.....Yeah. Ahem. Sorry. Completely my fault. What has it been, like, 4 monthes?! I really am sorry! Chapter one here.

Disclaimer: *twiddles thumbs* Still don't own Naruto...

Chapter one: Take-off

This was me in a nutshell:

name: Edie

Age: just turned 12!

Nationality: Australian

Looks: dark blonde hair past my sholders, blue-grey eyes, glasses, about 4 foot 9, 53 kg.

Traits: cheerful, violent when angry, fairly popular.

Obsessions: Naruto, Uchiha Itachi, Eyeshield 21, Uchiha Itachi, Death Note, video games, Uchiha Itachi, Full Metal Achemist, Uchiha Itachi...oh, and did I mention Uchiha Itachi?

Yeah. My mum was constantly yelling at me for spending too much time on the screen. She was worried about my obsession with 'fake Japanese pople', and the fact that I had no problem with it whatsoever. I belonged to a group of anime nutters, I had an account on fanfiction. net, I spent my lunchtimes reading fanfics, that sort of thing. I was a completely average fangirl.

I had just gotten back from a trip to France with family. I had missed an anime convention and school holidays, plus four weeks of playing my Wii, so I was kind of glad to be back. I was still suffering from jetlag and it was a Monday so I really didn't expect myself to keep up.

I was walking up to the shool building (which we call The Brick) when I heard a scream.

"Edie-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn!!"

"Hi, Claudie-neechan!" I called out to mass of frizzing black hair that was coming my way, fast.

Claudia gave me a bear hug full of boob, pulled back and bombarded me with questions. How was France? Did I go to Paris? What was the food like there? I answered them all and walked her to her locker, then went upstairs to mine. There I was also given bear hugs full of boob (or, in Molly's case, non-existant boob,) and the same boring, unimaganitive questions were asked. France was great. Of course I went to Paris. Those crazy French will eat anything.

The bell rang.

Drama (elective)

French

Recess

Humanities

Science

Lunch

English

Maths

I really don't know how I managed to get through the day because a) it was full of people asking me the excact same questions and b) it was a Monday. Aaargh. Mondays. And I still had to walk home! It was only a few blocks, but aaaaaarghh! Aaargh, aaargh, aaargh. I was just out of the main foyer when I saw Domenique.

"Hey, Dom," I said a bit weakly. "wassup?"

Dom turned around and smiled a big, broad, grin. "Edie! When did you get back?"

"Erk. Yesterday..."

She frowned. "Isn't France like, nine hours behind Melbourne?"

"ya-huh."

"Oh..." she was silent for a bit, then slapped me on the the back. Hard. "Well, sucks for you, doesn't it?"

"...Thanks. For breaking my spine, I mean..."

She frowned again. " Oh, you crybaby, you!....Omigod!" Dom's eyes grew wide. "OMIGOD! I TOTALLY forgot to tell you! Come with me!"

She took me by the hand and started dragging me towards the South end of The Brick. "Hey! Whoa! Where are we going?! Dom!"

"Y'know Gateway Park?"

"Yeah..." I was still confused.

About a third of Gateway Park was school property, where students could hang out and eat their lunch. Joggers were still allowed to pass, but no students from another school. The only reason we had it was that The Brick's courtyards were the smallest bloody courtyards in the world. I never went there much, because, as I say, I spent all of my lunchtimes in the library.

"Dom, what's so 'omigod' that it can't wait 'til tomorrow?" I demanded as she pulled me passed the trees.

We stopped. "There, look!" she pointed into the empty clearing right in front of us...or, it used to be empty.

It was a tree. And not just a tree. It was a frickin' ENORMOUS tree. It was an old oak, twisted and gnarled, right in the middle of the clearing. Its leaves looked sick, and many of the roots were showing above ground.

I was astounded. After all, a tree like that doen't exactly grow in a month. The month I was away for no less!

"Whoa..." I mumbled. "Holy sh...whoa."

"It just appeared there about a week ago, somehow!" Domenique explained. "People say it must have been planted by some retards or something, but it would take, like, ten gazillion people to move it!"

"And planting something that age would have killed it..." I added.

We walked up to it. For some reason, it looked...familier. I voiced my opinion to Domenique.

Dom laughed. "I know what you're thinking of. You've seen Prince Caspian, right?"

"Yeah, but what's th-OH!" I exclaimed, slapping my hand. "It's that tree that they go through, at the end, isn't it?!"

"That's the one!"

I whistled. This was too weird! Wait 'til I told mum about THIS! Dom glanced down at her watch.

