Chapter 2: New Surroundings
Tracy awoke to a bright light hitting her face. She sat up to find Lawrence unconscious a few feet away. Worried, she approaches him but pauses suddenly due to a strange sensation on her face. She reaches up to her forehead to find something smooth and metallic there. She looks down at herself to find that she was wearing clothing that she had designed for a Naruto character she made up. Taking off the forehead protector she was wearing, she saw to her disappointment that her symbol for her made-up hidden village was not there. In its place was the symbol for the Hidden Village of Leaf. With a sigh, she ties it back to her forehead and crawls over to her fallen friend to wake him up.
"Lawrence? Hey Lawrence?" she spoke to him.
The boy's eyes fluttered a bit before opening fully. He sits up to see his friend wear a strange outfit consisting of a familiar white t-shirt jacket he's often seen her wear, worn over a black tank top. She also wore a pair of black pants with something blue wrapped around her right leg and some kind of brown pack on her left side. At her waist was a pair of kodachis tied to it and on her hands was the black rollerblading hand guards she modified to look and feel like a pair of gauntlets. But it looked different this time, for it had two pieces of metal on each one. On her feet were some strange blue shoes that exposed her toes.
"Are you okay?" Tracy asks him.
"Define okay," responds Lawrence. "What the heck are you wearing?"
"You should take a look at yourself before asking that," retorts Tracy.
Lawrence looks down at himself to see that he was also sporting the same kind of shoes and headband she was wearing. But that was where the similarities ended, for on his upper body he wore a black see-through net shirt and a strange short greenish jacket over it with the sleeves up to his arms like t-shirt sleeves. He wore black pants similar to Tracy's, with the blue pack wrapped around his right leg like her. On his wrists were black wristbands that looked just like the gothic wristbands he owned at home, the metal gleaming in the sunlight.
"What the hell?" he exclaims in surprise.
Even from the mysterious change of clothes that both of them had gone through, there was one thing that filled their eyes and hearts with pure shock: they were both back to being twelve years old!
They dash over to the river to see their reflections confirm the impossible. They were indeed twelve years old in appearance, but not in mind. Lawrence's yellow-dyed hair was back to being its original short black hair brushed to one side, while Tracy's hair had become as long as it was the day the two of them met for the first time back in seventh grade.
"From the looks of things, it would seem we've been transported to the world of Naruto," affirms Tracy, looking around. "And since most of the main ninjas in the series are underage, it appears we've been aged down to our preteen age in order to fit in."
Lawrence looks around to find that the two of them were in a forest that was very much different than the one they were in a few minutes ago.
"Naruto?" he repeats.
"You're not familiar with it since you don't watch Anime," clarifies Tracy.
"What the hell are we doing in an Anime world?" he asks. "And why are we young again?"
"How am I supposed to know?" the girl responds back upsettingly. "It's not like I wanted this to happen."
"What do we do now?" wonders Lawrence.
"Look for the others I guess," answers Tracy.
"How do we even know if they were transported too?" retorts Lawrence.
"I just have a hunch," replies Tracy.
"And how can we trust your hunch?" responds Lawrence.
"Fine, you can stay here then," replies Tracy angrily. "Slap your heels together and say 'there's no place like home' three times."
With that, she gets up heads off in one direction. Not wanting to be left all alone in a world he's not familiar with, Lawrence stumbles to his feet and follows his friend.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephanie awakens to the sound of birds chirping and sunlight on her face. She sits up to find herself in a strange forest.
"What the heck?" she exclaims upon seeing her friends scattered around her.
She looks down at herself to find herself wearing a pair of blue pants with a pair of blue shoes that exposed her toes. On her right thigh was a blue pack and white strips wrapped around it. On her upper body was a blue tank top with wide white strips of cloth wrapped around her waist. With the forehead protector to complete the outfit, Stephanie makes a quite cute kunoichi.
"This reminds me of Naruto," she said to herself.
She crawls over to her friends to wake them up.
"Priscilla, Caroline," she exclaims.
The two girls awoke from their sudden slumber, as do the boys. They were all wearing the same blue pack on their strong arm's side, a light brown pack on their other side, blue shoes that exposed the toes, and the Hidden Village of Leaf forehead protectors. But that was where all the similarities ended, for each wore a different ninja outfit.
Caroline wore a cerulean-colored dress that somewhat resembled that of Haruno Sakura of Naruto. Underneath, she wore a pair of skintight black shorts with the blue pack on her right thigh and the light brown pack on her left side. Jon wore the same outfit as Nara Shikamaru, except his short vest was a lot greener than the animated genin's. Kevin simply had on a pair of dark brown pants and matching see-through net t-shirt. Bao looked lankier than usual with his outfit consisting of a pair of ankle-high brown pants and off-white t-shirt along with blue wristbands and his usual glasses. Priscilla's outfit was extremely similar, if not the same, as Hyuuga Hinata, with the jacket being a light grey and a lot more fitting than the make-believe kunoichi. Robert actually had on the outfit he designed for his fiction, whichconsisted ofa black t-shirt and dark brown shorts with the addition of his katars. Despite those with resemblances to actual Naruto characters, all seven of them wore their forehead protectors on their foreheads and nowhere else.
Everyone looks at each other and immediately notes an evenbigger change than their clothes: they were all twelve years old again!
"Whoa, déjà vu," exclaims Caroline.
"Hey Kevin doesn't look different at all!" notes Stephanie with a giggle.
"This feels weird," notes Priscilla, lifting her hands to take off the headband.
"Wait, don't do that!" Stephanie stops her.
"Why?" she asks.
"We don't know what's going to happen; it'll be better if you keep that on just in case we get attacked," explains Stephanie.
"Attacked?" exclaims Jon with shock. "Attacked by what?"
"I'm not sure," replies Stephanie. "In Naruto, ninjas can hide just about anywhere. And to add to the situation, we don't even know where we are."
"Wait a sec," spoke up Caroline. "Something looks familiar."
The black-haired Asian girl gets up and dashes off in one direction.
"Caroline, come back!" Bao shouts after her.
Left with no choice, the group follows after the girl through the forest. They eventually see a bright light ahead of them and run unknowingly into it. They ended up on a dirt road where they found their friend looking down one end of it.
"What is it Caroline?" wonders Robert.
Caroline takes her glasses off to wipe them with her clothes and puts it back on to make sure she was really seeing what she thought she was seeing. The group looks with her in the direction she was gazing at and sure enough a few meters before them was a huge gate leading into a strangely built village.
"What's that?" asks Kevin.
"Is that what I think it is?" wonders Stephanie.
"Yep," answers Caroline. "Konohagakure. Hidden Village of Leaf."