Ninja Heroes

Ninja Heroes ( 忍者ヒーローズ , Ninja Hīrōzu ) was a popular VR game secretly developed by Teguse and Nanashi Uchiha as part of Zero 's plot to instigate a Fifth Shinobi World War in an original story featured in Naruto x Boruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections . The game became very popular from moment it began being sold and advertised, despite no information being available about the developer, game stores not knowing who they purchased it from as well. It consisted of a VR headset, allowing players to play anywhere. The game's realistic VR setting was achieved through the creation of a mental space with Tsukuyomi , the players' minds populating it from the headsets, which contain hidden summoning formulas that Sasuke was only able to discover when inspecting it with his Rinnegan . The space was hosted in Zero's hideout, where Nanashi entered the game to manage it and act as its guide. As the creator of the mental space, she could manipulate in any way she desired. Because of the time she spent sealed, and the demanding chakra cost to enact the Engraved Tsukuyomi , the game was hosted in a chakra-draining device, which caused some players to pass out from exhaustion after long play sessions, and even moderate players feeling tired. Players' in-game avatars were famous figures in shinobi history: Boruto's was teenage Naruto, Sarada's was teenage Sakura, Mitsuki's was Orochimaru, Shikadai's was his uncle Gaara, and Inojin's was Deidara.

Boruto first became interested in the game because of an advertisement that it was possible to gain a replica of the necklace Naruto wore in his youth in one of the game's campaigns. Himawari wanted the necklace, so Boruto decided to win it for her. Shikadai and Inojin were already playing before Boruto got his copy, and helped him get used to it. Orochimaru got a copy for Mitsuki, telling him to play because he'd "find it interesting". As Mitsuki had already bought a copy of his own to play with Boruto, the two convinced Sarada to borrow his extra copy to play with them. Players consider the game to have a beginner's wall, a point before which enjoyment of the game is limited. After casting the Engraved Tsukuyomi, Nanashi used Yachihoko to bring the minds and chakra of those marked into the game in the form of mystery opponents for players, under the guise of a Kiseki Gathering game event. Upon defeating them, players were rewarded with kiseki as in-game currency they could exchange for rare items, a winner kiseki earning them a special code to redeem for Naruto's necklace replica. After Boruto exchanged Naruto's kiseki for the code, Nanashi used Yachihoko erase the memories of everyone marked, allowing Merz to replace them with his own memories and ideals, causing a huge part of the population to worship him and prepare for war. After discovering Zero's connection to the game, Team 7 confronted Nanashi, who revealed herself as an Uchiha in league with Zero. Feeling no more need to monitor the game, she left.

As she was no longer controlling the game, this allowed Toneri to take control and contact them, creating a rift in the game's space, and calling them into the Time Reservoir, where he introduced himself and volunteered his help in restoring everyone's memories. Because Naruto featured so prominently in everyone's memories, Toneri wanted to restore Naruto's memories, his various connections cascading the memory restoration to everyone else. Toneri used the Time Reservoir to send Boruto back to experience Naruto's various memories, retrieving them. This also resulted in him recovering some of Nanashi's memories of her harsh upbringing during the Warring States Period . After Merz was defeated in the real world and Nanashi died from the overexertion of being forced to fight, Sarada and Mitsuki invited him to play to distract him. Toneri contacted them, explaining the game's virtual space still existed because he took control and maintained it, everyone else believing that the Kaminarimon Company took over development. He wanted to bring about a miracle only possible from that space, to change Nanashi's history so she never gets sealed. They explained to Boruto that this would lead to them never meeting Nanashi, but Boruto found it an easy decision, as it would allow Nanashi a chance at a normal life. Boruto was successful, resulting in history being changed and Ninja Heroes never being developed.