Naruto: Summoning System

Blake's eyes sprung open. He immediately tried to stand up, only to realize that he was lying on a comfortable bed. His eyes remained wide and vigilant for an instant before he realized where he was, finally being able to relax.

He felt slightly lightheaded and it was difficult to remain awake, but Blake kept on staring at the ceiling of the underground base. His injuries burned, despite being treated by the Akatsuki. He still couldn't feel his right arm and he was having trouble breathing, yet he was alive, in the safety of their hidden base.

And he had succeeded. He had killed six people in the process—the cost was huge, but he managed to finish the Last Wish of his subject Nightmare. Now, he could finally roll the dice again, hopefully getting someone good and healing his injuries in the process.

The absence of his right hand disturbed Blake quite a lot now that he was away from trouble, but Blake hoped that the sensation would return once he received a boost in power from his new summon, whoever it might be, considering that his injuries patched up upon summoning Nightmare for the first time.

As Blake was deep in contemplation, he saw four figures running up to him from the distance. Immediately, a smile sprung up on Blake's face, as he saw their concerned expression. Nightmare pushed all of them away, rushing toward Blake in full force.

Blake continued to smile until he realized that Nightmare was not stopping. "Hey, Nightmare! Stop! You are going to kill me!"

Yet, the summon was not listening, as he jumped, flying towards Blake from above. Thankfully, Konan came in clutch, creating a soft wall of paper and separating the master from the summon. Nightmare got lifted into the air and released beside Blake's bed.

"It's nice to meet you, Nightmare. How have you been?" Blake stopped his beating hard, glancing at the overly excited cow beside him. Feeling the emotions of his summon, Blake sensed the answer. Excited. Pride. Longing.

A bit of sympathy formed in Blake's eyes as he patted the shoulder of his summon, who decided to do the same and placed his hand on Blake's shoulder. It was surprisingly gentle.

Yahiko's laugh disturbed them from the moment of connection. Side glancing at Yahiko, Blake narrowed his eyes, though he kept the smile on his face. "How have you been guys? Yahiko, Nagato, Konan."

Yahiko smiled. "Good, but not great. This place is damp and smelly."

Konan gave Yahiko a glare, but then turned back to Blake. "It was alright, how about you? You have to tell us what happened. You came back almost dead. You were lucky Nightmare sensed you coming. I need a full story."

"Don't bombard the patient, Konan." Nagato sighed, making eye contact with Blake. Despite the man being his friend for quite some time, Blake couldn't get used to the man's creepy eyes. Nagato nodded. "I have been doing okay."

Blake nodded to each of them. "I will tell you the entire story, but I need some information first. How long was I away? Did you get discovered? Tell me everything."

"Now you are bombarding us." Yahiko raised his hands, moving them around with a flustered expression on his face. However, Yahiko stopped joking once he saw that Blake had become serious. Yahiko put on his stoic expression as well. "You have been away for not that long, only three days."

Blake nodded. It seemed like time moved in the same way in both worlds, as Blake spent around three days in Danmachi. It was good news. Blake eyed Yahiko, urging him to continue.

Yahiko frowned. "Truthfully, we have not been doing that well. Upon your recommendation, we have sent two people as scouts above. Our base had been occupied and Hanzo, as you have predicted, issued a search warrant for us. We don't know how much longer is this place going to be."

"Not good." Blake put a hand to his chin, frowning at the pain of such a simple action. "But it is not the worst. It is a good thing I came back so quickly. Your base would have probably already been discovered, and I would have died before you found me."

Blake said the words in a light-hearted mood, but the trio didn't think it was funny. Nightmare puffed some smoke out of its nostrils. Blake rolled his eyes. "Dark humor, guys."

"Are you going to tell us what happened to you?" Nagato changed the topic, pointedly glancing at his injuries. "You appeared out of nowhere, half dead, covered in some green fluid, and wearing no…underwear."

"When you say it like that, it does sound like pretty weird." Blake smiled blankly, pointing at the multiple slices across his body and the one on the chest. "These injuries came from this crazy blonde who was pursuing me everywhere." Blake then pointed at his right unmoving hand. "I was bitten by a gigantic dog over here." Blake then pointed at his face, which featured a black eye. "Here I got kicked by a half wolf-half human, who had an annoyingly good nose. I shot him in the leg once, though."

