A/N: Haha! I told you I'd update sooner! Well this chapter is mildly filler ish but it explains some things that, back when I was writing this, I didn't even realize couldn't possibly happen so I realize that it doesn't really coincide with the rest of the story now. But it makes it a little bit more realistic and it serves the plot and time-line well so either way it doesn't matter. It just furthers things along rather than having me waste my time on trivial things which I'm sure most of you have had enough of considering that Naruto nowadays mostly IS filler. Well anyway, enough of my rambling. On with the story!

Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto. If I did, Itachi would live and Sasuke would get a good bashing over the head for being stupid.

Mondays. How I despise Mondays. Do you wanna know why I knew it was Monday? Because Sasuke woke me up by splashing water on my face rather than going through the hassle of waking me up the way he usually does in the morning which is shaking me awake and me trying to dig myself further into bed in the hopes he'd leave me alone. I also knew it was Monday because when this particular little incident happened, I shrieked and promptly fell out of my bed and onto the floor, face first. Can anybody say "Ow?"

I groaned loudly and rolled over onto my back so I could stare up at said offending Uchiha and glare with an intense hatred. I think my nose broke, the jerk. "Is there a reason you had to do that?" I complained in a whiny, irritable tone, rubbing my nose as if it would help relieve the pain that was now throbbing on my face. He stood over me with his arms crossed over his chest. I could feel the water dripping off my face and onto the carpet. My hair was wet. My bed was wet. My clothes were wet. And now I was cold and tired and feeling extremely cranky. Did I ever mention I was really not a morning person? Curse you to the deepest pits of hell, Uchiha. One day… I will get back at you for the hell you have reaped upon me. I never should've let you stay you stupid hell child.

He gave me a sarcastic look as if reading my mind and rolled his eyes. "Yes, because you're extremely difficult to wake up in the morning so I used a more efficient method. What?" He looked at me as I glared ferociously at him. He stared back, eyebrow arched. My glare, unfortunately, was having little to no effect. If only I had the same glaring power as the almighty Uchiha standing near my head. Stupid boys and their stupid more awesome glares. Actually, it went more along the lines of, "Stupid Uchihas and their terrifyingly awesome glares." If you've ever been on the receiving end of one of their glares, you'd know what I was talking about. Those people really do know how to scare the pants off a person just by glaring at them.

With a long, drawn out sigh, I got up and shook my hair with my fingers to get rid of some of the moisture dripping from it, purposely trying to get it on Sasuke who smartly backed away to avoid the spray. Damn. "Well maybe you should find a different method. I mean, look at this!" I signaled to my bed. "I'm supposed to sleep in that! I don't want to sleep in a wet bed!" I complained.

"That's your problem. Maybe you should consider getting up earlier instead of being lazy," he replied simply.

"What time is it anyway?" I asked exasperated, deciding not to comment on his observation of my apparent laziness. I wasn't going to deny it since that would just be lying.

"It's 7:30." I moaned loudly and pressed my face against my pillow, still standing of course because a certain someone drenched my bed with water and lord only knew my face didn't need to get any wetter than it was.

"Let me go back to bed. It's summer and it's too early," came my muffled reply.

Had I been watching him, I probably would've seen his eye twitch. "Under Kakashi's reign, I had to get up at 4 in the morning. Regardless of whether or not it was summer. Don't complain."

I sensed his unsaid comment of how he had it worse than me and decided to be snarky about it. "Yeah well you're a ninja. Do I look like ninja material to you?" was my smartass remark.

"Sadly no. You're in every way a civilian. A lazy civilian. The people of my world were more hardworking than you," he scorned.

"Yeah well I'm not of your world, now am I? This is my world. And my house. And my room. Now get out of it so I can get dressed," I snapped, finally lifting my head to, again, glare at the cocky ninja leaning against my dresser. At my words, he sighed and left the room, shutting it behind him to lean against it.

"Just a warning, if you're not dressed within ten minutes and I walk in there and find you asleep, it won't be just you that gets wet," he threatened from behind my door.

