Nobody Knows The Truth
CHAPTER ONE
What Is This – A Hospital?
I think I need to disclaim this…I don't own Naruto, I just own Emma, Mari, Kai and Hoshi – who's Hoshi? Read to find out!
Nothing made sense. Nothing looked like it should. Nothing was comfortable or comforting. Nothing felt right.
The only thing he recognised was the sun.
Ouch, my eyes hurt...I'm such an idiot…note to self, don't look at the sun…it's dangerous…
He was an attractive boy of seventeen, with dark golden hair and dark eyes. His face was designed with dark purple markings, like a kabuki mask.
Man, that's something Naruto would do…
He was wearing all black, and had three scrolls on his back. His name, was Kankurou.
Kankurou sat up groggily, pausing as his head felt light.
When he was quite sure that he wasn't going to keel over on the spot, Kankurou stood up and had a look around.
He was in a park of some description. It was the middle of the day, but there were no people around, which made Kankurou think – what's happening?
What had just happened?
Kankurou thought back to the events recently prequel to this moment. The day had started out normal. He had gotten up, gotten dressed, gotten 'painted', eaten enough breakfast for about ten ninjas, had a fight with his older sister Temari about where to go for the Christmas Holidays, and then walked outside in a huff, before – BAM! He saw a whole lot of bright blue and ultraviolet purple, before he found himself lying on his back, in the grass, staring stupidly at the sun.
He really had no idea what had just happened.
I wanna go back to bed… Kankurou whined to himself, as he trudged across the grass. And I wanna dream about her…
Life had been like this ever since that eventful day, three years ago. She had come, she had trained, she had kissed, she had left. In other words, Kankurou and his siblings had brought her and her friends back to their world, trained them to be top-ace ninja – but it was all part of a sacrifice that went horribly wrong. Before she and her friends had been burned to death along with Garaa's former Moon God body, she had kissed Kankurou, on the lips of course. She, was Emma, and her friends were Mari and Kai. Their deaths had been mourned sadly.
It was like this all the time now. Kankurou would act normally around his friends and family. But, at night, as he lay in bed, he would dream of Emma. In the dreams, she was alive and well, beautiful as always and more then just his very best friend.
Secretly, Kankurou was obsessed with her memory.
After all, it was partly his fault that she was dead.
Contemplating this as he usually did, Kankurou walked into a one-storey building, and his eyes lit up.
"SASUKE-KUN! SASUKE-KUN! SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura screamed.
Sasuke shuddered inwardly. 1
Sakura had just latched herself onto his arm, like a leech sucking blood from a mammal. This wouldn't have been so bad, having a girl (even if it was Sakura) clinging to him like this…except for the fact that she wasn't the only one.
Ino was on his other arm, sobbing hysterically. She had no real reason to cry, she was just scared, like Sakura. But Ms. Sugar-Hair was handling it better then Ms. Blonde-Hair. Still, Sasuke could feel her shaking.
Sasuke, on the other hand, felt like howling in pain. He had a large cut on the left side of his face, and a black eye on the same side.
But Sasuke was tough. He was cool. He wasn't going to cry.
Inner-Sasuke: WAHAAAAA! MUMMMYYY!
They were walking…err…shuffling…down a street, with one or two other random people on it.
Three things were wrong:
1) Ino's wailing was attracting unwanted attention from the suspicious strangers, and what were they thinking?
2) What was that strange blue and purple light back there?
3) Where were they?
"Sasuke-Kun, where are we?" Ino whimpered.
Sasuke scowled. "How should I know?" He stared at something across the road. "Uh oh…"
A group of Anti-Women Violence Protagonists were staring at him.
"YOU'RE SO MEA-EAN!" Ino screamed, and burst into a fresh wave of tears.
Sasuke telling the story to somebody later on: "And then I must have looked at them the wrong way, because suddenly I was running for my life!" (From The Simpsons).
#Switch to a shot of a street, coming from the left and then turning straight down, with buildings all around it. A black dot (Sasuke) runs along the road, followed by a lot of other dots (the mob)# (From Family Guy).
Ino and Sakura just stared at him, Ino's tears having dried instantly. Together, the two of them laughed. It felt good to be friends again. And it had been Sasuke whom had brought them back together again. Well, Sasuke and Rock Lee. The two boys had organised a recent party, where everybody whom was everybody had been invited. However, they had cornered the two girls before hand, and forced them to do the unthinkable – switch identities. They had been reluctant (boy, is that an understatement!), but Sasuke and Rock Lee had been firm. Do it. Or else.
