I came face to face with a teen girl who looked about my age. She had honey brown eyes and beautiful auburn hair that was tied into a high ponytail with a large, Christmas red ribbon. Even with her hair pulled up it fell a few inches past her shoulders. I looked at it with awe as she bowed and her hair spilled over her shoulders.

Two thoughts came to mind.
Her hair is so long that it spills over her shoulders...
Why in the world is she bowing?

Observing her appearance further, I saw that she had a dark blue kimono with detailed, soft pink butterflies stitched onto it. Lastly, she had on a pair of rope sandals. I was a little confused at the outfit, but assumed she cosplayed and that she was probably just dressed up as an anime character. Shrugging mentally to myself, I remembered the times I had always wanted to cosplay, but was too young to buy or make my own clothing for it.

"Did you not hear me, or are you just deaf?" I heard the girl giggle out, bringing a hand up to her face to hide the smile on her lips. There was no doubt that she thought I was a spacehead. I muttered a soft grumble to myself under my breath, bringing my right hand up to rub the back of my neck in embarrassment.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm not deaf. And I wouldn't know if it had rained or not, I'm not exactly..." I paused, debating on how much information I should give this stranger. After looking her over and seeing the confused, slightly concerned expression on her face, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask for directions.

"I'm not really from around here. Could I please have some directions to the closest city?" The girl cocked her head to the side, her concerned look deepening as she furrowed her brows.

"City? Do you mean one of the Hidden Villages?" I blinked at her response. Though looking her over once again, I settled with reminding myself that she was probably a big anime fan.

"Yes, please."

She stared at me for what felt like a long time, thought it couldn't have been more than 15 seconds. A mixture of uncertainty and suspicion graced her face, her eyes looking me up and down. Hesitantly, her eyes met mine again before she nodded.

"I'm on my way to a smaller village about two hours outside of the outskirts of Amegakure. I can lead you there and point you in the direction of Ame." Her eyes looked sullen and distant as she turned, motioning with her hand for me to follow her.

I turned around and leaned back down to drink another handful or two of water. I splashed some water on my face and neck to cool myself down a little before finally standing back up and jogging to catch up with her.

A little over two hours later, the girl in the kimono and I parted ways. When she said small village, she really meant small. There were around 15 medium sized huts and a small population of people. They had made their little village in a clearing, the large branches from the trees around it providing shelter and secrecy from the sky. They were like Amish people! It made me wonder how the girl could even know what anime was, but I didn't dwell on it.

It helped me out, somewhat. Perhaps I was being pranked by my friends, and my mother had stayed out late to ensure that I would be out like a light whenever I did fall asleep. She knew that I waited up for her whenever she went out. Maybe they just took me to some Amish place?

That was going a bit far in the pranking area though.

"Just keep walking east and eventually you'll see some really tall buildings. That's how you'll know you're in Ame." The girl in the kimono had told me. On our walk to the village, she told me her name. She said her name was Hatsu, but I don't think I really believed her. I think that's what she wishes she was named. I thanked her for taking me as far as she did and for giving me directions.

"My grandparents have taught me that one act of kindness can change a person's whole world with the right timing." Was her cheerful reply. It made me smile a little. You never hear people talk like that much anymore.

I couldn't stop snickering in my head at the name of the 'Hidden Village' though. Amegakure? It sounds like the name of a fish.

The time began to pass faster the more I paid attention to the land before me. Instead of letting myself drown in my thoughts, I focused on each tree branch I stepped or climbed over and each thorn brush that I carefully pushed out of the way before slowly maneuvering myself around.

Staring at a landscape that was practically the same got boring after awhile though, and the exhaustion and annoyance inside of me grew. The girl told me under no circumstances should I walk on the road, that it would be too dangerous. The United States wasn't that dangerous, was it? The crime rate wasn't crazy in the area I lived in. Of course it's always best to walk with at least one other person, but usually I got around fine and without being bothered! This is a forest, too. It's not like bandits will drop from the sky and take everything I have.

I don't hate nature, I just prefer not to be dropped in the middle of nowhere, especially without a damn water bottle. Speaking of water...

"Oh, come on!" I seethed quietly, bringing my foot up out of a large puddle. Just my luck to stop giving my full attention the moment I get to flooded land. All around me there were large puddles. Puddles that I had no choice but to step through.

"This is so gross..." I mumbled to myself, carefully wading through a puddle that came up to my shin.

It was getting so cold... My throat began to burn painfully a long time ago from dehydration. Each time I swallowed I could feel exactly how dry it had gotten from my panting, and trust me, it was no fun.

My legs were so cramped I could hardly walk. The wind had begun to blow hard, causing violent shivers to wrack down my spine. It was getting darker, and I couldn't tell if the end of the day was truly coming or if it was just a storm. Why was it so freaking cold?

I got an answer to my previous question when bright flashes of lightening lit up the sky and thunder roared loudly from above. It began to pour down rain.

I wish I had stayed in that small village with that girl. I wish I had stayed there until my mother showed up, until she and my friends apologized for the unnecessarily extreme prank they had played on me. I wish that I was at Amegakure already. But most of all, I wish that I wasn't alone in this forest.

Sever thunderstorms had never scared me much before, but I had never actually been outside, right in the middle of one, while one was happening.

I shivered violently for the 100th time, pulling my soaked hoodie tighter to my body despite knowing it would do no good. The rain was pouring so hard, I could hardly see in front of me. I was reduced to a limp from the cramps, trudging slowly through the puddles that got bigger and deeper the more that it rained.

I could see bright specks of light fading in and out of the corners of my eyes, and I knew that I would pass out from exhaustion soon. I needed to find shelter. Somewhere that wasn't flooded.

I heard a loud, metal clang from somewhere ahead of me. I froze and kept my shivering body as still as I could.

"Who's out t-there?" I called out, gritting my teeth to try and keep them from chattering as I spoke. After a minute or two of listening to the rain beat down on the forest, I laughed bitterly to myself. So now I'm hallucinating, huh? Perfect...

And then my breath was taken away as something hit me in the stomach. I yelled out loudly in pain and collapsed down to my knees, nearly toppling myself over into the water. I held myself steady with one hand in the mud while I clutched at my stomach with my other hand, whimpering when my fingers caused another violent ripple of pain throughout my stomach. There was something sticking out of my body! Something stabbed me!

I brought my hand up close to my face to see blood. As I brought my hand down, I saw somebody's legs standing in the puddle in front of me. I barely had enough time to let out a terrified shriek before I felt them either hit or kick me hard in the head. I was knocked unconscious as my head slammed down into the mud.

A/N: Oooh, this is quite a bit different from the first version of Chapter 2, huh? I hope this isn't confusing new readers too much. The older versions of the chapters will be deleted the moment I'm all caught up. :)

I'm sorry if this chapter seemed a little rushed and less detailed than the last one, but I was able to go over and edit the last one a lot over a span of time, while I've only looked over and edited this one 2-3 times. Maybe I'll be able to get the rewritten version of chapter three up by Tuesday night!