Dammit. There goes my plan. I wanted to throttle the little 12 year old. Even my brother wasn't this obnoxious. Grumbling while pawing through my drawers for something to wear, I grabbed a white tank top and jean shorts and threw them on, combing hastily through my messy hair while cursing the black eyed Uchiha to every circle of hell I could think of. I think I got to the number of 34 when I shoved open the door, hoping to catch the boy off balance.

To my amusement, I did actually. I found him on his knees and slowly getting up to glare at me in irritation. Looking innocently back at him, I said, "What?"

"Tch. Let's get your mother. You're supposed to enroll me into your school or something, right?" he reminded me.

Oh yeah. I'd forgotten about that. School was a little over a month away. Well this really sucked. I'd pretty much pissed away my summer staying at home babysitting my brother when I could've been out with my friends. I should really call Holly by the way. I wondered if she needed any help with Itachi, though with her sister there, that was unlikely. Veronica could probably keep him amused somehow with her eccentric personality. "I'd really have to see that," I murmured to myself with a snort.

"Have to see what?" came a voice. Sasuke snapped me out of my musings and stared at me weirdly.

"Oh nothing. But I think before we get to the school, which probably won't be for a while yet anyway, I'm going to call a friend of mine to hang out with her. You don't mind staying here and keeping Jamie company do you?" I asked him. Jamie was his age after all, and he was a boy. They must find something in common to keep themselves amused. Who knows, maybe they could watch Naruto episodes – some of the beginning ones so as not to give anything away – and mock the blonde for his idiotic antics. He might even get a kick out of seeing Naruto try to be him. Though there was also the fact that it'd be slightly weird watching yourself and your teammates and then I thought the entire idea was probably a really bad one.

"No, I don't mind. Jamie wanted me to teach him some shinobi moves anyway. Don't worry, we won't be using any weapons and I'll make sure he doesn't hurt himself," he added to console me as he saw the horrified look on my face. Just the thought of Jamie being anywhere near a weapon or sharp object of any kind deeply concerned me.

When we were little kids, he'd grabbed one of the steak knives and started playing with it, not really realizing the danger. I'd told him over and over again to put it back but he didn't listen and ended up cutting his arm so badly that he had to go to the hospital. Seeing him lying in that white bed, so pale that his hair almost looked black in comparison, traumatized me and led me to believe that Jamie with anything sharp is not a good thing. I know he's older now and much more sensible, but that image never left my mind. I'd sworn to myself that I'd never let something like that happen again, that I'd never let him get hurt like that again.

It was for that reason that no one ever messed with my little brother because they knew big his sister would kick their asses to hell and back. Jamie never appreciated it because he wanted to be seen as more masculine and able to take care of himself, as is he a boy and boys tend to have big egos, but I was too concerned for him to worry about that. I never wanted anything to happen to him. I wanted to always be there for him, to protect him like an older sibling should. Then I wondered if this was also what Itachi felt for Sasuke, maybe still feels for him. He is his big brother after all and something that strong doesn't go away, no matter what happens or how much time goes by. You still look after your siblings no matter what, no matter how much grief you gave each other or how much you hated the sight of them for what they did or what they said. In the end, you still looked out for each other and stuck together through thick and thin.

"Katie?" Sasuke asked tentatively.

"Hm?" I responded distractedly.

"Are you okay? You have this weird look on your face."

I shook my head to rid myself of my thoughts. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just remembering something. Let's go find my mom, shall we?"

"There's no need. I'm right here. Anything you need?" a voice called from behind me. I turned around and saw her smiling face in the dark light of the hallway.

Smiling back, I said, "Yeah. Do you mind taking me and Sasuke to the school on your lunch break? We have to enroll him into the school somehow so he doesn't have to be stuck at home all day."

She gave me an intense stare. "You do know that this might be a very complicated process? We're going to need to give them records, files we don't have in order to enroll him into the school. And how do we explain his disappearance for when he leaves to go back to his own world?"

I hadn't thought about that. "Uh… make up some excuse that he has a family emergency and needed to go back to Japan? We are going to enroll him as a foreign exchange student. He has that oriental look and a bit of an accent so it could work," I made up on the spot. Hey, it sounded fairly logical, right?

