Chapter 2 — Of Time Travellers and Ninjas :The Problem with T&I…
Beta: Unedited... Sorry, but I really wanted to get this up. I'll have it beta-ed by the next chapter.
Disclaimer: Don't. Own. Naruto.
"Too many questions; say goodbye to this world, for this will be your last look at it," said the masked man, "And don't worry about the students; they will be returned to normal. They will forget everything and you three are included. Goodnight."
Tobi made quick hand movements and the world turned black for the trio.
Holly was the first to wake up and her eyes captured the green leafy forest that was spread out in front of her. An abundance of flowers and plants were scattered along the floor and birds chirped in the background. The air smelt of fresh leaves and a scent of fresh soil lingered in the air. But there was something out of place…
"WHAAAT?! WE'RE CARTOON-IFIED!" Holly exclaimed. This woke the other two sleepy-heads up.
"Shouldn't that be a good thing seeing as you are obsessed with manga?" Olivia smoothed down her frizzy hair, "Space travel isn't too good for hair, I'm guessing. Where are we?"
The Doctor pinched some soil and placed it in his mouth.
"Huh, that's weird," he said, "For once, I don't know… and it's dimension travel, Olivia, not space travel. I'm surprised that you haven't gone off on a rant seeing me eat soil."
"No need to get so testy," Olivia stood up and brushed the dirt off her skirt, "I'm not a travel expert. And, you can eat whatever you want, if your alien stomach can digest it."
Holly went and looked around the area, treading carefully and quietly on the ground, careful not to make any noise that could drag attention.
"Why are you being so quiet? There's no one around!" the Doctor asked and accidentally stepped into a rope trap on the floor. He was instantly lifted into the air and hung upside-down, with one leg dangling around.
"That's why…there are probably hostile ninjas around; keep quiet, this time!" Holly whisper-shouted as she peeked out from behind a tree. Olivia instantly grabbed her back.
"If there are hostile ninjas around, then why are you running straight into what could be a trap?" she said and brought out a nail clipper, "We need to get the Doctor out first. You know what they say, never, ever leave a man behind."
"Good ide—NO! THERE MIGHT BE A TRAP!" the younger sibling yelled and lunged for the nail clipper. The two girls bickered while the Doctor sighed as a smile graced his face.
"With all the arguing, I'm surprised no one has found us yet," he joked with a lop-sided grin. The joke was cut short as four people who were assumed to be ninjas surrounded the group with sharp pointy objects.
"State your names and intent on invading the Fire Country!" a black-haired boy said. Now it occurred to the girls, who had stopped fighting not that long ago, his hair looked a lot like Tobi or whatever his name was. Holly decided to take over, being the Narutard she was.
"I'm…uh…" Holly paused and thought about whether she should use their English names or Japanese nicknames. The ninjas started to get very impatient as Holly failed to come up with a coherent sentence.
"I'm the Doctor and this is Holly and Olivia," the Doctor put his hands up, well, down because he was upside down, "We don't know how we got here in this forest, but we want to get back..."
He seemed to have missed the word 'home' and the two girls narrowed their eyes slightly. The black-haired boy hesitated slightly when the others formed a defensive stance. A girl with short brown hair looked at him concerned and started to lower her kunai.
"Minato-sensei, can we bring them into Konoha and see what Hokage-sama says?" she asked, "They don't seem to have any weapons on them and their chakra systems are only half-functioning. It's a miracle that they're still standing up straight."
Their 'sensei' (or as Holly once said, teacher) dropped their position and motioned for the silver-haired boy to drop his weapons too.
"If they have no weapons, then it would be a plausible idea…but what if there are weapons that are hidden?" the silver-head asked, "Maybe a trip to T&I would be safer."
Holly's face paled. 'Not T&I…not T&I…' she thought and crossed her fingers. The Doctor and Olivia were partially confused.
"Sorry, if you don't mind me asking, what is T&I exactly?" the Doctor asked in the hope that it wasn't as bad as it looked. But then after looking at Holly's face again, he became slightly more curious.
"T&I is Torture and Interrogation," the silver-haired boy deadpanned.
The forest was filled with heavy silence as the trio anime sweatdropped and the black-haired-boy-that-looked-suspiciously-like-Tobi face palmed.
"These people look different, but they don't seem very threatening, Kakashi-kun, so let's give these people a chance!" the girl suggested and looked closely at Holly's arm. There was a great big welt in the centre of her elbow. The girl looked at Olivia and the Doctor; they were in good condition. She prodded at the injury with the blunt end of what Holly knew was a scalpel.
