Author's Note: Heddoes, people! You have all been very awesome, I must say. To thank you, and also to sustain you guys in case I can't keep up with my schedule again, I shall give you a preview of what is to come—the chapter titles of the next three chapters, and the character that the chapters shall surround. I did say everyone would get their time in the spotlight, didn't I?

Chapter 4 is "A Ninja's Shattered Dreams: The Loss of Konoha...!!"Obviously, this is a Naruto chapter. I try to title chapters in the similar style that the series' chapters were named.

Chapter 5 is "Facing the Truth," and the chapter is about Ash Ketchum. This should make my fangirl editor happy.

Chapter 6- "Prayer of the Refugee," a Spike chapter. Cowboy Bebop titled their episodes after songs, so…

And that's it. Now on to this chapter, Chapter Three: True Heritage. (An Arella chapter)

"Can we leave now?"

"Nooooo…"

"Are we leaving soon?"

"Nooooo…"

"How long before we get to leave?"

"Nooooo…"

Arella groaned. Haruko was being difficult, watching their squad practice fighting with a dazed look on her face. Arella had practiced some, but without her swords, everyone easily surpassed her. It didn't help that she was anticipating her first day of ninja training. It also didn't help that she was really, really bored.

Sakura Kinomoto, whose name was pronounced Sa-kur-ra, sat down beside Arella at the edge of the arena. "Are you okay?" she asked, speaking in Japanese. "You look tired."

Arella took a moment to mentally switch between languages. "I'm not tired," Arella sighed. "I'm bored… I wanna go start my training with Sakura," she said, enunciating this name as Sa-ku-ra.

Sakura looked away, changing the subject. "Umm, I thought your brother was an alchemist…"

Arella quirked her eyebrow. "Yeah, so's my dad. Why?"

Sakura shrugged. "Well, it's just… I thought that a person could only be one or the other—a ninja or an alchemist—and that a world could only have certain body types for everyone… But your brother and you have different abilities…"

Arella nodded. "Yeah, I see what you mean—it doesn't make much sense. Well, my mom was very different from everyone on our world. She probably had some sort of different body-type gene, and I inherited it, while Kuzon inherited dad's gene. Well, I think it's something like that... Hey, where'd you get those shoes? You didn't have them yesterday."

Sakura looked down at her pink converse, lifting her leg up in the air to get a better look. "Oh, these? One of the refugees traded them to me for some old things I didn't need… Do you like them?"

"They're adorable," Arella said brightly, "and they look real cute on you."

Sakura smiled, giggling. "Thanks, you're so nice… I like your hair."

Arella tugged at her bangs subconsciously. "Hah, you don't have to compliment me just because I complimented you."

The both of them laughed, but their cheer was soon drowned out by the sound of Haruko's painful groan. "You girls just keep talking, and talking, and talking and talking and talking… Why won't you stoooop?"

Not wanting to anger their sergeant, Sakura and Arella fell into silence. Arella watched her friends spar, only mildly interested.

The Papa Roach squad had eight girls. Robin and Jinx were currently sparring. Robin was the oldest of the squad, and was in fact the young woman who had given Zuko her seat at the train station. Arella hadn't gotten to know her very well, but she did know that Robin was just as nice as she'd seemed that first day. Her ability was something like firebending, but less of an art and more of a pyrokinesis: she could create fire at any point- in the air, on the ground or an object, just by looking at it. She was also able to block Jinx's magical attacks.

Jinx was a strange girl. Her hair was like pink cotton-candy, put up in big, bulky pigtails that stood on end. Her skin was grey, her eyes the same color as her hair, and her clothes were a combination of a circus performer's and a Goth's, black and dark purple stripes covering her stockings and uniform. Arella wondered if she was color blind.

Arella had heard of an older version of Jinx on her world, and from that she knew that this girl was a very powerful witch. She called her powers "the elemental magic of bad luck," whatever that was supposed to mean. With a wave of her hand she sent bright pink waves through the air that either knocked you backward or caused some sort of "bad luck" to occur for you. Robin's glasses had fallen off when the latter effect occurred, which Robin claimed to be "the worst luck I could have in battle."

