Chapter Two:
Confusing What Is Real
It was over an hour after her unfortunate encounter with Itachi and Kisame when Erin finally stumbled upon signs of civilization. The exhausted teenager stared at the town in front of her in shock; she had never seen anything like this before in the area around her college.
"What the hell?" she murmured, her hazel eyes side as she stared incredulously at the town. Actually, it wasn't so much as the town that shocked her as it was the several hundred foot high wall that surrounded it.
"Okay, this is now officially weird," the teen grumbled as she took off her baseball cap and ran a hand through her tawny-colored hair. "I mean, is this some kind of tourist trap or something?"
'Or maybe it has something to do with those two whack jobs back in the woods,' a little voice in the back of her mind nagged. Erin frowned as she shoved the thought out of her mind; she still wasn't quite sure what the hell had happened back there, and she wasn't too keen on finding out either.
'For all I know, those two could've been mass murders or something,' she reasoned with a slight shrug. 'Then again, they could've been a couple of frat boys who like scaring the shit out of freshmen just for fun.'
The idea just seemed so ridiculous that Erin couldn't even believe that she had thought of it.
"Yeah right," the nineteen-year old muttered out loud as she made a harsh scoffing noise in the back of her throat. She looked back over at the town again before she finally made up her mind.
"You know what? Screw it. This place can't be any worse than here, and at least there are probably other people there too," she reasoned. "I can find out where the hell I am and get directions back to the dorms. Once I've done that, then I can go back and just sleep."
Nodding in satisfaction at her simple and to the point plan, Erin took a step forward, forgetting that she had been standing on a hill with a steep incline. The teenager's eyes widened at the sudden realization of what was going to happen just as her foot came down on nothing but air, and she was promptly sent tumbling head over heels down the steep slope.
A plethora of colorful and highly inappropriate phrases were launched out of the nineteen-year old's mouth as she tumbled over rocks, tree roots, and at one point, even going through a thorn bush. By the time that Erin finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, she was covered in scratches, and her entire body was sore.
"Damn it," she hissed as she slowly got to her feet, grabbing her 'FBI' cap from where it had fallen off her head a few feet away. "That's what I get for being such a klutz."
The teenager winced as she slowly dusted herself off, getting rid of the worst of the dirt and plant matter that clung to her. She was definitely going to be feeling those bruises in a few hours. Erin flinched as a loud crack of thunder sounded behind her, and she glanced up at the heavy gray clouds that hung overhead.
"Great, more rain," she muttered darkly, her expression slightly wane. She didn't know how long she had been out in the woods, but she could already feel that the Motrin that she had taken earlier was beginning to fade. With a sigh, the nineteen-year old adjusted the straps on her backpack before she set off in the direction of the dirt path she had caught sight off when she had been at the top of the hill.
It took a few minutes, but the teenager was finally able to push her way through the thick undergrowth with a minimal amount of cursing. Erin scowled yet again as she looked at the dirt road for several moments before she shrugged and set off towards the town that she had spotted earlier, although it was now mostly hidden from view by the massive trees that towered over her. The nineteen-year old let out a low whistle of awe at the sheer size of the foliage surrounding her. She had never seen anything like this before.
Just before she rounded a curve in the path, Erin tripped over a protruding rock and promptly fell flat on her face with a loud curse. The girl gave a low growl as she pushed herself up out of the dirt, her expression one of absolute fury; she seemed to be falling on her face a lot today, and she was getting sick of it.
Suddenly, there was a brief flicker of movement off to her left that Erin caught out of the corner of her eye, before she froze. The nineteen-year old felt a cold shiver of fear go down her spine as she swallowed nervously, the skin of her throat just barely touching against the frigid steel of the knife blade that was currently held up against her throat by a strange-looking man.
"Shit," she whispered hoarsely, her eyes wide in fear. And just when she thought that she had ditched her last attackers.
"I wouldn't move if I were you," the man advised in a no-nonsense tone. "My hand just might… slip… if you do."
It was all Erin could do not to lose any and all self-control that she still had at the moment as she made a small noise indicating that she understood. The man gave a snort just as another man came running up the dirt path, presumably the first man's partner.
"Shiro, what the hell are you doing?!" the older man yelped, his dark eyes narrowed as he ran up to 'Shiro' and the thoroughly terrified teenager that he was currently restraining.
"I'm capturing a spy that might possibly be here to-"
Shiro was cut off in mid-statement as the other man immediately smacked him upside the head before he pushed him away from Erin.
"No, idiot! What you're currently doing is scaring the hell out of one of the Academy students!!" the black-haired man growled angrily as he pulled the girl to her feet. "Iruka will have my hide if he finds out that some wet-behind-the-ears Chuunin under my command attacked one of his precious students!!"
Erin had absolutely no idea who the hell Iruka was, but she was immensely grateful to him at that moment. If these two guys thought that she was from the Academy that the one currently defending her had mentioned, well… she definitely wasn't about to correct them. Especially since it had just saved her from having her throat slit. Shiro looked properly chastised as he nervously rubbed the back of his head where he had been hit.
