Inspired by Ke$ha's song, "Wonderland". All rights for Wonderland and Naruto go to their respective owners/creators, as I only own the OC in the story as well as the plot line. Thank you.

Wonderland

Prologue

Bundled up in an oversized burgundy sweater and skinny jeans, Tokimoto Akira glanced sideways to the passenger sitting beside her. He was dressed in a business suit, but also holding a plain navy holdall with a red-and-white fan imprinted on the side. His bangs veiled most of his face from her prying gaze; she could only see his throat clearly.

She adjusted her bag on her lap. Most of its contents were screwed-up and simply stuffed into the bag in a hurry. She had no plans of returning to her fiancé anytime soon. Taking her eyes off the man, Akira looked around to the other passengers. As the train pulled out of Tokyo, she breathed a sigh of relief. She'd avoided the third rush hour at Shinjuku Station, purchasing a train ticket to Nagano. Her brother had guaranteed her that he would be at the Nagano train station to pick her up. Even then, it would take three hours of travelling to reach Nagano and then half an hour to get to where their family's farm was.

A sigh escaped her lips and she twisted in her seat to look out of the window behind her. Houses and the occasional shrub blurred past, mixing into each other and then becoming separate as the distance increased.

Long strands of straw-coloured hair fell into her eyes and she swiped them aside, tucking them behind her ear. The man beside her shifted in his seat and Akira watched from the corner of her eye as he pulled out his phone and fiddled with it. Bored with the journey already, it was the only thing there was to do really. She hadn't thought of bringing anything with her—well, she'd brought her phone, but it was almost ancient compared to the models out nowadays; she had got it when she began high school, as a gift from her late father—apart from the essentials, e.g. toothbrush, hairbrush, make-up and her best clothes. It hadn't crossed her mind that she might have needed some entertainment during the train ride. There was already enough going on in her mind.

Decision-making was always something she did after talking things through thoroughly with her father. And their last talk had led her to question her own life. Now he was gone, there was no one to talk to in the same depth as him. Despite being a working man for his entire life, he was very insightful and perceptive of other people. Akira hadn't inherited any of those traits from him, unfortunately, although her brother Satoshi had. Her other brother, Takumi, was more like her mother; he didn't smile often, valued his privacy and the privacy of others, but always had a good sense of intuition. It was almost unnerving.

The man snapped his phone shut, and made Akira jump out of her thoughts. She looked away in embarrassment when she saw his head move towards her.

Less than three hours to go, and hopefully he would get off before then.

He didn't get off and there was only one more stop before she reached Nagano. As luck would have it, as it was always against her, he remained glued to his seat when that stop arrived.

There were only a handful of passengers left in the carriage.

Huffing out a breath, Akira fidgeted until she found a comfortable position and leant back into her chair; for the past three hours, she had been sat stiffly with a straight back and her bag on her lap, not trusting anyone to attempt to pick-pocket it. Apparently, she had been overreacting again, being a 'little bit paranoid' as Satoshi would probably say if she told him. Not that she was going to tell anyone, especially him.

Drumming her fingertips against the permeable fabric of her bag, Akira lost herself in her thoughts once again. The last time she returned home was when her father was admitted to hospital – she had chipped in, alongside her brothers, to get him the treatment he needed. But it only prolonged his life.

"Are you all right?"

The voice had awoken her from her thoughts and she then realised why he was holding a tissue out to her. Tears were leaking from her eyes. "Err – thank you." She took the offered tissue, dabbing at her eyes as she tried to smile. "I'm sorry, I'm not normally like this."

The man only nodded; there was no hint of a friendly or encouraging smile on his face, but concern did exist in his onyx eyes. "I hope whatever is troubling you is amended soon."

Akira flushed at the gravity of his words. It was like something her father would say to her. "Erm – thank you, sir."

The man chuckled quietly, his chest rumbling at the motion. "You don't have to call me sir. My name is Sasuke." Akira suddenly felt silly, calling him 'sir' and grasping his tissue in her hands like she had the right to keep it. Hesitantly she tried to hand it back to him, only for him to push her hand back to her and half-smile. "Keep it. Just in case, okay?"

Akira bit the inside of her lip as she smiled at him. "Thank you … Sasuke."

The train pulled into Nagano Station with ease. They had arrived exactly on time, like usual, but they had a bit of a hassle getting off the train as a swarm waited to get on. The platform itself wasn't packed as such, but when a train pulled in, crowds gathered into masses by the opening doors.

It was nine 0'clock, and Akira felt the emotional rollercoaster of the day begin to take its toll on her as her eyes fluttered shut temporarily.

"Do you have someone coming to pick you up?" asked Sasuke, undoing a few buttons of his shirt. Akira forced her eyes not to linger on his exposed collar bone for too long.

"Err – my brother … he's picking me up and taking me back home." Sasuke nodded, as though approving of her answer. "What about you? Do you have anywhere to stay, a hotel or something arranged?"

"What makes you think I'm not visiting my parents?"

"We would have gone to school, mostly, but I suppose they could have moved when I left for Tokyo," Akira shrugged, shouldering her bag. She looked up at him as he smirked slightly. "But you don't seem like you're visiting family."

"Oh?"

Akira smiled brightly. "You would have bought a gift," she said, before thinking, "Because if you're visiting, you would've bought a gift to show how much you missed your family."

"And where's your gift, then?" countered Sasuke light-handedly, readjusting his holdall. "And how do you know I'm not hiding it in my bag so I don't lose it?"

Akira bit her lip again. "I didn't think of that."

"Your gift or mine?"

"Yours," Akira rolled her eyes at him, "I never forget my gift. My mother loves the little recipe books from the bookshop down my …" Her eyes glazed over as though recalling something that she had been trying to forget. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably. Soon Akira shook it off, though, and hastily muttered, "Never mind. It's nothing." A horn beeped obnoxiously from behind them. Akira and Sasuke looked round and Akira's face broke into a giant grin. "It's my brother!"

Sasuke nodded, no longer smirking. "See you around, then."

"Yeah, you too."

The horn beeped again.

Akira sighed, sucking in a deep breath and then turned to shout at her brother, "Shut up already, I'm coming!" She turned back to Sasuke. "It was nice meeting you. And thanks for the tissue!" She waved dramatically as she rushed towards the honking car, complaining at her brother to be quiet.

"Don't tell me what to do! Mother wanted me to make sure you wouldn't do something stupid – too late, seeing as your befriending strangers! Seriously, did you ever listen when you were a kid?"

"Shut up, Takumi! Stop being so irritable!"

"Why don't you shut up instead of cuddling up to strangers late at night?"

"Late at night? It's nine 0'clock – and I'm an adult!"

A beep told Sasuke that he had received a new message. Pulling it out of his pocket, not watching Akira and her brother disappear into the blackness of the night, he read it:

Good job. Now bring her back. – K