked when he gazed at Kirito.

Kirito just stared at Naruto for a couple moments, and then finally blurted out," Naruto? Is that you?"

" Yeah but over here I'd rather be call Kaze if you don't mind." Kirito just replied with," Well as long as you call me Kirito over here too, I'm fine with that."

Klein finally joining in on the conversation got directly into serious mode.

" Sorry to break up your reunion but why'd this happen?"

Kirito pointed out at Kayaba," I dunno, but im sure he'll tell us."

Kayaba just looked at them all. Then started to speak again. " I'm sure your all wondering why would Kayaba Akihiko, developer of Sword Art Online, and NerveGear do this? I created this place for one sole reason…To create this world and intervene in it…. This ends the tutorial for Sword Art Online official launch…. Good luck players."

Kayaba then dissolved into nothing and the red sky disappeared. That seemed to be the trigger for widespread panic throughout the plaza, and everyone was yelling and freaking out. The expression on Kiritos face hardened, and he gripped Klein and Naruto's hands. He pulled them into a nearby alleyway to discuss his plan.

" Listen to me. I'm heading to the next village right now. Come with me…..If what he said is true, the only way to survive this world is to make yourself as strong as possible. The money and XP we can earn are limited. The hills surrounded by the Town of Beginnings will soon be hunted clean. To do this efficiently we should head to the next village now. I know all the dangerous paths, and areas. Even at level one we can get there safely."

They stood there for at least a minute, and then Klein was the first to answer.

" But you…you know, I spent a whole night in line to buy this with my friends from the other game. There out there in the plaza. I just can't leave them."

Kirito stood there and thought about ways to do it so that a whole group could go, but then Klein cut him off in mid thought.

" I can hardly ask for anything else can I? So don't worry about it, you two go to the next village. I'll be fine. I'll just use the skills you taught me, and help out my other friends. I was a guild leader in my other game so it should work out okay."

Naruto and Kirito just looked at Klein for a second, and started to walk away but were stopped by Klein's voice again.

" Kirito, Kaze." They looked back," Kirito…you actually look pretty cute as you are now, and Kaze… You look the same." Klein deadpanned.

Naruto sweatdropped." Thanks….I guess?"

While Kirito just chuckled, and said," That unkempt face of yours suits you ten times better!" Kirito and Naruto just jogged off, and when Kirito looked back.

Klein was gone.

Kirito and Naruto soon sprinted out of the gates of the town and onto the road to the next village. After a little while Kirito ,and Naruto noticed a feral wolf in the middle of the road.

Kirito roaring out in emotion unsheathed his blade, and charged at the wolf. They met in clash of claws and blade.

An #3: Well thats it for the first chapter. Please Review so I know what I'm doing wrong :D. I'll try to have the next chapter out sometime next week, but the story is mainly gonna follow canon until the floor 1 boss is defeated, then I'm gonna add my own twist to it.