Hey Guys!

I'm so sorry for being so darn late. But it's not totally my fault! My WiFi wasn't working.

And maybe, just maybe, I have been lazy...

But hey, a lot has been going on lately. Like Laden is dead, our government has changed after 35 years and so on...

I'll shut up now. Here's the story:

An Unlikely Ninja

Chapter 3

The moment I was left alone, panic engulfed me. I had to find out about my identity in this world. It's like waking up from a coma after fourteen years and not having a drop of memory left in your mind. I knew everything about everyone, except having the slightest hint about myself. I dug through my bag trying to find anything that would show me some light. It was filled with Ninja stuff. And there I found my wallet. It had a student card with my photo on it.

Name: Ashwariya Banerji

Rank: Academy Student

Blood Group: A-

Address: Apartment 13, Plot 999, F.D. Road, District- 4, Konoha- 6007890

That meant two things. The good side was that I had a place to crash in. And the bad part was that my address sounds like Friday, the 13th. And there's the famous 999 as well. Seriously, why is it always me to get stuck with things like these? It's not I believe a lot on omens and stuff but in a world where there is a man/tranny with a tongue longer than an anaconda, who know?

Then my eyes fell onto the photograph on the card. Everything else is mine in the card so the photo is supposed to mine too, isn't it? But it was not me. She was that stranger whom I remembered from somewhere. I knew her yet I didn't know her.

"That's not me," I said aloud. I mean, I had never coloured my hair. How did my hair have highlights? I understand that the photo is small and it is hard to be sure of anything, but still… Then again, this was another world and no logic could explain this situation. ID photos always make everyone look like their alien counterparts so I didn't give much attention to my face. I just noticed that my skin tone was the same and my face was somewhat as angular as it had always been.

A bad feeling swept over me. What if I didn't look like myself any more? What if I was somebody completely different? Could I accept that? What if I looked like Paris Hilton. I shook at the last part. There's only one way to find out.

I fished my bag for my compact. I always had one in my bag back home so I half expected to have one in this bag too. Having found it, I took a deep breath, preparing myself to see my face for the first time since I got here.

A familiar stranger greeted me from the mirror. She had that same shoulder-length wavy hair as me that could never decide whether to be brown or black. Her big eyes were the same dark brown and were adorned with the same long, voluminous eyelashes which had never compelled me to use fake lashes. She had my slightly angular face with pronounced cheek bones and nose. Her lips were very slightly plump with gloss on them. And she had the same pale skin which was described to be rather pale than fair. I have a much paler skin tone than the rest of my family who are rather on the wheatish side. My friends had often joked that I'm a vampire because of my pale skin with neither pink nor yellow undertones. Even though I am a Bengali, I lack some typical features of Bengali girls. I do not have that gorgeous dusky skin or that typical glossy black hair. And to add to that, I'm rather broad built, with wide shoulders and kind of full body. I remember an incident from my trip to Singapore with my family when a guy (he was kind of cute) thought me to be Spanish and asked me something in Spanish. I had just stared like an idiot and uttered a confused, "What?" Thankfully he understood that I'm not Spanish and asked me in English. He seemed pretty surprised when I told him that I'm Indian all the way.

BANG! I jumped, breaking out of my thoughts. I turned to find that one of the window shutters was slammed closed. My gaze met the one who did it. I was turned on my back on both the windows and the door and due to that, I hadn't notice anyone enter the class. The loud sound really startled me. Plus, it was lost in the path life. (Does that sound familiar? Yes it does.)

My eyes met with… Orochimaru! Nay, just kidding. But maybe Orochimaru would be better to run into. Or even someone as dangerous as Pain. Anyone would be better than… HIM!

I stood there baffled for several moments. I just stared. What was he doing here? I saw him leave earlier. Yes, go ahead and call me a fan girl if you have to. I would seriously love to see how you react when you find yourself standing in front of someone, who, you thought, didn't exist till the last hour. And that someone, just may be, someone you crush on. Okay, maybe I did like Sasuke. I'm sure all of you have had crushes on fictional characters at some point of time. The good thing about crushing on a fictional character is that you are always in charge of what happens as it is all in your mind. So no daily fights, no spending money on one month anniversaries, and you can flirt with that new cute guy in Maths class. And besides, I have crushes on loads of others as well. Like Itachi, Deidara, Kai, Kyoya and the list goes on…

It was okay earlier as I wasn't alone with the guy. I admit deliberately not paying heed to him as I have a very notorious record of being a total moron in front of a guy I like. My brain finally gained control of my muscles and sense organs, after maybe a billion years. My eyes scanned Sasuke's face and my brain processed his expression as blank. As ever. And I knew that he had banged the window on purpose.

"DAMN!" I carped. "What's with you?"

