Arthur jolted awake as the world came into a slow focus.
His head pounded, and he tasted dried copper in his mouth. Cold, damp stone pressed against his lower body as a single torch cast shadows across a cell.
There was no doubt about it: he was in prison.
Disorientation gave way to a sense of dread. He couldn't tell how long he had been unconscious. He tried to rise, but panic overtook him once he felt chains binding him to the floor.
This was bad. Very bad.
Every muscle in his body ached. Earth had always seemed harsh, but the ninja world was beyond cruel.
He wouldn't accept this fate. With a ragged breath, he threw his head back and screamed, "Dr. Kapoor! This has gone too far! Please, let me out!"
He didn't care if it sounded pathetic; he needed to be heard to break free from this pain.
"Dr. Kapoor! I'm done! Log me out already!" His outburst was met with silence, broken only by the dripping of water somewhere in the darkness. Now he was getting angry. "Quit messing with me, you pretentious pieces of—"
"How 'bout you quit yappin' y'er mouth?!" a fat man drooled while barging through a door. The sound sent chills down Arthur's spine. "One more outburst like that, slave, and I'll come in y'er cage and rip out y'er tongue!"
The figure then murmured his annoyance before slamming the door behind him.
Arthur felt genuine fear, a feeling that he had not felt in a long time. So much so that he placed himself in a fetal position anew began sobbing.
This had stopped being a game long ago.
The world of ninjas promised adventure and a chance to prove themselves through missions and canon characters that valued freedom. Instead, it had led Arthur to a nightmare in which there was no escape.
Hours passed with him in the same position.
The loneliness had pressed down on him hard, and the tears had long since stopped flowing due to his lack of hydration.
Staring into the abyss of his despair, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever see the real light of day again.
What about the others? Who's to say they weren't all in on this?
Look at Jasper, heir to the Reza fortune. For all Arthur knew, his family could have bought his way into the experiment.
Then there was Alice, who strangely did a thorough background check on everyone.
What about Margaret, Jada, or William? Arthur understood that Japanese anime was an on-demand form of entertainment, but how did they all come into this experiment knowing more about the world than he did?
And Alexander? Arthur's memory never betrayed him. Alex was the only person Dr. Kapoor never addressed by last name. She called him "my dear Alex".
Arthur had been a fool to trust this scheme; he was a fool to trust a multi-billion dollar company.
For it is even written in the holy scriptures: It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Remembering this important line, Arthur fell asleep.
When he arose again, he wasn't sure how much time had passed.
The torch that was lit had already sputtered and died, plunging the cell into so much darkness that he couldn't even see his hands.
Later, an unknown amount of time passed until the same guard opened the door to relight the torch and bring Arthur a chipped cup of water.
He wasted no time gulping it down as the meager offering did little to quell the hunger in his stomach.
Without a single word, the guard eventually left.
Arthur was hungry. So very hungry.
Because of the chains, he had urinated in his sleep without knowing, reeking in his own piss.
Sleep itself was hard due to the ache in his body. At times, he would close his eyes, only to open them again due to the dripping water in the distance.
Another moment went by with him in this state.
Arthur was defeated. But he wasn't completely broken; he found solace in the quiet recitation of bible verses his parents once read to him at night. That was the only thing offering him hope.
As time wore on, a white light shone in the room.
"Arthur," a voice said. He looked up, but couldn't see where the light was coming from or who was inside. "Are you just gonna sit there and die?"
"Wh-what? Who are—?"
"Get up, boy… And remember why you live."
When that light faded, a spark was ignited within him.
He can't die here!
No smile played on his lips as he sat up. He then slowly looked at his hands to understand his current situation.
He was in the ninja world, and from what he knew, it had its villains that underwent similar setbacks.
From start to finish, the first villain was a mercenary named Zabuza Momochi. He held one of the seven legendary swords, the Executioner's Blade, letting his thirst for power drive him to betray his village.
Though initially presented as a villain, Zabuza met his end at the hands of Kakashi Hatake, Naruto's teacher.
Next up was Orochimaru, a power-hungry Sannin (or legendary ninja). Obsessed with immortality and forbidden techniques, he experimented on countless individuals.
His thirst for knowledge led him down darkness several decades ago. He was also the main threat during the first part.
The second part, however, had an even more powerful villain from the Rain Village named Nagato Uzumaki. Like the surname suggested, Nagato was part of the Uzumaki clan. His group of mercenaries referred to him as "Pain".