"My apologies, Hajime-san. I guess I overreacted a little…" Shiro admitted reluctantly as he stood up. Hajime gave the younger man a piercing glare before he redirected his attention to Erin, who was currently trembling like a leaf in his grasp. The older man shot Shiro a look that plainly said 'see what you did?' as he tried to calm the nineteen-year old down.
"Forgive my subordinate, he's still a little new to guard duty," he said in a noticeably calmer tone, giving Erin a reassuring smile. "Just last week he threw some kunai at a rabbit thinking it was an enemy."
Erin gave a weak grin at this statement, relaxing just a little. Hajime noticed this, and placed what he hoped would be a comforting hand on the teenager's shoulder as he gently guided her down the path.
"So, what is a girl your age doing outside the village walls without your team?" he queried. "I thought that you were an Academy student at first, but you look like you're about thirteen, so that would make you a Gennin."
Erin twitched slightly at the 'thirteen' remark, but managed to keep her temper under control. She hated it when people thought that she was younger than she really was, especially when they assumed that she was in junior high when she was really in college. If she had to take a guess, she would have to say that it had something to do with the fact that she had a 'youthful face', at least according to Jess. But that still didn't stop her from getting pissed off when some idiot asked her if she was lost while on campus.
The teen frowned slightly as she stared at the path ahead of her. She had absolutely no idea what a 'Gennin' was though, so she just made up an excuse that she hoped wouldn't get her into too much trouble.
"I… I hopped the wall on a bet," she finally said, hesitating as though she were afraid of the scolding she thought she was about to get. Hajime let out a sigh and rolled his eyes as they finally came to the main gates that Erin had spotted from the hilltop earlier, patting the nineteen-year old on the back.
The teenager winced when she caught sight of the wall that surrounded the area, silently cursing herself for saying that she had hopped the wall. It was well over a hundred feet in height, with nothing but a steep drop. There was no way in hell that Hajime was going to by her bullshit story about jumping the wall on a bet!!
To her immense surprise, the older man said nothing about her (to her) blatantly obvious lie.
"Well, just don't do something like that again, okay?" the black-haired man stated as he resumed his post by the open gate doors. "You could get into serious trouble next time."
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Erin muttered faintly as she stared at the entrance before Hajime motioned her inside the gates. If the man wasn't going to call her up on the carpet for making up that bullshit excuse, she sure as heck wasn't going to say anything about it.
"You'd better get back inside before your sensei or teammates spot you," he warned. The nineteen-year old gave him a smile of thanks as she walked through the gates, pointedly ignoring the irritated look that Shiro shot in her direction.
Erin waited until she had wandered a few blocks away from the massive gates before she broke into a trot as a steady drizzle started up once again.
--
"Okay, it is now official. I hate rain," Erin grumbled darkly as she trudged through the damp streets of the town that she had entered, her baseball cap pulled down low over her face to help protect her from the rain that was now pouring down out of the sky in buckets.
She had been wandering about aimlessly for about half an hour, and attracting strange looks from passers-by the entire time. Apparently, judging from what everyone else was wearing, her clothes were far from normal. A good two-thirds of the girls and women that she had seen were wearing kimonos, and those that weren't wearing kimonos were garbed in some form of tight shorts and top with a pouch strapped around their thigh.
'What the hell is this place?' the nineteen-year old wondered as she paused at a shop window to try and read a sign, only to find that it was written in what looked to her like Chinese. 'I mean, I can't even read the damn street signs! How they hell do they expect someone to finds their way about this bloody place if they write everything in Chi-fricken-nese?! It might even be Japanese for all I know!!'
"This sucks," Erin growled angrily as she tried to calm down, knowing that losing her temper wouldn't help her in the least. She was cold, wet, tired, hungry, and irritated, and she was almost positive of the fact that she was getting sick because she kept having dizzy spells every few minutes.
'Stupid finals, stupid essay, stupid rain,' the teenager growled mentally as she continued her way down the street, her mood darkening by the minute. 'Stupid psychotic freaks who try to kill you as soon as look at you, stupid seniors, stupid frat boys…'
Erin was snapped out of her internal threats as a tantalizing smell wafted towards her, and at the exact same moment her stomach gave a loud growl. The nineteen-year old turned an interesting shade of red as she glanced down at her stomach and gave an embarrassed laugh.
"I should probably get something to eat before I do anything else," she realized as she turned around and followed the smell of whatever it was. She'd probably feel a lot better once she had something to eat. Whatever was producing the tantalizing odor that she was currently following smelled heavenly, and Erin felt herself begin to drool at the thought of lunch.
The teenager immediately straightened up as she forced herself to stop thinking about food, instead following the smell all the way to a sit-down vendor of some kind. Erin slowly walked under the foldable overhang and took a seat at one of the stools by the countertop, looking around her with obvious interest.