An annoying scowl appeared on Sasuke's face. And when I say annoying, I mean something which totally ticks you off. Hot guy or not, his scowl is ANNOYING. What did I ever do to him anyway?

"Dude, what was that for?"

"I just closed the window." The scowl seemed to grow more annoying. I was starting to loose whatever feelings I had for him.

My eyes narrowed. "You did that on purpose," I stated, tying to sound like absolute zero.

"I just closed the window." The scowl still lingered. If there was an Annoyingness Meter attached on his head, it would currently break. Seriously, the scientists should try an invent one of those.

Now, I had lost all my pre-conceived notions about this Uchiha. He is just downright annoying. I threw him a glare and picked up the broom. I saw him picking up a book from his desk and exiting the class. He must have had left it behind, I thought. Son of a bitch.

I was done cleaning the classroom in less than 15 minutes. I met Iruka Sensei after that and he said it was okay to leave. It is completely a different issue that I left out the quite a part of the class.

Naruto and Kiba were waiting for me in the playground as they had promised. Shikamaru and Choji also seemed to have tagged along.

Naruto greeted me loudly as I approached. "Hey Ash! I see you're finally free!"

I had been mentally chanting to myself to try and act normal around all my favourite people since the time I was cleaning the class room. Maybe chanting something over and over again in one's mind does help to achieve it. My voice did sound more at ease than before. "Hello guys!"

"Choji and Shikamaru are going to be joining us," Kiba informed.

"Cool!" I'll get to talk to Shikamaru! That is, if he doesn't sleep. Shikamaru is one of my favorites. Just FAVORITE, okay?

Choji grinned determinedly. "I'm gonna beat Naruto today!"

"Huh?" I asked confused.

"Dream on, sucker!" Naruto showed him the thumbs down.

Shikamaru yawned. "You forgot about their eating competition of Monday already?"

"Seriously, that was so close! Choji may be the eating champ around, but when it comes to ramen, Naruto's the top dog!" Kiba beamed. Akamaru seemed to bark in accord.

Oh damn, I forgot to note that down in my journal. I grinned.

"Just you wait Naruto. I'm so gonna beat you today!" I swear I literally saw fire in Choji's eyes. You could cook nice kebabs in that fire…

Naruto had a stuck-up face. "Try it loser!"

"Honestly, eating more that needed is such a drag." Shikamaru sighed.

I smiled to myself. This was exactly how I had imagined him to be.

Kiba, Naruto and Choji too turned out exactly as I had perceived. Choji had the appetite of a T. Rex and barely diverted his attention from eating to talk. Naruto was not very different either as he had to give Choji a really tough contest. Kiba was somewhat hyper, but was an amateur compared to Naruto and Choji. And Shikamaru… he was probably wondering why he woke up that morning. Diverse, right?

It was my first time having ramen at a shack. I mean, I've obviously had ramen before, but that was Top Ramen. However Kiba helped me order. If that can be called helping, that is.

"Spicy ramen with barbecue beef for me and Akamaru," Kiba chirped. Akamaru wagged his tail. "And since Ash is having amnesia today, bring the same for her, Ichiraku-san."

"EEEEEKKKKKKKK!" I yelped. "No beef for me!"

"What? Beef is not toxic, you know," Shikamaru said, rubbing ear. I really didn't yell that loudly, you know.

"No seriously, no beef for me," I said. The truth was that in India, beef is kind of taboo. A large chunk of the Indian population follow Hinduism as their religion. It is a pagan religion like the ancient Greek religion and a lot of animals are considered holy. Cows happen to be one of them. Not that I'm very religious, but it's something I grew up with and I didn't feel like discarding it at that instant.

"Then what will you have?" Ichiraku-san asked. "Tell me fast before your friends order the whole kitchen."

"Spicy barbecue chicken. Do you have that?" I asked uncertainly. I love chicken.

"'Course! I'll get you one of those."

Our order arrived in around fifteen minutes. Kiba, Shikamaru and I maintained a somewhat normal pace in eating while Naruto and Choji acted like they had been stuck in some remote island in the Pacific with only bugs for food and this was the first time that they had seen cooked food in a billion years. I seriously lost track of how many bowls of ramen they finished while Shikamaru and I just sat with one. Kiba had three and Akamaru had one. I wondered who would be unfortunate soul to pay the bill…

Choji and Naruto kept eating until they looked like they would burst out any moment. Shikamaru still looked like he had never seen a puppy. Kiba had kind of a weird expression which told me something was cooking in his head.

Suddenly, I felt somebody grip my right hand. Before I could react, I was pulled out of my seat and dragged away from the shop.

So that's it for now. I know this chapter is not that good. I, personally, didn't like it much. But I can promise you that the others will be better.

You know the rules, right? You review or you'll be kidnapped by Orochimaru. And that won't be very nice.

So GET REVIEWING!

Bye now! See ya later!