Disclaimer: Nibi-Nekomata is an eighteen year old American girl - she does not own Naruto, never has, and never will. This is a purely fictional story. Amelia is her own OC, however, and is based upon her vaguely. Any likeness to other persons living or dead or fictitious is purely coincidental and no copyright infringement is intended. Thank you! See you at the bottom, ladies and gentlemen!
Nibi-Nekomata also does not own Kelly Clarkson's song You Found Me, which is used in this chapter. If she did she'd be rich and very happy. Alas.

Was it All a Dream?

Amelia opened her eyes to bright daylight streaming into her room. She rolled over, looking at the lime green digital clock. It was nine thirty in the morning. She flopped back over, looking up at the ceiling and frowning. She had the weirdest dreams the previous night. They had to be dreams.

"There's no way I'm currently harboring three criminals and two very misunderstood men. Just no way," she stared at her ceiling a moment longer, mulling it over. One way to find out.

The strawberry blonde dressed quickly, pulling on a pair of shirts and a t-shirt at random. Slipping on her flip flops, she took both of her little dogs out into the backyard before going back to her room and grabbing her iPod. "Best to make this believable," she muttered.

When she stepped back out, her mother looked away from the PS3, raising an eyebrow. "Going outside so early?"

"Before it gets too hot," came the ready reply. Amelia relaxed once she was out the door. She sidled along the edge of the house and then bolted to the opening in the fence, darting back to the barn. She pulled up at the fence, sliding into it and leaning against it. The fence gave slightly, threatening to dump her over it. "Anybody back there?" Was what she finally trilled. She expected silence, and at first wasn't surprised. She stepped back from the fence, relaxing and smiling, reassured that she'd been dreaming.

"No, just the alley cats," came the drawled response. Her heart jumped and her green eyes flew wide.

"So it wasn't a dream?" She questioned, moving back to the fence. The red haired male came around, brown eyes watching her. The blond came around as well, shaking his head.

"You're not so lucky. Or...maybe you're not so unlucky?" The older male flashed a cocky smile at Amelia and her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Jail bait," she said, flicking a strand of her hair out of her face.

"Am not," he responded, looking slightly offended.

"I am," she trilled again, turning away from the fence. "Now if you're all hungry, you're out of luck. Mom will notice if food for five grown men disappears from the pantry. You'll...actually, never mind. I won't suggest that," the female started walking again, heading toward the bench swing.

"And just where do you think you're going? I thought you weren't leaving us out like alley cats, hmm!" Deidara called after her, and she paused for a moment, turning and putting one hand on her hip and lifting an eyebrow.

"I made sure you all survived the night," she blinked innocently. "I don't think I ever said I was going to take care of you," she scoffed, putting her ear buds in her ears and turning on her music. She managed to drown them out until Deidara came stalking up to the swing and stopped it, almost knocking her onto the ground. "Excuse me," she said, looking up at the blond.

"Yeah, excuse you. You're expecting us to fend for ourselves, wherever we are?" Amelia blinked and nodded her head.

"Well, yeah. What else? You're all grown men," she spoke in a lot less 'holier than thou' tone now. It was starting to sink in that this was really happening. These five were here, and she was going to have no choice but to turn them away.

"You could at least tell us where we are," Itachi had slipped around so he was behind her, and Amelia went rigid. It was creepy how he could do that. Not as creepy as Kabuto and his snaky self, but it was still creepy.

"I could. You're in America. North America. In the southern part of the United States. Bible belt, as it's often called. Currently you're in a small backwoods town. I'd advise getting out of here, ditching the cloaks, and hoping li-li..." Deidara had decided to take her literally and had pulled his cloak off when she had said it. Now the girl couldn't keep going, even though he was still wearing his mesh shirt beneath.

"No one wants to see you shirtless, brat," Sasori grumbled.

"Well apparently...just look at her face," Amelia's mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out now.

"I think she's disgusted," Kakuzu said. It appeared that the only two who weren't jumping in were the 'sane' ones: Nagato and Itachi. Amelia's inner fangirl started to work herself up, and the female shut her eyes, counting to ten.

"Please put your cloak back on. You can take it off once you have a real shirt to put on. Hoping like heck you can get a job and money," she bit her lip after she'd said that, eyes still shut.

"So...you want us gone?" Nagato spoke from behind her as well.

"N...no...I need you gone...I can't hide...grown men," she swallowed, heart fluttering slightly, "in my backyard...s...s'wrong on so-oh many levels," she inhaled slowly, catching herself. They weren't real, this was a really twisted, horrible, terrible dream. She put her ear buds back in, telling herself that when she opened her eyes at the end of the song that they'd be gone. Had to be gone.

"Is this a dream, if it is, please don't wake me from this height. I'd become, comfortably numb, until you opened my eyes; to what's it's like, when everything's right, I can't believe: You found me when no one else was looking," she waited until the last note of the song had faded out before opening her eyes. Empty space. She exhaled a breath she hadn't known she was holding and shifted onto her back, looking up through the leaves and branches at the sky.

"It all had to be a dream, and you know it," she mused softly. She flipped to another song, watching the leaves rustle. "Just a horrible, horrible sweet dream..." she paused the song, still looking up at the sky. "But I'm fully awake," she breathed. And then she bolted directly upright. She was fully awake. They were real. And she'd just sent them off. "What have I just unleashed on this town?" She hissed, jumping up from the bench swing and darting toward the road, panic lancing through her heart. She inhaled to yell for one of them only to hear a snort from behind her.

"You think we'd really leave?" She wheeled around and rushed back at the blond, tackling him and locking her arms around his neck.

"I was hoping yes, and then I realized that this isn't a dream. So no. Please don't. It'd be bad. Very bad. And-and-...I don't want to have to explain that stupid star deciding it wanted to grant me a wish now," she was very much aware that the man she had just pounced on was two years older than her and looked like a girl. She was also aware that if her mother came out to get her she'd be dead before she could release the boy. But that was alright. Because she wasn't dreaming.

That was both a relief and a disaster waiting to happen, she would later discover.

A/N: Chapter one! Not nearly as long as that prologue, no? Well I'd sure hope not. That prologue was death on writing.
Word Count: 1179
Time: A little over two hours.