CHAPTER TWO

WHAT DID SHE DO

The explosive's expert cursed, trying to regain his footing on the side of the rocky cliff. He was thrown off balance when the rock he held onto broke off. Pitching backwards, he tumbled down the side of the cliff. Kicking off the rocky surface and while mid-air, he reached back into the bag hooked to his belt, and pulled out a handful of clay. Quickly molding the wad, he shaped it into a bird. Tossing the bird into the air, his hands flashed through a sequence of seals. As the bird enlarged to its desired size, he leapt onto to the clay construct's back.

"You okay," Jade called out to the blond, sliding down the rock wall with practiced ease as landing on a ledge. It would seem all those mountain climbing trips with dear old daddykins, mommy dearest, and the terror twins was actually beneficial in ways other than eroding her sanity. "That was quite the fall."

Deidara didn't respond as he offered a hand to his girlfriend, and hoisted her up to sit behind him atop the large clay bird. His hand instinctively moved to grab hold of hers when she wrapped her arms around his waist.

The last thing he remembered before waking up at the top of that cliff, was... "Ahhg!"

"Calm down," Jade shouted, trying to keep the twenty-one year old man from falling off their ride. She instantly knew what the man had tried to do from her own attempts. "Don't try to think about what happened. It'll only end with you feeling like someone's taking a jackhammer to your skull."

"Good to know," he rasped out through the pain. When he realized he was laying flat on his back, he took Jade's assistance in helping him sit up and moved to retake his seat with the woman following his motions. "Where are the others?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted, resting her head on his shoulder. "When I woke up, I tried using the comm. link, but there wasn't any signal, only static."

"Did you try sensing their chakra?"

"Yeah," Jade sighed, resting her cheek against his shoulder. "I got nothing."

Deidara squeezed her hand in reassurance. Although he still worried for the others, he knew they could all take care of themselves, but he couldn't help but worry about them. Rin and Obito would be fine. Rin could sweet talk her way out of any situation, and Obito was considered to be one of the strongest shinobi alive and an Uchiha. It was Kim who really had him worried. He wasn't really worried about something happening to her, no, he was more worried about her happening to someone.

His cool blue eyes scanned the much too familiar rocky terrain below. It was just like Earth Country. With his heart caught in his throat, he changed his course of direction and headed west.

"What's that place down there," questioned Jade, pointing towards the large stone wall in the distance.

"Iwa," Deidara whispered, guiding the bird to land at the front gate.

"Incoming," Jade whispered in his ear, tightening her hold on the blond's midsection.

Deidara swerved his clay construct to the right, narrowly avoiding getting hit by the shower of quicklime, sending him and his girlfriend tumbling down the road leading to the village gates. Pushing the redhead behind him, he took on a protective stance as he called out, "Kurotsuchi!"

"You know her," Jade asked as she jumped up to her feet and stood behind the man. In any other situation, she would be frustrated at her boyfriend for trying to protect her, but they were in unfamiliar territory and she had to believe the blond knew what he was doing.

"She's the old man's granddaughter," Deidara replied, not taking his eyes off the woman flying in his direction, even as she landed before them.

"Kurotsuchi! We come in peace!" He held his arms up in surrender, a bright smile on his face.

"D-Deidara," Kurotsuchi whispered, recognizing the man from her childhood. The only difference she could see was his shorter hair. The man she remembered always kept his hair long. The man she knew was also gone. As the shock wore off, she narrowed her eyes at the imposter. "Yeah, right. I wasn't born yesterday. Deidara was sent to a different dimension!"

"Yeah, about that... I somehow crossed back over, and now here I am," the blond replied, arms held out wide and welcoming. He should have known it would take more than a 'Hello, I'm back' to make the girl believe he was who he claimed to be.

"What happened to your speech impediment," Kurotsuchi interrogated, pulling out a kunai from the holster on her thigh, and slipping into a defensive stance.

"It was a fucking verbal tic, un," the man raged, a vein throbbing on his forehead.

"Besides it mostly went away after that electro therapy," Jade said helpfully, drawing the other girl's attention to herself.

"And who is she," the Tsuchikage's granddaughter questioned threateningly, eyeing the redheaded woman who stood casually beside the man who claimed to be her childhood friend. Judging by the color of her hair, the woman could be of Uzumaki decent. Her clothes were some of the strangest she had ever seen. The woman wore a black crop top and jean shorts, a dark green button up shirt left unbuttoned and black ankle booties, and a pair of black gloves. Quite the harlot, Kurotsuchi thought in distaste.

"My girlfriend, Jade," Deidara said simply, like it should've been common knowledge.

Well, that certainly threw her for a loop. Everyone had assumed the man to be gay or too in love with his work to ever find someone.

"What's going on out here," the Tsuchikage asked, landing beside his granddaughter.

"Old man, long time no see," Deidara greeted when the man's eyes landed on his.

"You little-" That was as far as the Tsuchikage got before he took to the sky and began his assault on his former disciple.

"Should we stop them," Jade asked the woman standing beside her. Her only response was a nasty glare. Okay, then. She really hoped the others were having an easier time, and if they weren't, Kim, please don't do anything stupid!

"Bleh!" Rin gagged, the taste of mud, she hoped it was mud, not suiting her palette. Her stomach lurched with the horrid taste, making her want to hurl, and the putrid smell only serving to make it worse. Not to mention, she was covered head to toe in the stuff.

She carefully and slowly trudged through the muddy waters, not wanting to slip and fall in again. It would seem she had landed herself in a marsh. Reaching out for the lowest branch of the nearest tree, she hoisted herself up and out of the dirty water, trying her best to fight back a cry of pain as she did so. Once back on land, she leaned heavily against the trunk of the tree as she struggled to breathe. Shutting her eyes, she did the best she could to remove most of the gunk on her face.

