"So this is what we're going to do." Maya continued. "As a ninja I can't leave the village whenever I want to, that includes taking spontaneous trips around the country. But if Narumi requested my team for an escort mission for example, I'd have a reason to go."
"What about me?" I asked, feeling skeptical. "And wouldn't it look suspicious since you just met each other today?"
Maya slightly smirked. "Well, after meeting us, we all became fast friends since we have so much in common. In fact, Narumi invited you to come along with her on one of her books tours down in Wave."
Well, the having things in common part was at least true.
Narumi sat with her arms crossed, looking warily between the two of us.
"I guess that could work… I mean, I'd have to get into contact with some people down there to set something up for real. It wouldn't be so good if we were caught in a lie."
She slumped forward in her seat, chin resting on the table and expression turning into a pout.
"But do I have to go? Why can't Kay just hire your team instead and you guys go by yourselves?"
Maya shot her a glare.
"What? Did you miss the entire discussion we just had? Maybe the part where we speculated about death and about people getting killed? We're all in this together. And besides, you're the only one who knows what he looks like."
"And I'm broke." I chimed in.
Narumi sunk down further in her seat, grumbling not-so-quietly to herself.
"Okay, fine. I just don't want to get involved more than I have to. Once we figure this out I need to get back to my normal life again. I don't want to get myself into a complicated mess."
Normal life? How was anything about being in this world normal?
"So how long are we going to be gone for?" I asked, trying to shake off those thoughts.
Maya lightly tapped her finger on the table, staring off in thought.
"Considering that we'd be traveling at a civilian pace there and back and that we'd be there for a day or two at least… I'd say about two weeks."
Two weeks?
"I can't be gone for two weeks! Missing a day is one thing, but I can't be gone for that long!"
Maya gave a long, hard look as she stared me down from across the table.
"Quit the academy already."
Quit? As actually quit quit? For real?
I kept saying I wanted to quit, but when it came down to it those words weren't the ones that left my mouth.
"I- No! I can't!"
"You go to the academy?" Narumi suddenly exclaimed. "As in the ninja academy? How old are you?"
I tried to ignore her as I tried to piece together some sort of explanation to my reaction.
"I mean- I can't just leave like that. With Jun there and everything- and I still want to learn all of that ninja stuff, and honestly if it wasn't for school, my life would pretty boring and empty, and…"
I'd never really realized it, but going to school was something I didn't quite want to let go of yet. As much as I complained about it and dreamed of ditching the village to go out on some great adventure, there was something nice about having at least one constant in my life, no matter what world I was in. It gave me something to do, a routine and a schedule for each day instead of just sitting in my apartment or wandering aimlessly around the village.
I wanted an adventure and change on my own terms, but that isn't quite how the life likes to work.
Maya watched with raised eyebrows as my defense eventually died off.
"If you really want to learn jutsu and how to fight that bad, I can teach you more and faster myself."
She- She would? Didn't she have better things to do?
"You'd really be willing to do that?"
Maya shrugged.
"There's going to be a lot of travel time during the mission and I know Gai-sensei and Lee would be more than happy to help out as well."
An involuntary shiver swept through my system.
"That's really nice of you to offer-"
"Then it's settled. You can quit the academy and then come along with us."
I had to fight the strong urge to repeatedly smash my face against the table.
"That wasn't a yes..."
"Look." Maya let out an agitated sigh. "We don't know what we're going to find out when we get there. For all we know, we'll figure out a way to get you back home right away. Would you really choose the academy over that?"
She… had a point. A pretty good point actually. In the grand scheme of things, attending the academy was pretty near the bottom of the priority list, if not at the bottom. Getting home was meant to be at the top. Priorities. Those were supposed to be a thing.
I sucked in a deep breath.
"So when do we leave?"
"That's a good question."
We both turned to Narumi for the answer, who seemed to have zoned out for the duration of our back and forth. Instead she was staring off into space with big, goofy grin on her face. After a couple of seconds of dead silence she jumped, face going red.
"Sorry. I just got this new plot idea and… What was the question?"
Maya repeated it for her, and Narumi was quick enough to dish out an explanation.
"Um- Well, I'll need a few days to set something up via hawk since I can't exactly call people to do it. You know, I seriously miss having phones. You'd think with having TVs and wireless radios the phone wouldn't be too far off, but nooooo. Maybe in a few years we'll get it along with decent computers. There's this theory I remember reading online about the Naruto world actually being an alternate universe of our own where some apocalyptic event happened that lead to the creation of chakra. It'd explain the architecture and mix of tech, not to mention the country similarities to our world."
That, or Kishimoto just felt like making it that way. Her theory though could hold some real merit... It would answer my country questions.