"HOLY SHIT! I'm late! Dave's gonna skin me!" Sorry Edz, I gotta split!" She raced off in the direction of the tram stop.

Startled by her sudden departure, I half-raised my hand as a goodbye then let it drop. I checked my own watch to see if I was late home yet.

Nope. Three fifteen. I turned back to the twisted old tree to look and be amazed once more before I left.

Exept it wasn't twisted any more. It wasn't even old.

It was still big, sure, but the leaves were green and the wood looked a lot healthier. But there was one even bigger differance.

It had LEGS. Well, when I say it had legs, I don't mean it had legs legs. I mean The tree was half split long-ways from the bottom, and the split halves had formed into an archway. Okay, not really legs. but an awful lot like the tree in Prince Caspian. Which meant...it led to another world? No. Don't be stupid. This was all an illusion. Like genjutsu. No, Must Not Think Of Naruto At Time Like This. No, I decided, it must be the heat getting to me.

Something in the back of my head told me that one, it was a sixteen degree day, two, that was was the excuse everyone made and three, that I was a fuckwit. I don't know where the last comment came from, but it was telling me that I should walk through the hole in the tree to see what happened.

No, I argued with myself, what would that achieve?

Hello! It's giant fucking hole in a tree! How can you NOT walk through it?

'coz it won't take me anywhere!

You don't know that! Besides, It'll be the most interesting thing you've done in years!

What about France?

WALK. THOUGH. THE FUCKING. HOLE.

I sighed. Twelve was SUCH a bad age for going senile. I mean, seriously. I just argued with myself and lost.

I walked through the fucking hole. Where was it supposed to take me, the Naruto world?

There. Whoohoo. I walked though a hole. And much good may it do me. Time to go home and do homework. I turned around to walk back through the hole.

And walked straight into solid wood. I was dazed and disoriented for a few seconds, nothing regestering in my brain. I looked at the tree. It had reverted back to a normal tree, with no indication that it had been anything else. Right, I decided. I needed a nap. A long one. I started heading back to the to the Brick. But when I looked up, I couldn't see it. I couldn't even see any buildings.

Where the hell was I?! I mean, seriously! I stumbled a few steps forward, then stopped. Okay. I was going clear my head, take a deep breath. Panic would come later.

I closed my eyes. Things I knew: I walked through a tree, taking me somewhere else. The hole in the tree has closed up, so no going back that way. Things I don't know: how to get back, or where I was in the first place. Things I was going to do about it: look around, leaving some sort of trail so that I could find my way back to the tree.

...Wow. Take-off of Narnia much?

I took out my pocket knife and walked to the edge of the clearing. Marking the closest tree with a dash, I set of in the direction that I heared faint signs of a marketplace or something.

I stared.

And stared.

And stared some more.

Marketplace indeed, although the markets in Melbourne looked nothing like this. It looked more like something you'd find in Asia. I slowly walked out into the alleyway of stalls. It was a happy place, people jostling about and children tugging at their parent's arms; although for some reson I could never hear what anyone was saying. I decided to ask somebody, so I strolled over to what looked suspisiously like a teahouse. I was just about to walk in in the door when two teenagers walked out, speaking to each other. It was then that I relized why I couldn't understand anyone.

They were speaking Japanese. Japanese. I looked up at the sign on the front of the teahouse - for of course, that's what it was - written in Kanji. Whoa.

I took two steps back and looked around. Now that I realized, it was undeniably Japan. I could see a few people in yukata and wearing destinctive Japanese style. I walked at a brisk pace down the street wearing my tourist expression, vaugley wondering if I should be focusing on trying to get back home when someone walking past caught my eye. He was about thirty-five with a stern face, and was completely unremarkable, except for what he was wearing. A vest.

It was dark green with pouches on the front. It was very thick, as if made to withstand damage, and it had neck guards. On the back was a swirly pattern.

Hardly daring to believe it, my eyes flicked up to the back of the guy's head. His hair was short, so it was easy to see the headband tied around his forhead.

...........

...........

...........I had nothing to say. My mind was blank, exept for the phrase 'OMFG'.

OMFG.

I

WAS

IN

THE

NARUTO

DIMENSION.

NO. No, wait. No WAY was I in the Naruto dimension. This must be like a... a town of cosplayers or something!

'Girl, do you even listen to y'self talk? Town of cosplayers. Jesus!'

So shocked was I at this voice in my head that I sumbled and fell. 'wh-who are you?' I asked the voice.

'Name's Eri. Y'can call me Eri.'

'And....why are you in my head?'

'I'm your Inner Self.'

'My Inner Self? As in, like, Inner Sakura?'