There was already another man sitting there, clearly enjoying his food as he used chopsticks to slurp up a long trail of noodles from his bowl filled with some kind of broth. He had longish messy dark brown hair held up in a high ponytail and a thin scar across the bridge of his nose, and was wearing a green vest with a black turtleneck and pants. Erin judged that he probably wasn't too much older than her, since he looked like he was in about his early twenties.
"Can I help you?" a cheerful voice suddenly chirped from behind Erin, and the teen almost shot about a foot in the air from fright before she turned around to see a woman in her early to mid-twenties standing behind the counter with a bright smile on her face.
"Umm… yeah, I'd like some lunch," Erin stammered nervously before mentally smacking herself upside the head at her own stupidity. She needed to be specific, not have the woman think that she was a headcase!
"Is this your first time here at the Ichiraku ramen shop, hon?" the brown-haired woman asked kindly, and Erin forced herself not to make some smart-ass comment about how she was nineteen. Taking off other people's heads just because she wasn't feeling too hot wasn't nice, and besides, this woman didn't know how crappy her day had been.
"Yeah," she admitted before she realized that she actually knew what ramen was. "I'd like a beef ramen then."
"Coming right up."
The nineteen-year old waited until the waitress had her attention focused on the stove in the back of the stand before she shook her head and gave a wry chuckle. How could she have not known what ramen was? It was practically Jess's food of choice, and the best friend to starving college students everywhere!
"So, this is your first time here, huh?" the man sitting next to her said suddenly, and Erin looked over at him curiously.
"Yeah…"
"Sorry, that's just kind of surprising to me. Most kids your age have eaten here at least once, and I know someone who comes here pretty much every day," the man commented as he peered closely at her. "Are you new around here? I thought that I knew all the kids that have gone through the Academy, but I don't recognize you."
Erin froze at this statement, her eyes widening slightly, just as the waitress came up and set her order of ramen in front of her.
"Here you go," she said cheerfully before handing the teenager a small slip of paper. "Your total comes to four hundred yen."
"I'm just passing through," Erin remarked to the man as she took the small slip of paper and examined it.
The nineteen-year old's eye twitched slightly at the figure as she reached for her wallet, pulling it out of her jeans pocket and opening it up. She knew she had a couple twenties in there… wait a second, wasn't yen some kind of Asian currency?
Erin gave a mental shrug as she pulled out what should have been a ten dollar bill, only to stare at it in surprise when she realized that it had changed into some odd-colored bill with the amount '1000' printed on it, as well as a funny-looking 'Y' symbol next to it. The teenager stared at it for a few second before she handed it to the woman, who thanked her and gave her six hundred yen as her change.
'Okay, I am now officially freaked out here,' the girl thought shakily as she put her change into the coin pouch on her wallet. 'How the heck can over sixty American dollars just magically change into some kind of foreign currency?! When I get back to the dorms, I'm going to see about getting a psych evaluation! This is nuts!'
The teenager reached over to snag a pair of chopsticks from the container on the counter, pulling them out of the paper slip that covered them and pulled them apart with a snap. After rubbing them against each other for a little bit to remove any potential splinters, Erin silently brought them together in her right hand and used the pieces of wood to snag a slice of beef sitting on top of the noodles. She had just put the meat in her mouth when the man sitting next to her spoke to her again.
"So, where are you from then? I don't think that I've ever seen a kunoichi wear clothing like yours before," the brown-haired man remarked. Erin glanced over at him as she finished chewing the beef before she swallowed, her brow slightly furrowed in confusion. There was that word 'kunoichi' again.
"I'm from Portland. I'm going to school at the university there right now, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not a kunoichi, whatever that is," she stated as she used her chopsticks to grab some ramen noodles, not noticing the man's confused look, as well as the slight frown that crossed his face.
"Port… land? Where is that? Is it in the Land of Waves?" the man queried. This time, it was Erin's turn to arch an eyebrow as she gave the man a disbelieving look.
"No, it's in Oregon," she pointed out before she returned her attention to her food. "And like I said earlier, I'm a student at the university there."
The man just stared at her for several seconds, watching the teenager slurp down ramen, before he said anything.
"So, you're a student then?"
"Yeah."
"That's interesting, seeing as I'm one of the instructors over at the Academy here," the man commented. "My name is Iruka Umino by the way."
So this was the guy that the guards at the gate had been talking about. Erin's eyebrows arched all the way up into her hairline as she stared at the man before she realized that the poor guy's parents had probably had a sick sense of humor. And she thought that she had been teased for her name.
"Nice to meet you. My name's Erin Cody."
Iruka gave her an odd look as he finished up the last of his ramen. "Er…rin? That's an odd name. And your surname is… unique."
"Hey, it's not my fault that the immigration officer on duty couldn't spell my dad's last name worth crap when he came to here from Ireland over twenty years ago," the nineteen-year old grumbled as she sucked up some more noodles. "Stupid bastard. Anyway, my dad said that the idiot got so frustrated with trying to spell his name that he just wrote down 'Cody' and told my dad that was his new last name."
