World 2: The Land of Fire

It's a funny feeling, feeling like your falling and then the next you're actually falling. There's no way to describe the feeling. Well in Hana's case, all she could do was cry out in fear as she hurtled towards the ground that was growing ever closer.

"AH! What do I do? What do I do? Fat Louie, what do I do?" Hana cried as she flapped her arms wildly like a flightless turtle and was falling as fast as one. "I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!"

"Calm down!" Natori appeared next to her, his face in equal distress.

"Calm down? We're going to hit the ground and DIE at this rate if you hadn't noticed!" she screamed at him. "Why in the world do we have to fall from the sky? Why can't we just land normally-?" Suddenly everything went black and an intense pain coursed through her body as she fell through tree branches before hitting the hard ground. The breath was knocked out of her like she had hit water in a belly flop.

She lay on the ground like an overturned turtle, covered in scratches and sappy leaves. The sunlight was bright against her eyes. "Ow…that hurt…" she moaned as she gingerly checked herself to see if she was still alive. Natori suddenly slammed against her stomach like a sack of flour, making her convulse. Hana let out a groan and went limp, twitching with pain.

"Wow, I was expecting that to hurt more…I guess it was a good thing that I didn't hit the ground." the cat mused as he stretched out on her stomach.

"Good…for whom…?" she managed to say in a strained voice as the pain slowly began to fade. She was sure that she'd find internal bleeding later. "I can assure you…the ground is quite hard…"

"Well then maybe you should have stopped yourself from hitting the ground." He sniffed. "Honestly, what a troublesome human you are."

"How am I supposed to do that when we're falling from the sky?" Hana jerked up straight with a cry and grabbed the cat by his cheeks. "This is your fault, you fat cat? Why did we have to fall from the sky? Why couldn't we have just landed normally?"

"Stop that! I don't know how!" Natori cried in protest.

"What do you mean 'You don't know how'? What kind of crap answer is that?" Hana hissed and stood up.

"I told you I don't know, you brat! Let me go!" Hana did as she was told and dropped him, feeling no remorse as he hit the ground.

"There, I let you go. And the names not brat, it's Hana." She informed him and scanned the area.

"Whatever…" the cat huffed and plopped back on his hindquarters. "so, where are we?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"It's like I said; where are we?" he repeated and licked his paws.

"You mean you don't even know?"

"Would I be asking if I knew? It's like Yuko said, even I don't know where we are."

"Well that's just great…Guess we need to find some people and ask around…" Hana muttered and looked around. Suddenly she stopped, her eyes locked on three figures standing a few yards away with bewildered looks on their faces. Out of all of them, there was one dressed in an orange jumpsuit looking outfit and had spikey bright blonde hair. There were three lines on each cheek, similar to whiskers, and this confused her. The other boy in the group had wild black hair and a slightly dour look on his face and the girl had short bubble-gum pink hair. They all looked like they were going somewhere; they had large backpacks on their backs.

How long have they been standing there? Who are they? Bubble-gum pink hair? Does such a hair color really exist? I had no idea. But then again, the twins at the shop had weird hair colors too…What should I do…run away? Talk to them…? I don't know what to do! Hana thought her mind racing.

"Alright, guys, sorry I'm late!" a guy with silver hair appeared out of nowhere. He stopped and stared at the three. "What's wrong?"

"Th-That girl just fell from the sky!" the kid with blonde hair cried, pointing a nervous finger at Hana.

"Fell from the sky, what are you talking about?" The man turned to Hana and appraised her with one hooded eye. "Huh?"

Huh? He's staring at me. Why's he staring at me? Who's this guy? Is he the leader? Teacher? What do I do? What do I do? Hana thought nervously as she shrank under his intense gaze. She noticed that her had a mask covering his mouth and had a headband covering his left eye. It was very odd to her. He looked like a ninja from one of the animes she used to watch. Her eyes shifted behind him to look at the three still standing a ways away. They also had headbands similar to the man who now stood dangerously close to her.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise. I didn't think we'd find anyone out here." he said as he stroked his hand in thought. "So, miss, where are you from? What are you doing all the way out here?"

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! Ask her why she suddenly fell out of the sky!" the blonde kid shouted.

"Did she really fall out of the sky?" the man, Kakashi-sensei she guessed was his name, asked them. They nodded. "Interesting. So, miss, care to explain all of this?"

"Well…I…uh…I…uh…" she stammered, unable to think of what to say.

"Just say something already, brat!" Natori hissed from behind her.

"Hush up, you!" Hana snapped back. "I'm working on it. if you want to make yourself useful, stop hounding me and help!"

"Think faster!"

"Well, a talking cat. Must be a summoning." Kakashi looked down at the black and white cat.

Summoning?

"I am not a cat! Nor am I a summoning!" Natori tried to lunge for the man, but Hana grabbed him firmly and held him at bay.

"Just shut you're big mouth, Fat Louie!" she clamped a hand over his mouth.

"It's Natori, brat!"

"So I see, Fat Louie and Brat. So those are your names, eh?" Kakashi muttered to himself.

"No they are not. My name's Hana Rose Everdeen." Hana told them. "This is Fat Louie."

"No it's not! It's Natori!" the cat yelled, but Lafayel ignored him.

"I see, Hana and Fat Louie. So what brings you two doing here? Ah first things first, I'm Kakashi Hatake. Those three are my students. Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha." He pointed to them, starting with Sakura and making his way over to Sasuke on the end.