The trio were giving Blake blank stares.

"As for the green fluid and the bandages…I think I got drenched in the fluid when this huge ant tried to squash me from above, so I stabbed it in the gut a few times. As for the bandages, I needed to spread my scent, so I gave my underwear to my clone."

Blake finished. So much happened in these three days.

"Yahiko, I think Blake got hit in the head a bit too hard."

"I must agree with you."

Nagato was inspecting Blake with concentrated expression, eventually turning to Yahiko and Konan. "He looks sane, disregarding his black eye. Perhaps the issue lays somewhere else?"

"Nope, must be in the head."

Konan nodded. "Totally."

Nightmare nodded as well. Blake gave him a glare. Why was Nightmare nodding when he came from that world? That little…

Nagato raised four fingers into the air. "How many fingers am I showing?"

"Four."

"What about now?"

"Two."

"What is 11 times 12?"

"132"

"What is…"

"That's enough, Nagato." Yahiko raised a hand, frowning. "It seems like your head works just fine. Whatever happened on that other side of the door, it must have not been easy. If the creatures that you are depicting have truly attacked you, then I am content I don't have to go there. Nevertheless, Blake, we are happy that you are back. Maybe not in one piece, but back anyway."

"And I am happy that I didn't pass through that door after all." Nagato chimmed in.

Blake smiled towards them. "Thank you, guys." He felt tears building up in his eyes, but he forced them down and kept his face straight. Crying was fine, as long as it was done alone. He didn't want to burden other people with his emotional turmoil. "It was hard, but I managed."

"It was hard…but was it successful?" Konan asked, drawing two pairs of curious eyes. "Did you get a new summon?"

Blake smiled. "I was successful. As for the summon, we shall see." Blake gave them a pointed look towards the door in the distance. "I would rather conduct this process alone, as It is rather…private."

The trio nodded, with Konan blushing slightly, as she probably misunderstood what Blake meant by that. Nevertheless, Blake was content to have a few minutes of peace once the trio left, leaving behind Blake and Nightmare. Blake gave him a raised eyebrow. "I remember seeing you nod, little bastard."

Nightmare stood with a stupefied expression, pretending like he didn't know what was happening. Blake sighed, leaving the conversation at that. Instead, Blake focused on the lingering screen in his vision.

-

[Quest Complete – "The Minotaur's Grudge"]

Nightmare:

"The debt is paid... The hunt is done... You have carried my will, and finally... I am free."

-

Blake spent a few seconds looking at the screen, thinking that it is rather uninformative considering the actual danger of the quest. However, his contemplation stopped as soon as he saw Nightmare kneeling in front of him. Blake pushed away the screen, looking at his summon from above.

"Nightmare. Stand." Blake commanded and the creature stood up, facing him. Inspecting the summon's expression, Blake felt the strong emotional turmoil within him. Pride. Graditute. "I have done only what was appropriate. There was no way I was going to leave my summon unavenged."

Suddenly, Nightmare roared, beating his own chest with his two fists in excitement.

"Stop shouting!" Blake smacked the minotaur on the head, forcing it to stop. Nightmare looked at his master with eye of pity. "We are still in hiding, dumb-ass. If you keep shouting like a bull, then we will be discovered in no time."

All the seriousness of the situation vanished and Blake sighed, opening his stats.

-

Summoner System

-Character Interface-

Name: Blake Reynold

Attributes:

Strength: D+Endurance: D+Agility: D+Intelligence: B+Chakra: E+Charisma: DLuck: A+

Passive Skills: [Tough Skin]

Active Skills: [None]

Summons: [Nightmare(Rank:C)]

Dice Of Summon: Available.

-

It seemed like even after training with the Akatsuki for a while, his stats remained unchanged. It made sense when you thought about that. In order to advance even a bit, shinobi of this world spend years practising like mad-men, and Blake was definitely still a rookie. Yet, Blake could increase his prowess in other ways, for the Dice of Summon was finally available.