"That's an interesting story," Iruka remarked. "So your father… came from another country?"
"Yeah, Ireland. My mom's an American citizen, born and raised, so she didn't have to worry about any of the name-mix-up crap that my dad had to deal with."
Iruka stared at the teenager sitting next to him in interest, thoughts whirling through his mind at a million miles an hour. These places that this girl had mentioned… he had never heard of them before, and she was obviously a foreigner. It was possible that she was a latecomer for the Chuunin exam, but somehow he doubted it.
The Hokage needed to be alerted of this fact immediately.
--
Little did Iruka know that the conversation, as well as Erin's impromptu arrival in the forest and her encounter with Itachi, had all been observed by the Third Hokage in his crystal ball. The elderly man stared into the clear orb at the events taking place before he made his decision; there was something odd about this girl, and possibly even dangerous. Action needed to be taken immediately.
The Hokage directed his gaze to the Anbu guard standing by the window before he issued his orders.
"I want you to alert all Jounin not involved with the Chuunin exam that we have a possible spy here in the village, and that she needs to be retrieved and brought back to me. The target is a strangely-dressed girl in her early teens, and she's currently at the Ichiraku Ramen Shop. There's a good possibility that she has no idea as to what's going on, so try not to scare her too badly."
The masked Anbu ninja gave a curt nod as he disappeared out the open window, and the Third let out a weary sigh as he returned his attention the crystal ball on his desk to watch the events that were about to take place unfold.
--
"Oh, Iruka, do you know where I could get a map of the area or something?" Erin asked the older man as she swallowed the last of her noodles. Iruka cast a suspicious look in the teenager's direction, a dark eyebrow arching up in surprise at the girl's request.
"Why do you need a map?" he asked. Erin gave him a look that plainly said 'you honestly can't be that stupid' as she fiddled with a stray piece of carrot floating about in her broth that she hadn't eaten yet.
"'Cause some morons at my school thought that they'd get a kick out of leaving me out in the middle of the woods after I blacked out after finishing one of my final exams, and I really want to get back to my dorm before nightfall so my roommate doesn't have a heart attack," she replied darkly as she glared at the hapless soup broth in front of her. Iruka stared at her in shock, his jaw dropping as he gaped open-mouthed at the nineteen-year old.
"You blacked out?" he asked incredulously, causing Erin to roll her eyes as she looked over at him.
"Didn't I just say that?"
"Well, yes… but how do you know that someone did that to you?"
"How else would I wake up in the middle of the woods when I know that I passed out at my school?" the teenager retorted before she set her chopsticks down and crossed her arms over her chest, her expression darkening. "When I get my hands on those jackasses, they are going to be in a world of hurt."
"Hmm… that could be interesting to see," a strange voice remarked suddenly behind her, and Erin whirled around to see a strange man wearing the same outfit that Iruka had on standing behind her, as well as a headband with a metal plate sewn onto it. A smoldering cigarette poked out of the corner of his mouth as he stared down at her, and the teen felt a cold trail of fear go down her spine as her eyes landed upon the insignia etched onto the metal.
It was the same one that she had seen on Itachi's headband earlier when he had slammed her up against a tree.
'Oh shit.'
Erin's reaction was instantaneous. She promptly knocked her bowl of still-hot ramen broth into the man's face, (actually, to be more precise, she threw it), and bolted out of her seat, snagging her backpack by one of its straps as she dashed out into the rain that was now pouring down outside.
The nineteen-year old made it approximately ten steps away from the ramen shop before she ran face-first into the chest another person, this one a lanky man with long silver hair that somehow managed to defy gravity. He was also wearing the same black shirt/pants and green vest combination that Iruka and the other man had on, and his headband was pulled down over his left eye, not to mention the fact that he was wearing a mask that covered the entire lower portion of his face. His hand immediately snapped out and encircled her wrist, effectively restraining the now-frightened teenager.
"Now now, that wasn't very nice," he drawled as Erin tried to yank her hand out of his grasp. "We just want to talk to you."
"Let me go!!" the teen snarled as she lashed out and kicked the man in the shin. His visible eye widened slightly, but other than that, her attack had no affect on him.
"Kakashi, hold onto that little hellion!" the man that Erin had thrown her ramen at hollered as he wiped the last of the hot liquid from his eyes and spat out his now-soggy, beef ramen-flavored cigarette. "The Hokage won't be too happy if we lose her!"
At the mention of the fact that someone else had ordered her capture, a low cry of fear emerged from the girl's throat as she frantically raised her free hand up and swiped at 'Kakashi's' face, fully intending on scratching him with her nails. The man's eye widened in surprise as he immediately let go of the nineteen-year old's wrist and dodged the blow. Erin didn't pay any attention as to how he had managed this as she spun around and bolted off down a nearby alley, her mind more focused on fleeing than thinking.