"Watch where you're putting that, Rin-chan!" she hissed and tried to swat the offending object away. When 'Rin's' eyes widened slightly, Holly realised what she had said and instantly covered her mouth.
"Cheesecakes! You weren't meant to know that I knew who you were!" she squeaked, "NO! I don't want to go to T&I! DON'T MAKE ME GO THERE! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!"
"Sensei, this is very unusual. I think that I need to check this when we get to Konoha," Rin said and a green glow surrounded her hand. She placed it above the welt and smiled at the effect. There was still a mark, but not as big as it was before.
The blonde teacher knelt down to Holly's level.
"It's okay, I'm Minato Namikaze, the sensei of these three kids here," he smiled, "Kakashi-kun, we'll go with Rin-chan's ideas." Minato shifted his pack on his back. "It looks like we're going at civilian speed; Konoha's not far from here so it'll only take about three hours of walking. Come on, team!"
'Three hours?!' Holly thought in her head and fainted. Olivia piggybacked her like the good older sister she was and prepared for the long trip.
"What about me?"
Everyone turned back to see the forgotten Doctor, who was still hanging from the tree. As the author, I think that this is very ironic as the Doctor is very hard to forget. Kakashi flicked his hand with little effort and the ropes came free, dropping the Doctor in the process. He landed in an ungraceful manner that earned a snicker from Olivia while Holly just giggled.
"Right, let's be off, team!"
-X-
Two and a half hours later…
"SOMEONE KILL ME NOW!" Holly whined. Olivia, though being very patient, gave up carrying her sister when she started to whine…and whine… and whine about how long the trip was. So Olivia set her down on the floor and made her walk her own way back to Konoha. The young girl named Rin, as they found out before, winced at Holly's high-pitched voice.
"Gladly," Kakashi drawled and pulled out a sharp kunai. The Doctor placed his hand above the weapon and Kakashi's hand.
"No killing and most definitely NO weapons!" he said in such a teacher-ish voice that it made Olivia rethink her thoughts about him not being a teacher.
"But we're ninjas!" said Obito, "We're meant to have weapons!"
It was bound to happen anyways. The Doctor, who abhors violence and weapons of any sorts, is found in a world where death and fights are the norm. 'Just fantastic…' the Doctor thought in his head. Without another word, they continued on through the forest, neither party making a sound. Well, except for the occasional yelp from Holly who must've accidentally stepped onto a twig or something like that. Sometime later, Obito poked Olivia in the arm.
"You're cute, you know?" he commented. Holly's eye twitched and Olivia sweatdropped.
"I'm a bit old for you, don't you think?" she said and looked at the boy straight in the eye, "You might want to find people around your own age, like…" she leaned in and whispered in his ear. "…Rin-chan?"
She grinned after seeing her victim's red face. He was blushing like…a beetroot!
"Eh? H-how'd y-you-how did you?" he spluttered, unable to form a coherent sentence.
"What did you say?" Holly interrogated. She probably wanted or expected a magic word to make all boys have the same reaction as Obito. That would be awesome…
"If I told ya, I'd have to kill ya," Olivia smirked and sauntered off to walk with Minato-sensei. The Doctor was also there, and was talking with Minato about the technology of this world. She listened in and made her own comments here and there.
After a while, the group came across a huge red gate. They walked past and saw two men there, both of which looked a lot like teenage versions of other characters. 'It can't be Izumo and Kotetsu yet,' Holly thought, 'Well, they can't be, because Minato's still with his littleteams they're probably still inthe Academy.'
She was still pretty annoyed and excited at the same time. How dare that lollypop son-of-a-gun take her from her home universe. Her best friends and anime-buddies resided there. But most of all, he took her away from her parents. Her ever-loving parents. She was eleven and acted independent, but inside she really missed them. Her vision blurred slightly but she tried to keep her tears at bay. She was eleven after all, what else did you expect? For her to be stoic and have a stick up her butt? No. She was raised as an average girl after all, with no sudden or completely devastating or life-ruining events.
But there was the other side. Her dream to meet the Naruto characters had come true. How Akina and Mamoru, Holly's best friends, would have wished to be in her position.
