A/N: Okay, so this chapter should be pretty short. The exploring isn't so much the important part…it's what happens closer to the end. You'll see what I mean.
Okay, I bet some of you want to know what my made up characters look like. I'll give a brief description of them. (When I say brief, I usually make it long. I can make the shortest paragraph into a novel, trust me.)
Kaori - Originally, when I first made her up, she had long brown hair, but lately I've changed it to light blue. Before her brother and Itachi betrayed their clans, she had long blue hair usually in low pigtails, but afterwards she cut her hair (sort of like Sakura did in the Chunin exams) so people wouldn't recognize her. Now her hair is long again, maybe to the middle of her back, but she wears it down. Her skin…like Sakura's, I guess. Pale-ish. She has dark green eyes originally. Her eyes, however, change colors with her mood. Light green or blue for happy, Dark blue for sad, Black for emotionless (or slightly angry), red for really angry, dark green for romantic (loving, caring, etc.)…you get the point. But that only starts after her fight with Orochimaru, when her power was unleashed. An additional fact: she hates spiders.
Shiru - He has spiky hair like Naruto, except they're thin, long spikes that droop to the sides (That's what gravity does to your hair). He has light brown hair. His skin is a bit darker than Kaori's, but lighter than Naruto's. He's two years older than Kaori, so he's just a bit taller. He has forest green eyes, sort of like Kaori's eyes, and has a scar in the shape of an X on his left cheek.
Hatori - He has what seems like black hair, but it's really a super dark purplish-blue. I can't really describe his hairstyle…it's like, it flairs out on the sides over his headband (which is worn on his forehead. Kaori and Shiru do that too). It doesn't droop down (an example of defying gravity). His eyes are narrow and a deep purple. His skin is pale, like Sasuke. He has a sort of…evil aura to him. But he's not evil at all. His personality is a lot like Neji and Sasuke's personality put together. He's strong like Kaori…but no one knows much about him or his past. (I do, because I made him! :D)
Mizu - Since she came originally from our world, the 3D planet Earth, she has normal features. Dark brown hair put up in a ponytail that doesn't quite reach her shoulders. She has brown eyes, barely noticeable freckles, and sort of tan skin, as well as blue nail polish. She wears her head band around her neck. Her personality is like Tenten's.
Ramuki - He also came from our world. He has brown hair, like Mizu, sort of like the main character from that new show, Bakugan. He wears his headband either on his head or tied to his arm like Shikamaru. He also has brown eyes, but no freckles. His personality is a lot like Kiba's.
Any comments? Questions? Concerns? PM me!
Thanks to my new reviewer, shadowstorm13, for reviewing! And thanks always to boo56, Arvoctix, and Rambler Kaolin. Now on with the story!
Chapter 10 - Exploring…Ninja Style!
--Somewhere in Naruto's world--
A pitch black cave was where he stood. All alone, he thought, but then again who could see anyone in this cave?
Suddenly, a loud crumbling sound was heard from above him. Desperate to get away, he scrambled away to the farthest wall he could find, safe from the falling rocks. Or even better, another opening that would lead to an exit from this cave of death. Needless to say, a wall was all he could find. At least he was far enough away from being crushed by rocks.
How did I end up here? He thought, sighing. The last thing he remembered was racing through the forest after someone, who he thought was Deidara of the Akatsuki. He, as a jounin ninja of the Leaf, did his best to catch Deidara, even though he wasn't from his village. Of course, he wasn't positive of the identity of the man he was chasing but…
He sure looked like a girl wearing a ponytail. He smirked at this thought. Plus, he looked like he was wearing some sort of black cloak or something…the one that the Akatsuki wear.
And then he remembered chasing him into a cave, and then losing him. Rocks fell and blocked the entrance he had come in through. And through it all, he couldn't help but wonder…
…Was this all just a trap?
As Harry, Hermione, and Ron walked away from the ninja to enjoy their break in peace, the ninja were planning where to explore first.
"Well," Kiba said, "There is a small little hut down there near that forest. Maybe we can check it out. Y'know, see who lives there and stuff."
Kaori smiled inwardly, knowing exactly who lived in that small hut made for a rather large someone. But what was the point of telling them and ruining their fun? They can figure it out for themselves, she thought.
"I'll beat you there!" Naruto exclaimed. He sprinted towards the hut, with Kiba right behind him (and, soon enough, in front of him). The others ran a little slower, not wanting to be caught up in the race.