She didn't notice the small photograph that fell out of her jacket pocket as she ran off, nor did she see the silver-haired man stoop down and pick it up, his eye narrowing slightly as he examined the image closely.
--
Erin growled out a long and detailed stream of expletives as she ran as fast as she could through the mud-slicked streets and winding alleys of the town that she was in, desperately trying to avoid all of the people currently pursuing her. It seemed like every time she turned a corner, there were another three people trying to catch her.
'I need to get out of here!' she realized as she slid around yet another corner within the endless maze of alleyways.
The teenager cursed as she slipped and fell down flat on her face, landing right in the mud. A low sound of aggravation echoed from within her throat as she pushed herself to her feet and took off yet again, determined not to let all of the adults chasing her capture her. She wasn't about to go down without a fight!
Several kunai imbedded themselves in the mud right in front of her, and Erin yelped out yet another profanity as she barely managed to dodge the spot. Someone gave a shout of irritation as whatever trap they had set went off on the people behind Erin, and the fleeing teenager managed a wry grin as she left some of her pursuers behind.
Unfortunately, she still had countless more after her.
"This… has to be… a dream!" the nineteen-year old gasped out as she chanced a glance behind her to see how many people were still following her. "This can't be ha-AHHH!!"
Erin let out a startled yell as she tripped over someone's foot that they had stuck out from behind the corner of a wall, and she promptly fell flat onto her face for the umpteenth time that day, her baseball cap tumbling off her head and landing in the mud in front of her.
"I'm not quite sure what you're running from, but it'll be easier on all of us if you just give it a rest already," a familiar voice remarked lazily, and the girl looked behind her to see the same silver-haired man that she had kicked earlier leaning up against the wall with his foot still extended.
Erin immediately scrabbled backwards, trying to remove herself away from the man as far as possible, her hazel-green eyes wide in fear and her cap completely forgotten.
"What do you want with me?!" she demanded anxiously as she groped behind her furiously for a wall of any kind, praying that she'd be able to disappear down a corner before the man tried to go after her. "I didn't do anything, so why are you after me?!"
The silver-haired Jounin stared at her silently, and the teenager could almost see the frown on his face beneath his concealing mask. The second she tried to scoot to the side and stand up, the man's dark eye immediately snapped over to her, the half-lidded orb somehow managing to look both lazy and serious at the same time.
"Who are you?" he stated simply, shooting the teenager a look that said plainly that he wasn't going to accept any answers other than the one he wanted. Erin shivered slightly at the hidden intensity; it was completely unlike anything she had ever encountered before. He seemed almost… angry.
And here she had thought that things couldn't get any worse. Now apparently her very existence offended the man in front of her, and he belonged with the rest of the people currently out after her blood that all seemed to have a perverse love of throwing sharp pointy objects at unknowing college students.
The teenager scooted backwards a few more inches in an attempt to keep as much distance between her and the older man as possible before her back collided with a wall, and she realized that she was trapped. The closest corner to the next alleyway was at least three feet away from her, and she could hear some of the other people who had been chasing her get closer. If she didn't do something, and fast, she'd be captured within the next minute. Unless…
Making a split-second decision, Erin suddenly scooped up a massive handful of the muck around her and flung it at the lanky ninja before she scrambled to her feet, not even stopping to see if she had managed to hit him in the face like she had been hoping to as she booked it out of there, running as though the hounds of Hell were right on her heels. Unfortunately for her, the silver-haired man didn't even blink as he simply stepped out of the way to avoid the sludge pitched at him, and arched a silvery eyebrow at the teenager's fleeing back.
"Hmm… interesting," he mused quietly as he stooped down to pick up the girl's dropped FBI cap, looking the soaked and muddy object over speculatively for a few seconds before he pulled out a kunai and nicked his thumb.
--
By the time that Erin finally made it out of the village, with several shallow cuts on her face and hands from barely avoided kunai, as well as the severe misfortune of being smeared liberally from head to toe with mud, it was almost nightfall, and the rain still hadn't let up. The nineteen-year old growled several highly inappropriate phrases under her breath as she made her way through the thick undergrowth in the forest.
"I can't believe that I'm back here," the teenager muttered darkly as she cast a glance over her shoulder to make sure that no one was following her. "But given the choice between two people who want to kill me out in the woods, and an entire village of people who are after me, I think that I'd rather take the woods any day."
Erin scowled as she pushed aside a thorn bush from her path, and then cursed when she let go of the plant and it whipped backwards, catching her in the face.
"Son of a-!" the nineteen-year old began, only to cut herself off in mid-profanity as she bit down on her lip. She really didn't want to advertise to everyone out there where she was, no matter how upset she was. It seemed to be roughly along the lines of mooning the SWAT team and then expecting to not get shot.
Both ideas seemed just as suicidal, although pissing off the SWAT team seemed a whole lot less dangerous. At least SWAT couldn't disappear in a puff of smoke.