Driven by the horrors of war and loss, he sought to achieve world peace through dominance. Naruto eventually defeated Pain by showing him a different route to peace.
Pain himself, however, was just a pawn.
But who could be so methodical as to treat Pain as a pawn? It was Obito Uchiha, the next villain who publicly began running the scenes after Nagato's death.
Obito was a talented young ninja who believed the world was a cruel place filled with suffering after witnessing the death of his teammate, Rin Nohara.
He was also written to have orchestrated numerous events from the shadows, including the Nine-Tails' attack on the Leaf Village, ultimately aiming to cast an illusion on the entire world to try and make it perfect.
Like Nagato, he was defeated by Naruto and was redeemed after sacrificing himself during the end of the series.
Some would say that Arthur's predicament was like Obito's. But Arthur would never be burdened by misplaced loyalty. Unlike Obito's initial attachment to his late comrade, Arthur had no comrades.
Worst of all was that Obito fell under the manipulation of an even stronger villain named Madara Uchiha.
A legendary figure and co-founder of the Leaf Village, Madara sought to control the Tailed Beasts and use them to create an illusionary world peace.
But he had gotten too old to carry out his plans, so he orchestrated a means of reviving himself via Nagato Uzumaki. Interestingly, he was instead revived by a ninja named Kabuto Yakushi before eventually being defeated by Naruto and Sasuke.
While many fans enjoyed seeing Madara in action, he too was just another pawn.
The last main villain that was manipulating him via Zetsu was Kaguya Ōtsutsuki.
Kaguya was the progenitor of all chakra. She wasn't originally a villain but rather a devil from outer space who arrived on earth to cultivate a parasitic tree that drained life force from the earth.
Consumed by the power of the tree's chakra fruit, she became a tyrannical ruler by manipulating men and harvesting their chakra. She was eventually sealed away on the moon by her sons, Hagoromo and Hamura, only to be released during a war and then defeated by Hagoromo's son's incarnates, Naruto and Sasuke.
There was a reason why few fans saw her appearance coming. It was because the writer made stuff up as the story progressed.
All this information was registered into Arthur's mind. He knew of all their strengths and their weaknesses. And the last thing he was going to do was make their mistakes.
No, no one would dissuade him from the decision he was making now. Not the others from earth, not the shinobi of this world, and most certainly not Talk-No-Jutsu.
Arthur wasn't some hero destined to save the day.
In this world of darkness, a hero wouldn't survive in this cell. Let alone be placed inside it. Here, only the ruthless, the cunning, and the ones who reveled in power thrived.
Arthur wouldn't play by their rules or anyone else's for that matter; he wanted to become the villain. No, he needed to become one. And not just any villain but a force of destruction so absolute that even the creators would be amazed.
"Can you hear me?" he rasped in a tone devoid of any emotion. "I will escape, and when I do, I'll destroy this entire world…"
He didn't know how; he didn't know when, but he would annihilate it regardless of who tried to get in his way.
Fueled by his newfound purpose, Arthur shut his eyes.
The chill of the cell and pain were pushed far to the back of his mind. He needed to focus and tap into the power source of this world—chakra.
Chakra was the life force that fueled all ninjas. It was a blend of physical and spiritual energy swirling within every being in this world. Skilled ninjas could channel this energy by moulding it to perform extraordinary feats like walking on walls and breathing fire.
But just having chakra wasn't enough. Control was also paramount.
So Arthur settled into a meditative pose. His mind, honed by years of praying and learning philosophy, became still.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The pain threatened to shatter his focus, but he preserved it. Then, in his mind's eye, he saw a single point of light within himself: a tiny, glowing pool of yellow water.
The closer the vision got, the more he felt this faint sensation.
A tingling warmth then bloomed deep within his core. This was it; this was his chakra.
He remained calm by reminding himself that harnessing chakra was nothing; control of it was far more important.
Focusing on that tiny pool, he willingly made it ripple around in his mind. It felt like pushing against a wall of resistance that even his physical muscles were straining with the effort. But after a few excruciatingly slow shakes, he willed a miniscule amount of that water outside the pool.
Swish.
When Arthur finally opened his eyes, gone was the cold sensation from the floor. The heaviness in his bones also became lighter and lighter with every passing second.
At that very moment, a real villain was born.