What the Hell is Happening to My Life????

CHAPTER 1

Fireworks. That was how my life started to turn upside down. My family had decided to take a holiday after Christmas to the coast, a week before New Year's. It was New Year's Eve now, and I was walking, hopping, jumping and stepping along the rocks, being careful to avoid the dark holes that I knew led to possible severe injury or death. Those dark pools hid the viscously churning water behind the shadows.

I stood on the edge near one such hole, big enough for me to fit through and easily leave room for another person, innocently watching the midnight fireworks, when a particularly large wave crashed down onto the rocks. I covered my face with my arms as it crashed down, and I made the idiotic mistake of stepping into the black hole in front of me.

I started to scream, but I hit my head on a rock and lost consciousness. The last thing I saw before I lost myself in the darkness of an induced sleep was a lot of……trees…..and grass, then I knew nothing else……

~Switch of view: Naruto~

"Aw man, I'm exhausted!" I exclaimed as we were travelling home to Konoha through the forest. Then I suddenly caught a glimpse of something sparkling through the trees. I stopped running and looked at the pin prick of light coming off of some surface. Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi stopped a little ahead of me and looked at me strangely.

"Guys, there's something catching the sunlight through there, see?" I pointed as the others looked in the direction of my finger. All of their eyes widened in surprise, and we all decided to check it out. What we saw when we got to the thing surprised us all.

Lying in the grass like they had fallen asleep there was a girl of our age, only she was slightly different. She had a tigers tail poked out of her jeans and a pair of tiger's ears poking out through her hair. She was wearing a simple t-shirt and a pair of white washed jean-shorts that stopped at her mid-thigh. The thing I had seen that was catching the sun was an odd shaped ring on her right hand on her middle finger.

We all looked at her curiously, and I looked around for a bag she might have had with her and found a red satchel and a black handbag with buckles all over it. The handbag also had a couple of badges on it and a lot of key chains. We all looked at her curiously….well, except for Kakashi-sensei. He was looking at her in more of a studying and suspicious manor, like we should still be on our guard while she's unconscious.

"What should we do sensei? We can't just leave her here." I asked. Sasuke nodded his head in agreement.

"Naruto is right, Kakashi-sensei, we need to do something. We could take her to the village to see if anything is wrong with her."

Sakura was looking put out that Sasuke was thinking more about the strange girl than her. She pouted and glowered at the unconscious girl. Then she glared at her and turned to Kakashi-sensei.

"But sensei….." She whined. "We can't even be sure if she's on our side, and she's prettier than me…..!" She pointed an accusatory finger at the girl(Sorry to those of you who like Sakura, but I don't like her, so deal with it =P) Sasuke and I both glared at Sakura, silently telling her to shut up. I can't believe I even liked her when we were 12. Kakashi sighed, as if he were in pain, but then we all saw the girl twitch…..

~Switch View: Back to you~

"But sensei….." Why did that whining voice sound familiar. I opened my eyes to slits and saw gold-yellow hair, raven black hair, silver hair, and bubblegum pink hair. That was completely not strange, note the sarcasm people. I twitched as the whining voice spoke up again.

"We can't even be sure if she's on our side, and she's prettier than me……!" She pointed at me and glowered, then glared. I had had enough of this. I twitched again, and all of them stood completely still.

I then realised I was actually in pain and groaned, reaching a hand up to rub the back of my head as I rolled onto my hands and knees. I found a rather large bump on my head.

"Owwwwww…….and that's what I get for falling off of those…..rocks….?" I opened my eyes to see that I was kneeling on soft grass instead of rocks. I looked around to see that I was in a clearing, completely surrounded by trees and bushes.

"What the hell????" I stood up quickly, which was a bad idea, because I suddenly became very dizzy and fell back to my knees again. I groaned and rubbed my dizzy and sore head. I then looked around again to see the forest instead of my motel room or the beach.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore……" I murmured as I looked around again and saw my red satchel and my black handbag……huh? How in the hell did they get here? Since I could barely stand I crawled over to them and knelt in front of them and looked through my satchel first.

