Katie couldn't even believe she was about to say this but, being a tree sapling...was actually pretty interesting.
There, she did it.
Katie admitted that her short life of almost forty nine years as a tree was more interesting than her even shorter life of twenty four as a genuine homosapien.
It was all Chai's fault. (Chai. As in Chai tea latte, or simply tea tea latte if you would prefer...The not-coffee beverage she got that fateful day had come back to haunt her. It was a very scary coincidence.)
Katie completely believed that this new life of hers was going to be an agonizing, time consuming, boring, and just generally hellish all around. But no. Chai the maple tree, had to butt in and make the reincarnated-into-a-tree-despite-not-dieing experience something to look forward to.
You wouldn't think that being immobilized in the same spot for decades on end would be fun right? Wrong. The Root Network could keep a simple minded human like her entertained for thousands of years.
And no, Katie wasn't joking one itty bitty bit.
Although the name 'Root Network' did remind Katie strongly of the top secret division of ANBU from that anime Naruto that she used to watch so long ago. But really, the only thing in common that those two have is that the word 'Root' is somewhere in the name.
But clearly, Katie was being distracted once more by bright and shiny things that are not entirely important to the plot.
Anyway, Chai (Katie still couldn't get over that coincidence), introduced Katie to that wonderful communication line between every single plant in the forest.
The great and almighty Rootwork was kind of like a plant version of internet. Once a plant's roots grow long enough, they can connect their roots to another plant, and eventually, the whole forest of shrubs and trees have a way of communication.
It was really quite amazing. Plants had the equivalent of the internet thousands of years before it was even invented by humans.
Katie would have never guessed how much of a gossip fern bushes were, and ivy vines were a riot on comedy night. Not to mention grass can certainly spin a breathtaking story on any day.
There was never a dull moment when connected with the rest of the forest.
Sometimes, a plant went out of it's way to learn how to speak different languages used by the woodland creatures.
There was this one blueberry bush several kilometers away from Katie that recently learned how to speak Ant, (do not ask how that was accomplished. Katie was still trying to wrap her metaphysical brain around it.)
The blueberry bush -whose name was Midnight- made friends with a couple of colonies in the surrounding area and now the plants in the forest would occasionally hear news from those cute little insects.
Trees, bushes, and shrubs were actually quite accepting of other animals cultures, and as a result, there was always something interesting to learn about other animals.
But for some odd reason, the trees and shrubs in Katie's immediate surroundings were kind of wary of her those first couple of confusing years. You know, after the whole turning-into-a-tree thing.
It wasn't until after all the plants had gotten used to her presence did they start to open up and include her. More importantly, they explained why exactly they had given her a rather cold reception in the beginning.
Katie wasn't the first human to be turned into a plant. Nor would she be the last. But the one before her was this crazy environmentalist that tried to start a revolution among the trees and bushes against illegal logging.
At a first glance, you would think that the trees in particular would have been ecstatic to make a stand against people who killed of entire forests for the sake of leaflets of flimsy paper with oddly shaped pieces of metal.
But there were a lot of things wrong with his plan, and nobody liked it.
For one thing, his plan implied and he even said so himself, that cutting down trees legally according to human standards, was ok.
No. No it was not ok. Murder was not ok. Who told him that it was ok?
Maybe Katie didn't really care all that much about the giant brown sticks with green paper-like thingies stuck to the top when she was still a human, but now that she was an actual young tree, the idea of some human cutting her down down right terrified her.
If that ever happened, she would be completely helpless.
No tree liked illegal logging. No tree liked legal logging. They could deal with a couple trees down in order to provide shelter and warmth for various animals including humans, heck, Katie knew some trees that actually want to die that way. For the good of others.
But not even those pure hearted trees wanted to die just so a human could have certain luxuries.
Another issue that the grand plan had, was that they would have to sacrifice the entire eastern portion of the forest.
Never, ever, ever going to happen so long as the forest stays united under the think, ocean blue sky.
When the plant population tried to explain their position to the human-turned-three, he flat out rejected the idea to find a way of sabotage all chopping operations without all of the great risks. His argument was that humans needed wood in order to survive.
Chai, who was a young sapling at the time, pointed out that humans did perfectly fine when they were living in stone buildings. Their lifespans were actually longer before they all decided to move into wooden houses.
The hypocritical environmentalist just said that wood equaled profit and progress in the human world.
A lot of plants were quite happy when that little annoying tree contracted a deadly fungus and died a slow painful death.
That was a long time ago. Like, almost three centuries ago. The plants nowadays weren't alive for that little incident, except for Chai, so all they had to go off of was old legend.
Thank every deity out there that the cold shoulder didn't last for long. It is not in a fellow tree's nature to outcast one of their own.
Unless they are an invasive species.
Or are planning to cause harm to tree-kind.
Or cause harm to anyone living in the forest.
Forest is plant domain.
Trees were going to protect everything and everyone in the forest, if they can help it. Dammit.
But while Katie was on the topic of humans, it would make sense to talk about the kinds of humans that live within the lively forest.
Katie herself wasn't entirely aware of them in the first ten years of her leafy life. Ironically.
It wasn't until some children wandered over to her area, and Chai said:
"I swear, if those kids accidentally set another oak tree on fire, I am going to scream."
Katie, who was busy watching over the nest of owls that had settled in one of the nook's of her branches focused her attention on the maple tree that had spoken.
"Wait, who? Is it that racoon family that accidentally found out how to start a fire with dinosaur shaped rocks?"
Chai did the tree equivalent of giving the 'are-you-for-real-or-are-you-just-playing-stupid' look.
"The human kids. Remember, they were your former species."
Katie's eyes widened and stared at Chai with a dumbfounded expression.
