Chapter One: Sand and a Forest

Sand blew over Ami's face. Her head hurt but she couldn't tell if it was because of the noise of the storm or because she was trying to think of why she was where she was and how she got there.

That morning Ami, a slightly short young girl with dark blue eyes and black and blue highlighted hair, was at any other normal american school. She met up with her best friend, Amaya, a waist long haired brunette with a single red highlight running down one side of her face, and reddish brown eyes. They talked for a while before deciding to go to their lockers early and put away some stuff. Not wanting to go back downstairs they stayed on the second floor, walking around the loop the hallway made. To make sure they wouldn't be caught by a teacher they made their way into the girls bathroom.

Once inside the bathroom, Ami sat up on the sinks side and had her feet dangling off the edge. Amaya stood next to her, fiddling with her ruby crystal pendent, that hung from her neck.

"So I'm grounded for getting a C+ in Biology." Said Ami. "I was just one point from a B too! But of course, that doesn't matter." As she talked she was staring at a crack in the wall.

"Yea, my parents are pretty strict to." said Amaya. "Math really stinks this year too." She glanced over at the crack too. It seemed deep. But it's not like she cared, and looked back at Ami, who was still glaring at it.

"Yea..." mumbled Ami. That crack had to be as big as her hand. But was it a second ago?

"Is something wrong?" asked Amaya continuing to play with her crystal. Ami didn't answer, instead she pointed to the wall where a once hairline crack had grown to a black hole, half the size of a human body.

"I don't think it was a crack." said Ami, mostly to herself. She slid off the sink and walked to where Amaya was.

"What is it?" Amaya asked.

"I don't know. A big black hole?"

"... Couldn't figure that out." Amaya said sarcastically.

"You asked!" Ami reminded her. "Go touch it!"

"What? Are you crazy? You go touch it!"

"Ok..." Ami said shrugging her shoulders.

"Are you serious?" Amaya asked her surprised.

Ami nodded. "I want to." she walked up to it, with Amaya behind her. She lifted up her hand and held it a few inches away from the black thing. A slight vibration reached her, but she didn't move. Taking a deep breath she pushed her hand into the darkness. Instead of being stopped by anything solid on the other side, her hand went right through. She gasped. Behind her Amaya was in shock.

"Holy-"

"Lets go through!" said Ami spinning around and cutting her off.

"What? Well... where does it lead?"

"Don't know, don't care! How bad could it be? Its like a movie!" She told her friend in a carefree tone.

"But not really," Amaya reminded her. " This is real life you know!"

"Well I'm only going if your going," Ami told her.

"Why?" Amaya asked her.

"Because. One, I'd like to go with a friend. Two, if there's no way back at least I'd be with someone. And three, well... there is no three."

Amaya thought. What if they didn't make it back? And class! It was gonna begin in ten minutes. But Ami did look eager. "Fine," She said giving in. "We'll go."

"Yay!" Ami jumped happily. She hugged her friend then, before Amaya could change her mind, she hopped through the black thing.

"Ami!" yelled Amaya. Nothing. Adding more panic, the black thing, which had grown to the size of a doorway, was now shrinking. After checking to make sure no one was watching them, she jumped through.

But Ami didn't know if Amaya made it through or not. Right now all she saw was sand. And she also happened to be caught a sand storm. She couldn't see five feet in front of her, and the sand was getting in her eyes. She didn't want to open her mouth for fear of getting a fist load of sand in it. Sitting up she found her legs mostly covered in sand, and only her feet could be seen.

After brushing herself off she decided it would be best to keep moving. Not wanting to go against the strong wind, she let it carry her where ever it was blowing towards.

Amaya was not in the storm. But she did have thorns sticking into her legs. She had been walking in a forest, she woke up in, for nearly two hours. She thought she heard someone or something behind her, and jumped. She ended up tripping right into a tron bush. Cursing and muttering something about never going into anything black and weird ever again, as she pulled the last of the thorns out. Just as she she stood up someone whispered behind her. Yet when she looked, no one was there. Her heart pounding, she continued forward, at a more quickened pace.

A few minutes later she was running. It wasn't that she was paranoid, she just really felt that there was someone following her, and there was no doubt about that feeling. Her heart leapt as she saw the woods end up ahead. Maybe there was a town where she could hide from whomever was following her.

