I do not own Naruto.

The first thing Ashley noticed when she came to was how chapped her lips were. Then she noticed how dry her throat was. Clearing her throat and swallowing hard, she slowly started to open her eyes. If the scratchiness to her voice when she coughed wasn't terrible enough, surely her pounding head would be the main culprit of her woes. She felt like she was hung-over, which shouldn't have been the case since she rarely drinks. And it's highly doubtful that she would even feel this way if she did drink a couple of beers anyhow.

When she scanned the area, she tried not to move her head so much in fear of unwanted dizziness and wooziness. What she saw, however, confused her and awed her at the same time. She could feel that she was propped up against a tree, for sure, and determined it to have a large trunk, just as the other trees in the clearing. The leaves of the trees were so deeply green and the trunks were a more muted green but also striking. Nevertheless, this was a peculiar sight to see. She was from California, a western state of the US; she was used to seeing beauty in nature and lived for it. But these trees were different from any she had seen and they felt more alive, almost as if they were quietly swaying and singing with the earth below them. The air was also light and hearty and full of life itself; birds chirping, foliage swaying in the wind and the sounds of river water splashing in the distance. She has never been someplace so quiet yet so loud all at once.

This felt wrong. She should be more grounded. Weighted.

She knew that she wasn't supposed to be here and in this dreary state. It didn't make any sense but she couldn't for the life of her remember what she was doing before she appeared here. Was she visiting the river town near the coast? The redwoods? Was she even out today? Yesterday?

What day is it?

"Fuck."

Ashley started up slowly while supporting herself with her hand on the tree trunk she happened to be resting on. She didn't have her bag on her either, which was a little disconcerting. Maybe she was mugged and tossed aside? She felt along her body trying to scan for any wounds and she determined that she was fine-not even a scratch. But with no phone and no cash she started to panic.

Scanning the area again she decided it was time to find people. She needed some water stat. And if she was lucky enough someone could feed her.

She stood up straight and began walking. Her steps seemed unnecessarily heavy and slow and then she reminded herself that she was fatigued. She had made it a little past the middle of the clearing when she felt herself trip. Just before she fell on her face she extended her arm in front of her to soften the blow, scrunched up her face and shut her eyes in preparation of impact.

But she never fell.

She opened her eyes and saw the strangest thing yet- her hand had transformed into a tree branch that seemed to also be connected to the ground. A mother fucking tree branch!

She quickly pulled her arm back in attempt to undo whatever the hell had just been done and she succeeded. She could feel the bark of the branch quickly smoothing out and retracting back into her hand. Lifting her right hand close into view she stared wide-eyed and frowned.

"What?" She was trembling. She had to be dreaming. This didn't just happen every day. Perhaps she was much more dehydrated than she thought. Maybe she was drugged and was hallucinating.

"This isn't good. I need to get help," she said, trying to calm herself down. Her head was swimming as she tried to balance herself again. She started making her way to the edge of the clearing with too much effort. 'Great,' she thought, 'I'm a geriatric twenty-six year-old.' She spotted a perfectly long and thick branch not too far away and decided to retrieve it to use as a support.

A little ways deeper into the forest she heard the familiar trickle of the stream she heard earlier and decided to make her way towards it. Water. Good ol' liquid gold. Eventually, she found the small stream and knelt down to rinse her face off. She couldn't deny that it was a little more refreshing than she thought it would be but she didn't want to risk drinking it in fear of it not being clean enough to consume.

She knew that without some kind of filtration that she was shit out of luck. She could boil the water but not only did she lack the proper tools to do so, she also had to let the water cool enough and that would probably take longer than she would want. She was mentally kicking herself for not being more knowledgeable in the ways of survival but there was nothing she could do about that at this point. Sighing to herself she looked down at the stream again.

Even if the cons outweighed the pros she found it very tempting. The stream itself looked clearer than she had ever seen a river. She was up to date on her vaccines and had been in outstanding health prior to waking up in this deluded state. "One sip wouldn't hurt."

She extended her cupped hands out into the river and closed her eyes when she brought them back up to her face. As she started to gulp down the water she noticed that she indulged just a little more than she intended and opened her eyes.

Her hands were in the shape of a wooden bowl now. A wooden fucking bowl!

Ashley jumped back, startled at what she saw, but she ended up landing on her butt and hands just fine.

With a shaky breath she brought her hands back up to her face now and saw that they were fine. All ten digits and no wood or any other god damn thing. Just her regular olive skin tone and fully functioning hands.

No. No. "No!"

This must be a dream or some kind of trip. But she hoped it wasn't the latter because she never partook in any sort of recreational drug. Mostly pain killers, and even that was rare for her to do. She hoped it was a dream then. Or even a nightmare. She can wake up from those eventually.

Looking around again, everything seemed to be in place, granted she had no idea where she was-everything did look natural. Tucking her long dark-brown strands behind her ears, she took a deep breath and then exhaled. Her hazel eyes darted back to her hands again with curiosity.

Where did this power come from? It seemed so far that it was involuntary. She hadn't thought to create an object in front of her to keep her from falling or holding a wooden bowl of sorts to drink from. If she consciously thought to do something with her hands, could she? She decided to humor herself and experiment.

"But what?"

That was the real question. What could she do in this moment that could help her in this awful situation? She still needed to find civilization and desperately needed to get some help. However little water she had before did help a bit but it wouldn't get her very far at all. She decided then to make some sort of jug, almost like a beer growler, to hold some water to help her get along.