So, Sakura had donned a blonde wig and worn sunnies for the whole night, and Ino had put pink spray in her hair and found some blue contacts. Ino-Sakura had worn a flared red dress and hidden her forehead to hide its not-so-bigness, and Sakura-Ino had donned a rich purple wrap-around dress and hidden her big forehead.
Only Rock Lee and Sasuke knew about the 'switch'. And so, when the two girls had spoken to other people, they had learned a lot about 'themselves'.
For example:
Ino-Sakura: "Say what?"
Naruto: "Yeah, remember, you told me. You only ditched Ino because you thought you wouldn't stand a chance to get Sasuke if you two were friends. You said it was because she was always cooler and prettier then you were (not)."
Ino-Sakura: "I said that?"
…
Chouji: "Yeah, Rock Lee totally has a thing for Sakura!"
Sakura-Ino: "He…does?"
Chouji: "Ah, yeah, he, like munch, told much us ages, munch, ago…"
Sakura-Ino: "Do you ever stop eating?"
…
Needless to say, they were now the best of friends again. And all it had taken was Rock Lee, and Sasuke/Mr. Cool.
The two besties followed him.
Rock Lee, at that very moment in time, was searching for Sakura. He was with another member of his team, a girl with dark brown panda-styled hair called Tenten, Chouji-the-bottomless-pit and Temari, Kankurou's older, blonder, sister.
They weren't in the best of spirits, except for maybe Rock Lee. Why? Because Tenten had sprained her knee (she refused to be carried, and walked along, wincing), Rock Lee and Chouji were both dehydrated because of the sun and the lack of water within the last two hours (which was how long they'd all been awake for), and Temari wasn't physically injured, but this 'wasn't a good time of the month for her', and therefore she was in a rather bitchy mood.
They were walking along a beach, searching for not only Sakura, but anybody else familiar. All they saw were beachcombers in boardies and bikinis that were hardly there, and the occasional dog.
"Where are we?" Tenten finally asked, collapsing onto a stone wall and resting her sore knee.
"How should I know?" Temari snapped back, shadowing Sasuke's earlier retort to Ino.
Tenten, however, did not start to cry, but she did scowl, and say: "I was just asking, jeez. And I thought your brother was bad!" She added.
"Which one?" Chouji asked, as he pulled a packet of potato chips out of his pocket and began munching away.
"Both." Tenten mumbled. The beautiful young girl stared out at the sea, and noticed Temari looking in the same direction.
Temari's eyes had a faraway look, and she was muttering something under her breath.
"What's that? Did ya say something?" Tenten asked her, in an irritated voice.
Temari said: "I think…that I've been here…before…"
They practically pounced on her. "WHEN!?!?"
Temari held up her hands to silence them. "It's just that…oh, I dunno…this place feels so…so much like…" Her gaze drifted out, as a dolphin leapt over the waves. She smiled, almost to herself, and muttered: "That fish-like creature…"
Inner-Temari: "Dolphins are mammals, ya know?"
Temari: Course I knew that. Shut up.
Inner-Temari: …
Suddenly, Temari's eyes bugged out, she stopped talking to her Inner-Chibi, and watched a scene unfold before her very eyes. The other followed her gaze and, when they saw what was happening, they too adopted Temari's startled and shocked expression.
A huge black Great White Pointer shark (it's contradictory, I know, but Whities can actually be black which, to me, is the scariest colour any shark can be, but them especially) was stalking the playful dolphin, hunger in its endless black eyes (I like endless eyes, cremello ponies – pink skin and white hair with blue eyes – have them). It rolled its eyes back, showing the whites to protect its pupils, before moving in for the kill.
Tenten gasped.
Suddenly, a figure hurtled itself out of nowhere, practically running on top of the water to reach the same 2.
It was a girl, kinda short but with a nice and curvy figure, wearing a yellow bikini and a pink baseball cap, over her long honey-chestnut hair. Her feet, they could see, were glowing with that blue chakra that most ninjas have, and she was intent on reaching the shark before it reached the dolphin.
"Why…it's…it's a kunoichi 3!" Tenten cried.
Temari face was absolutely white.
The female ninja cried: "To save iruka! I love fish!" And hit the shark with a flying ninja kick.
Inner-Temari: "DOLPHINS AREN'T FISH! MAMMALS! M-A-M-M-A-L-S! AAUURRGGHH!!"