When they all reached the hut, Naruto was yelling at Kiba, saying something about "not being fair" and "dirty cheater". Kiba was leaning against the hut, trying to act cool and waving to the rest of the group as they arrived at the scene, all the while ignoring Naruto's angry yells.
Naruto stopped yelling and decided to ignore Kiba as well. "So, should we knock, go through a window, or what?"
"Knock first Naruto," Kaori said quickly. After all, only she (and Ramuki, but he wouldn't say anything) knew about who lived there. Best to get on his good side, if he was there. Not that he got mad often, but just to be safe.
Naruto sighed and knocked rather loudly. "Open up!" Naruto yelled, in a rather unwelcoming, "Or else" way.
He was answered by an even louder "WOOF!" and then a bang against the door. Whatever was in there didn't seem to like company, it seemed.
Kiba tried as well, only to be answered with a bark that seemed more like a roar and an even more vigorous bang against the door. At this, Kiba got angry. No other dog could show him up like that. (Kiba knew it was a dog.)
"Akamaru!" Kiba exclaimed. Akamaru barked and jumped onto his back. Kiba did hand signs for his jutsu: Beast Mimicry. (A/N: And All Fours Jutsu or whatever it's called? That's why I didn't add that in, 'cause I didn't really know what it was called.)
"Come on Akamaru!" Kiba hissed. "FANG OVER FANG!"
And with that, he burst through the wall and scared the rather large mutt into the "backyard" of the hut, his tail under his legs.
"Haha, was that good or what?!" Kiba laughed.
"Very nice Kiba," Kaori stated simply. "Since you're so smart, maybe you can find a way to explain the hole in the wall to Hagrid."
Everyone (except Ramuki) gasped. "HAGRID?!"
Kaori smirked. "Yeah, the guy who lives here. Don't worry, he's awfully nice. But I thought that it would be better to get on his good side and make a good first impression."
Kiba hadn't shown it before, but Kaori could tell: He was afraid of Hagrid. Not because he was mean or anything, of course. And, sure, Kiba had seen large people and animals. But he had never seen a nice giant. (That's what you get for living in Naruto's world where almost everything is a possible threat.)
Kaori giggled to herself. These people are too predictable.
"Hehehehehehehehehehehe…"
He looked around, trying to find out where the barely audible, evil laugh was coming from. But no matter how hard he tried, it always seemed as if the sound was coming from every corner of the room.
Genjutsu? He thought. Seeing as that seemed like the only possible solution, besides him being stupid, he tried to release the genjutsu.
The laughing stopped. He smiled inwardly, thinking that he had gotten it right…it was genjutsu. Unfortunately, he had forgotten another possible explanation.
What if there was…
…more than one person?
Next thing he knew, torches he had not noticed before lit up, scattered on the wall, revealing several exits to other rooms…
Plus, several men surrounding him.
Amongst the men was a very familiar face.
"Deidara?"
Everyone else ran out of the house while Kiba desperately tried to fix the wall. Kaori, however, stayed behind for a second.
"You still want to explore, right?" Kaori asked.
"More than this," Kiba grumbled.
Kaori performed a hand seal, and in a split second, the wall was fixed.
Kiba gasped. "How did you do that?! I didn't know there was a jutsu for fixing walls!!"
"I don't believe there is," Kaori replied. "This is genjutsu. Since Hagrid doesn't know how to release genjutsu, this should work until tonight."
Kiba nodded and ran out of the door after the others. Kaori let Fang, Hagrid's dog, back inside the house and ran after Kiba.
Kiba and Kaori found the others assembled in front of one wall of the castle, looking up.
"Think we can get up there?" Naruto asked, as Kaori and Kiba approached.
"Shadow clones might work," Kaori told him. She looked around for someone who might see them and then signaled Naruto to begin. Naruto nodded and performed the hand seal.
"MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!!!"
At least forty or so Narutos appeared. They all cheered and then proceeded to stacking up on top of each other. Once they all were stacked up and everyone had made sure that no one else could see them, they climbed up, one by one, onto the roof of the castle. Kaori just transported up there. (She, being the Kiu Shinobi, knew how to do that.) The real Naruto was clinging to the roof. When everyone had climbed up, all the other Narutos disappeared and the real Naruto scrambled up.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Naruto said, grinning cheesily.
