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The young shinobi was up in a tree on day twelve when Nanako found him. She stood at the base with her hands in her jacket pockets and looked up without particular surprise.
"You've been doing this every day," she said.
"Doing what."
"Going somewhere by yourself and brooding."
"I'm not Sasuke."
"We don't know who that is," Mimiko said.
"He's just the biggest bastard I know. All broody while acting high and mighty like the world owes him something."
"Sounds like an asshole," Nanako said.
"He was until he tried to kill me while I was trying to stop him from getting his body snatched by a snake terrorist."
Nanako and Mimiko looked at each other. "Dude, don't trauma dump on us."
"Sorry."
"You've also been doing this." Nanako demonstrated, chin resting on fist, eyes fixed on a middle distance that didn't exist.
"Shut up."
The twins laughed at him.
"What do you two want? You're always on those glowing rectangles."
"We were wondering," Mimiko said, "if you wanted to come to Akihabara with us."
"What's Akihabara?"
"The ultimate hub for anime, manga, video games, and otaku culture."
"Okay but why should I go."
"Because you might find something you actually like," Nanako said. "And because if you spend another day sitting in this tree you're going to become a hikikomori."
"A what?"
"Someone who never leaves their room."
"Fine," Naruto said. "I'm down."
He dropped off the branch, tucked into a backflip mid-fall, and landed in front of them without using his hands.
"Let's go to Akihabara, dattebayo!"
"Show-off."
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Naruto had prepared himself for Tokyo. He had spent days watching the city from a distance, and processing it in manageable pieces.
Yet none of that had prepared him for the real thing.
Naruto couldn't stop looking around.
Signs covered every surface in characters he couldn't read, arrows pointing in directions that meant nothing to him, and numbers that presumably corresponded to something.
"How does anyone know where they're going?"
"You learn," Mimiko said, steering him toward a platform.
"How long does that take?"
"Depends on the person."
"Well." Naruto puffed out his chest. "I am going to master this place in a week. Dattebayo!"
The boy fell back into the habit of making his presence known. Several commuters on the platform glanced over. One businessman looked deeply inconvenienced by the loud voice.
Nanako and Mimiko might've felt embarrsed at the attention. But, it wasn't like they cared what monkeys thought.
The train arrived with a sound that Naruto kinda liked. When the doors opened on their own, the shinobi looked around wondering if someone casted a jutsu. The people waiting stepped back in a neat line to allow the exiting passengers through before boarding in an orderly flow.
Naruto watched this happen with his mouth slightly open. In Konoha the market on festival days was a contact sport.
"This is so awesome." The boy said looking like a tourist's first time on a bullet train.
Through the windows, Tokyo unfolded.
Buildings stacked beside buildings for as far as he could see in every direction. There were none of the gaps and treelines that broke up Konoha's skyline. Just this continuous density of glass, concrete and the elevated tracks of other train lines threading between everything.
"Naruto, look over here," Nanako said, holding up her phone.
"Watchya doing?"
"Recording you... you look like a tourist."
"I do not." He turned to the nearest person, a small elderly woman gripping her handbag with both hands. "Right, granny? I don't look like a tourist."
"Please leave me alone."
"See," Nanako said. "Tourist."
Naruto gave the girls a glare as they rubbed his hair while laughing.
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Akihabara was also unlike anything Naruto had experienced.
Enormous illustrated figures looked down from building-sized banners. The first time Naruto looked up he stumbled backward into Mimiko. Screens ran footage at street level and five floors up simultaneously. Electronics shops displayed their inventories in illuminated cases behind floor to ceiling glass. Music poured out of one entrance and collided with different music from the entrance beside it.
A figure in an elaborate costume stood outside a cafe handing cards to passing pedestrians with a cheerfulness that made Naruto blush
Pervy Sage would love this place especially the maids.
Overhead, cables ran between buildings like a second city built for smaller inhabitants. The smell of something fried drifted from somewhere to the left. A line of people waited outside a building.
"This is Akihabara," Mimiko said, spreading her arms.
"Where do we go first?"
"Looking it up," Nanako said.
"Don't you guys come here often?"
"Sometimes. When there are fewer monkeys to deal with." Nanako didn't look up from her phone.
Naruto looked around from side to side. "There are monkeys here?"