"I hate this place!" she hissed instead, wincing as she gently felt the lovely set of scratches that she had just acquired. "I swear to God that I'll never come back here again, ever!!"
Erin grumbled a few choice words under her breath as she pushed forward, her hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets as she trembled slightly from a combination of prolonged exposure to the elements and exhaustion. At one point, a branch snapped somewhere off to her left, causing the teen to jump about a mile high before she realized that it was nothing more than a weird-looking raccoon.
The nineteen-year old pushed herself onward for a few more minutes before she finally decided to take a short break, and took shelter underneath the spreading branches of a huge tree. Shivering slightly for reasons unknown to her, Erin huddled up against the base of the tree among its spreading roots, setting her backpack down besides her.
"D-damn it, I have no fucking idea where I am anymore…" she chattered as she curled up into a ball, hugging her legs close to her body for more warmth. "Hell, I don't even think that I'm still in Oregon anymore, much less the United States. Where am I, and what's going on?"
The teenager was somewhere between terrified out of her mind, and mad. One part of her wanted to burst into tears at the apparent insanity of the situation and curl up in a little ball, praying that she'd wake up soon, while the other part wanted to punch something and spout off every obscenity that possibly came to mind. Unfortunately neither of these options would be much help to her, and the fact that she was dead tired and soaking wet didn't help her much in the way of coherent thoughts either.
"I hate this place," the nineteen-year old muttered defiantly, as though voicing her thoughts would somehow make the dreary landscape around her less real. "Once I get out of here, the first thing I'm gonna do is take a long hot shower, and then I'm gonna sleep through the entire weekend. Well, maybe I'll get up to eat something every now and then… maybe I can bug Jess into making some sausage and white bean soup."
Erin let out a long sigh as she reached up and ran a hand through her soaked bangs, trying to unplaster them from her face. A wane smile crossed her face as she pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and rested her chin on her knees.
"Heh, I probably sound like such a little kid right now," she mumbled as she stared out into the darkness around her. "But… all I really want to do is go home. I don't care if I wake up in the dorm or in my room at home… I just want to be anywhere but here…"
Erin stayed in this position for several minutes, staring unseeingly out into the darkness surrounding her as she tried to figure out a way to get out of the colossal mess that she had somehow landed in. A small frown crossed her face as she started to get dizzy again, and it suddenly seemed as though the temperature around her dropped by several degrees.
"Fuck, not again," she growled as she reached up and ran a hand through her long bangs, blinking several times in rapid succession in an attempt to clear her vision. When that didn't work, the teenager silently tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ears as she shifted about in her seat and waited for her vision to clear.
The nineteen-year old muttered several profanities that would have made her mother go ballistic as the dizzy spell finally went away, and she promptly reached inside her backpack to grab the Motrin bottle, and her bottle of water. Popping two tablets into her mouth and following them with a large mouthful of water, Erin capped both containers and returned them to her backpack.
A frown crossed her face as she forced herself to get to her feet, a weary groan unintentionally escaping from her lips as she slung her mud-spattered backpack back over her shoulders.
"I need to keep moving; otherwise those people from that town might catch up with me."
Automatically Erin reached up to adjust her hat, only to realize that she had never picked it back up after that silver-haired ninja had tripped her. The teenager's right eye suddenly developed a nervous twitch as she clenched and unclenched her hands angrily, biting down on her lower lip firmly in an attempt to keep from filling the air around her with ear-scorching curses. Finally, she managed calm down enough that she was only able to grit out her displeasure.
"Damn it, that was my favorite hat," she hissed angrily before she let out a frustrated sigh. "Wonderful. Now I have nothing to cover my head."
The nineteen-year old resisted the temptation to go off on another cussing tangent as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, silently reasoning that losing her temper wouldn't help things in the least. Once she felt reasonably calm, she adjusted the position of her backpack and headed off in the direction she knew was opposite of the village she had just come from.
Erin opted to just walk at a steady pace so she wouldn't wear herself out any more than she already had. Unfortunately, after half an hour of trudging through a seemingly endless expanse of forest, and pouring rain, she was flat-out exhausted. Being sick as a dog and steadily feeling worse the further she went didn't help matters much either.
With a weary groan, the teenager shed her backpack and tossed it under the biggest tree she could find before she flopped down next to it, ignoring the stray drops of water that fell down on her through the thick canopy of leaves.
"I'm so tired," she whispered as she leaned up against the massive trunk behind her and allowed her eyes to slowly slid shut. "I'll just close my eyes… for a few minutes. I'll feel better when I wake up…"
The nineteen-year old was somewhere between being out cold and fairly awake when she felt something warm and wet sniff her hand. She groaned and shoved whatever it was away from her before she shifted in her spot, turning her face away from the wet-nosed menace. Unfortunately, less than ten seconds later the wet-nosed something moved over to where her face was and proceeded to start licking her face.
