AN: Sorry for the very long delay between chapters. Classes for this semester ended up being a lot more work than I thought they would. I spend pretty much all of my free time studying Japanese these days. ^^; I think going forward I'll be much faster because I've finally got somewhat of a time management system worked out now. Anyway, on with the story!


"Did you know that Konoha has a Shop Keepers Association?"

I was jogging alongside a very determined Maya, trying my best to match her long stride as we maneuvered our way through the village streets. After only a few minutes of this I was already on the verge of keeling over on the side of the road. Maya on the other hand didn't seem to have even broken a sweat during our power jog.

Either I was just in terrible shape (hopefully not still completely true) or she was using chakra to enhance her movements and just assuming I could do the same.

I need to get on learning that one immediately.

Maya nodded slightly at my question, eyes glued forward as we navigated in and out of the growing foot traffic.

"Yup, though they aren't incredibly well known among ninja. They do have pretty high standing with the civilian representative on the council though."

So the people I accidentally made enemies out of actually have some sort of power.

Wonderful.

"Say then for example… I hypothetically made these people my enemies? What could they do to me?"

She just shrugged, taking a glance back over her shoulder at a street we just passed by.

"You might get banned from a few shops, but it's not like it would matter very much. They don't have any real power unless you count their role on the civilian council."

Wait, wait, wait! There's yet another council?

"What does that council do?"

"Basically it's a bunch of civilian business owners and trade representatives that come together to choose their representative for the main council, assuming the Hokage decides to accept their representative that is. They talk to each about trade inside and outside the village, and come to the Hokage with anything important they want addressed."

"But they can't pass laws or make any real change?"

"No, none at all really."

…Then what's the point?

I wiped the sweat forming on my forehead, trying to pick up my lagging pace.

"But what about the main council then? Couldn't they go to their representative and through them get things changed?"

Maya just scoffed, a sardonic smile crossing her face.

"Maybe, but that would be assuming the council had any power in the first place."

But…but what about all of that stuff I learned in school then? I get the feeling that the academy doesn't exactly share the whole story, not that it all seemed fair in the first place or anything. But considering that they're teaching young kids, they'd probably have to dumb it down a bit.

"What do you mean?"

"In the end it all comes down to what the Hokage wants unless it is a very rare occasion where the Diamyo is involved. The council are more like advisors than any real source of change. The elders and the council though do decide who the next Hokage will be if the current one dies in while office."

So it's some kind of weird dictatorship meritocracy oligarchy with a bit of a monarchy system thrown in there? Or maybe feudalism is a better way to describe some aspects? The Hokage is technically the head of the military though, not the head of government or state. But they seem to possess more power and real political clout, though they still have to listen to the Diamyo though they seem to be often on the same political standing-

"Is there even a written constitution?"

"You know…"

She tilted her head in thought.

"I'm actually not sure."

Well isn't that nice.

Honestly, if I couldn't even figure out the government system by now…

"We take a left up here. The clan compound should be at the end of the street."

I jerked at her voice, blinking to refocus before begrudgingly pushing away that ongoing analysis for yet another time.

As we maneuvered past a large group of people crowded around some vendors' outdoor stalls, the only possible way I could have missed the sudden change in scenery once we turned the corner was if I'd been blind.

I would say the area rivaled the grandiose of the Uchiha clan, but it was in a more condensed way. The compound itself wasn't very spread out, but they definitely made do with the space they had and then some. The traditional Japanese architecture was a sight to behold, the detail and scale reminding me of some ancient castles even, all in earthy shades of green, brown, and bit of crisp white and some gold detailing even to balance it out. Dark green lanterns and banners lined the streets leading up to the entry, the clan symbol of a green circle with three white dots inside proudly located on every available object.

It really all begged the question of why I hadn't heard of them until now.

"So what do these people do exactly?"

Maya turned her head, looking at me with eyebrows raised.

"You've never heard of them?"

I shook my head, wondering whether or not that was real surprise in her voice or she was just keeping up the role.

"The Mori clan is one of the oldest clans in the village, originally from the area around border of earth country. They're mostly made up of merchants, pretty well regarded ones actually. There are some ninja in the clan, but they don't have any sort of kekkei genkai or specialties besides the occasional earth Jutsu."

So not exactly a clan you would write an action packed ninja based plot around.

"So basically since they don't have any special powers, they don't really matter?"

"Well…"

She started to scratch the back of her neck.

"I wouldn't quite say that. They help sustain the village economy by hiring quite a lot of ninja for protection details for transporting their goods."