"That's… fascinating." Maya deadpanned. "I'll leave that to you then."
Narumi nodded enthusiastically, either choosing to ignore or just oblivious to her tone.
"Great! I'll track you guys down when I know more."
I nodded, feeling as though there was something important still to be said.
I knew needed to figure out who was going to watch Tora while I was gone, seeing as how I didn't exactly have family or friends to do that. Maybe I could ask my neighbors? I still needed to try and give back that kanzashi somehow… Man was that going to be an awkward conversation.
Oh right.
The ANBU.
I hadn't thought about that topic in any real depth for a long time, not with the wedding and everything else going on. The ANBU were just there and I accepted that, but that was before I'd seriously thought about leaving the village.
So… could I even leave?
There was a good chance I was under some sort of village arrest no one had bothered to tell me about. I guess it was just assumed that I had known. Seeing as how no one handed me travel papers at any point, the village arrest was a very likely possibility. Though I hadn't exactly tried to leave either…
And even though I used the Academy as a sort of security blanket, I didn't want to get left behind and I didn't want to hide out in the village for the rest of my days. But did I really have much of a choice?
"I don't think I can go." I announced in the lull of the moment. "Not with my ANBU guard and everything. The more I think about, the more I realize that they probably won't let me step an inch out past the front gate."
"ANBU guard?" Narumi repeated, eyes suddenly sparkling and grin spreading as she looked around the room as though she could actually see through her bedroom walls. "What did you do to get that? Is Kato Mako important or something? Did you do something illegal? Do you just have connections? Is someone after you?"
"Uh…"
I shrugged, trying to ignore the fact that she had just asked me if I was a criminal with a smile on her face. So apparently any danger or complications in her life were a terrible thing, but in other people's they were fascinating.
"I don't actually know much about who Kato Mako is, but as far as I can tell she has some sort of connection to Tsunade. I think. I' haven't been putting much effort into finding things out up to this point."
Narumi took in my reply with a frown.
"Seriously? But she's you. How can you not know?"
"I've only been here a couple months and I haven't been introduced to a single family member so far."
Narumi took the whole couple of month's thing in stride, only blinking rapidly a couple of times, opening and closing her mouth before being able to speak again.
"You did kind of imply that with the waking up explanation… But don't tell me you weren't the least bit interested!"
Once again I shrugged.
"Not really? Sort of? It wasn't really a focus of mine."
I'd rather be Kay than Mako any day.
She huffed, crossing her arms.
"That's lame. Super lame. You're lame."
"Your insults are lame."
"Your face is lame!"
"I rest my case."
Maya loudly cleared her throat, bringing back our attention.
"If you two children are done, can we get back to the actually important stuff?"
Narumi immediacy deflated under the scrutiny, but I had to hold back a bit of a smile.
Maya just rolled her eyes.
"When it comes down to it, we still need to meet this person down in Wave, whether you're actually with us or not. I don't see why you couldn't try to talk to Tsunade about it, using your apparent connections. I think it's a lot more likely that the ANBU are here to watch you for suspicious activity than protect you from something anyway. She might be a bit lenient since you haven't done anything worth a lot of scrutiny over, well besides your whole existence I suppose."
I stared at her for a couple of seconds in disbelief. Nothing worth scrutiny over? Really? How about the whole jailing and interroga-
Oh.
Oh.
I felt like slamming my face against the table for real this time.
I'd… never actually gotten around to sharing about that part of my time here. After the interrogation happened and I was let go, the whole thing got brushed off to the side. It was easy enough to dismiss while in my dream mindset. But maybe I had done it a little… too well... because I hadn't thought about the details that led up to that even in what felt like a very long time.
I tried to swallow back a lump in my throat that was starting to form.
The biggest impact the event had on me was making me realize that I couldn't go around spouting off blatantly suspicious things unless I wanted to revisit that cozy jail cell.
But now-
Oh no.
Oh no no no no no-
I looked between Maya and Carla, both of them watching like they were waiting for me to say something. Maya stared at me with what looked like a mix of annoyance and confusion, eyebrows furrowed and mouth set to a frown.
"Are you really that against talking to Tsunade? You've gone all pale."
I nodded stiffly, heart rate quickly jumping up as I used her misinterpretation as time to figure out what I was heck going to do.
I'd told them about the Akatsuki. Every single thing that I'd known about them at the time. Things that no one in their right mind would have if they were in my situation.
What I'd told Tsunade and the others hadn't meant much to me back then. Nothing was real, so who cared what people would do with the information?
Except now, I did.
I clenched my hands into fists, trying to hide the fact that they were starting to shake.
