~*~ Chapter 1 - ~*~

Stellenbosch University. That is my dream. My only dream. I have one more exam to take, and that exam is the one the university will be looking at. The mid-year exam of grade 11. It is not good enough to get great marks. I have to do perfect. That is why every single one of my days are scheduled: from getting up, going to school, each of my study sessions for every day, right up until the amount of 'free time' I have in order for my brain to rest before moving on to the following subject. During my free time, I watch a single episode of my all-time favourite TV shows: Naruto.

South Africa is ready for a white, female president. My name is Lila Ivan, and I am ready to take that responsibility. I mean absolutely no offense toward the other races in the country, except that it is time they step aside. They are good with a lot of things, but running a country is not one of them.

As I sit in my parents' car, on my way home from school, I think about the following twenty years. Education is priority. I will get a Doctorate, marry Justin, run the country and make it a better place.

Justin is King Popular at Strand High School. He is every bit the cliche you see in movies. Blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect body, captain of three different sports and, on top of it all, ridiculously rich. That is why he would be perfect for my image.

As for me, on the other hand...

I am not ugly. I know that. I just freak people out because I'm something between a nerd and a plastic. I get perfect grades even though I am pretty good looking. Brown, waist-length hair, green eyes, considerable fashion sense and good curves. On the inside, I am full of myself. On the outside, not so much. I don't exactly have a lot of friends. I don't know, I just ... I keep to myself.

Alex is my only friend, really.

Well, he's Asian. One of those super-smart, learn-a-language-in-a-month sorts. Alex is just his English name, because people make fun of him because of the real one.

Back to the car.

We go past the lake in front of the school, right up until Lourensrivier street, take a right, and head home to our double storey, yellowish house in Grey street. Well, the house is divided into three flats. We live on the second floor.

"Your mother will be home a little late," he tells me as we pull into the driveway. "So you can make your own food."

"Such a surprise," I say sarcastically, getting out.

The moment Dad drops me off, he heads back to work. I don't even try to keep track with what he does anymore. He dabbles in about a hundred different things each year. He's like Bob the Butler: he's taken to buying Job Mail once every two weeks and applying to each job.

As I start taking out my school books to get started on revising for Biology, I notice something in the corner of my eye. I have a sink in my bedroom, with a mirror hanging above it. And for a moment, just a short moment, the mirror seemed to move.

I stare at it for several seconds. When nothing happens, I shake my head at myself and take out my books. All this studying must be giving me hallucinations as warning signs or something. But I know I can't stop studying. I have to get perfect marks.

Then it happens again.

With a temper as short as mine, I walk right up to the mirror as slap it with the back of my hand.

It starts rippling, like when you throw a stone in the water. The ripples become more violent. A pitch black hole appears in the middle. My heart beats furiously. There is a sound of loud splashing, but instead of water, something jumps out of the mirror and onto my face.

I scream, pulling at whatever it is clutching onto the skin on my cheeks. Finally, after I feel as though I am about to faint, the thing lets go and I hear a pain-stricken grunt on the floor.

I hyperventilate for several moments, my hands over my eyes, hoping against hope it's not an alien or something.

"Was that really necessary?" a familiar voice asks. I cannot pinpoint it, but I know that I've heard that voice before.

I lower my hands. I know that my eyes are playing tricks on me.

On the floor, standing three inches tall, with a disproporionately large head holding eyes just as big, is a tiny Hyuuga Neji.

I burst out laughing.

"Why are you laughing, weakling? Why have you brought me here, to the land of giants?" he demands, trying to look threatening but failing so badly. I laugh even worse.

"Stop laughing immediately!"

"I'm a giant?" I ask when I finally calm down, "You're freaking three inches tall!"

He glares at me for a moment, walks toward me with an adorable mischievous look on his face and stops right at my feet. He closes his eyes, then starts turning in a circle.

"Kaiten!" he says. A blue sphere of chakra envelopes him, but apart from the sensation that a cat is brushing me with its tail, I do not feel anything.

I bend down and pick him up by the back of the collar.

"Unhand me, minion!" he says, thrashing about.

"How on earth did you get here?" I ask him, "That is, if this is not some disturbingly vivid dream..."

"You are the one who brought me here," he says angrily, "So you must be the one who knows how to return me back to Konoha. Go about it immediately. Let me go this instant."

"No," I say, "Because I know that, the moment I let you go, you're going to run rampant in the streets, asking any person passing you if they know how to return you home. You know that they will take you to a lab and do experiments on you, don't you?"

"Ah-hah!" he says, "Experiments, huh? Are you in league with Orochimaru?"

I snort. I take a spare box from the inside of my closet (one that was left over from when we moved), and place him inside. I can hear him performing all manners of jutsus, but to no avail.

I study in the sitting room, not being able to concentrate anywhere else and, when I make myself dinner (Mac 'n Cheese with bacon inside), I hand him a piece of macaroni and a piece of bacon.

He pulls a face, "Ugh, what is this?"

"Food," I say, "You're not in Japan now, Mini Neji, so there's no ramen. Eat up."

I close the box again, eat, study some more and, before going to bed, place a pillow inside the box.

"You can use the cover as a blanket," I say, "My room doesn't get all that cold, so you should be all right."

"Just take me back to Konoha," he snaps.

"I can't, ok?" I retort, "I don't know how you got here so, QED, I don't know how to send you back. We'll figure it out over the weekend. Tomorrow is Thursday, so you only have to hold out for two days, all right?"

"Hmph."

I close the box again and go to bed where, hopefully, I've been all along.

A/N: So there's the first chapter. For the record, I really hold no racistic grudge against any other race. This is purely just for Lila's character.

For those who do not know and, like me when reading a fic and don't understand a word, do not want to look it up, QED is Latin for Quod Erat Demonstrandum, and it is used to prove the truth of your claim. If you want another example of where it is used, Jack Sparrow says it in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. That's where I heard it the first time XD

Anyway, hope this chapter held your attention. Stay tuned for the next one. And don't forget to R&R.

XD