'Inner Sakura? That poor girl, Sakura doesn't even acknowledge her existance! She thinks she's just talking to herself!'

'Um,' I thought, 'So, why, exactly, do I have an Inner?'

Eri sighed. 'Well I think...not sure on this, though...that I'm the spirit of your twin sister.'

My Mum had told me, when I was little, that I was originally going to be born a twin, but my sister was stillborn. Dad said they were going to call her Erica. Her spirit must have sheltered in my body or something. Wait, did that mean that Sakura was oraginally a twin?

Erica heard my thoughts. 'I dunno about that. Maybe there are other ways of getting an Inner. And don't call me Erica!'

I continued walking down the street as I spoke to Eri. 'So I really am in the Naruto Dimension huh....' This was SO awesome.

Well, considering that I can talk to you, I'm guessing-hey, what's that?'

There was a large crowd gathering around the middle of the street. There was shouting but of course, I didn't understand anything. Then, above the other voices, a higher, arrogant tone shout something but was cut short with what sounded like a hack. Again, I didn't catch anything. Except one word.

'Dattebayo.'

I made my way through the crowd into the middle. If Naruto was still getting beaten up, how far into the plot could we be? I made it to the center. Sure enough, there was a seven-year-old Naruto, getting his ass kicked by a couple of punks.

'Oi!' I yelled. The two punks turned and looked at me.

Ah shit. Now what was I gonna do?

'Don't say anything else. Just walk over there and get Naruto out of here!'

I agreed with this plan. I sort of hop-skipped to where Naruto was on the ground, looking a little stunned. Slowly I helped him back on his feet. One of the punks started shouting at me, rambling on in rapid Japanese. I glared at him for a bit, humphed and led Naruto by the hand away from the scene.

'That was nicely done.' said Eri as I led Naruto in no actual direction. Once I decided that we were far enough from those punks, I stopped and faced Naruto. Whoa. Kodak moment. Hee hee, his face was so CUTE and INNOCENT and CONFUSED!

'Um, Edie?'

Right. Problem at hand. Must be delt with. I made a 'shoo' gesture with my hand, hoping he would scamper off. He just stared at me. I frowned. This was going to be hard.

Naruto said something.

I looked up. He was still staring innocently at me. I shook my head and sat down under a tree. Naruto sat down too and said something else. When I didn't answer, he cocked his head and said something that sounded like a question and ended in 'deska'. Still I said nothing. Naruto seemed to see that I couldn't understand him and pointed to himself.

'Naruto.' He introduced himself.

I smiled and nodded. If only he knew how useless that infomation really was. Then he pointed to me, the question obvious. He wanted my name in return.

Holy Crap! What do tell him? Think of A name, think of a name quick! Ummm....I know!

'Yukana.' I replied.

Yukana was my oraginal character for a fanfiction I was writing. I really liked the character, and like so many other OCs, she was based on myself. I had completely made up the name though.

Naruto grinned. He stood up and beckoned me to follow him. I stood up too and he took my hand and started leading me away, saying something.

Which ended in 'Yukana-neechan'.

Naruto sat me down at Ichiraku Ramen's and said something to the old man, who nodded and looked at me. Naruto introduced me (I think) and produced Two coupons from his pocket. The old man took them and went off, calling Ayame.

A little later, Ayame brought out two bowls of ramen. One she placed in front of Naruto, one in front of me. I looked at Naruto. He grinned and picked up his chopsticks. I did the same.

'Itadakimasu.' we said in unison. Naruto looked surprised at this but let it go.

Luckily, my friend Shou Hua (chinese) had tought me how to use chopsticks so I didn't make a fool of myself here. I ate my ramen in silence. It was really good, I could see why Naruto often came here. Naruto finished his bowl of ramen in five seconds flat. I looked at him and he grinned. I smiled back and finished my own ramen with a slurp. Naruto stood up and waved at me to follow him.

'Koi.' he said. Come. Where were we going now? We started walking down the street. Suddenly, I heard a shout from behind us and I turned around.

Oooohh no. It was the two punks from before. And they were angry.

One of them started yelling at me. I think he was insulting me (he was refering to me as 'teme'). The funny thing was, I didn't know what he was saying so it didn't matter. I poked my tongue out at him. So there! ....No, that just made him angrier. He took a long swig out of a sake bottle. Ah. Drunk then. He took a couple of drunken steps towards me and his mate followed suit. Now that was a bit worrying. I sarted edging backward.

'Naruto-kun...' I murmured to him.

'Aa?'