Sasuke looked at me. "Exchange student?" he echoed.

"It's where a student from another country goes to enroll in another school from another country for a year," my mom explained. "And they live with a family in that country for the duration of their stay, usually with a student of the same year that goes to the school."

"Is it unusual for students to do that?" he asked curiously.

"Not generally. It's unusual for the rest of the students because there's a new kid at the school and we'll generally be curious about that since we go to a smaller school than most. But overall, it's sort of common," I replied.

"Hm. But what about these records you need?"

"We'll need a birth certificate or some sort of proof of your existence and other sorts of records to show you've had your shots and won't contract diseases that will be potentially threatening to the other student as well as a note signed by a doctor as proof. I'm not sure how the exchange student program works, but I don't think that enrolling him that way will work because the school would have been notified of something of the sort beforehand. Plus it wouldn't be their intention to have a male foreign exchange student room with a girl. And we can't just tell them that they forgot about some student who was apparently in the exchange student program because they do extensive research on the child before they become eligible to be an exchange student. As well as research on the family. We'll have to come up with something else." Well there goes my plan. Mom sure did know a lot about this.

"How do you know all this stuff anyway, Mom?" I asked suddenly. Sasuke was also equally interested.

"I was an exchange student myself. I went to Germany for a year and lived with a very nice family with another girl my age. I still talk to her once in a while, but my German is a little rusty since I haven't used it as much. Anyway I think it might be better if Sasuke didn't go to the school. We'd have to fake everything, birth certificates, the shots he's had, etc."

"But… we can do that though right? Fake everything I mean. It can't be that hard…" I really didn't think it was a good idea to keep Sasuke locked up in the house. He might go stir crazy and start destroying everything.

Okay maybe he wouldn't, but he would get bored and when he gets bored he tends to gain a bit of a sadistic side. And by sadistic I mean by forcing me to train with him, me, the complete opposite of an athlete as even he knew I was a complete sloth, someone who actually has aim and can actually run a decent pace. He says it'll help me get 'stronger' so I can defend myself. Psh. What do I need to do that for? No one in this world really ever gets that kind of training unless they do a martial arts or train to be in the army. Or unless they're in a different country. But either way, he knows how completely incompetent I am when it comes to this stuff and yet he makes me do it with him anyway. I refused to let him even go near Jamie when this happened and he agreed to it as long as I took his place. Ugh. Ninjas. I was just happy Sasuke's training regime wasn't as bad as I knew Lee's would've been had it been him instead of the Uchiha.

Oh god I think I would've died. I was jealous of Jamie though for being saved from all this.

Speaking of the blue eyed brat, the lucky guy was still in bed. It sounded like a chainsaw was going off in his room so you knew he was still asleep. That kid could wake up an entire house with that snoring and I'm surprised he hasn't been able to wake up the entire block. Gah. Why couldn't Sasuke have woken up him instead of me? At least then I wouldn't have to listen to his horrendously loud snoring and be consistently reminded of the fact that while he's snoozing away, I have to stay awake because some idiot of a boy decided I shouldn't be sleeping.

My mother looked down at me with a hard stare that made me want to back away. "No, we can't because we'd be lying," she said tersely. "I'm not going to lie. If you want, you can try to figure something out and I'll go along with it, but I won't fake any papers for him. I'm sorry, but I won't."

"So there's no way to do this without proof of you owning Sasuke… Well… damn," I said scratching my head. I really had no idea what to do now.

"Katie," my mother scolded. "Language, young lady."

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, mother. But there has to be something we can do! And besides, how is Sasuke going to get a job anyway if he doesn't have any of those papers or anything?" I pointed out. After all, that was the agreement. Sasuke could only stay for two months unless he got a job and paid us rent, sort of. Obviously it wouldn't be much because he's still just a kid like me, but how's he to get a job if he doesn't know anyone and he doesn't have the necessary papers or whatever in order to acquire a job?

Sasuke looked slightly confused at this mention. Of course it was only natural for him since at his age, he could probably get a job just about anywhere without any need of papers or recommendation or anything. He was a ninja. He got paid for the missions he did and that was his main source of income. He didn't have to worry about applying for a job when they were just handed to him.