I had spare changes of clothes, underwear, lady essentials in a toilet bag, as well as other necessities. I also had my CD's, including the twilight soundtrack and Nickelback's latest album, Dark Horse. My notebook with all my drawings and pencil case attached to it was in there. My laptop was in there too, so were the charger and spare battery for it. My digital camera was in there too, in its bag with a couple spare CF cards, and a pack of batteries and a battery charger, as well as the cable to connect it to my laptop. There was also a broadband card in there, for wireless internet, and my iPod cord, with a power point adapter. And, lo-and-behold, my alarm clock iPod dock, which was half as big as my bag, and twice as wide, was in there too.

I then looked in my handbag to see everything I had in there last. My wallet, which now had some sort of different currency in it, and plenty of it. The script on the money was Japanese and from what I could read on the notes in my wallet, I had about 300'000 ryou, whatever that was, but I knew it was some sort of Japanese currency. Hang on though, don't the Japanese call their currency yen?

I shook my head and looked to see that my school ID and my savings card were still there, as well as my Cinebuzz card and my Boost juice bars Vibe card, as well as all the other store cards I had, one of them being my precious Sanity music Pulse card. I sighed in confusion and kept going through my handbag. My card wallet was there, as well as my iPod, a 4th generation silver nano, my phone, a crap MotoRAZR which really needed to be replaced. My Nintendo DS was in there, protective case and all, with all my games.

And my small tub of lip butter from The Body Shop was in there too. I opened that up and smeared some on my lips and noticed that it smelled stronger than it did yesterday. I screwed the lid shut, a confused look planted on my features as I leant against a tree and shakily stood up.

I sighed and leaned my forehead against the tree.

"How did all this happen? The last thing I remember was……my family, ahead of me watching the New Year's fireworks on the beach, and I was behind them, walking along the rocks……" I trailed off as it all came back to me, covering my face to protect me from the cold water, stepping forward into the dark abyss between the rocks, hitting my head and falling unconscious as I caught a glimpse of trees and grass.

I sighed yet again, and looked down at my hands, gasping when I saw that they looked like something out of one of my favourite anime shows. I looked down to see that the rest of my body was the same, and that there was something writhing around behind me.

I spun in circles, trying to get a look at it as it curled around my waist. I looked down to see it was a tiger's tail wrapped around my waist. I willed it to unravel and it did, I looked down at my bum to see that it was poking out of my jeans, where my tail bone was. I looked around yet again and found a stream near me. I shakily walked over to it and gasped when I saw my reflection.

Yes, my green eyes were staring back at me, yes, my black hair was still there, but everything about me had gone anime style, and I now had a pair of fuzzy tiger ears poking out of my hair. I sat back in shock, and groaned again as another wave of pain overcame me.

I looked over my body again and found out that I had possibly hair line fractured my right arm, and that I had also twisted my left knee. I stood again, favouring my left knee by hopping a little on my right, and hobbled back over to my satchel and grabbed up one of my shirts, one of my really old shirts, and, using my teeth and good arm, I ripped the shirt down one of the seams, wincing as I moved my broken arm into a sling position and tied the now ripped shirt around my arm and neck.

I winced and groaned again as I slowly sank to the ground. I breathed in loudly, trying to block out the pain as I shut my eyes tight. I breathed out and opened them, the breath coming out in a hiss when I moved my leg.

"What am I gonna do now? I'm in an unknown forest, with no fudging idea where I am. The last thing I remember before knocking my head was that I was falling between some rocks at the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, while I was on holidays with my family. I have no idea how much time has passed since then, for all I know they could think I'm dead, and, to put the cherry on top, I HAVE A FREAKING PAIR OF EARS AND A BLOODY FUDGING TAIL!!!!"

I punched the tree weakly with my good arm, wincing when it jostled my bad arm. I slumped to the ground, as tears fell from my eyes. I brought my good leg up to my chest and buried my face in it.

"What the hell is going on with my life?" I mumbled into my knee. I heard something shift and looked up a little to see four pairs of sandal covered feet, like my own were now. I looked up further and came face-to-face-to-face-to-face-to-face with the main characters from my all time favourite anime show, Naruto.

That's right, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, and Sakura Haruno were all standing in front of me, looking at me with curiosity and slight suspicion, well, slight from Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi, Sakura had complete suspicion in her eyes and was glaring at me. I groaned and buried my head in my knee again.