Then there was Winry and Asuka. Neither of them were professional fighters, though Asuka obviously had more training than Winry. Winry, a girl with long blonde hair, gray-white shirt and patched shorts, was a mechanic. She specialized in automail—metal arms and legs—but was also helping to build ships and vehicles, which Asuka piloted.

Arella didn't like Asuka all that much; she often gloated about her piloting skills, and was very bossy and rude, even to Haruko. Arella had heard someone say that her long, fiery red hair was matched by her fiery temper. And Asuka had even thrown a rather violent temper tantrum the other day, ranting at the frogs in German, or at least Arella thought it was German. When Arella had asked what Asuka specialized in piloting, she'd responded rather dully, "Nothing this second-rate army could ever put together."

Then there was Sakura H. and Shita. Shita didn't stand a chance against Sakura, so the kunoichi had resigned from actually fighting her and was showing her a few defensive moves instead. Shita was very quiet, and like Robin, Arella didn't really know her just yet—but she had heard that Shita was a witch with very rare powers. If this was true, Shita certainly wasn't showing that now, as she stumbled through some steps Sakura was showing her. As Arella watched, she swung her leg a bit too fast and fell over. She ran her hand through her short brown hair as she laughed this off, and then brushed off her baggy, blue pants.

And of course, Arella felt that Sakura the kunoichi could easily be her new best friend. Her hair was a very light pink—more like Haruko's hair than Jinx's—and her eyes a dull green. She was funny and smart, and knew all sorts of things about chakra, which Arella was going to learn to use once Haruko sent them off. Of course, it wasn't like Arella liked Sakura best because it would be convenient for her training—she was just impressed by the fact that she was a ninja.

"Hey, Ari-mari-tari!"

Arella looked up at Haruko, who was insistent on talking to her in English even though their squad spoke Japanese. "Yeah?"

"Aren't you going to ask me something?"

It took a moment for Arella to realize what she meant. "Can we go now?"

The crazed alien winked. "You bet'cha!" She then looked at Sakura H.. "Sakura-chan, Juppun de osokunachatta! Arera-chan no sei da!"

Sakura paused abruptly, then bowed to Shita before running up to the arena's edge. Just as Arella had switched her mind back to Japanese again, the kunoichi was prompting her to hurry, and leading her to "The Shinobi's Arena," where they'd be training for the rest of the day.

"I'm so excited!" Arella said cheerfully, "I get to learn how to be a real ninja!"

"You will if you train hard enough," Sakura said. "Don't expect it to be easy."

"Oh no, I don't think it'll be easy at all," Arella gushed as they walked through the long halls. "I know how hard it is to master a skill. My dad taught me how to use the dual broadswords, and he didn't give me any slack."

Sakura glanced at her over her shoulder, smiling. "If you understand what hard work is, I think you'll do fine. It's what got me and my friends this far."

"Yeah, same here… Will I get to meet your friends today?"

Sakura nodded. "I told them to wait for us… but we're already a little late. You'll like them- Naruto's really annoying, baka, but he's also a good friend. And then Sasuke…" She let out the sigh of a hopeless romantic.

Here it goes, Arella thought.

"He's sooooo cool! He's the best! He can be a little moody sometimes, especially these days in the army, but you won't mind that. You'll see what I mean when you meet him.

"Just don't wind up falling for him," she said.

Arella laughed a bit at this. "Don't worry, I won't."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive."

Sakura smiled at her, then looked ahead. "We're here. Wow, we got a lot of people this month- they've blocked up the entrance."

Sakura dragged her through the crowd of headband-less newbs, across the threshold, out to the front of the shinobi arena. What Arella saw next made her gasp.

Tall wooden poles reached up to the ceiling along the wall closest to them. Many shinobi were running up these poles, some nearly reaching the top. They left a mark in the wood with their kunai when they couldn't go further and were forced to fall, flipping in the air and landing neatly on their feet. Near this wall was a long pool, the water no deeper than a foot, shinobi darting across the water's surface. At the far side of the room, what looked like archery targets were placed at every angle, but instead of arrows, kunai and shuriken were being hurled at them, some shinobi throwing at three or four targets at once.

