A/N: Thank you to EVERYONE who added this story to alerts / favorites, and who added me to their alerts / favorites! I appreciate it! Review Responses at the end of the chapter.

In other news, I'm working on some cover art for this story! It should be up today or tomorrow. It's simple, but I like it.

Anyways, on to the story.

-=xX-=-Xx=-

Jake groaned as he looked at the clock for the tenth time in the past minute. Today was Friday, and it just so happened to be last period. As the second hand neared the end of its rotation, he began to count down in his head.

Ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one... The second the bell rang he grabbed his bag and was out the door before Rotwood even knew what had happened.

Once he was out the front door, he was flanked by Trixie and Spud.

"Hey Jakey, me and potato boy over there are going to the skate park. You wanna come?"

Jake sighed. "Sorry guys. I can't today." He paused and looked up. "I've got to do the afternoon patrol today."

"Well, alright. Guess we'll see you later then." Trixie and Spud began to walk off.

-=xX-=-Xx=-

Jake ducked into an alleyway and transformed, taking flight immediately afterwards. As he was making his normal rounds, passing over Central Park, he noticed an annoyingly bright speck of orange. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a person, laying face-down on the ground, unconscious and covered in dirt. Nearby, there was a pink haired person, back up against a tree, unconscious as well.

When he saw the third one, who had black hair, standing up, staring at the other two, he got curious. He flew down and landed about fifty feet west of the group, transforming as he touched the ground. As he approached, he ducked behind a tree.

./POV = SHIKAMARU\\.

"Damn it, wake up you two..." Shikamaru paused. "This is so troublesome..." He glanced at Sakura's unconscious form before switching his gaze to Naruto. He glanced up when he felt another person's presence nearby. He quickly got into a defensive position and drew a kunai. "Alright, I know you're behind the tree, so just come out. Unless you're looking for a fight." He looked at the tree Jake was hiding behind. As Jake peeked around the tree, Shikamaru hurled the kunai at its trunk. Jake squeaked as the kunai embedded itself into the tree.

He quickly stepped out of the tree. "Whoa, whoa. I'm not looking to fight. Sorry if I scared you. I just got curious when I saw you and those two, that's all."

Shikamaru looked at him calculatingly. After a moment, he deemed that the teen across the clearing didn't mean any harm, and got into a more relaxed position. "Alright then. Sorry for scaring you with that kunai. I was just doing what I've been trained to do." Shikamaru paused, then got a confused look on his face. "Hey, do you know where we are?"

Jake looked at him, shocked by the question. "Umm... You're in Central Park. Did you hit your head or something?"

Shikamaru sighed. "No I didn't. Where is Central Park?"

Jake looked even more shocked than before. "Central Park, New York City, New York, United States of America... You're not from here are you?"

The Nara scratched the back of his head. "You could say that, yeah..."

Jake glanced at the two unconscious forms on the ground. "So... These people your friends?" He looked up at Shikamaru.

"Yeah..." He replied before muttering to himself. "Damn, who would've thought that we'd get a dimension gate tag used on us..."

Jake looked at the other teen confused. "Dimension gate?"

Shikamaru looked at him before replying. "I could tell you, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

"Humor me."

The Nara sighed. "Well... To put it simply, we were teleported from our world to yours... I don't understand why any shinobi would use one on us though..."

Shikamaru was brought out of his ramblings by a groan from Naruto. The blond slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. He glanced at Shikamaru.

"Hey, you're finally up." Shikamaru smirked.

Naruto rubbed his eyes with his right hand. "How long was I out?"

"Two hours long than I was." He paused. "You know, I expected you to wake up last." This earned him a glare from the blond.

"I'm not lazy like you, Shikamaru." Naruto glanced over in the direction of Jake, who was glancing awkwardly between the blond genin and the chuunin genius. "Who's this guy?" Naruto's eyes slowly flickered into a red iris with a black slit pupil, unbeknownst to him. Then they faded back to their original blue.

Jake had noticed this. "Um... Care to explain why your eyes were red for a moment there...?"

"Huh? They were?" Naruto put on his best confused expression. "That's weird. I don't know why." Care to explain baka furball? He asked Kyuubi.

"Kid, we're in a different world here. I just thought I would see if this human was a threat or not."

Why, exactly, are you helping me all of a sudden? To be honest, I thought you hated me.

"Did I ever once say that? I think not. I might not particularly like you, but ever since you got captured by that snake and he screwed with the seal, I've been forced to feel your emotions. As much as I hate to admit it, you've successfully made me soft."

It was true that a couple of months before this mission, Orochimaru had managed to take Naruto captive, and he had attempted to take the Kyuubi out of Naruto, and use him for his own means to an end. The whole entire point of the mission was to get Sasuke back. He had been battling Orochimaru when Kabuto had come up behind him and knocked him out. When he had woken up Orochimaru was in the room and had attempted to perform a seal transfer jutsu, but that didn't work out the way he had planned when he messed up the last to hand signs. It had knocked Naruto out, and when he had come to he was in a cell chained to a wall. Sasuke had come in to mock him, but he had gotten a little to close. Naruto had kicked him in the stomach – much to Sasuke's surprise – and when Sasuke doubled over in pain, Naruto used the unsealing jutsu Jiraiya had taught him to remove the cursed seal. Sasuke had crumpled down unconscious after that, but woke up about fifteen minutes later, back to how he was before the chuunin exams. After freeing Naruto the two had escaped back to Konoha, and Sasuke had been deemed safe, and all charges were lifted from him, due to the fact that the seal had driven him mad.