"Great, just peachy, now I'm going insane and seeing characters from my favourite anime show? That is so completely normal everyday life Artemis, completely normal." I muttered, getting to my feet again, but they heard me. Kakashi stepped forward and looked at me suspiciously.

"What do you mean by 'favourite anime show'?" He asked, continuing to look at me, just like they all did. I sighed and rubbed my temples. I sat down and motioned for them to do the same. I reached over for my handbag and pulled my iPod and headphones out as I started explaining.

"Okay, first off, I'm from an entirely different earth, that has different continents, countries, and states within those continents and countries. I'm from the largest country and smallest continent, Australia. I live in a state called Queensland, in a small town. Where I'm from, there's a popular TV anime show about you guys called Naruto, and yes, I am aware that the blonde haired guy is Naruto Uzumaki, I watch Naruto like it's a religion almost." Naruto had perked up and started pointing to himself and raising his hand when I said his name.

I pulled my iPod dock out and put my iPod into it, turned it on, and looked through the episodes of the entire first series on my iPod until I came to the first episode. Since it was a fabulous iPod nano 4th gen, I turned the dock on its side and motioned for them to come closer.

"This was the first ever episode in the series." I stated as I pushed the play button and the episode started. I sat back as I had watched it so many times I knew it off by heart as Team Kakashi stared in awe at their younger selves in the first episode of their own show. When it had finished and they all looked back at me in shock, I had my eyes closed, my arms and legs crossed gingerly, and I was nodding at them before opening my eyes.

"You believe me yet? Me and my three friends, Alyss, Viva, and Zeala all love watching your show back in our world." Kakashi looked confused. As did Naruto and Sasuke. Sakura was glaring suspiciously at me.

"Prove it then, tell us what you know about us." I returned her glare with my own harsh glare, she cowered as I began.

"Name: Naruto Uzumaki, Current Age: 16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu, Parents: Minato Namikaze, The Fourth Hokage of Konoha and (insert Naruto's Mum's name) Uzumaki." Naruto looked at me in complete shock and gave me a small nod to prove that it was all true. I turned to Sasuke next.

"Name: Sasuke Uchiha, Current Age:16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Sharingan, your family's Kekkei Genkai, Parents and family are deceased, they were murdered by Itachi Uchiha, Your older brother whom you killed sometime last year." Sasuke gave a small nod showing that it was true. I turned to Kakashi next.

"Name: Kakashi Hatake, Current age: 26, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: Sharingan and most known jutsu, you've copied nearly all jutsu except the forbidden jutsus, and some of the First Hokage's Earth style techniques." Kakashi nodded like Sasuke did and I turned to Sakura with a glare. She gulped when I glared.

"Name: Sakura Haruno, Current Age: 16, From: Konohagakure, The Village Hidden in The Leaves, Specialty: None, you're weak as anything and can still barely do anything after Lady Tsunade, The Fifth Hokage of Konoha's teachings." Sakura sulked in a corner of the clearing as I gave a bow to an invisible audience.

"Thank you, thank you." I grinned as Naruto started laughing. Kakashi chuckled and even Sasuke cracked a smile. Kakashi turned to me, a serious look now on his face.

"We need to take you to Konoha hospital soon though. You look pretty battered and bruised." I nodded and rubbed the shoulder of my arm that was in a sling and winced as my arm was jostled.

"Yeah, I think I've hairline fractured my arm, as far as I can tell. I have a lump on my head, and I've twisted my knee." I gingerly returned my ass to the ground and packed up my iPod and speaker dock. Naruto kindly took my bags and Sasuke, much to Sakura's displeasure and dismay, lifted me into his arms, bridal style, being careful not to jostle my sore knee as they all started walking back to the village.

After a while on the road, I gasped and moved around in Sasuke's arms.

"What is it?" He asked, setting me down gently as I started hobbling away in one direction away from the dirt track we were walking on. I hobbled/ran to where I saw what I had seen to find three girls, all, except one, with ears and tails, piled on top of one another in a heap, and their bags were the same. They were all conscious and didn't seem to have any bodily damage. I recognised them as soon as I saw their hairstyles.

"No way! Aly, Viv, Z, that you guys????" They all groaned and rolled off of each other.