Arella stared in awe, watching the shinobi accomplish feats she thought she'd never be capable of. Her excitement was suddenly torn down by intimidation and anxiety, and she started to back up towards the crowd. "W-whoa… "

Sakura laughed. "Pretty cool, isn't it? C'mon, my friends are waiting over… Are you okay?"

Arella shook her head. "I-I don't know... I just feel kind of pathetic right now."

Sakura patted her on the back, and then gently pushed her further into the room. "Don't worry, no one's expecting anything from you. Your Japanese alone will impress everyone."

"My Japanese is bad," Arella muttered, watching a shinobi defy gravity and nearly reach the top of a pole, only to curse as he fell just before reaching his goal.

"Your Japanese will impress everyone," Sakura repeated, now pulling on Arella's arm as she led her to the other side of the room.

As they advanced on Sakura's two friends, who stood near the shallow pool, Arella vaguely recognized one of them. She'd caught sight of him the other day when their squad leaders had fought; the boy's wild blonde hair was forced to stand up by the blue headband he wore. His wide blue eyes held a sense of curiosity, and for some reason she was reminded of a fox when she looked at him. It helped that he had what looked like whiskers on his face, three long, thin streaks—not quite scars but not quite anything else either. The orange jacket he wore and his somewhat tan skin had him standing out against the crowd of other ninja; most wore darker, less vivid clothing, their skin pale, much like the boy who stood beside the blond. This boy's dark blue shirt was close in color to his coal black hair and eyes, his baggy gray shorts a shade darker than his skin. He was spinning a kunai, a ninja's dagger. One finger wavered through the dagger's looped end, his facial expression quite jaded and bored.

"Arella-chan, these are my friends, Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun."

The blonde peered at Arella. "So, you're the girl Sakura-chan told us about…" He suddenly grinned, chuckling as he leaned towards his moody companion. "Since she's Sakura-chan's friend, I bet she'll become a real shinobi!"

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched, but other than that he didn't respond, his kunai still spinning endlessly.

Arella tugged at her long bangs, pulling them out of her face. "I'm sorry, but I thought girl 'ninja' were called kunoichi. Am I wrong?"

Naruto's eyes widened, shocked by this statement. After a moment he grinned again, though his chuckle was more nervous now. "Eee, your Japanese is better than mine, dattebayo!"

Sakura laughed as well, patting Arella on the back. "You see? I told you you've got nothing to worry about."

Arella smiled, her excitement growing again. "Thanks, Sakura-chan. Oh, this is so cool…"

Sasuke's dagger stopped, the handle covered by his tight fist, as he spoke for the first time. "Don't get too excited—Kakashi-sensei won't be here for a while. New recruits often drop out for that reason alone."

Arella was startled by his harsh tone, but shrugged. "Don't worry about that. I'll wait until he gets here."

Sasuke's dark gaze shifted to her apathetically. "I was talking to Naruto-kun."

Arella gulped. She could see now what Sakura was talking about… and yet, she had no idea why Sakura liked him.

She looked at Naruto. "Who is Kakashi-sensei, anyway?"

Naruto glanced at the ceiling. "Anoo… he's a jounin from my world. He teaches us new techniques and makes sure we don't get rusty."

"What's a jounin?" Arella asked, eyebrow quirking.

"An elite shinobi," Sakura explained. "It's a rank we have on our world. Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun and I are all genin—apprentice shinobi."

"Oh… so I'm a genin too, right?"

There was a frighteningly long pause.

"Anoo…" Naruto drawled, "You're more like, a class below genin."

"Uh, okay… what's the class below genin?"

"There isn't one," Sasuke said boredly, spinning his kunai again. "Can we get back to training now?"

"Well, who's this?"

Glancing over her shoulder, Arella could see another boy approach them. He was the shinobi that had categorized her here, the white-eyed Neji Hyuuga.

Naruto pointed at Arella. "This is Arella-chan, Sakura's friend. She's going to be our first new kunoichi!"