Economically that was nice and all, but not even a blip on the radar when it came to plot.

So in other words, they didn't really matter.

"That's…helpful."

"Yeah, right? I think so too!"

I resisted the strong urge to roll my eyes.

We quickly arrived at the end of the street, stopping right in front of the open gate leading inside to the compound. Two guards were standing out front on either side of it, wearing nearly armor reminiscent of samurai, clan symbol proudly displayed on the torso portion.

The moment we stepped close enough, the two men's eyes locked on to us, carefully watching our every movement.

The one on the left, an athletic looking guy who seemed to be in his early twenties with shaggy blond hair partially covering his brown eyes, stepped forward, giving us both a skeptical look.

"What's your business here?"

Maya quickly jumped to answer, ignoring the frosty reception and instead beaming him a disarming smile.

"We're really big fans of the Ninja Wars books and were hoping to meet the author…"

She glanced down at the piece of paper she had partially crumpled in one of her hands.

"…Mori Narumi. We were told she lives here."

The two guards exchanged glances, the older with a five o'clock shadow and shortly cropped brown hair crossing his arms, causing the blond guy to glare back.

As the seconds ticked by without any sort of response from either of them, Maya started pulling the books out of the paper bag, purposely crumpling it as she went.

That caught their attention pretty quickly, causing then to snap their attention back to us.

She waved the books in front of them, smile still plastered on.

"It won't take very long. We were just hoping to get a quick signature from her."

The blond guy's right eye started to slightly twitch, hands curling into fists before giving his response.

"I'm sorry, but they are not currently accepting visitors at this time."

I immediately narrowed my eyes, cutting off Maya just as she was about talk again.

"Could one of you pass along a message to her instead then? I guarantee you she'll let you bring us inside if she hears it."

Well, pretty much guarantee anyway, assuming she was like us.

Maya turned to look at me, and I'm sure if she'd been able to, would have glared.

The twitching on the blond guy's face started to get much worse all of a sudden. The other guard gave him a long stare, the younger holding firm in place. The older guard shot him one last look before stepping forwards himself, his voice gruff.

"What's your message?"

"Tell her…"

I had to really think about this one. My message had to be something that wouldn't be obviously suspicious to an outsider, but to a person who wrote knock off versions of popular series would instantly get, even as the years went by. If it connected with them emotionally, the chances of remembering it might be even better.

"…I actually did enjoy the prequels, and Jar Jar Binks wasn't that bad."

I honestly really didn't care at all about that whole debate (though I'd heard plenty about it from my friends), but if that declaration didn't pull at the memories and emotions of a Star Wars fan, I didn't know what would.

The older guard mulled over my words, eyebrows burrowed as he tried to find some sort of hidden message or threat. Eventually his face relaxed a bit, giving us both a sharp nod.

"I'll deliver it. Remain here."

The next few minutes consisted of us standing around while the guard walked inside the compound, I trying to ignore the glaring from the guard left behind. As the clock ticked on, I was running out of places to look at to avoid eye contact and make it look natural, Maya casually flipping through the books she had bought.

Luckily the torture quickly ended as the guard walked up from the wide path leading inside, a purposeful stride in his step.

"She agreed to see you two. You are allowed inside as long as you don't cause any problems or disruptions. They moment you do so, you will be removed. Are we clear?"

I eagerly smiled and nodded, greatly relieved to get away from the welcoming party.

Maya gave a verbal 'yes', tucking the paper bag under one arm and slipping the piece of paper into her pack.

"Toshi-kun here will be the one showing you the way."

Oh. Yay.

The newly named Toshi shot the other man another glare, jaw tightly clenched together. The other guard didn't even flinch at his reaction, just giving him a friendly pounding on the shoulder. Okay, so maybe not exactly unaffected after all.

"He'd be happy to do it. It's his job after all."

I glanced between the two of them, trying to figure out the weird power struggle going on here. I wasn't sure if Toshi hated us particularly, but clearly something about us made him completely detest our presence.

Hooray for positive thinking.

Toshi grumbled something under his breath, shot us both a scowl, and then walked inside past the gate. He waved us forward and we trotted behind him as he swiftly moved down the small streets.

The interior of the compound definitely lived up to its exterior, the entire space full of grand houses and other buildings along streets, compound bustling with well dressed civilians and a ninja here and there . More lanterns and banners were hanging up around, the place brimming with a tastefully designed landscape of large trees and exotic flowers.

I'd happily trade my apartment to live here.

The clan members that we passed as we walked had the predominate look of light blond or brown hair, having either green or brown eyes. It was basically an entire clan of nondescript looking people.