"That's why I made the agreement," she explained. "I knew he wouldn't be able to get a job and so set a time limit for him to go home otherwise he'd stay here forever. So really he doesn't need to go to school in the first place because he'd only be there a little ways through September.

She had a point. It was sort of pointless to make him go to school if it was only going to be for a few weeks anyway… But what was he to do during that time? Jamie may get out of school at 2:30 since he's still in grade school, but I got out at 3:07 and quite frankly, he needed someone a little more mature to watch him. Plus how were we to figure out how to get him home in the allotted time limit? We'd need way more time than that in order to pull it off because we still don't even know where to look. Not only that but once school started, I'd have to worry about homework which would make looking for a way to send Sasuke back even more difficult in the way of time.

"But.. who's going to look-"

"I don't need a babysitter Katie," Sasuke interrupted me with a glower, knowing exactly what I was going to say. "I'm a ninja. I may be a rookie, but I'm still a ninja and I can probably take care of myself a lot better than you can."

I glared at him. "I can take care of myself just fine," I shot back. My mom rolled her eyes.

"Children, please. Is this really the time to argue?" she gave us both exasperated looks.

We both looked away and stood there awkwardly, scuffing our toes on the carpet in shame. Well, at least I was. Sasuke just looked a bit embarrassed at being called a child and probably for being scolded too. It must've felt a bit weird to be chided by someone else's mom.

"My point exactly. Now, I think the best thing for him to do would be to find out how to get home while you and Jamie are at school. When you both come home, then you can go around and look together. Just so long as your homework is done." Her eyes narrowed at me in warning and I grinned back sheepishly. I usually didn't do my homework at home, but at school and she knew this. This time around, I knew she'd definitely check up on that.

"All right all right, fine," I agreed. "But where do we start looking? That's the thing. I don't even know where to begin…" my voice trailed off worriedly.

"Maybe we could check the backyard where you found me and look for some sort of clue," Sasuke suggested.

"Perhaps, but I don't think there'd be anything there."

"You never know until you try," my mother said. "And who knows? If you look far enough, you might even find someone in a similar position that you're in, Sasuke."

I felt the blood drain from my face. Oh god, I hope beyond hope that won't happen, especially since I did know of another person who was in a similar situation. And it wasn't someone Sasuke would be terribly happy to see either. But… that was another issue. He needed to go back as well, not just Sasuke. Any person who ended up in a world different from their own needed to go back to where they came from. They didn't belong here. This wasn't their world and it would be dangerous for people from other worlds hanging around here…

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Leo suddenly bounded around the corner and leaped into my arms, purring like a motor. I almost stumbled back from the weight, but adjusted myself to hold him correctly and buried my head in his soft fur. "Too bad you couldn't help, Leo. We could really use some extra hands," I murmured. He looked up at me with those intelligent golden eyes of his and 'mrowed' loudly. Sasuke gave the cat a rather wary look due to his last experience with Leo which included my beautiful kitty tackling him to the ground and nearly clawing his eyes out. Honestly, it was rather entertaining watching the two since they seemed to hate each other so much, but I felt a bit bad for Sasuke since a lot of it was pretty much undeserved.

Leo's eyes caught sight of Sasuke and he hissed loudly, his claws sinking into my arms. "Ouch! Leo! Be nice!" I scolded him. The raven haired Uchiha glared menacingly at the cat while my mom looked on with amusement. "You, too, Sasuke," I chided the boy. "You need to stop tormenting him too."

"I don't torment that.. demon," he snarled. "If anything he's the one who torments me." Oh dear. He's wearing that sulky look again.

"Well, I'll leave you two, or three rather, to your own devices, but in the mean time you should figure out how to get Sasuke home," my mother reminded me.

I sighed. "Yes, I know. Just where to start is the issue…"

With that single question lingering in the air, my mom took this as her cue to leave, Leo bounding out of my arms and after her. At least now I wouldn't have to worry about my cat attacking Sasuke. Dear god that thought alone almost made me start laughing.

