DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. Or Sakura. Or Sasuke (Owning Sasuke is the fangirl's job!) Or anyone else. But I wish I owned Hinata...*drool* Yeah, I know I'm pathetic...oh well...I still have drerams...*continues drooling*

Chapter Six: A Walk Around Town

A couple of days passed, and I was more than satisfied with the life I'd begun. During that time I'd learned a lot from Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade, such as stuff about missions and mission ranks, how ninja were usually put into groups of three (which actually differed from The Land of Electricity, where we were put into groups of five. I was going to learn soon that Warriors and Ninja were much different in terms of how to approach a battle), and other things like that. In a matter of only a couple of days I learned many things there was to know about Ninja.

Today Kakashi-sensei told me that I was to meet by the bridge leading to the exit of the town for a more formal introduction to the group I was with. I already knew Sakura pretty well, but I'd never met this Naruto person. I wondered what he was like…Sakura told me about him a little bit, mostly the way that he gets on her nerves a lot. Other than that, I didn't know anything about Naruto.

I got up from my bed and grabbed myself a bite to eat. The cereal here was so much better than the rations we had to deal with eating every meal of every day in The Land of Electricity. I happily scarfed down the cereal, and then I went to take a shower. After I got out of the shower I took a glance at the clock, which read 8:00.

Very nice…I don't have to be at the bridge until 10:00. That means I can go do a little exploring around this village; get a lay of the land and stuff. I grabbed my wristwatch, got dressed and headed out into the village.

It was a nice day for a walk: about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, nice breeze coming through, and mostly cloudy. I took out my map and decided where to go and what to do with my time. There were so many places in this village that I couldn't decide what to do, so after a few seconds I just said "Screw that!" put the map back into my pocket and started to just wander aimlessly around the village.

It seemed like the village was undergoing some major reconstruction; people were walking back and forth bringing loads of large wooden planks, buckets and other carpenter's stuff with them. I didn't think much of it, just some construction workers doing their jobs.

At one point my nose picked something up that smelled really good. I decided to follow the scent, and I came across a flower shop. It just smelled so pleasant that I had to go inside.

This flower shop was decked out! There were tons of flowers, all of different sizes, scents and types as far as the shop's walls permitted! I just stayed inside there for a while, enjoying all of the different scents when someone asked me, "Are you going to just stand around for the next half an hour or are you going to buy something?"

I looked across the room to where the voice came from. I was surprised to see an attractive, blonde girl behind a counter. I hadn't noticed her before, but I guessed that it was because I was distracted by all of the different flowers and scents.

"Sorry," I said to the blonde girl, "I'm not from around here, and I was just surprised to see such a huge variety of flowers in one shop." I paused for a little bit, then decided to buy a nice, emerald green flower since I thought it would be rude of me to just walk in without buying anything. I picked out the flower, went to the blonde girl behind the counter and said, "Here, I'll take this one," and I gave her some money for the flower.

She took the money and put it into the register, then said, "Sorry, I didn't realize you were new here. I didn't mean to be rude or anything."

"Nah, it's alright. I was just standing around, anyways. My name's James Moretto." I said to her.

A weird look crossed her face for about a second, but then she was back to normal and said "Mine's Ino Yamanaka. Nice to meet you." She paused to examine the flower I was going to buy, and then said, "And who's this for, hmmm?"

"No one in particular; I don't know many people to give it to yet. I just thought it looked nice, and since it was my favorite color, I thought why not?"

Ino further examined the flower and said, "You've got a good eye for flowers."

I didn't know what to think of that, so I said, "Um, thanks!"

She handed the flower back to me, and I took it. I left with a wave as she called out, "Come back again soon!" I just smiled and nodded, getting the odd feeling that I would be here again soon, and left.

I checked the time, which read 8:34. I'd spent about a half an hour wandering around Konoha and being in the flower shop. That Ino person seemed really nice! I'll have to come back sometime. With that thought, I headed off in a random direction I hadn't taken yet and started wandering again. I passed by a large building with a playground inside. That's got to be the Academy that Sakura was talking about.

As I was wandering around I spotted a large wooden building that seemed different from the rest of the buildings surrounding it, and it was kind of off to the side. I was debating whether or not to go inside or not when I remembered that I had my map. The map will probably show me what that building is, because it's no normal building, that's for sure. I got my map out, unrolled it, and found the building I was looking for. It was listed simply as "Hyuga Clan." Hyuga? Wonder who those are? I decided not to go inside, just in case it was a private residence or something, and continued wandering.

I meandered around the village for the rest of the time, not really doing anything but walking, sight-seeing and killing time. I must've enjoyed walking a lot, because 9:45 came way too fast for my tastes. Oh, well. Time to go to the bridge.