I don't own Naruto, but I do own my OC's. That's why I used the word 'my'. Any possibly sue-worthy similarities with real people (alive or dead) are purely coincidental. (No, your waifus don't count as real people - don't try. You won't get any money to buy merchandise.)

Ru was a sensible person. When it came to mathematics and science, no-one could best him. He was, as his name suggested, a scholar- he specialised. In maths and science. Much to his annoyance, however, he sucked at English. He just couldn't do it right and get the marks needed. Even when he followed all the instructions people gave him, it turned out in such a way that should have been impossible. He was aware of that fact, but he just couldn't change it. At college now, he merely gave in and let his best friend Aite do all the work for him in exchange for him doing her mathematics work. So, at the age of 20, he was purely sulky about the topic. He'd only just passed his exams, receiving a generous C from his teacher on the subject.

Aite, was not a sensible person. She was as her Greek goddess was - trouble. She and Ru had been friends for years, and even before the day he'd moved to England, she had been that way. But one day, she had decided to watch something new, and dragged Ru to watch some anime with her. She was 19 now, and she swore that she would never see better fan service anywhere else in her entire life.

"But Ru! Did you see Tsunade?! NO-ONE will EVER best that woman! I wanna marry her!" She yelled one day after Ru had told her that she would, if she prayed, find someone. She shook her crutches around in excitement as said blonde appeared on her tablet screen.

Anyone else listening in on the rest of that conversation would be very amused.

"...You can't marry an anime character!" Ru had yelled back with playful ire, sitting next to her on the couch. He held her grey crutches in a loose grip, so they wouldn't hit him.

"You can if it's true love!" Aite had bit back. Ru raised a brow at the Frozen reference. Aite had literally bought 10 of the CD's solely to burn them.

"Shut up and finish your homework!"

"No! I'll ask again. Did you see Tsunade?!" Aite wasn't giving up. She pushed the tablet to his face.

A blush. "Yes. You've only made me watch episodes with her in like a thousand times!" To prove his point Ru turned the screen back at her. A pink haired girl was looking at the blonde woman's... chest area. Ru hoped it was just a filler episode and Aite wouldn't make him watch it with her later. She only showed him fillers if they were very funny.

A sage nod. "Then you must understand where I'm coming from." Aite smiled slyly as her best friend's cheeks reddened even further, and he gripped some of his blue hair with his free hand.

"Aite! Homework!"

"Hai hai, Iruka 2.0."

"..." Ru's eyebrow twitched. "Now! And just one Hai will do, you weaboo!"

Aite laughed.

Ru smiled softly under his blanket. The two of them were travelling to Canada, in order to visit Aite's aunts by aeroplane. Aite was absorbed in her show, watching a downloaded anime, and Ru could hear thundering shouts of "Sasukehhhhhhhh!" and "Narutahhhhhhhh!" through white earbuds that were definitely playing way too loud. How the red-haired girl wasn't deaf, he had no idea - even if you muttered, she would hear you. This was shown earlier, when one of the airport staff had mumbled 'Brat.' under his breath. In the guy's defence, Aite had been complaining in a very annoying tone about how she wasn't allowed her crutches on the plane. The man pushing her wheelchair had tried to calmly explain why she couldn't have them- as they could be used as a weapon against the passengers or the staff- but Aite had accepted none of it.

Ru shuffled a little before succumbing to a light sleep.

He awoke to a hostess, telling him to put his seat in the right position.

"...This is your captain speaking, we seem to be experiencing some technical complications." The small light flashed, signalling for them to put on their seatbelts.

As expected, there was a few jolts, but eventually they smoothed out. The light for seatbelts didn't turn off, though. Suddenly there was a loud splutter, and the plane shook before tilting on its side. Ru could smell burning machinery.

"...This is your captain, one of our engines has failed. Please stay calm, we cannot turn back having already passed the halfway point, but we should stay airborne."

The air hostesses tried hastily to reassure the panicked passengers, and Ru tapped Aite's arm. The poor girl was stock still and her eyes were wide. She looked at Ru briefly with worry in her hazel orbs before the plane shook again and her I-Pad fell to the floor with a thud. A loud explosion made them cover their ears.

The other engine had exploded.

Ru and Aite felt their stomach's lurch and they braced themselves for the crash.

-...-...-...-...-...-

Namikaze Minato was a person who liked being in control of himself. One might think that this would be somewhat hard for a Shinobi, but he found that it helped him. He got to decide how he reacted to situations, after all, so being in control of his emotions at least was a must.

