Miyu wistfully wipes her tears away. Her eyes are all red and swollen, her face puffy. Her pillow is already mercilessly drenched in tears after hours of crying like a baby. For who can blame her? She just spent fifteen years of her life fervently following the Naruto manga, and this very day, the final chapter is officially released! The announcement dropped like an unforgivable bombshell into her once peaceful world. How it wrecked her content heart! As soon as she found out earlier that day, she ran to the nearest comic shop to purchase the final volume of her favorite manga. It was the last page of the book that shattered all her hopes and dreams into little unmendable pieces.
Her fingertips brush on what feels like a soft, shiny edge. She lifts her face from her pitiful junk of a pillow and finds the crumpled comic book lying next to her. Skimming through the pages for the hundredth time that night, a familiar ache brushes across her chest, squishing her insides and making her tummy turn. As her eyes catches glimpse of the grown-up sketches of the Naruto characters and their little children, the unpleasant urge to throw up builds up inside of her once more. She jumps out of the bed, grabs her wallet and car keys, and slams shut the door of her room—an epitome of her love for the series with all the posters and pictures of the different characters posted on all four walls.
With her car's window down, her long amber-brown waves fly into the air freely as she zooms across the city's empty streets at two hours past midnight. Slim strands of her hair drape across her cheeks but she doesn't mind. Speed has always had a way of calming her nerves.
She is lost deep in her thoughts, in the darkness of what seems like an abyss of sorrow and agony. Her friends would laugh at her if they find out she has been crying over a mere comic book. They just never understand! Not only is she a real bookworm, her favorite manga has just come to its most dreadful end and it feels like the end of the world for her! Call her obsessed, call her anything! But Miyu has never loved anything this much in her life.
She is so immersed in her thoughts that she doesn't realize she is stepping on the accelerator way too hard, her speed increasing by the second. Worse, a perfect ninety-degree blind curve is fast approaching! She steps harder as she nears the curve, and, swerving her car to one direction, the tires screech relentlessly as they hang desperately onto dear life.
Everything is still under control until two huge bright lights suddenly come onto her from the other side of the road, not too far from where she is, blinding her eyes temporarily and catching her off-guard!
Miyu gasps and panics. The truck's loud horn was the last thing that flooded her ears before everything faded to white.
A loud thud echoes across the room. The discussion is immediately cut off upon the loud sound that engulfs the entire area. All of the jonin shinobi are gathered there today for an important meeting with the hokage, only for it to be disrupted. Everybody turns around to where the sound comes from and is surprised to find an unfamiliar lady lying at the back of the room! How did she get there? Nobody noticed her enter the room! Unless she used some kind of transportation jutsu. Or was that thud due to her falling from the. . .roof? NO FREAKING WAY!
Everybody watches in bewilderment as one of her hands fly to the back of her swollen head, scratching it fervently as if it would help soothe the nagging pain. Boy, it was a pretty hard fall indeed!
All the shinobi present are so busy studying her. It kinda baffles them that she looks a lot different from everyone else in their place! From her hair to her clothes—everything about her is different. Like she came from another planet that none of them could point their finger on. She does not look familiar even to the slightest degree either. She probably isn't from round there. She also seems quite oblivious of the fact that she isn't alone in the room, that eyes are pierced straight right at her as she is busy scratching her head.
The entire room is silenced by her grand entrance, though none has the slightest idea how to react. It is an embarrassing situation, alright! But no one is amused. Rather, they are all confused of the identity of the stranger. Who is this woman?
Eventually, the lady realizes she is being watched—not by one—by a room full of uniformed men and women! She jumps up quickly, her head down and her face flushed with embarrassment. When she gets a glimpse of the room, a strange familiar feeling sweeps across her chest!
That's strange, she thinks. I feel like I've seen this place somewhere.
And it dawns on her!
"I'M IN KONOHA?!" she suddenly blurts out in shock!
All sorts of images come flooding into her mind! She panics! Dropping on her knees, she throws her palms together in a praying position and retorts in front of the puzzled shinobi, "I'M NOT AN ENEMY! I'M NOT A BAD PERSON, I PROMISE! I-I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!"