The house we ended up being led to was a low key, two story traditional home near the back of the compound painted a sage green color. It was tucked away behind a small grove of trees, a well-cared for flower garden out front, and had a stone path leading up the walkway to the front door. I radiated a bright and homey feel that I couldn't help like.

Toshi opened up the door to the house, not even taking a moment knock first. He waited for us to exchange our shoes for slippers, he not even bothering to do to the same. The entrance of the home was simply but tastefully decorated, a hanging wall scroll and a small vase of bright red flowers underneath.

We passed a living room and a kitchen, both full of modern furniture and appliances, though they looked well lived in. There were books stacked around, half opened, a few schoolbooks on the floors or furniture. Judging from all of that and a couple of family photos in on a few tables in the living room that I couldn't make out, it would be a pretty safe assumption that a family lived here.

We climbed the stairs, passing by a few more rooms with closed doors, and eventually stopping at one at the end of the hall. Toshi pounded on the door with his first, impatiently tapping his foot while he waited for a response.

There was some sort of muffled reply coming from the other side, which only served to make him knock even louder.

"I brought you more of your obnoxious fans for you to stroke your ego with! Hurry up and open up!"

The door was slid open almost immediately after that outburst, revealing a short blond teenager on the other side. Shee had to be at the most fifteen years old. I'm not quite sure exactly what I was expecting the author to be like, but what I got probably shouldn't have surprised me.

She rolled her matching brown eyes, tucking hairs behind her ears that had come loose from her short ponytail.

"Geeze, bro. You don't have to be so rude to them. It's not their fault that you're jealous."

Toshi started to slightly sputter.

"I'm not jealous!"

"Then why else would you be so upset?"

He gritted his teeth together, hands partially clenched.

"Maybe because I'm always the one who had to deal with your fans when they show up at our front gate all of the time? They're always spazzed out or try the wise idea of sneaking in here!"

The blond girl glanced over at us, giving us an apologetic smile.

"But these guys are cool. They're totally calm and everything."

"Until they try to kidnap you or take home a 'souvenir'."

Kidnap?

"That was only one time!"

The kidnapping thing or the souvenir thing?

Toshi shook his head in frustration.

"Fine. Have it your way. I'll be downstairs on my break."

"Doesn't Omezo-san need to you back at the gate?"

He spun around on his heels, heading back down the hallway and to the stairs.

"He'll somehow deal without me."

The three of us watched him go; only breaking the silence when sound the creaking of the stairs steps tricked out.

The blond girl cleared her throat, a lopsided smile on her face

"Uh- Sorry about my brother. He's been kind of unhappy lately and had been taking it out on other people. I'm Mori Narumi if you haven't already guessed. Please come in."

I stepped inside first, Maya right behind me as I got my first look at her room.

A large wooden desk was pushed up against one wall, covered with books and loose papers, diagrams and other notes taped up all over on the wall behind it. An unmade bed was at the very back of the room, hidden by the rows and rows up bookshelves set up around, leaving just enough room for a low table with cushions and a dresser that had a TV resting on top of it.

Narumi plopped down on one of the cushions, us following to do the same. She adjusted the straps on her lilac tank top, smoothing out the wrinkles.

"I'd offer you some tea or something, but that would mean going into the kitchen and I really don't want to talk to Toshi right now. Ever since his ANBU retirement and him declining to take on a Genin team, he's been in a really bad mood. My parents have been making him do gate duty until he figures out what he wants to do with his life besides laze around all day."

He face suddenly turned a bright shade of pink.

"Er- Sorry. I tend to ramble on a lot. I didn't even ask your names."

Maya leaned forward against the table, crossing her arms.

"Which ones?"

Narumi just shrugged.

"Both I guess. With all of the security we have going on around this place it should be safe to talk openly. Toshi will know if anyone is nearby listening in for some reason."

Well that takes care of the ANBU problem. But after what she said I couldn't help but cut in.

"You seem to be taking this whole thing pretty well. I'm kind of surprised that you're not freaking out."

"Eh."

She shrugged her shoulders once again.

"It's not like you're the first guys I've met from our world."

My jaw dropped open.

"What?"

Maya partially stood over the table, slamming her hands down on top.

"Who? When? How did I miss…?"

As her words trailed off and she slowly brought up her hands to rub her temples.

"Just… Just start from the beginning."

Narumi scooted back in her seat a couple of inches, clearly a bit spooked as her wide eyes drifting over to me for some sort of explanation.

