Yeah, I know, I've got stories that I need to continue, however, I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing with Trapped or Slate Grey, Hawkes takes a lot of time and concentration, and I'm contemplating rewriting Namikaze Foxes to fix some things that were pointed out in a review, i.e. skipping a lot of parts that are probably very important to the story. So, with all that said, the plot bunnies decided that I was going to do something else and procrastinate AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I'm pretty good at that anyway, as you probably already know, so the rabbits just make that all the easier. And yes, I realize that this doesn't get too far now, just wait a while, I might get back to this eventually.

"Oh my god! I can't believe he said that!"

"I know! And then she said yes!"

The two girls then broke into giggles, making me smile. We were in my car on the way into town after dinner at a restaurant in the country. My girlfriend, Zoey, was in the seat next to me, turned around in a not very safe way to talk to her best friend, Sophie, who was in the back seat. The two of them had gotten together to work on a project for one of their classes and had invited me to tag along. Don't blame me, I like hanging out with my girlfriend, and it's an excuse to get good food.

After their fit of giggles died down, there was a short silence before Sophie spoke up. "Can you guys believe that storm we had last night?"

"No," Zoey gasped. "It was so loud and lasted all night. I barely slept at all!"

"There was a storm last night?" I asked.

They both stared at me. "How could you not notice, Will?" Sophie asked. "My house was shaking last night."

I cocked an eyebrow. "I guess I slept through it. It was raining when I went to bed last night, but it didn't wake me up."

The two girls sighed before going back to gossiping about things and ignoring me.

None of us noticed the clouds gathering over the car or the occasional flash of lightning between them. But we all noticed the clap of thunder before we blacked out.

The next thing I remembered, I was groaning in discomfort. There was a little bit of pain, but mostly a dull ache, and I felt like I hadn't slept or moved for a week. "Did anyone catch the number of that train?"

A voice that I didn't recognize brought me from my self-pity. "I'm sorry?"

I cracked an eye open, anticipating bright light and was not disappointed. After waiting for my eyes to adjust, I looked around. I was in a hospital room. And everything looked… odd. Even the woman standing next to the bed looked off, and not only because of her odd style of dress. After a moment, I noticed she was staring at me, so I shook my head and waved her off.

She smiled disarmingly and asked, "How are you feeling?"

I had gone back to studying the room and almost missed the question, but replied with "Tired, sore…" I trailed off and kept trying to figure out what was wrong with everything, but was drawn from my musings by a low growling. The woman, who I assumed was a nurse, giggled. I smile sheepishly. "I guess I'm hungry, too."

The woman smiled. "We expected as much. You've been out for several days, at least." She walked over to a fridge in the corner and pulled out a tray with various foods. I saw an apple, something that looked like cubed steak, and a bowl of rice. I sat up in the bed and she placed the tray across my lap. I cracked the chopsticks and began eating as fast as I could with my limited experience using chopsticks. After I had slowed from my feeding frenzy and began eating at a somewhat normal pace, the nurse spoke up. "Now that that's out of the way, I need to ask you a few questions. Physically, you're as fit as you can be for someone who's been out for a while, but we need to make sure nothing is wrong mentally. So," she paused a moment, as if trying to figure out how to begin. "My name is Momoka Takenawa. What's yours?"

"Momoka," I muttered. "Pretty name. Something along the lines of… peach blossom?" She blushed faintly at the compliment before giving me a look, so I stopped wracking my brain about the fact that I didn't know that there was a prominent population of Japanese origin in the area. "My name is William Wexler. The seventh."

I was met with a blank stare and a "The seventh what?"

"The seventh of my name." When she didn't get that, I continued. "You know, I'm William VII, my father was William VI, his father was William V, so on and so forth." At seeing she still had no comprehension, I sighed. "Never mind. My name is William Oswald Wexler VII. It's a family name. I've been called anything from William to Billy to Seth to B-Dub. Call me what you will."

After a moment, the nurse nodded. "Okay, William. Next question. Where do you live?"

"Smithfield." More silence and confusion. I sighed. "I live in Smithfield, North Carolina. About thirty minutes southeast of Raleigh." Not getting a response, I continued. "Seat of Johnston County? On the Neuse River? Junction of I-95 and 70 Business? Zip code 27577?" After a confused staring contest, I sighed again. "Where am I?"

"You're in the First Memorial Hospital in the Leaf Village."

I stared at her for a moment. 'The Leaf Village? Where have I heard of that before?' After another stare-off, and a few thoughts, my eyes widened in realization. I quickly pinched myself. 'Ow, I didn't think it was, this feels too real.'

Once I finished my thoughts, I looked back up to see that I was alone in the room… Or at least there was no one in sight. Now that I was fairly sure that I was in the Elemental Nations, I was aware that there might be ninja in the shadows, but that didn't faze me at the moment. So, I settled in to wait for someone to return.

After several minutes, the nurse returned with a man, a tall, long-haired blond wearing dark colors. The blond gestured the nurse forward and she walked up to the side of my bed. "Now," she began. "We're going to continue our questioning. What do you do?"

I paused for a few moments, putting together the response that would answer the most questions. "I'm a student. I go to JCC fulltime. I also work part time at a small store."

The nurse gave her companion a look that I took to mean something like 'See, I told you I wasn't crazy.' I assume she told the man that I was spouting nonsense, and he didn't believe her. He did now, however, and nodded at her. This only confirmed my suspicions. They had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

The blond man walked up to my bed and began speaking to me. "Hello, William. My name is Inoichi."