"Well, let's…" Blake was about to try his luck, before remembering something. Looking around, Blake promptly located his bag, commanding Nightmare to take out all the monster crystals. "Okay, if I remember correctly…"

Blake's memory regarding Danmachi was subpar to say the least, but he still could recall a few facts. One of them were the monster crystals. Blake didn't really need them for myself, but he knew that other monsters could grow stronger by eating these crystals. He also knew that they would, supposedly, become more violent and be in constant desire of the shards.

"But Nightmare is already crazy." Blake chuckled. In all seriousness, though, Blake thought that it was going to be okay. Nightmare was going to remain his summon anyway and, in Blake's opinion, the cow would be unable to resist his commands+. "But, more than that, I believe in you, Nightmare. Your mind is not weak, so you shall grow stronger. Eat all of those crystals and try to stay calm."

It almost seemed like the minotaur was waiting for this command, for he dived into the bag like an economist smelling some cash. "Calm down, man." Blake whistled, seeing Nightmare throw multiple crystals into his mouth at the same time. Nightmare kept eating and everything seemed fine, until Minotaur put the biggest shard into his mouth, earned from the War Shadow.

"Stay calm." Blake commanded, seeing Nightmare suddenly begin to grow at a ridiculous pace. Nightmare's skin seemed to turn a shade darker, his eyes turning crimson, his chest hair extending. Most notably, Nightmare grew at least 30 centimeters in height, and turned bulkier.

"Calm." Blake said again, seeing Nightmare breathing heavily, like he had just sprinted a few kilometres. Calmly, Blake put a hand on Nightmare's shoulder. Rather, his bicep, for Blake couldn't reach the creature's shoulder anymore. Nightmare's red eyes, full of violence, stared at Blake. Blake felt the killing intent from his own summon, yet he kept calm.

"Nightmare. Remember who you are." Blake stated and Nightmare seemed to finally grow less agitated. The redness in the monster's eyes diminished, and Blake smiled brightly. "Good job, Nightmare. I am sure it wasn't easy."

Without further ado, Blake glanced at Nightmare's stats.

-

-Character Interface-

Name: Nightmare

Rank: C

Last Wish: Complete

Attributes:

Strength: B+Endurance: B -> B+Agility: D -> CIntelligence: E+Chakra: C -> C+Charisma: C+Luck: E

Passive Skills: [Tough Skin]

Active Skills: [Battle Rage], [Roar]

-

Blake smiled. The changes might seem insignificant, but Blake could understand that even slightly increase meant a big change in real life. Blake was especially content with how much Agility improved, for Nightmare's biggest weakness was its speed. Now, after Nightmare would get used to his new body, that weakness would somewhat disappear. The increase in chakra and endurance were also welcome.

"Another theory confirmed." Blake put his stats next to Nightmare's. Blake was hoping that the 10% increase in stats from his summon was going to be a continuous change, meaning that when Nightmare's stats improved, Blake's would rise appropriately, yet that turned out to not be true.

It was a bummer.

"Okay, Nightmare. You have done well. Rest for a bit." Blake smiled at his summon and Nightmare puffed some smoke from its nostrils before Blake unsummoned him. As soon as the minotaur was gone, Blake felt some of his chakra disappearing, probably treating whatever tears and injuries his summon received after the transformation.

Now, Blake could focus on the exciting part. Slowly, Blake leaned to the side of the bed, frowning as his chest strained from such a simple movement. Blake fished around in his bag, producing his phone and a pack of cigarettes. For some reason, Blake had a good hunch about this, so he was going to roll the dice with a little celebration.

A song and a cigarette.

Turning on his phone, Blake saw that it was at 2%. This was going to be his last song, it seemed. Perhaps not forever, but for a while, that was for sure. Blake opened his saved songs library, promptly picking the song.

Blake settled on: Past Life – Tame Impala

As the melody fell on the room, Blake lit the cigarette, inhaling the nicotine. The pain in his chest and hand disappeared for an instance, forced away by the good vibe. He had won the first round against the system. As Blake moved his head around, listening to the song, he summoned his roll of dice.

And, then, without looking, threw it to the ground.

It rolled on the ground…and came to a stop.