No one replied, for they were too busy gazing at the extraordinary sight before them. I didn't know the castle was THAT tall! Kaori thought, amazed. It was as if they could see everything, as if they were looking down on the entire world.
The others' fantasies were interrupted by Naruto and Ramuki's excited yells to the other students on break who were, obviously, on the ground.
Kaori and Kiba pulled the two idiots away from the edges of the roof and lectured them about being careful and whatever else they felt like telling them. Then they all walked carefully to the closest window, being careful not to fall. Once they had reached the window, which was quite small, Kaori peered into it.
"What do you see?" Ino asked. Everyone's head whipped towards Ino, surprised that she had been with them the whole time and hadn't really said anything. Ino blushed, and looked down. Ever since they had come to this world, she had felt uneasy, so her usual preppy personality had lost most of its pep…for the time being at least.
In response to the question Ino had asked, and partly to break the silence, Kaori said, "I see Professor McGonagall, so this must be the Transfiguration classroom." She paused for a second, while Ino fidgeted uneasily, hoping the attention was now only on Kaori.
Kaori continued. "Hmmm…I believe Hinata was supposed to be in this class…She just told me this morning…Her schedule, that is…Oh! There she is! And Temari, Hatori and Neji! I forgot that Hatori had this class at this time." Kaori desperately tried to get their attention, but to no avail.
Naruto pushed Kaori away from the window and also attempted to catch their attention with his trademark, "DATTEBAYO!"
Hinata's head perked up, and she looked from side to side. Then, she looked up and caught Naruto's eye. Naruto smiled at her and she blushed back. She delicately tapped Temari's shoulder and whispered something to her. Temari looked up at Naruto, smiled, whispered something to Hatori, and so on.
Naruto waved back, once again grinning cheesily. However, his grinning and waving was abruptly ended by the rest of the group pushing past him to see inside. They all tried to peek into the small window at the same time.
Naruto got up and, despite being pushed over, grinned (again) triumphantly at Kaori as if to say, "Ha! I got their attention and YOU didn't! HA!"
Kaori rolled her eyes. Forget Naruto's stupid, obnoxious side, which unfortunately made up more than 90% of his personality. Remember that there was exploring to do, and there wasn't much time to do it.
She quietly tiptoed to the next window, hoping not to catch the attention of anyone in the group and have them run HER over. If they did that, she'd have to jump out of the way and most likely fall off the stupid roof, they were so close to the edge. Heck, if they did that, she'd jump out of the way AND drag Naruto down with her. Two for the price of one.
Shaking those thought out of her head, Kaori placed her head against the dusty window and peeked in. It was empty of any person and looked like some sort of office or something. The walls were empty of any decoration, except a clock. The desk was old and rickety, it seemed, and it looked as if there was a layer of dust on top of it. Ewww, Filch. You'd think if someone was caretaker, they'd take care of things. But noooo. Maybe the old geezer forgot what caretaker meant and thought it had something to do with torturing students or something…
On top of the desk, she noticed papers, a quill pen, and ink. Nothing else. Strange…there aren't even desk drawers, I don't think. Are all the things in that filing cabi…?
Before she could finish her thought, the window creaked as if it were about to break. Kaori quickly took her weight off the window. Then she noticed something which she had not noticed before. The window had hinges.
That's even stranger, she thought. None of the other windows have hinges. I wonder…
She carefully tried to grab the side of the window opposite the hinges and pulled. The window creaked again as it moved out. She pulled a little harder. The window opened a little more. Finally, she gave it one last tug and the window opened completely, revealing a clearer image of the dark, dusty room.
Kaori glanced over at the group. They were talking amongst themselves and still trying to look inside the window. This was her chance.
She quickly jumped into the room and landed on the hard stone floor which looked as if it hadn't been swept in ages.
After closing the window behind her, she got a good look at the room. Dirty, dusty, cold, and dark could easily describe the room. It looks like it's abandoned or something. Clearly, no one had been taking care of the room.
Then she realized that no one could take care of the room, unless they came from the window she had come from. There was no door.
"Weird," Kaori muttered to herself. Weirder yet…how come the papers on the desk looked new? And the quill?
Kaori shrugged this off and walked over to the filing cabinet. She gave one of the drawers a firm tug, but it didn't open. Neither did any of the others. They were all locked. But there's no keyholes…maybe it's magic?
