Naruto: The Game of Life
is a Naruto Fan Fic that, like Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion, Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyoji, After the Chamber: Lords and Ladies, and Issei: The Gaming Gear, is a mix of Alternate Universe Fic and Rational Fic written by SeerKing that has elements from The Gamer.
One morning, Naruto wakes up to discover that his life has become a game.
This work contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Naruto himself is one, having obtained a number of elemental jutsu and the Shadow Clone Technique before graduating. Sakura and Ten-Ten also appear to be going this way through the training Naruto puts them through.
- Ayame Ichiraku was once a ninja trainee, but had to leave school to help her father.
- Adaptational Villainy: Canonically, Mizuki had manipulated Naruto into stealing the Scroll of Seals at the start of the series and tried murdering him and Iruka. Here, the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing persona is not present and he is actively antagonistic towards Naruto to the point of trying to sabotage him constantly during his time at the Academy.
- Adults Are Useless: Averted.
- When Iruka and the Third Hokage learn of Naruto's actual living circumstances and about all the difficulties in his daily life and studies, they immediately act to put an end to those circumstances and give Naruto the means to improve his situation.
- Similarly, Tenten's lack of knowledge about ninjutsu is because Might Guy was planning to find a tutor for her, only for his main choices to be unavailable followed by the training of Rock Lee taking up a lot of his time. When Might Guy is called out about this, he immediately sets out to solve his huge oversight.
- The Ichirakus are the only civilians that treat Naruto nicely at the beginning, and the Higurashis (Tenten's parents) quickly grow on him, especially after he fights to protect her from the fake Nuke-nin.
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Downplayed. When Naruto stops asking her out every day, Sakura admits that she misses it, if only as reinforcement that someone finds her attractive.
- Ascended Extra: Asuma has a bigger role as a result of being Naruto’s mentor and later Jonin-sensei.
- Berserk Button: There are things every Konoha ninja knows not to do, and one of them is saying or implying in any way, shape, or form, that an Akimichi is fat - at least where one of them can hear you. When a Nuke-nin makes the mistake of calling Chouji "fat", he explodes in anger and steamrolls the guy, killing him in the process.
- The Bet: Naruto keeps making these - and winning.
- The first time, he bets Sakura he can defeat her in a best-of-five fight.
- The second time, he tells Ino that he's certain Sakura can defeat her.
- The third time, he challenges Kiba to a fight in order to stop him from messing around.
- Big Brother Mentor: Iruka, much like in canon.
- The Cameo: Bugs Bunny acts as a tutorial Boss Monster of the Wabbit Warren dungeon in Chapter 24.
- Character Development: The Gamer helps Naruto become more mature and capable of improving himself.
- Chekhov's Skill: Naruto's pranking skills have made him very good in the art of setting up traps, which become fundamental to allow the genin survive the Nuke-nin's attack on the Shukuba.
- Cliffhanger:
- Chapter 28 ends with the Team 8 and Team 10 genin, along with Ayame, about to be attacked by eight Nuke-nin, and Naruto starting to develop a plan to stop the Nuke-nin without support from their mentors.
- Chapter 29 ends with Naruto ordering the other genin to escape with Ayame while he fights the Jonin leading the attack on the Shukuba, knowing his best hope of survival is holding the Jonin off until Asuma and Kurenai return.
- Cool Sword: Naruto's kodachi, Kogetsu Kyuushiki (Arc/Fox Moon Type Nine). Made of chakra metal by the Higurashis, it has a second blade and contains several small weapons within.
- Crazy-Prepared: Due to Interface Spoiler, Naruto brings a motherload of supplies for anything. When the town they're in is attacked by Karehagakure ninja, he can pull out a full lunch for Teams 8 and 10 and Ayame and everything needed to booby-trap the entire forest they are fortifying themselves in.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Naruto challenges Sakura to a fight in order to make her take her training as a ninja seriously, hoping that losing against the "Dead Last" will shock her out of it.