Crouching, she held her hands out to the earth and concentrated on the spot in front of her. Nothing seemed to happen as Ashley struggled to make a jug appear out of thin air. Frustrated, she closed her eyes and touched the ground with her palms flat. Why couldn't she do this now? Was this truly an involuntary reaction or was her mind playing games with her?

Growling and clenching her teeth, she tried so hard to focus. She didn't like being toyed with and right now her patience was running thin. "God dammit!" With one fluid motion she swung her arms up in defeat and immediately saw a sprout growing from right underneath where her hands rested before. She got a grip of herself and touched the growing branch. It was oddly chilled and it felt as though it was humming. Vibrating while it grew. She knew now that this couldn't have been a hallucination. This was real, this was happening.

She felt it some more and concentrated on possibly shaping it. Her hands carefully sculpted the wood as it molded to her touch. Smiling triumphantly to herself, Ashley twisted the growth successfully to form a container. The base of the container was stuck to a root but she yanked it off with ease. She inspected her creation and noticed the jug was satisfyingly smooth, as if it was professionally cured. She thumbed the outer rim of the opening and then started to shape a cork for it.

"Well, that was pretty cool," she said smugly. She then got up with a little pep in her step and walked over to the river to scoop up some water. After plugging the top of the bottle she shaped the wood again to form a handle. Holding the bottle up she smiled again. This jug would add weight for her to carry, sure, but she felt a little less tired from when she awoke and was in higher spirits. She felt like a superhero of sorts. An average-looking woman who can sprout wood. That would surely make ticket sales.

Looking back at the river she knew that she still had to get out of the sticks, no matter how fun her tree sculpting was. "Right." She picked up her walking stick and began walking alongside the river, hoping it would lead to a house or a town.

Walking with her stick in hand, she felt she was making some good progress after a while. A little stumbling over shrubbery and roots here and there, she was pushing herself. She could be resilient when she needed to.

Sweat started beading on her brow and she wiped it away with her hands then proceed to wipe her sweaty hands on her khakis. "Ugh. Gonna need a shower, too." She hated having her clothes dirty. Same goes for herself. Oily, sweaty skin was not comfortable. She reminded herself that while appearances matter to some degree, she would just have to tough it out for now.

Suddenly, she heard some rustling to her right in the foliage. The noise, however, didn't sound like it was made from a smaller animal-it was definitely something sizeable. Ashley gripped her walking stick closer and held it in front of her defensively. She was wide-eyed and cautious and she figured that she was not in the best situation if there was going to be confrontation.

"Is someone there? Hello!"

She stood frozen for a while and thought to grip her jug in a defensive manner as well. Fighting back the urge to run she decided to stand her ground, "I said helloooo!" There was no answer but the rustling came closer to her in the thick foliage. She squinted and listened with a little more concentration. The steps that were coming toward her sounded like a shoe crunching on some leaves. She still remained in a defensive stance just in case. "Hey, if you can hear me. I need some help. I'm lost."

Unexpectedly, a small boy made his way into her view. He was holding a small weaved basket with some herbs and his clothes seemed odd to say the least. He was wearing a loose, patterned shirt with some shorts and some god-awful looking sandals. He seemed to be fixated on her with a curious look in his eyes. He was either staring at her tank top and khakis or her tattooed arm or everything really. Suddenly she felt a little self-conscious and crossed her arms. She thought she looked normal enough, well, at least compared to him. She was not one for many words and she wasn't the most graceful thing out there but she tried to appear decent enough. She was wondering if the kid had picked out his outfit himself. Deciding that her survival was more important at the moment she pushed off all of the awkward thoughts of fashion aside.

"Do you live around here? Could you please help me?" He didn't seem to respond to that in a way she had hoped and instead replied in a foreign language. Ashley squinted and bent over a little. She hadn't heard anything like this before. The boy gave her a short response but his vowels seemed to conjunct into each other. She did know how most well-known languages sounded like-it was a perk of living in a diverse state. She had to admit she was not happy with this situation, however. The language gap was certainly a problem.

The boy then said something else to her. It seemed like a question. "I'm sorry. I don't understand you," she said while taking a step toward him and gesturing her hand away from herself. She frowned then and slumped her shoulders. Just great. Where the hell am I?

The boy walked closer to her and grimaced. She can now see he had wavy, dark blue hair and yellow eyes? Weird. Contacts? That would be a stretch for a six-year old to take. She eyed him curiously and smiled when he smiled at her. To her, he spoke some more gibberish and proceeded to point to himself.

"Yosuke."

"Yuhs-what?" The word seemed foreign on her tongue. He chuckled at her and moved closer.

He pointed to himself again. "Yosuke." Then he pointed to her and raised his eyebrows.

"Ohhhhhh," she responded, understanding he was most likely introducing himself. Clever kid. She pointed to herself, "Ashley."

"Ohhhhhh-Ash- Ashl… Lee." Ashley chuckled at the 'ohhhhhh' part and shook her head. He was having trouble pronouncing her name as well it seemed.

Ashley pointed at him again "Yo," she said and pointed to herself, "Ash." Short consonants seemed simple enough for anyone to pronounce so she went with that. She was relieved when he looked up at her with a big smile and bowed. She slightly mirrored his bow and gave him a questioning gaze. What's next?

He spoke to her again but this time held out his hand. Ashley glanced at it and then back at her walking stick. She reluctantly took his hand and he supported her a little, leading the way through the thick shrubs and grass in the forest. She could only hope that he knew where he was going. Hopefully, she would get some rest soon and some fresh water. Maybe a good meal, too?

This is my first Naruto fanfiction work. Please feel free to leave a review. It'll be nice to know how I'm doing with this.

I will try to update as much as I can. Hopefully, weekly if all goes well! =)