First new kunoichi? What does that mean? "Nice to meet you, fellow shinobi," Arella said with an awkward bow. She remembered how Neji had embarrassed that boy in front of everyone during their tests, but she still felt obligated to show him some respect.

Apparently, he didn't feel the same. The response she got was unexpected. "Don't give me that 'fellow shinobi' crap."

Arella swung out of her bow. "What?"

Neji grunted pompously. "You heard me. You think that just because you were born with our chakra that you can call yourself a kunoichi? That's absurd. Your heritage is of the Fire Nation, not the Fire Clan. Even if you tried to copy us, you'd just be fooling yourself. You cannot become something that is a whole world away from you—so do yourself a favor and just give up now."

Naruto glared. "Temeeeeee," he growled angrily, fox eyes narrow.

But Arella motioned for him to stop. "I've got this, Naruto-kun," she said quickly, daring to glare back at Neji. "Alright, Hyuuga-san. If what you're saying is true, and I can't learn anything, then what's the point of this class?"

"To train those who are meant to be trained," Neji replied coldly. "To teach those who come from a world like ours."

Arella placed her hands on her hips. "What is this, some kind of prejudice?"

"No," he said flatly, "that's just how it works. You could try to learn something, but you have no prior experience, and with our instructor missing for half of every class, you'd have nothing to start from. Most new recruits here give up on the first day, but with your stubborn attitude…" he smirked lightly, "I'll give you about a week."

Neji was right about one thing. As Arella turned to look around the room, she watched his statement solidify to fact: several recruits were now walking out the door as they spoke.

She was brought away from this scene by Naruto's cry. "He doesn't know what he's talking about, Arella-chan! You could become a kunoichi if you really wanted to!"

"Don't listen to him," Neji snapped. "He's full of nothing but false hope."

Naruto twitched, but luckily Sasuke intervened. "Listen, both of you quit arguing over this, okay? I've had enough of listening to you guys argue the last time recruits came."

Neji's gaze turned to Sasuke. "Don't tell me you're siding with this, this mockery of us, Uchiha!"

Sakura stepped forward. "Of course he is, you-"

"I'm not siding with anyone," Sasuke said quickly. "But even if you two yelled at each other until Kakashi-sensei arrives, Arella is going to do what she wants to. It's none of our business."

There was a dark glaring match between the three of them. Naruto even shot a few looks at Sasuke. Then Neji nodded to them both. "That's fair enough, I suppose… and it doesn't matter anyway. We all know what she's going to do," he said, looking back at Arella again.

Arella crossed her arms. "You have no idea what I'll do, Neji Hyuuga."

"Hai," he replied, keeping his sarcastic tone clear. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some training to do…"

Once his back was turned, Naruto took a step towards the nasty shinobi, but froze when Sasuke's hand reached his shoulder. "Don't do anything stupid, Dobe," Sasuke said warningly. "Remember what Yubabba said."

Naruto shrugged him off, watching Neji leave. "I don't care what that old hag says—that Hyuuga, that baka."

"The Neji from our dimension wasn't so bad…" Sakura muttered. "I miss him…"

Another uncomfortable silence was all it took to show Arella the length of history these three friends had. She stood there quietly, wondering what they were thinking, wondering if their expressions really showed how gloomy they were…wondering if she really should just walk out the door and quit interfering.

And just like that, each turned and left without saying a word to each other. Sakura went over to one of the tall wooden poles, performing a brief hand sign before dashing up its surface. Naruto got in line to run across the shallow pool. And Sasuke, kunai in hand, strode over to the targets covering the far side of the room.

And Arella, with no one there to instruct her, spun full circle as she sat down, legs crossed, hands at her knees, and began meditating. And she really, really wanted to be an alchemist like her brother.

End part 1

Credits: Haruhara Haruko, Fooly Cooly; Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuuga, Naruto; Robin, Witch Hunter Robin; Jinx, Teen Titans; Sakura Kinomoto, Cardcaptor Sakura; Shita, Castle in the Sky; Winry Rockbell, Fullmetal Alchemist; Asuka Langley Soryu, Evangelion.

Arella is a character I created, based off of Teen Titans and Avatar.