It would be an understatement to say he was surprised to sense two people slouched in the trees. If he were an inexperienced sensor, he would have missed them altogether or mistaken them for wildlife. Their chakra was near complete empty and wavering, was it... Growing? Since when did chakra raise that rapidly, and how was it so depleted in the first place? They should be dead!

He himself was returning back to the leaf from his latest mission with his team. It was rare for academy teams to stay together for so long, as he and his comrades had done for the past 8 or so years, but with Ryoumaru and Yobore, it was easy for them to work as one.

Well, sometimes.

"I sense people in the trees ahead. I am unsure if they are a threat, they seem to be sleeping, but they could be faking." Minato said, keeping his voice to minimum volume. With the ongoing war, the hidden villages were even more suspicious of spies more than ever.

"What do you think, guys? Should we head over and check them out? I have a plan that could work if they get hostile." Yobore's black hair lengthened quickly- his clan technique- and he flicked his head to the side so he could still see fully in a swift motion. He grinned and his normally clouded turquoise eyes sparkled, he was on his last ounce of patience and needed to let off some steam.

"I don't know, Kurokawa. What do you suggest?" Ryoumaru jeered as Yobore twitched. The raven insisted not to be called his family name when using his techniqes, but after his hair had come free from his red band during one of the fights, Jiraiya and the buzzcut boy had had a field day. All anyone could hear was the two of them shrieking 'Black Swamp!' and they nearly got kicked out of the inn they had stayed at. Ryoumaru had laughed along with their sensei, as the raven's hair truly looked like a black swamp when down. But Minato had to admit, if you named your clan something like Kurosawa, which was only to emphasise their secret clan hair techniques, and then get annoyed when people teased you about it was rather amusing.

"Whatever, mutt." Yobore snarled back. Ryoumaru was also the name of one of the Inuzuka's canine companions the short haired boy was acquainted with. Yobore grinned slyly when Ryoumaru opened his mouth before shutting it again. Well, play with fire and you're bound to get burned.

Minato muffled his chuckle at the sight of his two teammates. They had both looked away and blushed. How childlike. Minato shook his head, betraying the before spoken amusement, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Let's not get so confident now that we're near Konoha. They may be trying to trick us into letting our guard down, and listening."

The two of them looked at him with wide eyes before setting their faces unreadable.

Minato smiled and jumped ahead.

Aite opened her eyes to a forest of trees and a big yellow blob. As her vision cleared, she squealed.

Not loudly, but apparently loud enough to make the boy in front of her wince. Aite grinned, this was so cool! She looked around, and her eyes fell on Ru, who was on the branch below. He rubbed his eyes tiredly, and put on a shaky smile that was really more of a grimace.

"You're so lucky you can't feel most of your legs, you damn weaboo..." The blue-haired boy muttered while rubbing his thighs with a tan hand. "I think we've been here a while." Ru groaned. This had to be some dream if characters from an anime were appearing in front of him.

Minato had no idea what the boy had just uttered. He had said something of another tongue! It was incomprehensible - it even sounded like it had a different alphabet! Minato's eyes narrowed, and he had an idea. He pulled the girl with red hair - Don't you dare think of Kushina at a time like this, Minato, compassion kills - into a tight hold, and held a kunai to her throat. For some reason, she didn't seem to struggle at all. Even female civilians would have been able to resist more than that. She put her hands to his own, but didn't do anything else.

Ru panicked for a split second before remembering that there was no way this was real, so he relaxed. Minato looked confused at the pair of them for a moment, before his facial features hardened. The blonde looked to the left of Ru, and two figures appeared. Aite flinched. She could feel the cool metal on her neck, and something else. It was... Pain? Impossible, you can't feel pain in dreams, right?

This was... Interesting.

Ru sensed something change in Aite. Before she wasn't bothered, but now she seemed genuinely scared.

Wait, how were his muscles sore if this was fake? He pinched himself. No, that definitely hurt.

They... weren't dreaming?

A/N: Hey, Team Jiraiya is not properly canon. Its only known member is Minato, who Jiraiya took special interest in. The names of the other two members, as well as their statuses, are unknown. UNKNOWN MEANS I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH THEM *evil laughter*

Hey, Jiraiya could have got that hair lengthening jutsu from someone else- it's not crazy for NINJA to steal, lie and cheat, right?