- Asuma convinces Naruto to take Sakura and Ino to the Training Grounds and fight chakra mutations, since they (particularly Ino) don't take fights seriously. One harrowing boss fight (and several regular ones) later, they're quite humbled.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Naruto defeats Mizuki without suffering more than a few scratches.
- Cursed with Awesome: Naruto has so much chakra that he cannot summon the fine control required to do genjutsu, but in exchange he can spam a lot of techniques that most people would be hard pressed to do just once.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Naruto challenges Kiba to a duel to make him respect his authority. The victory earns him a healthy increase in reputation with Kiba and his clan. Defeat would have reduced his reputation.
- Dramatic Irony: When the Third Hokage reveals how the Fourth Hokage died fighting the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto expresses a tad of hero worship for the man. Sarutobi cringes internally because the Fourth Hokage was actually Naruto's father and he defeated the Fox by sealing it into a newborn Naruto.
- Dumbass Has a Point: After Naruto defeats her in a best-of-five fight, Sakura admits that Naruto is right in that she needs to put more effort in her physical training.
- Engineered Public Confession: To force Mizuki to reveal his treason, the Third Hokage has Naruto go meet the man and brings several people to witness the meeting through his crystal ball. It works like a charm.
- Exact Words: Iruka requests Naruto not to paint bomb Mizuki when he enters the classroom. Naruto begrudgingly agrees - and immediately begins to plan how to paint bomb Mizuki anywhere but the Academy.
- False Flag Operation: Danzō sends several of his brainwashed minions disguised as Kirigakure Nuke-nin to either test or capture Naruto. However, the Interface Spoiler, along with their behavior, helps Naruto realize that they are not what they claim to be.
- Fire-Forged Friends: While they were already becoming friendly with each other, Naruto saving Ten-Ten from being gravely injured and then fighting at her side against the false Nuke-nin pushes their friendship forward - with a dash of Rescue Romance for her.
- Ino and Sakura start to rekindle their friendship after the battle in the training grounds.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Downplayed. Hinata begins to make an effort to speak with Naruto after he is put in a team with Sakura and Ino - who feel mildly jealous when they see the two of them speaking.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Naruto once manages to sneak in the Hokage's office by exploiting the patrol patterns of the guards.
- Interface Spoiler: When Team 10 is given the mission to escort Ayame to get ingredients for her family restaurant, the associated quest description tells Naruto that the mission is going to be a lot tougher than expected. Then, when they arrive to their destination and the second part of the quest gets updated with a new description and a larger reward, Naruto realizes that the town is going to be attacked - while both Team 8 and Team 10's mentors are out of town.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Naruto notices that the Training Grounds he usually goes too are way too silent in comparison to the usual, moments before the retired shinobi try to kill him.
- Karma Meter: Naruto unlocks one, Mass Effect style, that measures whether his heroic behavior leans towards Righteous or Pragmatic. So far, his choices have leaned towards the former. It is implied he may end up unlocking other such meters in the future.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: The fact that one member of Clan Haruno was behind the vandalism on Naruto's home could have been really bad for Sakura and her family. Instead, the only punishment is to force Sakura to tutor Naruto until the exams and not to diet for just as long. The former gets her to begin taking her physical training more seriously, and the latter prevents the health problems that would have come from combining a diet with the serious ninja training.
- Locked Out of the Loop: The Third Hokage is unaware of Naruto's new Gamer status and is trying to figure out some of the weird actions that go against Naruto's character. Subverted when Naruto finally reveals it to him when asked about it.
- Loophole Abuse: One of the reasons why Naruto has not been able to pass before is because he cannot use the basic clone jutsu requested in the exam, since he has so much chakra that he cannot perform the fine control required. Iruka realizes that students are required to demonstrate proficiency with one clone jutsu without specifying which one (the Bunshin no Jutsu is the usual method because it's the easiest), so he teaches Naruto several such techniques that allow him to pass.