Awkward silence envelopes the entire room and it only compels the stranger to speak some more:
"I AM NOT AN INTRUDER; I HAVE NOT EVEN A SINGLE IDEA HOW I GOT HERE! I HAVE NO EVIL INTENTIONS AND I AM MOST CERTAINLY INCAPABLE OF HURTING ANYONE. I HAVE NO CHAKRA, NO NINJUTSU, NO GENJUTSU, AND NO TAIJUTSU. EVEN I, MYSELF, AM COMPLETELY DEFENSELESS! I AM NOT A THREAT!"
The shinobi are completely dumbfounded. They wear that comical 'huh' look on their faces as the she keeps on babbling!
"PLEASE SPARE MY LIFE! I'LL-I'LL-I'LL BEHAVE AND NOT DO ANYTHING STUPID, I PROMISE! J-J-JUST D-D-DON'T. . . DON'T HURT MEEE!"
The woman closes her eyes shut and bites her lower lip in fright as she anticipates her arrest. She knows exactly who they are and how they operate! She just spent a life time learning all about every single one of them; she can never go wrong about them! She knows what they are capable of doing to her if they would even mistake her for a spy or any sort of threat to the village. She could get executed!
Fifteen years. Fifteen marvelous years of devotedly following their individual lives are more than enough to believe she is in big trouble.
Her fingers shake; her heart races. Sweat drips from her temples to her chin. She is far more nervous than she could ever be, it's crazy!
She flinches when a warm hand suddenly touches her shoulder. Slowly, she opens her eyes and looks up. Her anxious dark orbs meet a familiar pair of reassuring red ones. Of course, she immediately recognizes the other woman. It's Kurenai smiling down at her!
"Please, you don't have to be afraid," Kurenai says kindly. Her warm smile has not left her lips as she helps the stranger to her feet. "What's your name?"
The woman hesitates but Kurenai looks determined to know, so the stranger obliges. "M-mi. . .yu. . ." she's so afraid, the last syllable almost sounds like a whisper.
"Sorry?" Kurenai says again.
"Miyu," the stranger is finally able to say after struggling for a while. "M-my name is Miyu."
"MIYU!" another kunoichi, Anko, chortles with obvious sarcasm in her tone. "Well, how about you tell us your real name?"
Miyu's perplexity grows. She is fully aware that if Kurenai is the kind one, Anko is the fierce one. The latter would definitely not believe her so easily!
"Come on," Anko urges. "Spit it out."
Miyu anxiously looks around the room and sees that the majority of the shinobi bear the same skepticism on their faces. She stutters her way through her defense when she finally says, "B-but I already told you!" and she fidgets relentlessly.
Anko snorts again. "Woman, if you're gonna keep this up, I assure you that this day will not end without you getting in trouble."
"Anko!" Kurenai hisses at her friend.
Miyu is taken aback by such remark. Convincing them is not as hard as she thought it would be; it's impossible! She is already in a very tight position herself and Anko is still determined to give her an even harder time. But she completely understands the situation. Miyu can't blame the shinobi as—from her hair down to her toenails—she obviously looks oddly different from all of them.
How else to save herself is by standing her ground. And that's what she does!
With a surprisingly new sense of confidence surging all over her body, she stands tall and firmly for her defense. She somehow manages to flush away every tad bit of her anxiety, and with conviction replies, "I'm already standing in front of a group of the most powerful shinobi in all of Konoha and probably the entire shinobi world. . .and you still think I have the guts to lie? Why don't you get Inoichi to check my mind out so you'll know I'm telling you the truth? Look, I won't even resist!"
Anko's eyebrows cock with apparent suspicion. "So you know Inoichi?"
"Yeah," Miyu replies, reluctantly. This time she is beginning to regret mentioning Inoichi's name at all. She just isn't sure if telling the compete truth about herself and where she came from would play to her advantage in this situation.
Anko squints her eyes at Miyu suspiciously. "And does Inoichi know you?"
"Y-yes?" Miyu's lips tremble. She immediately regrets even attempting to lie at all!
"Yes?" Anko squints her eyes some more. "Are. . .you. . .sure?"
