I remember the day that changed everything quite vividly. A couple of kids from my major and I were going on a trip to an observatory five hours away from campus to view a rare meteor shower that occurred once every 100 years or so. There was a major accident on the main highway that lead straight to the observatory about four hours into the drive so the bus driver suggested that we take a back road that he knew would take us there. He mentioned that weird thing tended to happen on the road but the professor was dead set on getting to the observatory to see the meteor shower.

I should've known that something was wrong when Dixie started to act up. Dixie is the most behaved service dog that I had been blessed to know. The second sign we should've acknowledged was when the sky changed. When the clouds rolled in so dark that not even the moon in its brightest phase could shine through. After that it become so dark that only source of light seemed to be the headlights on the bus and the minimal light from our phones. The third sign was the loss of signal on our phones making us unable to contact for help. The most important sign we should've acknowledged was the lack of other vehicles on the road. We drove for an hour before our Professor, Dr. Erik Ludwig, asked the bus driver what was taking so long and why the road had turned into dirt beneath the wheels. It was only then the driver informed us that we should've reached the observatory twenty minutes before hand and that the road was never supposed to change. Of course the other students and I were concerned but at the time there wasn't much we could do besides keep driving.

It took another hour before the sky seemed to change again. The clouds moved until the sky was once again completely clear and the moon and stars shined as if they were beacons to guide us safely. At this point we were all relieved to have some light shine through the perpetual darkness, and we began to notice little details in the scenery that caused much unrest among us. One was the lack of street lamps or wires that would no doubt lead us to civilization. The second was signs, to elaborate there was none along the roads at all. In fact we were surrounded by what seemed to be a dense forest.

We drove for another half hour before we had to stop the bus for a bathroom break. It was a nerve racking experience, getting off the safety of the bus into the unknown. We exited off the bus in an orderly fashion, boys heading to the left of the bus and the girls veering off to the right for privacy. We all quickly relieved ourselves, many complaining of having to do so in the open, passing around a single roll of toilet paper. After we quickly joined together at the door of the bus, most of the students stretching and twisting to shake off the long ride we had endured.

After giving us a couple minutes to regain the feeling of our bodies Dr. Ludwig gathered us to speak. He looked at us all with tired eyes and said "I'm not sure what has happened here today, but I can guarantee that we all will be fine. Just stay calm. Were going to just keep driving until we reach somewhere with people." I could tell that he knew something was very wrong by the way he continued to whisper to the bus driver who also looked quite distressed. Many of the students around began to chatter, most looked close to panicking. My own group of close friends were beginning to talk about what could've gone wrong.

Marcy Willis, a sweet girl from Alabama, who happened to be the one I was personally closest to reached over and put her arm around my shoulder. I knew she was doing this because I was the more soft hearted one of the group, the one most likely to break under pressure. She knew that this would stress me out and made sure that I was comforted. The other two girls in the group, Kelsey Jones and Jamie Cardiff, looked just as uneasy as I felt. They were both from a small town in Pennsylvania and had known each other from birth, and had been best friends for just as long. They were part of the lacrosse team and were known for being all star players. The boys in our group were looking around to gauge the reactions of the other students. They were both athletes from the school, Aaron Smith was a gifted baseball player who was known for his killer pitch while Jared Lewis was a top wrestler in the state. We were an odd group but we had met during our first weekend in college and just clicked together. We spent most of our free time together doing something exciting or even just watching movies. This trip was something more exciting we were supposed to do together, considering we were supposed to spend the night in the observatory. This was definitely not what we had I mind.

The next series of events happened so fast that it caused a lot of discord. Dr. Ludwig had announced that it was time for us to get on the bus and we all responded with a series of groans. As we began to pile onto the bus I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye. Dixie who had stood loyally beside me up to this point began to growl at the tree line. Those who had yet to get on the bus all turned towards where she was growling. It happened in a blink of an eye. Before we could react we were surrounded by a group of people who all seemed to be wielding weapons of some sort. There were a lot of shrieks and many began to pile onto the bus. This included my friends who hadn't realized that I was not able to follow, too stunned by the presence of the strange people in front of me.

I made eye contact with a man with strange grey hair, that seemed to defy all odds of gravity as it stayed swiped to the side over a strange hairband that held some metal plate with an even stranger symbol on it. One of the strange people yelled out something that I couldn't understand, but vaguely understood was Japanese. I held my hands up and looked behind me to see a bus full of students yelling for me to get on the bus. Dr. Ludwig was hanging out the door waving for me to get in. The strange people yelled back once again and soon there was much shouting in two very different languages shooting through the air. It seemed like everything was happening in slow motion. I looked around to both the people who seemed to be standing in defensive positions and my peers who were calling for me to get on. It was too much at once and I just lost it for a second. I looked down at Dixie who was pawing at my leg holding a juice box, knowing that despite the confusion occurring I was in danger of my own body.

I looked up sharply and turned to the bus with authority that I didn't know that I had in me. "Quiet!" I called face red and tears forming in my eyes. "Just please shut up for five freaking minutes!" They were instantly silenced, not knowing that the quite, mousy girl they knew had actually just yelled. I swiftly turned to the strange people who were similarly silenced. "I'm sorry, but we don't understand you." I said shaking my head, and bringing my hands up in surrender. They seemed to get what I was getting at because they all looked towards the man with grey hair who slowly put his weapon down and away.

I hadn't noticed it before but my heart was pounding harder that it ever had before and Dixie's whine was beginning to become clearer. She still held the juice box in her mouth signaling that my blood sugar has dropped and I needed to get it under control. I reached down for it as the world around me began to blur. I was halfway bent down when I felt my legs give out from beneath me. I dropped down in a sitting position next to Dixie who nudged my hands with her nose in an attempt to make me take the box. In the background I could hear shouts from the bus and Marcy telling Dr. Ludwig to let her go. The world seemed to twist as my hands fumbled with the box to get the straw off. A pair of gloved hands came into view and I looked up to see the man with grey hair crouching next to me. He opened the box making constant eye contact with me. My light blue eyes had met his one uncovered dark grey, almost black. He seemed to understand that we didn't mean any harm and were just as confused as they were by our presence here.

Around us silence prevailed as both of the groups watched on, waiting for another to make any sudden movement. He nodded towards the box which he had opened and I shakily brought it towards my mouth. He didn't let it go, keeping it supported as I steadily took long gulps from the straw. It seemed like the moment took forever before I heard feet coming towards me and Marcy asking if I was ok. I nodded my head still watching the man, who looked at me, gauging my every more as if a predator would a prey. Yet this did not make me as uneasy as I thought it should. I looked towards Dixie who had grabbed my Glucose meter pack from her harness. With my vision returning to normal I had looked to Marcy who was watching the man like he was going to jump out at us at any second.

I had grabbed onto her shoulder as leverage to help pull myself up and the man grabbed my other arm and helped pull me up as well. I remember feeling how calloused his hands were against my bare skin. Once I was standing I had moved a step back where I turned to formally face the man and some of his men.

"Hello," I greeted, extending one hand towards him "Alma. Alma Bailey." He hesitantly reached his hand towards mine gripped it firmly. "Kakashi."

He only said his name but it was the beginning of the greatest event in this strange new world that we would later find to be called The Five Great Shinobi Nations.