"Well, that was a rather unpleasant landing." Alyss groaned, her shoulder length onyx black hair shining in the sun and her bright emerald coloured eyes doing the same. You would swear that Alyss and I looked exactly the same, but my jet black hair was darker in contrast to Alyss' hair and her eyes were much brighter than mine were.

"Whatever you just said, I completely and utterly agree with you Aly." Viva murmured as she rolled onto her hands and knees, her brown/black hair falling around her eyes. And last but not least, Zeala remained spread eagle on the ground, her long black, red streaked hair flaring under her body and coming to a layered finish at her butt.

"Zeala?" I asked, crouching down beside her head and poking her in the stomach. She twitched when I did that and muttered, "Zeala is currently unavailable, please give her 3 months to hibernate before poking her again."

I giggled as she opened her eyes and grinned at me. She sat up and hugged me as I returned the hug one armed, careful not to jostle my arm. I then did the same with Alyss and Viva. By the time they were all up and had their bags ready, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi had found us.

Their jaws dropped in shock and I grinned at them.

"Guys, you'll catch flies if you don't close your mouths." I pushed Aly's, Viv's and Z's jaws back up as they continued to stare at Team Kakashi.

"Okay, introduction time." I grinned and grabbed Alyss by the hand and pulled her gently forward.

"Okay, Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura, this, is one of the best friends you can ever have, Alyss Mizuko. Alyss, this is Team Kakashi." Alyss smiled a little and gave a small wave. Then I pulled Viva forward.

"This is Viva Shiroi, the youngest but possibly loudest motor-mouth you'll ever meet." Viva blinked then looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Hey! You're gonna regret that Art!" I giggled then pulled Zeala forward.

"And this princess of darkness and completely awesome friend is Zeala Isolde." Zeala smiled a little and then grabbed a hair tie from her wrist and pulled her butt length hair up into a messy pony tail. Sakura glared at Alyss when Alyss looked at her curiously, and Alyss, startled, reeled back, and looked apologetically at Sakura.

"I'm sorry, but if I've offended you in any way, would you please explain what it is that I've done?" Alyss asked as she stood her ground. Sakura looked taken aback for a moment, but then her glare hardened again.

"Simple. You're all friends with that tiger eared freak in front of us!" Sakura pointed an accusatory finger at me as I gasped in outrage and shock. How dare she? I've never felt so offended in my life. Maybe it's because it's coming from a pink haired, obsessed fangirl.

I glared harshly at her, as did my friends and Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sakura! What has gotten into you?" Naruto asked as we continued to glare at each other.

"Apart from the fact that we're taking four possibly untrustworthy freaks back to Konoha?" She asked Naruto sarcastically. Naruto glared at Sakura.

"Have you forgotten that I'm one of those freaks too, Sakura? I have a demon inside me. Artemis and her friends are lucky if they just have the ears and tail of a tiger, cheetah and a wolf. You should be feeling lucky you don't have to share your mind with another, more twisted demon animals, or that you don't have any animal ears or tails on your body Sakura."

Sakura looked at the ground in shame as Sasuke continued. "Naruto's right, Sakura, and besides, apart from their new found appendages, they're just as human as we are, and that includes Naruto." Sakura looked up, shame in her eyes.

"But-"She began.

"Don't say a word Sakura. Right now I'm disappointed and ashamed that you're my student. At this rate I'll be sending you back to the academy. You will apologise to the girls and if you can't learn to accept them, then get used to them, because it looks like they'll be here for a while yet."

Sakura nodded and dropped her head, looking at the ground in shame. Then Kakashi turned to us and looked over my friends. He nodded to himself, as if confirming something.

"Alright, do you three feel any pain anywhere at all?" Alyss, Viva and Zeala shook their heads simultaneously. I smiled at how perfectly in sync we could all be without even trying.

"Alright then, it seems that Artemis is the only one that needs to be carried then."

Alyss, Viva and Zeala all looked at me. Then Viva winked at me while Alyss and Zeala broke out into identical grins. I mock glared at them all as Sasuke picked me up again and mouthed 'don't even dare think I like being carried by him'. They all grinned and Viva mouthed 'sure'. I sighed and shook my head as we all walked towards Konoha.