"I… I think she means she wants you to share your story from the beginning of when you got reincarnated here. Maybe?"

I looked back over at Maya, who now seemed to be stuck in some sort of state of self loathing at the moment.

"…I'm Kay Masterson by the way. Known here as Kato Mako. She's Maya Tremblay. A pretty good actress with how she pulls off pretending to be Tenten."

Narumi nodded slowly, shoulders relaxing a bit.

"I guess my NenTen ship just died then, huh? Dang! I was looking forward to seeing that pan out in the future."

"I think she said that he and Lee were like brothers to her."

"Wait."

She sprung forward in her seat, a mischievous smile forming.

"If she's technically Tenten, does that mean we can finally find out her back-story then? Like does she actually have a la-"

Abort. Abort. Abort!

"You never told us what your real name was."

She jerked back a bit at the sudden cut off, a bit thrown by the new tangent.

"Oh. Uh- Carla Grey. But it's not that important is it? I mean, I much prefer being Namuri anyway."

Who would actually prefer being stuck in a fictional work away from your friends and family in someone else's body?

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you rather be Narumi?"

Her eyes drifted away from mine, suddenly finding the wood grain of the table to be very interesting.

"Look, it's not something I really like to talk about, okay? It's just better. Why don't I just tell you about the other person I met? That's what you really wanted to know, right?"

Maya let out a loud exhale, bringing up her head to give Narumi a leveling look.

"And some other things, but you can start with that."

Narumi flinched back.

"Uh- Yeah. Sure."

She slowly brought of her hand up to clear her throat.

"Well, it was two years ago when my books first started coming out. This twelve year old kid showed up at the gate, somehow figuring out who I was even thought I used a pen name- which is weird by the way because more and more people have been showing up here lately and I never give that out. There must be a leak or something which is really bad because I don't want to make my brother even more upset than he is. Anyway- He wanted to talk to me and when I did he asked me to join his crew he was forming to find the One Piece."

The… the One Piece?

"That anime with the weird art and the main character named after a monkey?"

Narumi hastily nodded at my comment.

"Exactly! I tried to explain we were stuck in the Naruto world, not the One Piece one, but he wouldn't listen! Apparently he was trying to gather a crew of people from our world and build a ship down in Wave to try to sail to the grand line."

Maya sat stared forward into space, eyes narrowed.

"So in other words, that kid might have done all of our work for us."

I felt my jaw drop again.

Holy crap. Our answers might actually be handed to us on a silver platter. If we could just get to talk to all of these people, we might actually be able to deduce something from their stories and come to a consensus.

Narumi looked warily between to two of us.

"Work? What work? What are you guys trying to do?"

Maya was quick to explain.

"We're trying to figure out what's going on here. How we got stuck here in the first place and why there's more than one of us who all remember their past lives."

Narumi frowned.

"Why? We're already dead. Who cares how we got here and that there's more than one of us?"

Maya jabbed a thumb in my direction.

"Well she might actually not be."

I gave a bit of a small wave as the blood drained from Carla's face.

"That's- How's that even possible?"

I cringed, trying my best maintain what I hoped looked like a calming smile.

"I've kind of woken up before back in the real world before. Multiple times."

I think this whole explaining things was going to get old fast. Maybe I should just write up a pamphlet.

"From what we've figured out the only things that's keeping me stuck here instead of going back and forth still is a giant seal I have. A long time theory of mine is that I'm either dreaming in or in a coma right now."

Narumi took in a sharp breath.

"You're either delusional or in denial. The only way people get here is by being dead."

Yep, thinking up the bullet points for that pamphlet right now.

"Well, I'm not. I think I'd remember dying if I did."

"Died in your sleep. You wouldn't even know it happened."

"But I woke up and was back in my world again. I was here multiple times without ever having to die to do it."

"I-I don't know!"

She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

"It just doesn't make any sense!"

Maya took the chance to cut back in.

"Exactly. That's what we're trying to figure out here."

She sat back, crossing her arms.

"I don't know about you, but I for the longest time thought I was the only one from our world here. I guess I just read too much fanfiction back in the day and assumed that was what would just be the case. But now that we know that's not true, we can finally start figuring out how and why we ended up in the Naruto world of all places. And based off of all of that, what we want to know is why nothing has changed from cannon even with people like us running around."

Carla scowled, looking off to the side.

"Look. I haven't personally changed anything because I didn't see the point. I saw this whole thing as a second chance at life to live out my dreams and I took it. My parents didn't push me and I didn't really see why I should throw it all away to become a ninja. I may have never lived to see the ending of Naruto, but I know for certain that in the end he saves the world and becomes Hokage. Until then I just have to be careful to not make any rash decisions and get people killed. Avoid going to places where giant battles will break out, you know?"