Here's a question: now that they were here, should they help or change parts in the storyline? The smart thing would be to stop, step back and not do anything at all. Not even touch a character. That was mission impossible for Holly. There was no way that she would ever just step back and watch a character die. But saving a character, for example, Itachi, would result in his ass being chucked out of Akatsuki and killed anyways. And Sasuke mightn't find out about Itachi's great heroism, which would still lead to other things. Maybe she could help selectively? That was always a choice.
There was another thought in question: why did Tobi set the students free? It wasn't everyday that a S-ranked criminal set hostages free, unless a deal was made, which was none. Very unusual.
Similar thoughts ran through Olivia's mind. She missed her parents and had a boyfriend back in England, back on Earth, in a completely different universe. What would her parents say now? What were her parents even thinking? Would the problem at the school be televised? They mightn't even find out that their daughters were stuck in an impossible place; in a imaginary place, all made up by a manga author.
"Who are these people?" one of the men sitting at the stand asked. Wait, I should add that he looked like a certain closet-pervert we all know… if you get who I mean… No? Ebisu… and… Genma! Ta-da!
"Foreigners," Minato took back the cards, "From another land of some sort. Is it possible to make an appointment with Hokage-sama?"
"Possible, yes. Though it you would need to leave now. And Obito, you owe me, remember?"
"Thank you."
"Aww… I thought you forgot!"
Holly sighed at the prospect of more running and exercise, but put up with it anyways. They dodged villagers and angry salespeople in their pursuit of the Hokage Tower. It was large with the huge kanji for fire up high on one of the walls.
"Wow…" the Doctor stopped to admire the insignia, "That's one heck of a sign up there…"
Not long after, he was pulled away gently by Olivia who then raced him to the rest of the group, who was almost at the doors, while they were a few streets away.
"I'm going to beat you, Olivia!"
"Doubt it."
"Nuh uh! I'm one foot in front of you!"
"Because one foot is so far…"
"It i- did you just use sarcasm?"
"Ha! Got ya!"
"Oi! That wasn't fair!"
"Nop- hey! Get back behind!"
"Would you two just shush?" hissed an annoyed Holly who was tapping her foot in an impatient manner. The door was so close and neither participant of the race would back down.
"Yes!" came the voice of a victorious Time Lord. Olivia sighed and sat down onto the floor.
"That was possibly the most exercise I've done in years!" she wiped the sweat off her forehead. The trio were called into the Hokage's office by a person with a weird mask.
"Thank you, ANBU-san," Holly said and bowed solemnly. Then, when the person flickered away without another word, she grinned. "I've been wanting to do that for ages!"
The elderly man behind the desk, presumably the Hokage, chuckled. "And who may you three be?"
"The Doctor. Before you ask, it's just the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kastaborous. I'm the Oncoming Storm, the Bringer of Darkne- what?" the Doctor was cut short when Olivia nudged him in the side.
"Okay, time to deflate your ego. I'm Olivia Lancaster, a full-time teacher in…a…different land," she concluded, "And this is my little sister, Holly Lancaster."
"I could've introduced myself, you know!" the younger girl pouted. Olivia just ruffled Holly's hair, messing it up from her usual pigtails. Holly attempted to tidy it up and just took the two hair ties out instead, which left her hair down to her middle back.
"Well, I'm the Hokage. Would you like to tell me where you came from?" the Hokage asked and smoked his pipe.
"It's kind of complicated…" Holly hesitated.
"We-ll… it's all wobbly-wobbly…timey-wimey…stuff…" the Doctor ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
"I don't know whether we're obliged to tell you or not…" Olivia looked at the two other travellers with her. Birds chirped in the background and silence washed upon them.
"What about a trip to the Torture and Interrogation Corps?"
"NO! ANYWHERE BUT THERE! Come on, Rin-chan! Save me!" Holly wailed and ran to her supposed 'saviour' for help. Two ANBU guards blocked her and Rin shot Holly an apologetic look.
"Is that a threat, Mr Hokage?" The Doctor asked, his voice clear and a frown graced his features.
"I'd prefer not, Hokage-san," Olivia said curtly and sat down on a conveniently placed chair. She took a sip from a cup that was conveniently placed on a side table. She spat out the liquid. "What was that?!"
"Tea." was the answer, which earned a raised eyebrow from Holly, the Doctor and Olivia herself.
"…with poison laced within."
…What?! So our dear Olivia was panicking, Holly had no idea what to do because it was usually Olivia that calmed her down, and the Doctor was repeatedly trying to help Olivia breath in and out. In other words, it was pure chaos.
A/N: Ehehehehee... This will be updated irregularly. Full stop. Sorry...