"I don't know what you find so amusing," the boy muttered in irritation.

I grinned widely. "Oh nothing, my dear boy," I replied simply, clapping him on the back. He gave me a weird look but decided not to comment. "Oh, yes. Before I forget."

Sasuke quirked a brow. "Yes?"

I moved quickly away and glared at him menacingly. "Don't think you're gonna get away with what you did to me this morning. I will get my revenge on you," I warned him.

He smirked. "Oh? Is that so?"

"Damn right it's so!" I snapped back. "You are going regret waking me up the way you did, Mr. Uchiha because I swear I'll get back at you even if I have to make a deal with the devil himself to do it!"

He froze and looked at me with wide eyes, completely in shock as if he'd seen a ghost. That made me hesitate. I couldn't be that threatening, right? I mean, I know it'd be a serious dream come true to be intimidating to people, but this was just weird. Sasuke was never afraid of me. So what… "What's wrong?" I decided to ask aloud.

He seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in and shook his head. "Nothing."

"That was not nothing, Sasuke," I said suspiciously. "I may be an idiot, but even I know when something's off. So what's up? Was it something I said?"

It was as if he suddenly closed himself off to me. His eyes grew blank and indifferent and he regarded me coldly. "I said there's nothing wrong." I felt a shiver run down my spine as I was unintentionally reminded of exactly who and what Sasuke became in the future. It was not a pleasant thought to think that my friend would turn so… evil. Anyway, getting off track.

I wasn't going to back down, even though I knew I probably should. "Do not tell me there isn't anything wrong when I saw that look on your face, Sasuke. There is something wrong and it worries me since you can't even tell me what it is that's bugging you!"

He seemed to pause at this then finally said, "Why do you care so much?"

"Because you're my friend and friends care about each other. Unless," I bit my lip, "unless… you don't want to be…"

Sasuke seemed to consider this and anxiety gnawed at my stomach as I worried if he really wanted to be my friend or not. I really hope he d—"Yes, I do," he said finally, interrupting my train of thought.

My head snapped back up and I looked up at him hopefully. I could see a bit of a smirk tugging at his lips. "Really?"

This seemed to irritate him for some reason. "Of course, you idiot. Besides, if I said no you'd be whining about it the whole time," he grumbled and looked away almost as if embarrassed of his confession. But I didn't mind. That was just his way of showing that he really did care and not even a comment like that could bring me down. Immediately, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you!" I said happily and he sighed. Had my eyes been open, I probably would've seen the contentment in his eyes. While he didn't hug me back, he wasn't as stiff as a board either. He was completely relaxed while I hugged him which seemed to show that he didn't mind it. It was weird because I knew that Sasuke wasn't exactly a touchy feely sort of person, but it made me happy to know that he was my friend and he considered me his too. However… "You still haven't told me what's wrong."

That did it. He threw my arms off his neck and he glared at me. "Can we drop it?"

"Fine. Killjoy," I muttered. "So, what do you think we should concerning getting you back home?"

"Research. It's the only option we have," he stated as 'unless you can think of a better idea' remained unsaid because quite frankly, it didn't need to be. There was no other option and it was this thought that made me grimace.

"Great. Research. My favorite hobby."

He gave me a withering look. "We don't have much of a choice so don't complain."

"I can complain if I want."

"Not if it doesn't serve any other purpose but to annoy me."

"Aww, but annoying you is just so much fun!"

He glared.

"Okay okay I won't complain. Sheesh. But where to start? Where to go?"

"You have that… internet thing… right? We can use that or go to a library."

"Yes because the internet and the library are gonna have information on people traversing through worlds. That's so realistic," I drawled. "And any idiot can write an article on the internet so any information we find there we have to take with a grain of salt. Actually, any information we find regarding going between worlds will be fake anyway so that's not exactly useful."

"Then the library," he muttered.

"And just where do you suppose we'd find books on tha—well.." I interrupted myself, thinking about it. "We could go to some sort of antique book store or something. Or some sort of bookstore regarding magic and such. It might not be helpful, but it's the only thing that even has a slim chance of giving us the information we need.

He nodded. "Then that's where we'll start."