I made a quick 'shoo' gesture. He shook his head. I gave him my best glare and he got the message. He darted down a narrow alleyway and a let out a sigh of relief. He was safe for the moment.

'He's safe? What about us?! Hello! Enemy approaching!'

...Shit.

I ran like a bat out of hell. I scanned the crowd in front of me for places to escape. There were plenty. I weaved, ducked and dipped my way through the market square, almost tripping every two seconds. But no mater what I tried, those punks were hard on my heels. My breath got ragged and I was stimbling with every step. Oh, I was SO not going to live through this! I should have never gone through that bloody tr-

WHACK. I collided with someone walking the other way. Oh nooooo, this was the end! The person I smacked into said something and I looked up.

And blinked.

And blinked again. And again. Just to make sure that I hadn't been knocked unconsious and this wasn't some fangirlish fantasy. Because the boy in front of me was...

OH

MY

GOD.

OMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD OH MY GOD.

UCHIHA ITACHI.

There was no mistaking it. It was a younger Itachi, from the long raven hair to the stress line running diagonally down his face. Only....his onyx eyes were different. They were thoughtful, and they were kind....although right now, they were confused. It made him look so cute I had to look away and down to the boy standing next to him. Obviously Sasuke, his chicken-ass hair stuck out at odd angles and and a puppy-dog look was on his face. Standing together like that....it just made me want to squeal, it was so adorable!

I was forced out of my fantacies by a rough hand pulling me up by the back of my shirt and I was suddenly facing a very pissed punk. He start yelling in my face and spit went flying everywhere. He made a fist and started to pull back, ready to punch me. I shut my eyes for impact.

The blow never came. I opened my eyes to see a hand wrapped firmly around the punks wrist. I followed the long, slender arm up to its very sexy owner, who was glaring very sexily at a very angry drunk. I tachi said something that sounded sexy to me but obviously wasn't as it scared the punk out of his wits. He scrambled back to punk no. 2 and whispered something in his ear. Now both punks were scared out of their wits. They started running the other way but were immediately rounded up by two jonin that had come to investigate all the fuss.

'Yukana-neechan!' Naruto called. He came running up from behind a fruit stall and I held out my hand to him. He grabbed it and grinned.

'Oh, god damn it! Edie, get rid of Naruto and get outta here before they try and question you!' Eri growled.

Oh shit! If they find out I can't speak Japanese, they'll think I'm a spy or something! I started to edge away, hoping nobody would say anything to me.

Itachi said something to me. Dammit! I turned and bowed. 'Aregato.' I mumbled to the ground. Then I ran. How long had I been gone from my dimension? An hour? Two? If I was lucky, I could tell Mum that I had been chatting with friends. I needed to ditch these people and leave!

My fangirl side was telling me I was insane. I was RUNNING AWAY from Uchiha Itachi! I was in the Naruto world, I could do anything I wanted, I could become a kunoichi!

The other side of me however, over-ruled this. It was definately time to go home.

'Yukana-neechan!' Naruto yelled, who was running after me.

I skipped between randoms, dodging food carts and avoiding stepping on little kids' toes, while trying to keep out of Naruto's sight.

It worked. I had reached the trees that I had come out of and was doubled up, gasping for breath. Running had never been my specialty, but sprinting for three minutes was ridiculous. Well, for me.

I checked my watch as I followed the trees I had marked. I had been gone for an hour and a half. I would have a hard time explaining to Mum. I reached the old oak and approached it. Now....how could I get it to open? I touched the trunk with my hand.

'I want to go home,' I whispered. 'To my own world.'

The oak untwisted. The leaves coloured and the roots disappeared underground. I stood in front of the portal. Jeez, it looked so much like a simple hole. Crazy. I walked through, and suddenly I was in the school park again. I looked around and frowned. There were still people leaving school. After an hour and a half?

I ran back to the school building and went inside. There was a clock on the wall to my right and I glanced at it.

It was three fifteen. The same time as when I left. No time had passed at ALL. Time had... stood still. But why?? What logic was behind this? What science? OH MY GOD. This was SO like a bad fanfic. And even if it wasn't....OH MY GOD.

Take off of Narnia much?!

*pant pant pant* there! Chapter one, god dammit! Done! .....Well....review and I give you.....my old Yu-gi-oh manga! How's that, eh? Eh?....Er, anybody??

Yugi:......Why does nobody like meeeeee???

Maybe coz your gay. Anyway! SORRY about that wait! I'm ashamed of myself. I really am. Oh, Molly, if your reading this, sorry about that boob comment, but seriously! Grow some tits, girl! Hee.

R & R, everybody! Anybody! Cherry-san! Please!