- Master of Disguise: Naruto's Henge is good enough that he can make people think he's Iruka. During the exam, his Hokage Henge is so good that Iruka and Mizuki (who just watched him transform) instinctively react as if he were the Sandaime himself.
- Due to this, Naruto gets a quest to use Henge to transform into a hundred different people and act well enough that people will think he's the real person.
- Misplaced Retribution: The source of most of Naruto's problems with the townspeople is that the adults know about Naruto being the Jinchuuriki for the Nine-Tailed Fox (which killed many people and almost destroyed Konoha), but think he is possessed by the bijū, so they take their frustrations on him.
- Mundane Utility: After learning how to create Rock Clones and Shadow Clones, Naruto uses them to keep his building clean, go to the shop, and learn skills a lot faster than usual.
- Named by the Adaptation: Ino's mother is named Saori.
- Not So Above It All: Sarutobi plays a prank on Naruto by telling the ANBU that were looking for him because of his "robbery" of the Scroll of Seals that it was all one of Naruto's pranks and that he was disappointed they did not find him even though he did not move from the Training Grounds in the time between the "robbery" and him returning after beating Mizuki.
- Papa Wolf: Learning all the problems Naruto faces daily makes Sarutobi furious at the people that hate Naruto for something that is not his fault.
- Pet the Dog:
- Every time that Naruto either performs well in an exercise or is able to hold his own in a sparring match despite still losing, he notices that he still gains positive reputation points in his relationship with Sasuke.
- Sakura begins to gain a better opinion of Naruto when he demonstrates that he is a lot more capable than she believed. She also tells him what she knows of the Uzumaki clan when he reveals he knows little about them.
- Point of Divergence: Due to the changes caused by The Gamer, Naruto is put in Team 10 with Sakura and Ino instead of Team 7.
- Polyamory:
Word of God is that Naruto is going to have a harem. Officially, at least Sakura, Ten-Ten, and Hinata are joining in. - Prolonged Prologue: It takes around eighteen chapters to merely get to the beginning of the canon storyline.
- Rascally Rabbit: In Chapter 24, Naruto finds himself in a "Wabbit Warren", which is inhabited by Wabbit Warriors (titled Wascally Wabbits), Elite Wabbit Warriors (Wretched Wascally Wabbits), and has Bugs Bunny as the Boss Monster.
- Revealing Cover Up: Apparently, everyone knows where the old ANBU headquarters are because of the guards keeping people away even though there is a sign about apartments being available.
- Running Gag:
- Every time Naruto makes an intelligent observation, he is awarded points for his WIS stat, much to his irritation over time.
- Also, his Detect Bloodlust ability increases frantically due to his poor reputation with the majority of the village.
- Sabotutor: Mizuki sneaks flaws or mistakes into everything he teaches Naruto.
- Schmuck Bait: After the canon example of Mizuki telling Naruto to take the Scroll of Seals as part of the exam, the Third Hokage runs a second one, with Naruto as bait, to catch Mizuki with proof of his treason.
- Simple Solution Won't Work: When asked if her father can't buy foodstuffs and ingredients from the farms close to Honoka (as opposed to having to buy them from afar), Ayame states that said farms price-gouge local merchants because the Akimichi clan tends to buy a lot from them.
- Sudden Game Interface: How the story begins.
- Took a Level in Badass: Thanks to Naruto, Sakura improves her fighting technique and learns new skills. Ten-Ten also gets training in the use of ninjutsu.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Chunin trying to kill Teams 8 and 10's genin make the mistake of thinking it'll be an easy job. Half of them die before they actually encounter them, and the other four are swiftly defeated.
- Unobtanium: Chakra metal, which can be used to make very powerful weapons. Naruto finds a slab, and is informed that he would be able to buy all of Clan Hyūga's Compound and still have money to live for many years without working.
- Worthy Opponent: Naruto's standing with Sasuke actually goes up when he shows his competence (even when dealing with others), since Sasuke respects genuine effort to improve oneself.
- Zerg Rush: As in canon, the Shadow Clones allow Naruto to do this.