Wait, so is that how we're able to talk right now? Because Orochimaru messed with the seal?

"Yes."

Then why are you choosing now to start rather than when we got rescued?

"I saw no need for conversation." Kyuubi replied. "But there are some other things that happened when he messed with the seal... Things I'll explain later. Right now some is asking you a question."

"Hello? Anyone home?" Jake asked Naruto, wait for a response to the question that Naruto hadn't heard.

Naruto shook his head to clear his mind. "Huh? You say something?"

"He asked what your name was." Shikamaru replied.

"It's Naruto Uzumaki. Sorry I kinda zoned out on you there." Naruto gave Jake his trademark grin and scratched the back of his head embarrassed. "So who are you?"

"Jake Long." He replied. "Nice to meet you." He paused. "So, according to Shikamaru, you guys are from another world. I personally vote to saying you're crazy, but how else would I explain your clothes?"

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, we're shinobi from Konoha."

"Shinobi?"

"You don't know what a shinobi is? Does your world not have them or something?" Jake shook his head. "Hm... Well, simply put, a shinobi is a ninja."

Jake face broke out into a huge grin. "So you guys are ninjas? That's cool." He paused. "Wait, do you guys have a place to stay?"

Shikamaru and Naruto glanced at each other before Shikamaru turned his gaze back to Jake. "No, but we'll be fine. We'll just camp out here in this forest."

"Actually... you can't. This place is protected by law, and you can't camp here. You're in the middle of one of the coolest cities in the US. At least let me see if you can stay at my house or something until then. My mom would be cool with it, and if she told my dad that you guys are exchange students from Japan or something, he'd probably not have a problem." He paused. "Do you all know any other languages to make it a bit more convincing?"

Naruto nodded. "Japanese. We could just address your parents with 'sama' to be respectful."

"That should work." Shikamaru said. "But I'm still a bit uncomfortable staying in a strangers home."

"Trust me it'll be fine." Jake reassured them. "The only one you have to worry about in my house is my annoying little sister, Haley."

"Alright then. Let's head out!" Naruto yelled.

-=xX-=-Xx=-

Naruto, Shikamaru, and a now conscious Sakura followed Jake into the kitchen, where his mother was fixing dinner. She glanced over her should when she heard Jake enter. "Oh, hi Jake. How was school?" She then noticed the three teens standing behind her son. "Are these some new friends?"

Jake nervously scratched the back of his head. "Well... Kind of." He paused. "They're apparently from another world. They told me they got teleported here by a dimension gate. They're also ninjas."

Susan Long was about to laugh at her son's joke when she noticed the serious expression on his face. "You're serious, aren't you?"

This time Shikamaru spoke up. "Yes ma'am, he is. We realize this probably sounds really outlandish, but we're shinobi from Konohagakure no Sato, or 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves', in English. We were supposed to be escorting some foreign merchants back to their homeland, and when we were setting up camp for the night, we were ambushed. Someone opened up a dimension gate, and it brought us here. We were planning on staying in Central Park until we found a way to get back, but Jake found us, and insisted that we stay here, posing as exchange students. And that's pretty much how we ended up here..."

She looked at each of them, looking them over, until her eyes finally came back to rest on Jake. "Alright, I have no problem with you three staying, but Jake's father can't know who you really are, or he'd freak out. So, since you're posing as exchange students, you're going to need to be enrolled into school. How old are you three?"

Naruto gave a grinning salute. "17, ma'am!"

Shikamaru, and Sakura both stated the same thing.

"Alright then, looks as if you'll be in Jake's grade. I'll try to get you in the same classes that he is in." It was at this point that Jake's father, Johnathan Long, walked through the front door.

"I'm home!" He shouted happily as he hung his coat on the rack next to the door. As he walked into the kitchen he saw the three newcomers.

"Honey, I'd like you to meet the exchange students."

Sakura, Shikamaru, and Naruto bowed.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Long." Sakura said.

"Honey, I didn't know we offered to be the host family for any exchange students." Johnathan said, obviously confused.

"Well... I wanted it to be a surprise." She replied.

"Oh! Well, good afternoon to you too... um..." He trailed off, searching for a name.

"I'm Sakura Haruno, sir." Sakura said.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara, Mr. Long." Shikamaru held out his hand, which Johnathan took.

"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki, sir!" Naruto went into yet another salute.

Johnathan smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you three." They engaged in idle chat for a while until Susan brought dinner over to the table. For their first night in the Big Apple, they pretty much had it made.

-=xX-=-Xx=-

CHAPTER END

[["RasenShuriken92 6/8/12 . chapter 1

Interesting

Thanks 4 the chap!

plesase continue

Have a nice day!"]]

Thanks! I've got a lot planned for this story.

[["Major Simi 6/7/12 . chapter 1

well looks like someone is about to fall trough a rabbit hole to wonderland ahm no just somwhere else, well nice intro, a bit short but alright, it looks interesting keep going"]]

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