Erin gasped as she instinctively jerked away from the thing that had decided to give her face a bath and found herself staring wide-eyed at a dog at least as big as Cuchulainn. The thing looked like it had some Collie in it, if the orange and white fur and triangular ears that flopped slightly at the tips were anything to go by. The teenager blinked as she regarded the massive canine in front of her in bemusement, before the soaking wet menace let out a happy bark and shoved its head in her face, wagging its tail like mad as it eagerly licked her face.
Sputtering weakly as she shoved the animal away from her, the nineteen-year old scrubbed her arm across her face to remove any traces of slobber before she looked back up at the obviously friendly dog. He had a length of blue fabric tied around his neck as an obvious makeshift collar, and was also wearing some sort of blue vest, probably one of the ones that anyone could get at PetSmart and put on their poor dog. Erin had always figured that dogs didn't need clothes if they had fur, and some of those sweaters that other people put on their pets just screamed 'kill me now, I'm not even a dog any more', but the one this dog was wearing seemed to be okay for him.
"Hey there boyo. What are you doing out here?" the girl chuckled wearily as she held out her hand for the animal to sniff, and almost immediately had the canine's furry head shoved under her hand in an obvious demand for her to pet it. "You're a bossy one, aren't you?"
The massive dog let out a low, rumbling 'woof' in reply, and Erin couldn't help but smile as she began to obligingly scratch his ears, causing one of his back legs to motor away.
"Heh, you're just like my dog," the nineteen-year old muttered as she leaned back up against the tree, a small smile creeping across her face as the dog padded up next to her and flopped down, resting his head directly on her lap. The teenager let out a sigh of relief as she gently allowed her right hand to rest on the dog's back, savoring the warmth that came from the animal's body.
"Man, I'm so tired…" she whispered as she allowed her eyes to slide shut, exhaustion sweeping over her like a blanket. "I'll just go to sleep for a few minutes… I won't be so tired then…"
Within a minute of her closing her eyes, Erin was sound asleep.
The dog lay next to the girl, his brown eyes focused on the darkness surrounding them as his ears twitched slightly whenever a sound that he didn't recognize came from within the immediate area. The mixed breed let out a slow sigh as he kept a wary eye on the surrounding area, looking to all the world as though he were about to fall asleep as well.
The two stayed this way for over an hour before the orange and white dog got up and yawned, stretching out to his full length, before he gently nosed Erin on the cheek. The teenager merely curled up a little more in response, but other than that, did not move.
If a dog could have frowned, the dog would have as he regarded the still-sleeping girl intently. Making a low sound of annoyance in the back of his throat, the mixed breed stuck his nose into the crook of the nineteen-year old's neck, which made her give a low groan, but still didn't elicit any other form of acknowledgement from the teen.
It was about then that the dog noticed that Erin was trembling as she curled up into an even tighter ball, her breath coming in short, shaky gasps. A look of worry crossed the animal's face as he gently nudged the teenager once again and let out a low whine, but he still got no response.
Heaving an annoyed sigh, the dog sat back on his haunches and let out a long, throaty howl. Within moments an answering howl came back, and the orange and white-furred dog settled back down next to the unresponsive teenager to wait for the arrival of the others.
Not even a minute later, Kakashi landed a few feet away from the unconscious teen and his ninken, followed by the rest of his tracking dogs that he had summoned.
The Jounin frowned slightly as he walked over towards where one of his summons stood and his visible eye locked onto where Erin still lay, completely dead to the world. He had sent his ninken out after the teen's scent to see if he could catch the girl off guard at a later time, and hopefully bring her in for questioning. Instead, he found himself out in the middle of the woods with an unconscious girl, and absolutely no clue as to why she wasn't responding.
'She's probably only a little older than Sakura or Naruto,' Kakashi realized as he crouched down next to Erin and examined her closely. 'And she is definitely not a shinobi. That might explain why she acted the way she did, but still… she didn't become violent until she saw our headbands. I wonder why?'
"You are one strange little girl," he muttered thoughtfully as he reached down and gently held the girl's wrist in between his forefinger and thumb to take her pulse, completely oblivious to the fact that if said 'little girl' had been awake to hear his statement, she would have promptly taken his head off. Kakashi frowned underneath his mask as he felt the teenager's erratic pulse, and arched an eyebrow as he looked down at the teen's face thoughtfully.
"That's not good," the Jounin stated as he let go of Erin's wrist and pressed his hand against her forehead. Kakashi's visible eye widened as he stared down at the nineteen-year old's flushed face before he removed his hand with a soft curse. It was no small wonder that she wasn't waking up, judging from how high the girl's temperature was at the moment.
Kakashi briefly wondered how someone so sick could manage to cause so much havoc, not to mention it was unbelievable that she had managed to make it this far from Konoha without collapsing. The twenty-six-year old was snapped out of his internal musings when Erin started shivering once again, and began muttering something unintelligible under her breath. He frowned slightly, but realized that there was really no other option for him to take as he released his ninken, and they all disappeared in a puff of smoke.