With however many people like us out there, something should have changed by now like pointed out, right? Not everyone could possibly be like Maya and Carla and sit back and wait. Something noticeable should have happened like stopping the whole Chunin exam invasion stuff maybe? Sasuke's defection? A new member on team seven to replace Sakura?

"Was the One Piece kid trying to change the plot?

Narumi shook her head.

"It didn't look like it. I got the impression he lived in own little world and didn't really care about this world at all."

So all of the people we currently know about are all pacifists when it comes to getting involved in this stuff.

"But what about the people who do care? Why haven't they shown up before now? Maya's been keeping a pretty decent lookout for that type of stuff, though you apparently missed her radar."

For that comment I received a fierce glare, Narumi coming to my rescue.

"Uh, yeah. Don't feel too bad about that one Maya. For a long time I didn't do much advertising. I just recently started it up again along with some heavily guarded public appearances. Some psycho super fan in a mask tried to kidnap me after the books first came out. Terrified my parents and my brother still can't stop beating himself up over it. Ever since then security around me has been crazy tight. The perks of wealth I guess."

Maya perked up, narrowing her eyes.

"That sounds like some pretty convenient timing. It almost sounds like someone was trying to off you for what you know."

Narumi shrugged, looking unconcerned.

"I guess, but no one's tried anything since. I'm from a clan of rich people, which by the way is a pretty sweet situation to get reincarnated into. Way better than my last life in that aspect. Chances are someone would try to kidnap a clan member and hold them for ransom. It doesn't necessarily mean much."

"But it would make sense."

Both of them looked to turn to me.

"What if that's why nothing has changed? What if every time someone tries to change something, some stops them before they can?"

Narumi just frowned.

"But why? And who would want to do something like that? I'm all for keeping the plot the same, but why bother to that extreme? And how would they be able to find people like that in the first place?"

I deflated a bit under that counter.

"I guess…"

Maya started to slowly tap her finger against the table, chin resting on her other hand.

"Maybe they're just waiting for the right moment to change something. I know I am. But we don't have any real evidence so far and that explanation would only solve one of our questions. You could assume that the person who brought us all here would know who we were, but I don't see the point of going through all of that just to kill us off. Not to mention that we're still alive."

But maybe-

"But what if it's a person like us who's killing them all off? What if they stake out major events and get rid of anyone who get's in the way? It's pretty drastic and insane sounding, but if they really wanted badly enough it could happen."

Maya quickly shook her head.

"I doubt it. They'd have to be hanging around the main characters to do that and I would've noticed something by now. Plus we're not even sure if everyone who's tried to change something is really dead. This is all just speculation, no matter how it might look right now. This is why we need to find more people like us and talk to them before coming to a conclusion."

She had a point, but I felt like my own still had merit. Maybe I couldn't quite figure out how this thing worked out exactly yet, but I would. And then somehow along the way I'd get to finally go home. Another day stuck here meant another day wasted comatose or whatever had happened to me in my real life. That led to asking questions. Questions I didn't like to think about the answers to.

How much time had really passed? What had I missed? What had happened to my family? Were they there at my bedside, hoping and praying for me to wake up? Had it been so long that no one bothered to visit me in years?

What if I missed graduating high school? What if my life is over and all that's left for me is living out my last few years in a hospital bed withering away?

What it was better to just stay here than to wake up and risk my life being over before it ever really even got to begin?

At this point though, all I could really do was just keep trying and moving forward. Running away and ignoring everything would only serve to drag it out longer, and as a consequence possibly just make it all that much worse. I didn't really get how time flowed between our universes, or coma land maybe, but I needed to do something.

"So what do we do now?"

Maya sat up straight, arms crossed, a small smile appearing at the corner of her lips.

"We're going on a trip to The Land of Waves."


Disclaimer: I am in fact a One Piece fan. Kay's likes and dislikes don't always reflect my own.

AN: I'm a bit unsure about pacing and character introduction here, but I thought it turned out okay. You'll be getting to know a lot more about Carla/Narumi and Maya's backstories as the story moves forwards. For those of you who haven't been following for as long, Narumi is actually a character I created about a year ago in chapter in this story that I scrapped when I did some plot overhauls. In that chapter I tried to introduce I believe eight new characters at once while not using a single dialog tag to keep up the style. Writers advice: never do that. It's a very bad idea.

Until next time! :D