Temari: Quiet, you!
"Omigosh!" A chip fell out of Chouji's mouth and back into the bag, as they all watched the shark sail through the air and land some ten kilometres away from the beach.
Everybody was staring at the girl in her sunglasses, as she stood on the water like some sort of a Jesus figure (Amen), and said to the dolphin: "Sayonara, Iruka!"
The dolphin swam around her in a circle, before clicking 4 it's thanks to her.
It then swam rapidly away, probably to deal out some of its own damage to the poor shark. 5
The girl then noticed everybody staring at her, and waved cheerfully, before striding back onto the beach.
Up close, she was quite an attractive girl with a nice figure to fill out the bikini top (if you know what I mean) and nice curvy hips. Her skin was a nice tanned colour, and it was obvious that she frequented the beach, judging by her sun-kissed skin and sun-hugged hair (nice sayings! I made up the second one myself!)
Temari was staring at her, as if she'd just seen a ghost.
Because she had.
The girl suddenly turned to the group of four hanging around by a stone wall, and she gasped.
A familiar gasp.
Temari gasped as well, and the others looked almost as shocked as she did, because they too knew this girl, except for Chouji.
But this girl…
She was a kunoichi.
She did have chakra.
HOW ON EARTH CAN SHE WALK ON WATER ALREADY!?!?
Temari cleared her throat. 'Err..umm…is that you…umm…"
The girl removed her sunglasses, revealing eyes that were as clear as a summer sky, and yet as green as an ocean. Freckles dotted her cheeks, and there was some sort of a random piercing just above her lip and to the right (which one is that, Marilyn Monroe or that other chick…is it Mandy Moore, or Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, tell me!?!?) but there was absolutely no mistaking this sixteen year old girl, staring at them just like they were staring at her. Her eyes. Her chakra. Her voice (although also now matured). Her red tattoo, identical to Garaa's, but in a different place.
It was…her…
"M…" Chouji said. (For 'Munch', which he did so, four chips at a time).
"A…" Tenten added.
"R…" Rock Lee supplied.
"I…" Temari finished, weakly.
"Chan?" They all said together.
The girl's eyes glazed over, before being replaced by a look of pure and absolute joy, which bubbled up right from her pure heart of gold.
"Hello Chouji-Kun! Rock Lee-Kun! Tenten-San! Temari-San!" she squealed, bounding forward in two gigantic leaps, covering the ground between herself and Temari. "Oh, Temari-San!" She cried, again, and Temari found herself being hugged by, and hugging, the overjoyed Mari.
"Akamaru," Kiba declared. 'I get the feeling that we're not in Konoha anymore." 6
Akamaru barked, but it was the white-eyed boy behind Kiba that answered, with: "Oh jeez, dya' think?" Neji snapped these words, scowling, and trying not to show the pain of having two broken arms. Well, one was broken, and one was sprained, according to his cousin, Hinata, but they still both hurt like shit. That and the fact that he was getting the most gigantic headache of all time, and everything was pissing him off, as it usually always did. But he was cool, he would remain mature, as long as everybody else around him shut up.
"Come on you guys, please don't fight." Hinata pleaded, cleaning the blood from her elbow onto a handkerchief.
Kiba, Neji and Hinata were standing around on a beach, with Naruto, Shino and Garaa. They weren't really doing anything special – they also had no idea where they were or why they were wherever they were – but Hinata was cleaning her wound, Neji was in pain and getting pissed off, Kiba was talking to Akamaru, Shino was examining a very large long black cylinder-shaped bug that kept curling itself into a tight little ball all of the time 7, Naruto was examining the grazes on his knee with rapt interest (they were very impressive looking) and Garaa was just staring at, what else, the sun.
It was the only think the red-headed boy recognised, but soon his eyes started to hurt, and he had to look away.
Hinata spoke up again: "Please, Neji-San, try to think, like everybody else is doing. Why would we have all been sucked through a purple and periwinkle vortex, as you called it, and into another world?"
"Beats me, Hinata-Sama." Neji shrugged his shoulders, addressing his cousin more formally then what she did him, because she was in the main branch of the family, and he wasn't. Hinata was okay, he guessed. Still a bit shy, but okay. It wasn't her fault that she was born into the hierarchy and he, Neji, was not.
Neji was still way cooler, and way stronger.
At least, that's the way he felt about it.
Garaa was staring into space now, thinking to himself: This place…the way it feels…the air…everything…it all feels so…familiar…like I've been here before…
Shukaku: "Of course you have, baka! It's, like, sooo obvious!"