"Students, huh? Interesting, nice to meet you all." She gave a slight bow, Natori struggling in her arms.

"So, what brings you here?" Kakashi asked again. The wind had begun to blow slightly, ruffling her hair.

"Well actually, I'm not from around here." she admitted. "I guess we just sorta landed here by chance."

"Landed? So did you really fall from the sky?"

"Uh…" Now what? If I say yes, they'll think I'm crazy…What to do, what to do… "I guess that's one way of putting it. I didn't really fall from the sky…I just happened to be traveling along when I lost my footing and just fell through the trees." Hana told them, hoping that that would buy her enough time to come up with a more believable story. "Would you mind telling me where I am?"

"You're in the Land of Fire right now. And where are you from?"

"I actually don't come from any place in particular. I just travel around." Hana said the first thing that popped into her mind. She wasn't able to stop her mouth from saying the words.

"A traveler? That's something we haven't seen in a while. You must have been to a lot of different places then. How old are you?" he mused.

"Kakashi-sensei!" the girl named Sakura chided angrily.

"What? It's just a question." He defended innocently.

"You sound like a pervert when you suddenly ask some girl's name!"

"I sound like a pervert?" he muttered and shrugged. "Anyway, getting back to what we were talking about, how old are you?"

"…17…" Hana replied, a bit uncomfortable. The Universal Credit Card vibrated in her pocket suddenly, but she was hesitant to pull it out.

"17…Awfully young to be traveling around by yourself. But then again a lot of young people do interesting things now a days. So where are you headed, Hana?"

"Uh…to the next…village. I need to stop and get something to eat. I can't remember what it's called; I think my fall may have jostled my memory a bit." She laughed sheepishly, hoping that they wouldn't notice the uncertainty in her voice.

"You mean the Hidden Leaf village? It's right up the road. If you look carefully you can see the huge wall that surrounds the village!" Naruto pointed out energetically.

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed and grabbed him by the collar roughly. Sasuke gave a sigh and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"What did I do? What did I do?" he cried.

"Don't go telling things to random strangers! What if she's a spy?"

"Uh…I'm standing right here, you know. I can hear what you're saying…" Hana started, but they weren't paying any attention to her. She let out a sigh, her shouldering sagging in exhaustion. What am I gonna do? I'm hungry…and according to that kid, Naruto, their village, the Hidden Leaf village or whatever, is just up ahead. Of course it's natural for them not to trust me; I'm a complete stranger who fell out of the sky. I guess it's only natural to think I'm a spy. Perhaps what I'm searching for might be in the village? But wouldn't Fat Louie have noticed? Maybe there's a certain range he has to be in in order to sense it. I can't ask him now…it would look too suspicious. Do I follow them to the village? Then what? Look around searching aimlessly? But what will I do if it isn't in the village? I'd need a map of the area before I started searching other places…

Her stomach let out a loud growl that echoed around the clearing that they were standing in. at eyes turned to Hana and her face turned bright pink "tell me, Hana, when was the last time you ate?" Kakashi asked her.

"I can't really remember…"

"Do you have any money?"

"Yes…" I think I do…but I don't know how much…

"Alright then, why don't you come with us to Konoha?"

Is that the village that they were talking about? Should I go? "Uh…sure, if it's not too much trouble." She replied.

"Alright then, we were done with our mission anyway. Let's head back, team 7." He told them and turned towards the direction of the village.

"Right, sensei." They said in unison and followed after him. Hesitantly, Hana followed behind, still carrying Natori in her arms.

"So, we're gonna go get some food? I hope there's saké." the cat said.

"Saké? Why would you think of saké at this time?" Hana looked down at him as she sun was setting.

"Because I haven't had any for a long time…I miss it so much…" His eyes got wistful as he said the word saké.

"You're nothing but a drunkard cat! You'll be the death of me…" she exclaimed under her breath. "So, have you sensed anything yet?"

"You mean 'it'? Not yet." He answered.

"How close do you have to be to it to sense it?"

"Dunno."

Hana sighed heavily. "Great, well that does no good for me. Looks like this is gonna be a long job…"

"Well as long as I have saké I'll be fine."

"That's easy for you to say…you carefree cat…" Hana stopped as they approached the entrance to the village. Naruto hadn't been kidding when he said the wall was huge. In fact it was enormous, about 90 feet high or more. It seemed to stretch on forever on either side. She stood there, staring up at it with wide eyes and at a loss for words.

"Hey, Hana, you coming?" Kakashi's voice brought her to attention. Team 7 stood at the village gate's entrance, watching her.

"Uh yeah, sorry. It's just so big…" she replied.

"Konoha is known for its huge wall that protects the village" Kakashi explained to her.

"Have you never heard of Konoha? It's pretty well known in the ninja world. This is our village's symbol, see?" Naruto pointed to his headband on his forehead. It looked like a poorly drawn, upside down snail or someone's interpretation of a leaf. Either way, it was the village's symbol, engraved in the metal headband indefinitely.

"Hidden leaf village…Team 7….Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake…Ninjas…Land of Fire…" Hana began to mutter quietly under her breath. She closed her eyes as she began to make sense of where she was. Suddenly all the pieces came together like puzzle pieces of a jigsaw. "I got it now! I remember where this place is!" she cried as her eyes flew open. "This is Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves!"