With a sigh, the Copy Ninja gently scooped the unconscious girl up into his arms, holding her close to his chest as he threw her backpack over his shoulder. It looked like the teenager would have to receive medical attention before the Hokage could question her. With that thought, Kakashi leapt up into the trees and began to make his way back towards Konoha.
--
Well people, here's my second chapter. Umm… don't hurt me?
And no, there is no way in hell that this is going to turn into some lovey-dovey, Mary-Sueish romance crock of crap. That will happen over my dead body and there are already more than enough of those evil things floating around on FFnet.
Mary-Sues are the Anti-Christ. (Thinks for a few seconds and smirks evilly) Actually, I think I know how to get rid of them. (Drums fingers together diabolically) There might actually be a use for Itachi and Envy yet.
Wandering Hitokiri: (Turns around and looks at afore-mentioned characters) Oh boyyyys…
Envy: Oh shit, she's smiling. That can't be good.
Itachi: Why are you so worried? She's only one person, and she's not even a ninja. Not to mention the fact that she's just a scrawny teenage girl that's in college.
Wandering Hitokiri: (Twitches)
Envy: (Stares at Itachi like he's insane) You don't know her very well, do you?
Itachi: … why should I care?
Envy: Because she can control your entire reality at the moment, you twit. (Rolls eyes) You know, for someone that's supposed to be a child prodigy, you really are stupid.
Itachi: You're going to die for that comment.
Envy: (Scoffs) I'm a homunculus. You can't kill me that easily.
(Itachi and Envy sense a murderous aura coming from behind them, and both turn around to see one very pissed off Wandering Hitokiri standing behind them with a katana drawn and in full Shinsengumi garb)
Wandering Hitokiri: (Glares at Itachi) You are toast, weasel-boy! (Envy smirks at Itachi)
Envy: Well, it's been nice knowing you.
(Itachi runs off with Wandering Hitokiri hot on his heels, and soon screams and sounds of somebody being hit repeatedly are heard. Envy sweatdrops)
Envy: Oh-kaaaay, it looks like I'm going to have to do the disclaimer then. Wandering Hitokiri does not own Naruto, or any characters from Fullmetal Alchemist, including me. That honor belongs solely to their respectful owners. She does however own Erin, her brothers Tyler and Keith, and her 'friend' Jess, along with any other characters mentioned in this story that you don't recognize. (Sighs) I can't believe that I've been lowered to doing crap like this.
Reviews:
Lady Renvel of Arella: Thank you, I'm glad that you think so. I actually prefer the dubbed versions of 'Fullmetal Alchemist' and 'Naruto' myself, but that's just my personal preferences. I like to actually understand what's being said, and Vic Mignogna and whoever does Kakashi's voice just sound downright awesome in English! I know… I am one sad person, but I like me that way.
Envy: (Mutters) Sad? Insane is more like it.
Wandering Hitokiri: Oh hush, otherwise I won't bring you back to do any more authors notes.
Envy: And what a joy that would be.
The Shadow111: I'm glad that you love 'What One May Never See'. It's my most successful fanfiction, and it really is a lot of fun to write. Unfortunately, I've kind of hit writers block on it, and I'm hoping that working on something else will help me get through my block. I accidentally got interested in 'Naruto' just by talking with my friend about some stuff on the phone, and I got curious and went on the internet, looked up a bunch of images, and checked out one of the episodes on YouTube. I was hooked almost immediately. But here's the really funny thing; I've been reading 'Naruto' for almost three years in 'Shonen Jump', and I just now got interested! Weird, huh?
rockleefan: Yes, Erin kneed Itachi in the balls. That's exactly the same thing that I would have done in her situation, and personally I think that the psychopath needs to be force-fed a bit of humble pie. Don't worry about Sasuke not seeing that, he'll get to hear about it later when Erin mentions her previous encounter with Itachi. Ooops! Umm… you didn't hear anything from me! Anyway, yeah it is pretty amazing that Erin's made it as far as she has without passing out again; isn't it interesting how far you can go by sheer stubbornness alone? Although I'm hardly one to talk; I went to school once when I was really sick, and I pushed myself to keep going and tried to make it through the entire day, even though I felt like crap. I passed out at my desk in the back during fourth period, and my teacher sent me to the nurse's office. By the time that the end of lunch hour rolled around, I was at home sitting on the couch with a thermometer stuck in my mouth and one hell of a nasty case of the flu.
TheCrazyScotswomanOfDOOM: Thank you, I'm glad that you liked it. I agree with you, Sasuke is definitely emo. He really needs to get a life… and I'm sorely tempted to smack some sense into him.
Liah Cauthon: Well, I was just going to have her run away from Itachi and Kisame, and leave it with Kisame having all those thorns in his hand, but it seemed like the chapter was missing something. Then I got the idea that 'Hey, I never really did anything with Itachi!', and so, Erin's final confrontation with the weasel-boy was born. And I think that it fits the bill of something that he would do too.