Inner-Garaa: "Care to explain that, Tanuki-Eyes?"
Shukaku: "Hrumph! Take sone to know one!"
Garaa: Shut up you two, I'm trying to get my bearings!
Shukaku: "You baka 8! I tried to tell you! We're in…"
"If we're all here, you know, us, including him," Shino spoke up, and they all knew that the him was dark-eyed Tanuki 9 boy behind them. He had cut off Garaa's 'coversation' with 'himself'. "Then the…"
"Others must be here!" Naruto finished with a cry of: "Believe It!"
Hinata giggled, but still blushed.
Inner-Hinata: "I love youuuu, I've loved you all along…" 10
Inner-Hinata was very different from normal Hinata. She said everything her outer-self wouldn't – couldn't – say. Hinata was very thankful for that fact, because it meant that she herself didn't have to embarrass herself with those sorts of words.
"You mean, everybody else?" Kiba questioned.
"Sure." Naruto replied.
"Why not?" Neji shrugged, again.
"Could be possible." Shino added.
"But then where are they?" Hinata wondered, out-loud.
"Coming." Garaa suddenly said, surprising them all.
And, sure enough, Sasuke, Ino and Sakura were walking down the beach towards them. And, they had someone with them.
"OMIGOSH!" Hinata and Neji cried at the same time, ignoring the fact that they had spoken in unison.
Garaa was also staring at the boy, and couldn't hide his shock.
"I thought that you were supposed to be dead." He bluntly said.
Inner-Garaa: "Groan…"
He was tall, much taller then Sasuke, Sakura and Ino, about the same height as Shino (I dunno, is Shino tall?). He was Malaysian, with smooth, darker-coloured skin, and warm, chocolate brown eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with a red tie, black work pants and too-shiny black shoes. He had a formal black jacket slung over one arm, and he carried a briefcase in that same arm. In the other hand was a donut (Chouji would've been very impressed). He was older now, exactly the same age as Temari, and was wearing a scholarly-looking pair of business glasses, but he was standing in much the same fashion as what he always did, and his warm eyes were alight with only the joy that he could posses.
"It's nice to see you too, Garaa-Sama." Kai replied, a smile warming up his handsome a face. He looked around at them all, most of them nursing injuries. "What is this – a hospital?"
Well, there's my long first chappie!
Shino: Meg, you'd better give them a glossary, because you used a lot of strange words in there.
Meg: I did? Oh, well, okay then…
1 In my own Naruto fantasy, Sasuke never left with Lord Orichimaru. I know, I know, that's bad of me to pretend, but let's also pretend that it REALLY happened, okay?
Garaa: No.
Meg: Shut up, Tanuki-Eyes!
Garaa: :(
Meg: Uh oh… Runs for her life, and continues…
2 Same is the Japanese word for shark. It's pronounced Sa (as in SAsuke) and me, like met without the t. (Me, like met without the t, is also Vietnamese for Mummy or Mamma!) And you MUST know that iruka means dolphin, because of Iruka-Sensei…"
3 Kunoichi is the Japanese term for a female ninja. It's pronounced COO-no-ii-chee (is in cheese without the se).
4 According to the Dolphin Diaries series (great books, read em' if you can find em'!) dolphins communicate via clicks, pops and whistles, and they actually sound really beautiful!
5 Dolphins often attack sharks, and can even kill the, just like in Flipper, but Mari probably just wanted to show off her chakra.
Mari: Noooo! I wanted to save the good fish from the bad fish!
Inner-Temari: MAMMALS!
Meg: Mari-Chan, Inner-Temari-San, shoosh up…
6 Dorothy says something similar in The Wizard Of Oz: 'Toto, I get the feeling that we're not in Kansas anymore…'
Kiba: I quoted a girl? Outraged
Meg: Yes… Testily
7 It was a Portuguese Millipede, they're everywhere, but really, does this even look like Spain to you?
8 Baka is the Japanese word for fool, or idiot.
9 Tanuki is Japanese for Racoon-Dog…but you knew that…
Shukaku: I did…
Meg: I knowww… (Singsong Voice)
Shukaku: Grrr…
Meg: Eep!
10 Hinata sung the first lines of the chorus from Nickelback's song, Faraway.
Shikamaru: WHERE THE HELL AM I!?!?
Meg: I'm getting there, Shika-San, calm down…
Shikamaru: No. Too troublesome.