"Anyways," Mimiko said. "We came because you looked stressed. Boys like Akihabara, so..."
"I'm fine," Naruto said, thumping his chest. "Totally fine unless I have to fight some monkeys."
"So you wanna go back?"
"No, no, no." The boy waved both hands. "I want to see this place."
"Okay." Nanako looked up from her phone. "Manga cafe then clothes shopping, movie, food, and we are done. How does that sound?"
"Awesome. But how are we paying?"
Nanako held up a small rectangular card. "Suda-san gave me this."
"What's so great about a piece of plastic?"
"It gives us unlimited money."
Naruto and Mimiko looked at the credit card as if it was a gift from god.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go and have fun."
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The manga cafe was a different world contained inside a building.
Individual booths lined the walls and filled the interior in rows. Each one was a small private space with a chair, screen, and shelves running floor to ceiling packed with volumes. A soft indistinct noise of ventilation filled the space without intruding on it. People sat in their booths reading or watching things on the screens.
Naruto walked slowly down the aisle between booths looking at everything.
"You can read anything on the shelves," Mimiko said. "Or order from the screen."
He pulled a volume from the nearest shelf and opened it. The pictures looked cool but the text blocks were a problem.
"I can't read this," he said.
"I'll read it to you," Mimiko said, settling into the booth beside him. She opened to the first page and started reading, doing different voices for different characters for the sake of immersion.
She read him the first volume of Bleach, then the first volume of One Piece. Naruto really liked luffy and ichigo. And by the end of the hour, he was sitting forward with his elbows on his knees asking questions she answered without letting him slow the story down.
"Are there others like these?" he asked.
"There's actually a Big Three," Nanako said from the booth on his other side, where she had been reading something of her own. "Bleach, One Piece, and..." She paused while snapping her fingers. "Samurai 8."
"Let's check that one out."
Naruto found Samurai 8 within a minute and read through the first volume. It was alright.
"You know what would've been better than this," he said.
"What?"
"If someone made a manga about my life."
"That would certainly be something," Mimiko said politely.
"What would they call it?" Nanako said. "Tale of the Gutsy Shinobi?"
"It would be called Naruto. Simple yet iconic."
The girls giggled.
"Laugh it up," he said, already moving down the aisle. "When, I publish the Naruto manga and become world famous. Then you'll see."
He pulled a new volume from the shelf.
Berserk.
Naruto turned red as first pages was a sex scene. He checked left and right to confirm no one was watching. He turned another page and the red drained out entirely, as the woman turned into an eldritch horror.
A store clerk appeared at his elbow and removed the volume from his hands.
"Sorry, kid. That one's for adults."
Naruto couldn't argue at that. But he was gonna read that manga when he got older. He moved further down the aisle and picked up another volume.
Food Wars.
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Naruto walked out of the manga cafe with both hands covering his face.
"Don't worry about it," Nanako said. "Ecchi manga are a dime a dozen in there."
The boy wanted to dig himself into a hole as he asked a girl to read it for him.
"It was an honest mistake," Mimiko said.
The boy knew the twins would mercilessly tease him.
"Can we just go get the clothes," Naruto said. "Please. Let's go get the clothes right now."
He was still red when they reached the end of the block.
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"Give us a pose," Nanako said, holding up her phone.
Naruto stood in his new outfit.
An oversized black adidas jacket with three bold orange stripes running down each sleeve. It had a ribbed high collar ribbed with a black crew neck underneath. Black cropped joggers with elastic cuffs. A headband sat across his forehead as a replacement for his konoha headband.
The boy seemed to really like japanese streetwear fashion.
"How do I look?" Mimiko appeared from the changing room in a brown ribbed long sleeve top tucked into wide-leg green plaid trousers. A short grey leather jacket over the top, and white platform shoes.
"You should add orange somewhere," Naruto said.
Both girls ignored this suggestion.
Nanako came out in a dark navy oversized blazer over a white graphic tee, straight-leg grey denim, and chunky black loafers. They all took a group photo together. Something naruto wanted to print out.
They tried on a dozen more outfits each. Naruto had opinions about fewer of them than he expected and stronger opinions about two of them than he expected. Mimiko vetoed everything with too much neon orange on the grounds that she had principles.
