The group swapped stories about their day, but the theme remained consistent: disappointment.
It turned out they had been assigned a random Jōnin none of them had recognized.
Jada sighed. "Our sensei was this nondescript guy who kept trying to teach us the values of being a ninja. William and I basically sat back and watched Marge handle it."
Margaret puffed out her chest. "I kept telling you guys I could mop the floor with anyone." She had revealed one of her hidden techniques: Tsunade's Chakra-Enhanced Strength. "It was easier than I thought it'd be."
William chuckled sheepishly. "I thought she was gonna send him to the hospital."
Margaret nudged Alex. "Your turn, guys... Wait! Lemme guess: Your instructor was just as boring as ours?"
Alex straightened up on the couch with a mischievous grin. "Well, ours wasn't exactly boring."
"Come on," Margaret urged, "spill it out already!"
"Alice, Jasper, and I took the dude down in like five minutes."
The room erupted in gasps and impressed whistles.
"How'd you guys manage that?" Jada asked.
Alex shrugged cryptically. "Let's just say teamwork makes the dream work."
The conversation soon shifted to Naruto's progress.
William, who had developed a bit of a soft spot for the boy, explained that Naruto had passed his 'bell test,' a timed trial where the team had to secure two bells from Kakashi.
Arthur knew exactly what awaited that team once they passed.
They would embark on their first C-rank mission: escorting Tazuna, a bridge builder, to the Land of Mist. During that journey in the story, they were ambushed by two Chūnin-level ninjas.
While Sasuke and Sakura bravely defended Tazuna, Naruto froze in fear. This encounter exposed the truth: Tazuna was being targeted by a powerful businessman named Gatō, who had hired Zabuza to eliminate him.
Furious at being misled about the mission's difficulty, Kakashi threatened to abandon it. But Tazuna confessed that he couldn't afford a higher-ranked mission due to Gatō's stranglehold on the economy.
Despite the increased risk, Naruto convinced the team to stay.
Their journey took a turn for the worse when they finally encountered Zabuza, where Kakashi first revealed to his team that he had the Sharingan.
After Zabuza captured Kakashi in the Water Prison technique, Naruto and Sasuke eventually freed him, allowing their teacher to finish the fight.
However, before Kakashi could deliver the final blow, Zabuza was seemingly killed by his partner, Haku, who was disguised as an Anbu from the Mist Village.
They would later fight on the bridge Tazuna was constructing, where another pivotal battle would unfold.
Regarding Sakura, she basically contributed nothing throughout the whole mission.
Finally, the big question arose: How could they, as unlikely heroes, intervene to change that mission?
"We can't just let Zabuza and Haku die!" William impulsively said. They recalled that the duo was later backstabbed by Gatō, leading to their inevitable deaths. "I say we just go on that mission with them to help."
Jasper rolled his eyes. "Don't you get it, fool? If we join them, there'll be consequences to our actions."
Margaret chimed in. "Jasper's right, Will. Besides, Naruto and Sasuke seem distant lately. If we get involved, Sasuke might not reawaken his Sharingan. We shouldn't mess with things so early on."
"Naruto's not the same weakling he was in the story," argued William.
"What makes you say that?" Arthur wondered.
"Him and I have been training taijutsu together, and he's gotten a lot stronger. We can make a difference if I at least tag along with him."
Arthur speculated that William had likely been building up his strength during these training sessions with Naruto. Otherwise, he wouldn't be acting this confident right now.
Alex, ever the mediator, raised a hand to interject. "Hold on, everyone. Let's not get carried away. Here's what I propose. We have three options: one, we let things play out as they did in the story. Two, some of us here intervene. Or three, everyone here intervenes."
He looked around the room to gather the votes.
Margaret, Alice, and Jasper favoured option one, while William vehemently pushed for option two. Jada and Alex, believing it would be fair to help the main cast rather than let them suffer, sided with William.
It was a tie.
Arthur was the last to vote. And quite honestly, he didn't care that much; he preferred to remain a passive observer, gathering strength in the shadows until the end.
This was, however, going to be the first real choice that would impact this world forever.
"Two," he finally said.
A mix of surprise, denial, and cheers filled the room.
Once everyone calmed down, Alex grinned. "Cool. Will, Alice… You two will go with them."
William immediately started jotting down strategies in a notebook. Alice, however, looked apprehensive.
As the men were escorted out, Alex delivered the final instructions: the two selected were to travel to the Land of Mist with Team 7, ensure Sasuke reawakens the Sharingan, and find a way to save Zabuza and Haku.
William pumped his fist in the air. "Don't worry, guys! We won't let you down!"
Alice simply nodded, wishing she had actually watched Shippuden like the others. That would have at least allowed her to know how to better handle the situation.