'How did I not see that coming?'

"I am the local expert on psychology and all other things involving the mind. I have been called in to check your head for any signs of brain damage, head trauma, or insanity." He said all this with a calm tone and what I assumed was meant to be a reassuring smile. The context, however, made it rather frightening. "Now," he continued, "I'm going to do something that will let me check on your mental health. It might feel a little strange at the beginning, but it should go away quickly." His hands blurred for a few seconds, before his hands glowed a slight green. I was so entranced by the display that I didn't even flinch away when he placed his hands on either side of my head, the first two fingers of each hand on my temples.

He was right, my head started tingling as soon as he made contact. We sat there for a few minutes, me staring at his closed eyes, before he backed off. He looked at me for a moment, declaring to the nurse "I can't find anything wrong. There isn't any physical damage, and there were none of the usual signs of mental instability. I'll need to do a more thorough examination, but he seems fine." He stood up and began towards the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on the other two that came in with him."

He left, and the nurse smiled at me. "Two others?" I asked.

"Yes," she responded. "One of our teams found you and two girls your age unconscious off the path just outside of the village. They were in similar condition, no physical injuries, and they woke up at about the same time you did."

My eyes widened to nearly comical proportions. "Zoey!" I exclaimed, jolting up into a sitting position. However, the nurse stopped me from jumping out of the bed to run toward my possibly injured girlfriend.

"Whoa, now," the nurse began, pushing me back down. "I told you that they are both in the same condition as you are, and you're physically fine."

"Yeah," I responded, still struggling ineffectively. "But that doesn't mean she's okay." Man, this nurse is really strong.

The nurse gave me a look. "If you stop struggling, we can talk about it."

I very quickly stopped. "Yes, ma'am."

The nurse giggled a little. "You two must be close."

I shrugged slightly. "We're dating."

She smiled. "Aren't you a little young to have a girlfriend?"

I looked at her funny. "I'm nineteen. Why would that be too young?"

At this, she returned my funny look. "You're not nineteen."

"What are you talking about?" I returned. "I know how old I am."

She continued giving that look as she stood and cross the room. She entered an attached bathroom and quickly returned with a handheld mirror. "I'm not sure what's going on in your head, but you are physically twelve."

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, gawking at the sight of my face that hadn't been my face for several years… with that same kind of odd quality about it. It was at that moment that I realized that my voice had been much higher than it had been before I woke up here. I then took the time to examine the rest of myself and noticed that I still had the athletic body I had gained playing football in high school, it was just… younger. 'Weird...'

The nurse broke me out of my stupor after a short time. "You don't seem to be mentally unstable, you seem to have been telling the truth, and there are no physical reasons for you to be kept here, so the two of us are going to see your friends, and then we'll figure out what to do from there. Sound good?" She smiled broadly at me, just a little too sweetly.

"Um, sure," I responded, unsure how to truly respond. She kept the smile on her face as she helped me stand. I stumbled slightly upon standing, but the nurse caught me before I could hit the ground.

"Careful," she cautioned, still wearing that same smile. "Most of your muscles haven't moved in a few days. I might take a little while for you to be back to fighting fit, so take it slow for now." She helped me walk through the door, down the hall, and into another room.

I looked around to find two twelve or so girls, one blonde, one brunette, staring at me in curiosity and slight confusion. I saw the blonde shrink in on herself slightly, 'Must be shy,' before the brunette came to her rescue. She drew attention to herself with a shout of "Hey!" before continuing in a slightly more subdued and accusatory tone. "Who are you?"

'She acts just like Sophie does when Zoey's uncomfortable.' It was then I remembered who it was that we, the nurse and I, were going to see. I stared at the athletic brunette for a moment. "Sophie?" I asked. I watched her suspicion grow for a moment before I saw the blonde's eyes light up. "Zoey?"

Zoey inspected me with hope. "Will?" I nodded and she tackled me, wrapping her arms around my neck and softly sobbing into my chest. I returned the embrace after a moment of shock at both the fact that I had my girlfriend crying in my arms and that I easily caught her, no stumbling or anything. I soon realized that quiet mumbles were mixed in to her sobs. "Oh, thank god, I don't know what I would've done without you."

I brought my hand up to run my fingers through her hair, something she said always helped calm her down. "It's okay, babe, I'm here, and Sophie's here. We're all together and we're all okay and we'll be alright." Sophie joined the hug shortly thereafter, also whispering comforting words, and Zoey's tears slowed.

The moment was ruined by a resounding "Aww…" from the three nurses. "Maybe they really are older than they look." The other two looked at her in confusion. "He told me that he was nineteen and that Zoey is his girlfriend. Plus they all seem a lot more mature than twelve-year-olds should be." The others just nodded.

Sophie backed away slightly, but kept her hands on Zoey's arms. Zoey, however, just burrowed closer to me, not letting me back away. After a moment, she looked up at me with her watery green eyes. "Any idea what's going on?" she asked, still slightly choked up.

"One or two," I whispered into her hair. "But it'd probably be better to talk about it more privately." She nodded, and buried her face into my chest again.

The door opened, drawing everyone's attention. Inoichi stepped in, glancing around. "I need these three," he spoke to the nurses, "and one of you to come with me." He locked eyes with all three of them for a moment. "The Hokage would like to speak to them."