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They emerged onto the street with Naruto carrying six bags on both arms; two bags looped over both shoulders, two bags held in his teeth by their handles. And a particularly large bag balanced on top of his head.
"Hey," he said, through the bag handles in his teeth. "Do you think we maybe bought too much?"
"Hm," Nanako said, looking at him like someone examining public art piece. "Hard to say."
Her phone however had other plans.
Suda's name sat on the screen.
"What do we do?" Mimiko whisper.
"Chuck the phone into the river," Naruto said immediately. "Pretend someone stole the credit card."
"Naruto," Nanako said, "Please, shut up."
"Okay. Ignore the call and put the phone on airplane mode."
"And then get screamed at the moment we walk through the door," Nanako hissed at her sister.
"How much did we spend?"
"Two hundred thousand yen."
Naruto and Mimiko winced simultaneously.
"Okay," The boy said, already starting to unload bags from his shoulders. "I'll return all my stuff. That should bring it down enough, right?"
The twins stared at him.
"You'd return everything, for us."
"Why not?" Naruto held the bags out with a lopsided grin. "Growing up, I had maybe three or four outfits at a time. The shops in Konoha wouldn't let me through the door, and the ones that did usually found a reason to charge me more or just wait until I left." He shrugged when the twins gave him a shocked look. "I got used to wearing what I could get and not thinking too hard about it."
He looked down at the new clothes.
"Today someone actually went out of their way to pick things out for me. I like that more than I like the clothes. So if returning them keeps my friends out of trouble, I'd return them without thinking twice."
"That is the nicest thing a boy has ever done for us." The twins pushed the bags back toward him. "We are not returning anything."
"But the pink secretary is going to be furious."
"Suda-san can cry about it," Nanako said, already pulling up the call. "Go ahead to the movie theatre. I'll handle this."
Naruto looked uncertain.
"Come on." Mimiko grabbed his sleeve with one hand. "Let big sis handle it."
She steered him down the street. Behind them, Nanako pressed the phone to her ear and straightened her spine with the composure of someone preparing to negotiate a peace treaty.
"Suda-san! Yes. About the card."
Naruto glanced back once. "Is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine," Mimiko said. "Nanako has never lost an argument in her life."
A pause.
"Not even one?"
"Not even one."
He shifted the bag on his head to a more stable position and kept walking.
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"So what happened?" Naruto asked, as they stood at the movie theatre entrance.
"Suda-san was upset," Nanako said. "Until I explained what we actually bought. Then she was slightly less upset."
"So we're fine?"
"We're fine."
"Great." Naruto turned to look at the display of movie posters along the entrance wall. "So what are we watching?"
The twins looked at each other. "You know about movies?"
"Obviously." He crossed his arms. "I actually went on a mission where we had to bodyguard this actress. She turned out to be the daughter of the Daimyo of the Land of Snow."
The twins wondered how that was possible.
The era of the daimyo ended during the Meiji Restoration. The abolishment of the han system took effect in 1871, which stripped the daimyo of their lands and domains, replacing them with a modern prefecture system.
So what exactly was Naruto talking about? Land of Snow Daimyo? Was he a time traveller?
"Oh. What about this one?"
The poster showed a figure moving toward a motorcycle with bold red letters across the top.
AKIRA.
"We're definitely not allowed to watch that," Mimiko said.
Naruto and Nanako looked at each other. The understanding passed between them instantly.
"We buy tickets for the kids movie," Naruto said.
"Sneak into the Akira screening," Nanako finished.
"Stay in the back."
"Obviously."
Mimiko sighed. "I'm surrounded by delinquents."
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Two hours later the credits rolled and none of them moved.
The theatre emptied around them but they stayed in the back row in silence.
Akira was a very surreal film that landed differently for the trio.
For Nanako and Mimiko, the body horror had hit closest to home.
Meanwhile, Naruto sat glued to the screen, his half-eaten cup of instant ramen completely forgotten as the credits rolled. His mind absolutely blown by the gritty, high-tech chaos of Neo-Tokyo and the sheer, terrifying power of Tetsuo.