"There are humans here?"
"ohmygod. Yes. there are humans here. Have you been living under a moss patch this whole time?"
"I-! ...Nooooo... At least I don't think so."
Katie could clearly tell at that Chai was now thoroughly annoyed at her when she huffed and muttered something about dim-witted humans.
"Hey wait! This is the first time I'm hearing about humans actually living in this area!" Katie said, in a hurry to explain herself. "For all I know, humans could have died and it's only green things and tiny critters around."
Chai snorted loudly, causing some of the grass around her trunk to perk up in surprise. "I'd tell you do doge but you can't exactly do that, can you?"
"What do you mean- OH MY GOD OW!" Katie scratched as something heavy slammed into her.
Just like that, Katie's worst nightmare came to life. It started as a small crack in the side of her deep brown bark; a couple slivers of the thick hide splintered off in the impact. Then a spiderweb began to form and spread.
Snap.
Katie howled in pain, but of course her attacker couldn't hear... But that didn't mean no one else could. Unfortunately, anything that was said to her was lost in a blizzard of ashen snowflakes that began to block her general awareness of the world.
Just as sudden as the pain started, it stopped. Katie felt herself growing bigger, and taller at an insanely fast rate.
It felt like she had just downed some kind of instant pain-reliever that actually does its job and gets rid of evil migraines. That though instantly made Katie on edge, but she melted back into bliss as a calm, and reassuring feeling washed over her.
"I can't believe you just did that." A very male, human voice filtered through Katie's subconscious. "How could you make me hurt a poor innocent tree?!"
"Maybe you should marry it." Another person snorted.
It took a minute for Katie to register the fact that, no, these sounds were not being transmitted through the busy buzzy Root Network. Someone was actually speaking them. With mouth and everything.
"Maybe I will!" The first voice said defiantly.
"Wait... Who's marrying whom?" Katie asked groggily.
"Oh thank all the living things. You're alive." Chai breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought I'd have to find another test subject."
"...Seriously. There's a wedding?"
"SENJU! You already have a wife. I doubt that she would appreciate the fact that you're replacing her with a tree you broke." Katie could just barely make out the fluffy mane of black hair and the blood red eyes of the man who spoke those words of wisdom.
"...You really think that I'd marry a tree? Kami, what would Mito think?"
"I certainly wouldn't put it past you."
The man kneeling beside Katie fixed the black fluff haired dude with a death-bringing glare.
"It's your fault that the tree split in half. You're just lucky that I was here to save it."
The black haired man sputtered. "My fault?! You're the one who didn't dodge my jutsu properly and landed on that thing!"
"Don't call it a thing! It is Nature's gift to the world." The tanner one said with stars shining brightly in his pitch black eyes. Naturally, the fluffy guy's hand was introduced to his face in an extravagant face palm that was fit for a king.
"Do you have to do this every time we spar?"
"No. Not unless a beautiful tree such as this one is involved."
"You think all trees are beautiful."
"Of course they are. They're trees. They're made out of wood."
"You and your obsessions with anything wood." Fluff hair muttered under his breath.
"Wood's amazing! There are so many applications-"
"uh-huh"
"- weapons, houses, chopstick, you name it.-"
"yea, that's really interesting."
"-Not to mention the texture when it's polished-"
"Kami, I don't get paid enough for this"
"-beautiful, just beautiful when the leaves change colour-"
"Whatever." The lion like man said as he turned to leave his ranting companion. "Let me know when you're done with this pathetic little hug-fest." With that, he exited the immediate area.
The only remaining man cocked his head to the side, and started in the place where his friend once stood. Then he turned and gave Katie the biggest hug he could muster. Katie was not amused.
"Hi there! I'm a big fan of your work!" He said with a dazzling smile. Katie heard the harsh, distant laughter of Chai, but she was too flustered at the moment to care.
"You know," The starstruck man continued. "Cleaning the air, providing shelter and food for the little animals, impaling my enemies with your sharp, pointy twigs. That kind of stuff." He released his grip on the newly healed tree.
"I gotta go before Madara blows up again." And with that, he suddenly disappeared before Katie could register what had just happened.
"I have to admit, they've never done that before." Chai said, breaking the awkward silence with her inane giggling. "But then again, they've never broken a tree in this area before today."
"I-I-I... What? Did I just see who I think I just saw?" Katie asked no one. Some of the wildflowers that grew around her trunk swayed with concern and worry. Chai was absolutely no help in this matter, that useless lump of leaves.
A deadly feeling settled over Katie. She knew where she was now, and she wasn't sure just how she felt about it.
And that kiddies, Senju Hashirama tripped and fell into Katie's arms. Kinda. Sorta. Not really. It was more like he slipped up a bit during a spar with Uchiha Madara and then got launched into a random tree, and effectively snapping it in half.
Katie would forever be grateful to the wood style, utilized by the first Hokage of Konohagakure.
Author's Note:
Aaand that's chapter two. Can I just say how blown away I was with the response to the first chapter? You guys just make me want to write this story all day!
Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do that now. School is starting this week, so I won't be able to update all that often. Unfortunately. But I'm not going to let that stop me from writing.
Next chapter's going to finally have Naruto in it! Are you excited? Cuz I am.
Like it? Hate it? Have any constructive criticism? Or do you just want to say Hi? Leave a review if possible. I read every single one, and I try to respond to each and everyone of them.
If there are any grammar/spelling/general plot holes, please feel free to let me know. Also, tell me if you think Hashirama and Madara are too OOC, or not to your liking.
Thank you everyone who has left a review/favourite/followed this story. I was really amazed that so many people actually read my work. Every single one of you made me smile.
As usual, I don't own anything except for any OCs that you see in this story.
Until my next update, faithful readers!