"N-no?" Miyu responds almost in a whisper.
At this point, Anko is already growing impatient. "So which is it?" she almost snarles at Miyu.
"That's enough, Anko," a man from the crowd suddenly says. "You're not going to get her to say anything with that manner of interrogation."
It is a statement stern and calm, and Anko seems to respect the man enough to even argue, so she hesitantly retreats.
Miyu heaves a sigh of relief and throws Kakashi a grateful look. Kakashi, on the other hand, remains emotionless, although she is certain that he is only trying to figure her out behind that mask. Purely Kakashi. He does not even surprise her anymore.
The third hokage, a very old man, steps in and says to the stranger, "Miyu, is it?"
Miyu nods her head nervously.
"You don't look harmful to me," the hokage says. "I saw how your eyes flickered with confusion after you fell from our roof. You did not intend to come here to the hidden Leaf Village, did you?"
"Absolutely not, sir!" Miyu waves her hands in front of the hokage with all vigor. "I mean, why would I even think of coming here when five minutes ago there was nooo waaay on earth that all this is possible at all! No. Just. . .nnnooo."
"But if you know Inoichi and his specialty, it is only right to assume that you know more." The hokage watches as Miyu anxiously bites her lip, signifying refusal to say anything more.
The third insists though: "And it seems to me that you are not from this country too. Are you?"
Miyu still does not budge.
"But as a hidden shinobi village with people it needs to protect, the village has matters that we are determined to keep within the walls of our village," the hokage continues. "That, I presume, you understand. Do you not, Miyu?"
"I. . .am fully aware of how the shinobi world operates, Lord Hokage," Miyu replies, trying her best not to sound like a creepy stalker or something.
I may even know more about it than you do, she adds in her thoughts.
For a while there she almost yields to the temptation of telling the whole truth, but in the end she just hesitates again. There are a lot of things running in her mind! Things like, what will happen to her when they find out that she isn't from their world? And what will they do to her when they find out that she does not anymore need to infiltrate their village to get information for she already knows everything about them? Hidden shinobi villages don't allow their secrets outside its walls. They would keep her prisoner if they wouldn't execute her! Worse, she is completely defenseless! If they hurt her, she wouldn't be able to fight them all! She wouldn't survive!
However, she realizea she had to start talking soon or she'd get in an even greater mess! Also, she prefers being treated like a tourist rather than a fugitive. So, witty as Miyu is, she comes up with the brightest solution anyone could ever think of.
"Fine," she suddenly says, much to everybody's surprise. "I will tell you everything I know. . ." she pauses. Glancing at every shinobi in the room, she notices that her last statement ultimately captured their interest. ". . .but on one condition."
"Hah!" Anko snortles sarcastically again. "You are not in the position to negotiate here, woman!"
However, the hokage is more than just interested to hear what she claims she knows. He signales Anko to stop, which the latter immediately acknowledges although the scorn has not left her face.
The hokage turns to Miyu and says, "I do not wish to strip you off of your rights by binding you and forcing you to talk, especially that it seems you are now willing to cooperate. So I shall hear the condition!" he declared. "But first you need to understand that we have not agreed on anything yet.
We do not know how much you actually know about us, and we don't know if the information you do know would prove useful to the village. So as of this moment, I cannot guarantee you anything. That means, if you be proven guilty of attempting to infiltrate the hidden Leaf Village, the verdict shall not be pleasant."
"I completely understand," Miyu replies.
Although she is apprehensive inside, her display of that new sort of confidence shows everyone in the room that she is no longer the scaredy cat that she was a few moments ago. She is certain that the hokage would adhere to her condition, as what she is about to give them is something they have never heard of before. They would never be able to resist it.
And so she begins: "The thing is, I know literally everything about the shinobi world—EVERYTHING—whether you believe it or not."
Anko snorts.
Oh, she doesn't believe me, huh? Miyu scoffs in her thoughts. She looks around and realizes that it isn't just Anko. Everyone else is just as unconvinced!
Miyu is certain that they want proof, so she decides to give them one!