All of those Akatsuki and plot secrets were out in to open. And after with my mix up with Anko, there was a good chance some of it was very wrong as well. There was only so much you could double check with the intel the leaf currently had. But if some of it turned out correct, they might end up trusting it and then-
I had screwed up. Right there at the very beginning.
In what must have just a minute or two, I ruined up everything. Everything Maya had been spending her entire life trying to keep exactly the same. And it was all for now nothing.
And as far as I knew there was no way to fix it.
All because of me.
Maya had no idea that everything she was trying to do was now rendered completely pointless.
I tried to swallow the bile that was slowly crawling up my throat.
She'd spent years living a lie, pretending to be someone she wasn't in hopes that somewhere down the line she could change the plot when it really counted. Maya had obliviously suffered from that choice, considering everything that she'd said. Narumi's plans to keep safe probably depended on future knowledge as well.
I was stupid. I was so, so stupid. Just one small change could lead to so many other things.
What if someone died because of me? What if someone's life was destroyed? And it would be all on me. Every death that was never supposed to happen. Every new tragedy as a result of my actions.
And that led to a whole other line of questions.
Why had I been allowed on the streets? This place was basically a military dictatorship. They could have kept me locked up forever if they had wanted to. Back then I had thought it was because they had nothing concrete on me, but maybe there was more to it. No, there had to be more to it. I needed to know who Kato Mako was if I wanted answers.
So what was I going to say to Maya and Narumi? They were going to hate me for this. Seriously hate me. Screw all the friendship talks and niceties. Something like this would be the final straw. This was a cosmic level screw up that I couldn't see being forgiven.
"Hey, you're not looking so good." Narumi pointed out with a tinge of concern in her voice.
Crap. I didn't need them asking questions before I figured things out for myself. This was a bit of extreme reaction for not wanting to talk to Tsunade. I needed to relax, at least for right now. When I got home I could freak out all I wanted.
But what if someone does actually come and kill me over this? What if I die and I never get to see anyone ever again? What if I never actually go back to my world? What if I really had been dead this entire time?
"Are you alright?" Maya asked a few seconds later, voice louder than usual. It probably had something to do with my lack of verbal response.
I put up a hand to stop them, not really paying attention and instead just trying to just focus on my breathing.
"I'm fine."
They needed to know. They deserved to know.
But I was a coward. I didn't want to face their reactions- at least not right now. I needed some time to think and figure out what I was going to say. Maybe the One Piece kid had changed something and that would cushion the blow a bit if he revealed that first.
It was hypothetical, but it was hope. Desperate hope.
I made a bit of a show of rubbing at my temples, wiping the sweat from my hands on my shorts.
"Are you sure?" Maya asked again.
I found that I couldn't look either of them in the eye, for multiple reasons. I wasn't sure if I felt mortified, embarrassed, or terrified right then. Probably a mix of all three.
I nodded my head, trying to get the world back in focus. Maya was sitting to my left, eyes wide and looking uncomfortable and unsure of what to do. Carla was staring at me like I was about to faint at any moment.
"I'll be okay. You don't have to look so worried"
Narmui sent Maya some sort of look that I didn't turn in time to see the reaction to.
"Do want me to get you something?"
I shook my head, taking a deep breath before giving her one of the fakest smiles I had in my arsenal.
"I'll be fine. Thanks for asking though."
This time I turned in time to see Maya's eyes narrow, but I could help but look away again.
"So Carla,"
"Narumi." She immediately corrected me.
"Right. Narumi,"
There was nothing quite like changing the subject for a quick distraction.
"Tell me about the stuff you're currently writing."
She immediately perked up at my request, eyes practically glowing from excitement.
"Really? Well- How about the original story I'm currently writing? You see the Star Wars and other stuff was all part of my plan to not only share those great stories with this world, but also springboard my career so that I-"
AN: Because chapter 10 had to come back to bite her at some point. :D
Oh hey! It's an update!
So my excuses are that I was doing NaNoWriMo in November, was on vacation in December, and school had kept me very busy these days. My life has been pretty stressful lately so the work on this story has been slow going. But I'm really hoping to finish this story at a much quicker pace from now on. :)
I'm not sure if I'm all that happy with this chapter but I'm dying to move on from it and finally get to the stuff I'm excited about writing. The two year anniversary of this story just passed and it's pretty crazy to think about everything that's happened since then. The length of this was originally supposed to be about 15 chapters max, but as you can see that didn't quite happen…
A special thank you to everyone who has read this story and/or has stuck through it with me, even if you don't review. I'm really hoping to go back and rewrite the earlier chapters some day, most likely after I'm done writing this story completely. They're pretty cringy for me to read whenever I have to go back and check continuity. ^^; But hooray for improvement! I've learned a lot through writing Sleepless and so it has a special place in my heart.
