After receiving the phones, the three members of Team 7 each showed different expressions.
Naruto and Sakura were curious, while Sasuke looked completely uninterested.
Yuto smiled and said, "Do you need me to teach them how to use it?"
Kakashi replied, "No need to trouble you, boss. Although I'm not an expert, I should be able to guide them well enough."
"Alright, I'll just give Zabuza and Haku a quick rundown."
With that, Yuto handed phones to Zabuza and Haku.
He said, "You two should learn this too. If you're going to work here as shop assistants, you'll need to know how to use these."
Zabuza took the phone with a skeptical look. He couldn't imagine what kind of mechanism could be hidden in such a small device.
'It was so tiny... at most, it could fit a few senbon.'
---
Under the guidance of Kakashi and Yuto, Team 7 and Zabuza's group quickly grasped the basics and got through the introductory storyline of the game, starting to tackle the levels.
The early stages couldn't create much of a gap in progress, so all the 'newbies' were more or less at the same point.
But when they reached the first level of Volume One, they all reacted differently.
"Naruto? How? Just a moment ago, it was about the legendary Yondaime-sama, and now it's suddenly about Naruto?"
"Huh? Naruto as the protagonist? Seems like this so-called phone isn't all that impressive."
"Naruto-kun? Hehe, is this what Naruto-kun was like before becoming a Ninja? How interesting."
---
"Hey! What are you talking about? I'm the man who's going to be the Hokage! It's only natural for me to be the protagonist, right?"
"Hmph."
Sasuke immediately responded with a cold 'hmph,' his tone dripping with disdain.
His opinion of the phone was equally dismissive.
'Using this idiot to clear these ridiculous levels, with enemies as weak as ants, and they dare to label them as 'Chunin'?'
'This shop owner clearly has no idea what a real Ninja is like... then again, he's just an ordinary person.'
Sasuke couldn't help but complain in his mind.
Although he felt some dissatisfaction toward Yuto, his upbringing prevented him from voicing it out loud.
And if it weren't for Kakashi's continued guidance, Sasuke probably would've quit the game already.
After advancing level after level, after ten minutes, Sasuke had the fastest progress among the five newbies.
Naruto was next, mainly because he had peeked at Sasuke's progress a few minutes in and realized Sasuke was skipping the cutscenes to speedrun. So Naruto picked up the pace, closely following behind.
The slowest, surprisingly, was Haku.
After teaching them the basics, Yuto left Zabuza and Haku to figure things out on their own.
Both of them picked it up quickly, but Haku never skipped the story.
Zabuza, on the other hand, frowned more and more as he played, as if something was bothering him.
Haku, however, maintained a faint smile throughout. He simply found the story interesting.
Witnessing Naruto's growth felt like reliving a life to him, so not only did he never skip the story, but he sometimes even rewatched parts.
As a result, his progress lagged far behind the other four.
As for Zabuza and Sakura, their progress was about the same.
Sakura didn't have any particular goal in mind. Aside from being surprised that the 'phone' could recreate events from their past.
Mostly, it was because Kakashi kept saying beside her, "Take it slow, no rush..."
During her time with Kakashi these past few days, Sakura had come to understand that Kakashi was someone who never wasted words when it wasn't necessary.
'Slow... take it slow?'
Sakura had no choice but to pause for a couple of seconds at each story point.
However, she kept hearing Kakashi beside her, "Take it slow, no rush..."
It was a shame that under Kakashi's 'encouragement,' Sakura didn't dare to turn and check Naruto and Sasuke's progress.
Otherwise, she would've realized who Kakashi was really talking about.
---
About twenty minutes later, after Zabuza finished experiencing the Land of Waves Volume, he fell into deep thought.
The bandages couldn't hide the look of astonishment on his face.
He had a thousand things he wanted to say, but with Kakashi and the others present, he didn't know how to bring them up.
In fact, ten minutes earlier, Naruto and Sasuke had both cleared the game. By now, they were already arguing over who had finished first.
Kakashi knew perfectly well that Sasuke had stopped playing after clearing the game, as if suddenly remembering something. He then reopened one of the levels in the Land of Waves Volume to experience it again.
However, just as Sasuke was about to finish the level, Naruto also cleared the game.
So Naruto started mocking Sasuke for being slow.
How could Sasuke, a man who never admits defeat, just allow Naruto to mock him? He immediately fired back.
But Naruto wasn't having any of it, and the two started arguing, almost coming to blows.
Kakashi sighed in exasperation and said, "Stop fighting, you two. If you want to settle this, take it to the Arena."
'The Arena?'
Hearing this, both of them immediately stopped arguing and, under Kakashi's guidance, opened the Arena.
Since Yuto hadn't set up a friend battle system, or even a friend system, the only way for them to fight was to queue into the same match.
Naruto stuck out his tongue at Sasuke, "Lalalala, loser Sasuke needs to accept how weak he is!"
Hearing this, Sasuke, who was already furious, got even angrier.
"Hmph! We'll see about that!"
With that, the two began setting up their Ninjas.
"Hey... why is it only me and Sakura? Does that mean Sakura and I are a good match?"
Naruto's shameless remark quickly earned him several eye rolls.
"Naruto, what nonsense are you spouting?"
Sakura, who was in the middle of a level, immediately retorted. She leaned over to see what they were talking about that she didn't understand.
Then she saw that the Ninja list only had three options...
Naruto, herself, and some kid.
"Huh? What's going on? Why aren't Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei here?"
Sakura was shocked. Kakashi was about to explain that he was actually in the game, but you needed to meet certain conditions to unlock him… though the conditions weren't difficult.
But before Kakashi could speak, Sasuke said, "Hmph, this stupid thing isn't worthy of my presence. Only idiots..."
Hearing Sasuke's words, Kakashi suddenly didn't feel like clarifying that he was also in the game.
Wouldn't that just be admitting he was an idiot?
"Shut up! Stop wasting time! Have you picked your Ninjas yet or what?!"
Under Naruto's urging, Sasuke, no matter how unwilling, had no choice but to reluctantly assign the only three available Ninjas to his team.