However, as soon as she exited the forest she froze. In front of her was a huge wall with a gate. It wasn't the size that caught her attention so much, but how familiar it looked.

Movement at the bottom of the gate caught her eye. A man in about his 20's with black hair was walking towards her. He was wearing blue sandals, a green vest, and a head band with a symbol she definitely recognized: the leaf symbol.

She had to be dreaming. "Please don't be afraid," came a voice from behind her. She turned and saw two more ninja looking people were behind her. She could swear that she was about to have a heart attack.

"Who are you? What's going on?" she asked nervously.

The black haired ninja sighed. "Please come with us. The Hokage wants to see you. Where's your friend by the way?"

Amaya paused. "Ami? How did you know?"

" Never mind. The Hokage will explain. Please come." He said before walking back towards the gate.

Amaya had no clue what was going on, but it seemed she didn't have much of a choice. So she followed.

Sand. Ami hated it. She was exhausted now. After walking for who knows how long, she had given up and now just sat on the ground. Angry at both herself and the storm, she yelled in frustration.

"Hello?"

Ami snapped her head up. That voice. Where was it? Where did she hear it before?

"Who's there?" she shouted back. She was much more nervous then Amaya was. She would act brave most of the time, but she was easily panicked.

Ami watched the sand sweeping past her in all directions, looking for some kind of other life. Suddenly she saw a shadowy form, in the blurring sand, off to her left. As the form got closer she could see that the shadow was actually a boy, with red hair and a huge gourd like container strapped to his back. Once she saw the object on the boys back, Ami knew exactly who had come to her. She was just having a hard time believing it.

Once the red haired boy had reached her, he knelt down beside Ami. The boy could tell from Ami's facial expressions that she was in shock. He just wasn't sure if it was because of his appearance, or the fact that he had come to help her.

"Are you all right?" the boy asked Ami stiffly, as he looked her over, not trusting her soon to be answer. He was confused. What would the Hokage want to do with her. Let alone, the other girl that was supposed to be with her. Remembering that there was another girl, the boy looked around for anyone else. But there was no one in sight.

"Ye... yes... I'm fine." Ami said watching the boys every move. From the shock she was in, she felt like she was going to faint any moment. He was here. Of all people, he came.

Ami watched the boy as he got up off the ground. What she didn't expect next was for him to hold out his hand for her.

"My name is Gaara. I was sent out to find you, and possibly a friend of yours. But it appears that she's not here. Your to come with me now." Ami looked back and forth between the boy's face and hand, not really hearing the words coming from his mouth. All she really heard was that he had been sent out to find her, and that she was to go with him now. Her head was spinning with thoughts. She felt like she had to be dreaming. It didn't seem real. Not until Gaara grabbed her and pulled her up off the ground. He was getting tired of waiting for her to move on her own.

"Let's go," he said coldly, as he led them both through the storm, still holding on to Ami's hand making sure he wasn't going to lose her.

Ami's brain was slowly catching up and she finally found her voice.

"I'm Ami." she mumbled just loud enough for him to hear. He just grunted, letting her know he heard her. However she was uncomfortable with the silence and wanted to say something. "How did you know I was out here? And that I came here with a friend?"

Gaara glanced back at her then forwards again. He wasn't saying anything, which made Ami nervous that she shouldn't have said anything in the first place. Finally he answered her.

"The fifth Hokage contacted me saying that she needed my help to fight Akatsuki. When I asked what kind of help, she said we need help that was from another world. To make a long story short, she found a long forgotten summoning jutsu. She said it would bring at least two of the most powerful beings from another world.

At this Ami stopped moving. Gaara realized this and stopped as well, letting go of her hand.

"Two powerful people? repeated Ami. "You don't understand. We can't be powerful in this world! In mine we don't have jutsu's or techniques or anything you do! If it helps to understand, we're people with out chakra. How could we help beat Akatsuki?"

"If you don't have chakra, then how do you know what it is? And that we have it?"

Ami closed her mouth immediately. Crap. She fell right into that one.

Amaya was in front of a door, waiting like one of the guards had told her to do. Seconds later the guard came back out.

"You can go in now." he told her.

Amaya nodded and slowly walked in. The door closed loudly behind her.

"Please don't be afraid. Sit down." said a voice.