Stepping into the elevator, William began acting as if the mission were taking place tomorrow, having not noticed Jasper suddenly stop Arthur.
Arthur just watched the elevator doors slide shut with a sigh. "Trying to ask me for another fight?"
"Come on, man. We're past that now, aren't we?"
"I was only teasing you," Arthur said, turning around.
Jasper was taken aback by the joke. He scratched his head and said, "I just wanted to know... Why option two?"
Arthur shrugged. "I'm here to help, remember? If some intervention is necessary, then there's no need for us to hold back."
Jasper studied him for a moment before ultimately accepting the answer. "Just don't go off doing anything stupid like William."
With a final glance at Jasper, Arthur turned and headed for the elevator. William was already long gone by the time he descended.
Under the cloudy night sky, Arthur avoided heading home and instead reached one of the village's general stores. Using his Smoke jutsu, he dissolved into swirling vapor and slipped past the locked doors.
No one else was here.
So inside, he gathered everything he needed: three large bottles of ink, a paintbrush, a cloth, a vial labeled 'rat poison,' eight wooden sticks, a lighter, and a sharp kitchen knife.
He then slipped out of the store and navigated the deserted streets toward a secluded training ground.
Now he was at a clearing obscured by trees with a wide, flat surface.
He removed his shirt and unpacked his supplies. What he was planning to do here was replicate the formula he'd read from the medical book.
It wasn't difficult to recall.
So after dipping the brush into the ink, he drew across his belly. Then he transferred the design onto the center of the ground, placed two sticks in each cardinal direction, and ignited them.
The stage was set, but he remained outside the symbol.
This was going to be the most painful part as he tied the cloth around his mouth.
Grimacing, he steeled himself and picked up the kitchen knife.
Shank!
A quick stab to his arm sent a tremour through his entire body. He followed up with a series of brutal jabs, inflicting more wounds across his arms and legs as the blood threatened to wash away the formula.
The pain was sharp, but he bit down hard on the cloth to keep himself from screaming.
Eventually, so much sweat and blood trickled down his body that it forced him to take a knee.
When he was able to steady himself, he unwrapped the cloth, popped the vial of rat poison open, and drank it!
Arthur stood up, feeling every sting. He then barely stepped into the center of the symbol to ready himself.
The reason he was doing all of this was because he was training a certain technique. It was known as the "Regenerative Healing Jutsu."
Sakura had been shown using it once without the usual prerequisites. For Arthur, though, this was inhumane.
His vitality hung by a thread, and if he failed due to this desperate gamble for survival, he would surely die.
But he had something Sakura didn't: a trait that allowed him to easily learn support techniques.
Vision blurring at the edges, he fought the urge to collapse and activated the jutsu by channeling chakra into the swirling symbol on the ground.
An eerie emerald light glowed beneath him. He then felt a prickling sensation all over his body that intensified with each passing second. He expected a breakthrough, but the green light sputtered and died, leaving him panting in the darkness.
'Why now of all times?' he thought in pain.
The wounds marred his flesh and the dejection threatened to engulf him. But even in this surreal failure, he refused to surrender.
Wiping cold sweat from his brow, he repeated the process. This time, he focused all his chakra on the activation sequence.
As the green light formed, a different sensation was felt—one within his very cells.
It was as if his body was yearning for the wounds to close.
However, instead of allowing the technique to run its course, Arthur paused the jutsu to observe his cells. He felt them not just as his body but as individual entities that pulsated with a faint force of its own.
By doing this, he could better understand how the technique function.
Suddenly, he hacked up blood. The rat poison had taken effect.
That also made him lose control, causing the green light to first flicker before dying.
The wounds on his skin were still hurting as he forced himself to restart the technique with shaking hands.
This time, he wasn't just focusing on healing. He remembered the Poison Extraction technique from the book, a technique in which the user identifies a foreign element within the body and coaxes it out.
The disruption within his cells were perceived because of the dark stain spreading through his veins. So with a delicate touch, he performed the technique in tandem to isolate the foreign agent.
'Poison extraction jutsu…'
Carefully, he drew the poison out and saw it as a black goo leaving his body before casting it to the ground.
Exhausted, he finally turned his attention to the wounds on his skin.
This was nothing new to him, as he had already learned and applied the Healing technique to himself hundreds of times.
'Healing jutsu…'
Channeling his chakra, he converted the damaged tissue by mending the torn flesh. Each cell knitted itself back together as the process felt almost effortless.
The fresh pain eventually gave way to a dull ache.
Arthur collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath just as the light faded. His body was healed, but his mind still remembered the pain.
Perhaps he had managed to learn these new techniques, but he was by no means satisfied with the results due to how slow both the extraction and healing were.
So with a straight face, he rose to grab the knife and repeat the process.