With all vigor, Miyu strides toward Anko, grabs her by the collar of her overcoat and catching her by surprise. She lowers the collar down so that everybody would see, and—to their shock—reveals the cursed mark at the back of Anko's neck!
Anko instinctively protests and wiggles her way off of Miyu's grasp. Her hand immediately flies to the cursed mark, covering it, as her eyes flares at the stranger.
"WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" she barks at Miyu.
Miyu shruggs her shoulders playfully as her next words erupt like thunder. "Oh, nothing! I was just wondering. . ." she pauses for effects. ". . .How's Orochimaru?"
And everything falls in complete silence! Everybody in the room gasps. They all ask the same question in their minds: How did this woman know that Anko got a cursed mark from Orochimaru?
Miyu knows what they're all thinking. She smirks victoriously. But slowly her face drops again when everything begins to sink in. Her stomach turns with an indescribably agonizing mixture of fright and disbelief. It is inconceivable how she is able to get there in that world. That universe, those ninja—none of them are real! At least not in her world! They are but mere products of someone's imagination, illustrated in comic books and adapted into moving pictures for the entertainment of the "real people". . . People like Miyu. And now she is actually standing face to face with the very fictional characters she has always adored and loved? Talking with them? Arguing them? Teasing them and watching them give her death glares in return?
She has no inkling as to how she got there. She has no idea how all of it is even possible at all. What would happen to her from this day on is beyond her imagination. She is only sure of one thing: that they are all finally REAL!
She looks around and studies the situation.
This room looks exactly like the one that Kishimoto illustrated in his manga, she thinks.
That's right. It is the very room where the hokage and the council usually hold important meetings along with the shinobi.
By the looks of it, everyone was called in here today for something very important, she continues as she analyzes the situation.
She walks toward one of the windows and looks out while the shinobi and the hokage just follows her every movement with their keen, anxious eyes. Miyu is not anymore surprised when she finds the different familiar parts of the Leaf Village she knows so well. She turns her gaze to another direction and sees the hokage's mountain where the faces of the current and previous hokages are craftily sculpted. She smiles to herself. At this point all her doubts have completely vanished. She is in Konoha, alright!
So if these people are the Naruto characters and this is the hidden Leaf Village, then that means I am currently in the realms of the Naruto world, she returns to her thinking. So does that also mean their lives are operating according to the timeline that Kishimoto created?
She turns to look at the group of shinobi who is standing behind her and are quietly watching her with so much confusion in their eyes. Her gaze meets Anko's, and then Raidō's, and then a light bulb ticks above her head!
Then he must be here! she shrieks nervously in her thoughts.
Looking at each of the shinobi in the face, her eyes search around the room for that one particular person she is now dying to meet! A few moments later, at the back of the room, the man that she has been looking for finally comes to sight!
Genma Shiranui! his name rings in her head like bells at Christmas time!
There he is. The handsome senbon-nibbling shinobi and Miyu's personal favorite, staring back at her with the most familiar, beautiful hazel-brown eyes that are so dear to her hear. It is a quizzical look he is giving her, though he remains composed and undisturbed. Classic Shiranui. It makes Miyu smile.
His long brown hair reaches his neck, his forehead protector still worn like a bandana, and his both hands stuffed inside the pockets of his standard jonin outfit—Miyu can''t deny it even to herself that she is extremely happy to finally see Genma in person. . .
And it dawns on her!
Everybody witnesses just how Miyu's face suddenly turns dark. Their anxiousness grows when they notice her eyes bear a horrible ghastly expression while looking around the room again, searching for one more person she needs in order to confirm her dreadful hunch. She has a strong feeling that she just crashed into one of Naruto's most crucial arcs! And if her suspicion is proven right, then that would mean danger. . .not only for her but also for the entire village!
But first, she needs to be sure. . .
When her eyes have trailed all over the place and still do not find the man, all the gladness in her heart upon finally seeing Genma Shiranui is immediately replaced with unexplainable sorrow.
That's right. Now she's certain of what is going on. She knows why they are huddled up in a meeting with the hokage like this today! It is a grievous day for all of Konoha indeed. . .
I was only a few hours late, Miyu grunts bitterly in her thoughts.