She searched her memory for a spell that unlocked things, and remembered the spell Alohomora. She tried it on the drawers, but nothing happened, not even the slightest movement.
Kaori was about to try again, when she heard noises from above her. Obviously, the others were moving on, and possibly looking for her.
She moved briskly towards the window, attempting to make it up there before that noticed that she was gone.
But then, passing by the desk, some words on the top paper caught her eye.
It said: Kiu Shinobi
He gaped at the men, surprised by their sudden appearance and afraid of what they would do next. His focus, at the moment, was on Deidara. Deidara grinned back in an almost childish way.
"Nice to see you…
…Asuma Sarutobi."
Asuma cursed inwardly, but tried not to show his fear to the Akatsuki men. "I can't say the same to you. Sorry."
"No offense taken," Deidara said. None of the men moved during the silence that followed Deidara's words.
Taking a step back, Asuma realized that if he was to get out of there alive, he would have to fight. But how long could he last against these men?
Obviously, they were all elite ninja, and masters of all types of Shinobi techniques. This could be dangerous, but if he wanted to stay alive, he'd have to fight for his life. But how to get away? Well, he could try using clones to make a diversion and then get away…but was that too childish of a move? It seemed like something a genin would do. Suddenly a great idea popped into his head. I have the perfect idea! Now let's just wait for them to make a move…
Before he could do or say anything, he felt a sharp, painful stab in his upper back. Within seconds, all feeling was gone, and everything went black.
As Asuma fell to the ground, blood spurting from his wound, a blue-faced man pulled his large sword out of Asuma's back.
"Nice to see you Asuma," Deidara muttered. "Dead, that is."
Still staring at the two words, Kaori failed to notice the others calling to her from above. Only when Naruto yelled "DATTEBAYO!" did she blink and move on towards the window. She didn't have time to look at the rest of the paper. She'd just have to come back later.
Kaori climbed out of the window carefully and found the others looking for her to her right. They'd missed the tiny window. Thank God.
She waved and yelled, "Hey! Guys! I'm over here!"
Their heads whipped around and their eyes connected with hers. They all ran over to her and asked her a bunch of questions about where she had been and such. She answered them the best she could, lying of course, without giving away any information about the dark room with no door, the widow with hinges, or the papers. They all bought it.
After that, they went to a few more windows before going back down to the ground and resting.
"That sure was something," Kiba said. "I have bruises all over me from all of you guys trying to hog the window."
"There's a reason why I didn't join you little kids," Kaori said, jokingly. "You're too rough."
"You're too soft, Kaori," Kiba joked back. "Ninjas can't play softly. You should know that."
That got Kiba a nice joking smack to the head.
"I've got an idea of where we can go next," Naruto said. "How about that forest over there?" He pointed towards the forest consisting of tall, dark looking trees.
"Oh, that's the Forbidden Forest," Kaori stated.
"Why's it called that?"
"Because it's forbidden to students. Obviously."
Everyone laughed at Naruto's stupidity. Naruto just growled and pouted stubbornly. "I mean, what's so forbidden about it?"
"It's supposed to be dangerous," Kaori told him.
No sooner had she said dangerous than Naruto ran off towards the forest followed by Kiba, and soon enough, the rest of the group including Kaori. They all ran straight into the forest without a moment's hesitation.
Naruto was the farthest into the forest, of course. Unfortunately, his excitement had turned to disappointment when he found no danger. Aww, darn. I was hoping for some excitement in this boring old place…
"Aww, this is boring," Kiba groaned, echoing Naruto's thoughts.
Suddenly, Kaori froze in her tracks.
"Kaori, are you okay?" Kiba asked.
"S-S-Spi-Sp-!"
"What?"
"Sp-Spi-." She gulped and whispered, "Spiders."
Everyone gasped and turned towards the giant spiders surrounding them. But, for some reason, they weren't attacking. In fact, it was as if they were clearing a path for the ninjas. The group walked slowly past the scary looking spiders until they came up to an even bigger spider, much taller and wider than them. It scared Kaori nearly to death, even though she already knew that the spider existed.
Then something surprising happened.
"Welcome."
The spider talked. But even more surprising than that…
"I've been waiting for you, young ninjas."
It knew their secret. And even more amazing…
"I have a surprising message that I'd learned from…from a fellow friend. As a result of it…" He looked at Kaori and Naruto. "…you two won't be going back to your world."
A/N: R&R!!!