Food, Family and Everything in Between, a naruto fanfic

Title: Food, Family, and Everything in Between

Summary: She just wanted to spend one last day with her dog. instead, she finds herself in an entirely new world. Unable to return home, she faces a new challenge: Living. SI OC

It was a lovely day. Crisp blue skies, slightly cold, but it was December. Clouds lazily drifted through the air as the sun landed on the fresh snow. Beautiful.

"Pity it's marred." I muttered to myself as I walked beside my dog, Doc. He walked creekily beside me, panting happily, but with pain. "Wish it didn't have to be this way."

Diabetes, arthritis and an unknown condition. Not a good combo for a purebred lab.

Doc had been in my family for ten years. He was a good dog, a great dog, but…

I was the one who took care of him and I was leaving, heading to culinary school in Japan. Mom and dad were too busy, my brothers were as well…

It was for the best.

Pity that rang so hollowly in my chest. Doc was more than just a pet to me. He was there when I needed it the most when my entire life seemed to be collapsing around me. He was everything to me.

Sighing, I dug into my pocket to pull out a pack of smokes, lighting one up as I was walking through the golf course that was a few blocks away from our house. I often took Doc out there during the winter so he could go off leash. He loved it.

I was going to miss the mutt. He was my best friend, my closest confidante as I got older and realized I was a bit different from everyone else. He was a good dog.

"We've had a good ride." I murmured mostly to myself, as I looked at the snow covered course. "Couldn't ask for a better dog."

Doc began barking suddenly, causing me to look up to noticed a fox.

Foxes didn't tend to come to my part of Alberta. We were a farming town, with many people toting guns. I saw a couple of coyotes sometimes, but never many foxes. So, I was a bit surprised a seeing it, but Doc… Doc began to bark rather aggressively, startling the fox, who ran over a small hill on the course.

Doc hobbled after the fox, and I snickered, watching him. We used to take him out squirrel hunting. It was nice to see him playing and laughing one last time.

I followed him, still smoking as we crossed over the small hill on the course and then, I fell.

And fell. And fell. I was tumbling, turning, as I heard a panicked yip coming from my dog. Colours flashed around me, and a noise… a hum surrounded me. Images passed by my eyes of people running, fire burning, trees growing. A scream was in my ears as I fell.

And then… I was flat on my pack, staring at a blue sky.

That was when the pain started, an ache in my bones, in my lungs. I felt something burn inside and I screamed as a million needles seemed to be shoved into my skin, or through my eyes. A fire burned me alive through my skin, and I could not stop screaming.

I had never felt such pain before in my life.

I screamed and screamed, until, like a drink of cold water after a workout, coolness swarmed through me, from my head to my toes. I cried in relief, pain still aching through me, as blackness swamped through me.

That was the last thing I remembered until I woke up to find an old man patting a cloth on my head.

"They actually do that?" I asked surprised, before coughing harshly. My entire body ached in phantom pain as I lay there.

"Sometimes." The man said dryly as I heard a bark, and suddenly a white fuzzball jumped onto my chest, making me wince. "Ah, your dog has been waiting for you to wake." I stared at the tiny dog.

That… that was a puppy. A cute little puppy with big floppy ears, and an adorable tail.

"…My dog is ten years old and has arthritis and diabetes." I said plainly. The old man frowned, and that was when I noticed the bandages around his eyes.

What the hell…

"Hmm… I wondered how animals would react to going through the portal." He muttered. I raised my eyebrow. "I suppose you have questions."

"Uh, yeah." I replied as I forced myself up, hissing in pain as my body ached. I was in a small room, with a few plain pictures. It was rather empty compared to other rooms. "I'm not in a hospital, am I?" The old man shook his head.

"What do you know of the multiverse theory?" he asked plainly. And I just stared at him.

He wasn't saying…

"…That there are millions of universes, and any possible outcome exists, right?"

"Yes, but not many realize that universes are created by not only an outcome but by a thought. A thought can create a universe, and those universes have multiple outcomes." Explained the man. "Sometimes, these universes will rub against one another, creating a partial opening. The workers of the multiverse will come by to fix it, but… there are times people slip through." The man looked at me. "And they become stuck in a new world."

"…I'm in the hospital, on drugs, right?" The old man sighed but shook his head.

"No, you aren't. Hallucinations aren't this clear, and-" he pinched me, making me yelp. "You don't feel pain while dreaming." I frowned, remembering the pain I had felt when… I fell through.

"The pain I felt…" I began, but he interrupted me.

"What do you know of Naruto?"

"…Please no." I said rhetorically. He looked slightly amused.

"In the world you fell from, the chakra there wasn't like the stuff here. When you came through, the portal changed your body to match the place around you. You developed a chakra network, the pain you felt. And then, your body tried to fill it." He shook his head. "Most cannot fill the coils and they die. Some can, such as myself and a handful of others." The puppy barked, and wagged his tail. "Your dog is the first animal I've seen fall through. In his case… it appears he absorbed chakra and deaged… somehow."

I didn't want to believe him, but… he wasn't lying. I just knew he wasn't. It felt… it felt so weird. All of this. I couldn't believe it, but here I was.

"I'm Eric, by the way." He said.

"I'm Elsa, and no- I do not let it go." He blinked at me and I raised an eyebrow. "How long have you been here?"

"Since I was five."

"…And now you're…"

"Sixty-two."

"…Okay, you wouldn't know then." I said before I closed my eyes, Doc licking my face.

This was certainly a change.

I started the synopsis for this story over a year ago when we put our dog down before I headed to school.

To Doc, the best damn dog I could ask for.

Anyway. First chapter! And Merry Christmas everyone!