For a guy used to throwing kunai and relying on chakra, seeing giant laser satellites, roaring futuristic motorcycles, and psychic kids who could level entire cities felt like an alien experience. He jumped up onto his feet, practically vibrating with excitement as he gripped his hair.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Did you see that motorcycle?!" he yelled to the empty room, his chest pumping as the jaw-dropping animation and raw technology left a permanent mark on his ninja soul. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen, dattebayo!I need to figure out how to get one of those red bikes, even if I have to build it myself!"
The twins smilled at how elated the boy was.
"Hey, you three." A staff member appeared at the end of the row. "This is an R-rated screening. No one under eighteen. You three are in so much trouble"
Nanako raised her phone and took a photo directly at him. She used her CT to knock him out.
What kind of jutsu is that? The boy wondered.
"Let's get out of here before the monkey wakes up."
"Food?" Mimiko said.
"Food," Naruto agreed.
"I know a great spot to try some burgers," Nanako said.
"What's a burger?" Naruto asked.
The twins gasped in unison and immediately dragged him toward the self-proclaimed godfather of Tokyo's gourmet burger culture.
Firehouse Burger.
Nanako ordered three Bacon Cheeseburgers and they sat in outside table.
Under the beautiful starry sky, the burger arrived. They looked and smelled delicious. When the boy took his first bite, the twins watched in anticipation.
"Well," Naruto said, setting the burger down and reaching for his drink. Whatever this dark liquid was, it was genuinely the best drink he ever had. "It's good. Really good. But I still prefer ramen."
"We can get ramen after."
"Nah, I'm good. I don't think any ramen around here could beat Ichiraku's anyway."
Those words almost brought a tear to his eye.
Ichiraku Ramen was the one place in Konoha that had never made him feel like an inconvenience. Where the bowl arrived before he finished sitting down. Where Ayame-nee-chan called him her little brother. The smell of it from the end of the street on a cold evening.
He might never eat there again.
Naruto looked across the table at twins and the day they had.
You know what, he thought. It's fine. Even if I am a long way from home. I still have some new friends I can rely on.
Naruto took a large bite of his burger and enjoyed the night with a smile.
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Author Note:
I hope you guys enjoyed these more slice of life chapter. After these the plot is going to get more intense. It was really fun diving into Naruto's perspective and exploring the sheer weight of the culture shock he's dealing with. Going from a 1940s level of tech straight into 2015 Tokyo is an absolute trip for him, and seeing how his ninja brain tries to rationalize things like smartphones, microwaves, and Akira was a blast to write. He's finally moving past the initial panic and finding a weird, hyperactive spark of inspiration in this alien world!
We're starting to build up the dynamic between Naruto, Geto, and the twins, so expect things to get even more chaotic as he tries to navigate his new "freedom" here.
Q: Wait, isn't the Naruto manga literally canon inside the JJK world?
I bet this is about the anime moment where Yuji is listing off all the anime moves he wants to learn, like the Rasengan and the Spirit Gun. It's a great meta joke!
I'm not going to lie, I seriously considered a plotline where Naruto accidentally finds a volume of the Naruto manga and has a massive existential crisis over it. It would be interesting but it would add a lot of meta elements that I really didn't want to get into.
Like Naruto arrives in JJK in 2015 and the manga ends in 2014. So by just reading the manga, Naruto could gain knowledge of so many future events that it would make it impossible to write a plot if I ever have Naruto find a way to go back.
Plus with the manga, Naruto would have hints towards figuring out the Rasenshuriken and maybe Sage Mode. Those two combined would be too op for this crossover.
That ultimately forced me toward such a different story that I scrapped my drafts and wrote a new one.
Instead, I snuck in a much stupider, quieter version of that joke. In this fic's version of the JJK universe, the "Big Three" anime are Bleach, One Piece, and... Samurai 8 (Kishimoto's sci-fi manga that got flopped). So, in this timeline, the Naruto manga simply never existed, and Samurai 8 took its legendary spot. It's a dumb piece of meta humor that cracked me up while writing it.
That's It… For Now.
I want to thank you all for taking the time to read, comment, and follow along with this story. Your feedback means more than you know, and it helps push me to make each chapter bigger, sharper, and more true to the worlds of Naruto and Jujutsu Kaisen
Until next time,
There are only so many seats open in my life, and I don't want to let my heart be swayed by anyone who's not sitting in one of them. Of course, there are also people like you who bring their own seat and sit down
-Adam-