Where am I? Where are the others? What happened to Antarctica, she thought, placing a chakra coated hand over her rib cage to access her injuries. Luckily she didn't have any broken ribs, they were just bruised and sore. Taking a deep breath, she allowed her senses to broaden in search of any nearby chakra signatures. Finding none, her body to slump against the tree trunk in exhaustion. She then tried her comm. link, but all she got was static.

Although she didn't find and chakra signatures around, but she was able to sense the chakra of nature. She could feel it in the trees and in the air. The entire area was permeated with natural energy in a way only the Elemental Nations could be. Had she somehow returned home? At what point in time did she returned to? Did she return back to the time in which she had left? Was she going to be stuck with teenaged-virgin version of her husband?

"Hey," a soothing voice called out to her, making her jump in fright and instinctively launch a barrage of kunai in its direction. Turning around, to face the man she was met with the sight of her husband... her adult husband. Obito held his hands up in a placating gesture, as he joked with a laugh, "I mean you no harm."

"I'm so sorry," Rin cried out. The woman struggled to her feet and launched herself at the man, wrapping her arms around his waist. Pushing him back, she stared at him in confusion. "I didn't sense any chakra signatures around." He allowed the three tomoe of his Sharingan to spin lazily in answer to her question of how he had gotten there: Kamui. "Okay... but how did you know where to find me?"

"Your tracking bracelet." He held up her wrist where the small black cord was. They silently stared at the little silver device with the blinking red light, remembering how Kim and Deidara had been working on them and had given it to her to test. At the time, they would get annoyed with the two randomly showing up wherever they were, now they were grateful for the little device.

Speaking of, "You don't think Kim had something to do with this?" She didn't like putting the blame on the other girl, but even she had to admit the girl did make it a habit of finding trouble, albeit unintentionally.

The Uchiha rubbed the back of his neck. "It's possible but since we can't remember anything, it's hard to say."

"What do you suggest we do now," Rin asked. It was starting to get dark out and she could already feel the night chill creep up her spine, only made worse by the fact that she had recently taken a plunge into the muddy waters. "Where are we?"

Obito gave her a tight smile. "We've somehow managed to cross back over to the Elemental Nations." From the look on his wife's face, he knew he had just confirmed her suspicions. Where exactly they were in the Elemental Nations, he wasn't quite sure. Even before he crossed dimensions he didn't make it a habit to visit marshes.

"So, you can teleport us out of here and back to Konoha!" Rin's eyes had lit up like the Christmas tree Deidara and Kim insisted on having, at the prospect of returning home at long last.

"I can't my chakra levels are too low," he said, feeling something inside him break at the sight of his love's downcast eyes. "The most I can do right now, is probably get us both into the sub-dimension."

"Okay." Rin nodded in understanding. "Maybe we could make camp-"

"In a marsh?"

"Or we could look for a village with an inn to stay the night at."

"Preferably one with an onsen because, no offense," he playfully sniffed the air around her, "you stink."

"Don't be mean," Rin whined, with a pout.

"Really bad. Peel your paint bad." With that he took off in a sprint.

"Obito!"

Glaring up at the sky through the canopy of the trees, Kim knew they had fucked up. Even though she couldn't remember anything past arriving in Antarctica, she knew that the blame would wind up being placed solely on her. In the meantime, while she tried to remember what went wrong, she would continue to lay in the soft grass as the sun warmed her body. Penguins were cute, but she grew up in Southern Texas and she couldn't stand to be out in the cold for too long.

She mentally cursed her luck when she heard the sound of the leaves rustling. There was no breeze, therefore the trees should be still and silent. Sitting up, she crossed her legs like she had done in elementary school and placed her hands on her knees while sitting up straight.

Soon after she sat up, threes figures appeared before her. To the right was a boy wearing a green body suit with orange leg warmers and bandaged hands. He sported a what could only be described a bowl-cut hairstyle and had the thickest eyebrows she had ever seen. To the left stood a girl sporting a long-sleeved, high-collared white blouse with maroon edges, puffy maroon hakama-styled pants, and black fingerless gloves. The girl wore her hair in a way that reminded Kim of how she used to wear her own hair as a child in two buns. The boy standing in the center reminded her of Hinata with his pale lavender eyes and his long soft-looking hair made her jealous. He wore a white kimono-shirt with long, loose sleeves and matching pants along with a gray apron tired around his waist.

She instantly knew who the trio were just by looking at them. Naruto and Sakura had a lot to say about their friends in Konoha. Konoha. Her heart began to race when she realized where she was.

Should she be the first to speak or should she wait on them? Should she tell them who she was or that she knew who they were? Would that set then on edge? What story had the others spun to explain her father? Dad! She would get to see him again.

Her head snapped back to the girl on the left when she moved to take a step forward.

"Ah... uh... we mean you no harm," the girl, Tenten, explained as she took a step back at Kim's intense gaze.

"Tenten is correct," the unmistakable Rock Lee stated, standing up straight. "We were the team chosen to investigate."

Kim tilted her head to the side, a clear sign of confusion. Had she done something wrong? She only remembered waking up on the forest floor about an hour ago.

"What Lee means to say is, there was a sudden surge of chakra in the area," Neji resolved, "and we were sent out to find the source."

How could she forget, whenever some one crossed over to her home dimension there was always a sign. Surely that must be then case when she hopped dimensions. Curiouser and curiouser.

Tenten swallowed her nervousness and once again stepped forward. "If you could just come back to the village with us, I'm sure we could have all this resolved and put behind us in no time."

"All right sounds like a plan," Kim chirped, shocking them with her surprisingly kind voice as she sprung up to her feet. Rocking in her heels, she said, "Lead the way."