The Nagahoshi Legacy

by whereismyymiind

A Narutard finds out she is born in Konoha and is given the chance to become a ninja and uncover the secrets her father left behind. "SERIOUSLY? There's some inner-dimensional tunnel or portal or whatever in Japan, leading to Kishimoto Masashi's made-up ninja world!"..."In that retrospect, since I don't really appear in the franchise, THEN WHICH IS MY WORLD? WHAT AM I?"

1. Kidnapped Back Home

Disclaimer: All NARUTO related materials are Copyrighted and belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.

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Chapter 1

Kidnapped Back Home

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A boy with messy light brown hair... deep forest green eyes... smooth slightly tanned skin... a pale pink blush adorning his endearingly freckled flustered face... soft untouched lips... until the... first... kiss...

"Haru..." mumbled the dream's owner, only to be rudely interrupted by a loud beeping noise.

A worn-down sticker-riddled digital alarm clock appeared to be ringing as its blue screen light started to blink in such an annoying fashion that it forced the bed's occupant to swat at it with a disoriented hand in a rapid motion, aiming for the snooze button. Then came a groggy grunt from the bed and the nest of dark hair rose from the pillow. When the person finally brushed some strands back with her fingers to let a loud yawn out, it became clear that this was a average-looking Japanese girl with straight dark hair and dark brown eyes. She pushed the blanket off and got up to assume her usual routine of getting ready for school, seemingly having all but forgotten her rather peculiar dream, judging by the way she casually proceeded to pull apart her blinds and started running through a peculiar series of complicated morning stretches, reminiscent of some sort of martial arts kata forms.

The light flooding the room revealed walls in an unassuming creamy shade that was haphazardly riddled with string lights and plastered with childish posters and drawings of band names, anime characters and manga panels, on most of which were either a grinning orange blob, a cheerful pinkette and a stoic black haired boy with "Naruto" in bold letters. This obsession with fictional ninja had seemed to bleed into the girl's daily life as she even had a karate practice uniform visible airing out on a hanger outside her wall closet door next to her winter school uniform of a black plaid skirt, white shirt, red ribbon and soft beige jumper.

Having finished with her stretches, the girl rushed through a shower and put the school uniform, only to notice some of her belongings missing when she reached into her closet to grab a pair of black knee socks. Too sleepy and tired to get worked up about whether she missed to put back any laundry, for the meantime she figured that her things were probably misplaced and forgotten in the piles of lazy hoarding tendencies she had laying around the edges of her typically messy teenage room, so she dropped the subject in favor of packing her schoolbag.

Then, the doorbell of the dorm-like one room apartment rang.

"Coming!" the girl yelled, sliding across wooden floors in a dash for the front door to see who was attacking the buzzer so early in the morning. At the entrance stood a stern looking woman in her fifties with a tight round bun on the back of her head. "Okada-san!? Good morning!" exclaimed the clearly puzzled girl.

Okada Azumi was the girl's landlady and guardian since the girl hadn't had the opportunity to know her parents. She worked as the local businessman's secretary and as such had many ties throughout their small town. The old lady had once had a husband, who had passed away from illness some years prior, but no children. She jokingly told the girl that she had found her as a baby on her doorstep with just her name on a note and that the generous kind-hearted and lonely Azumi accepted her as her own and never found out who had left the child in her care. Okada-san looked after the kid and taught it how to take care of its self, for which she was immensely grateful, despite being aware that the doorstep story was definitely completely bogus.

For some years now Okada-san trusted the girl to live on the second floor by herself, gave her a monthly allowance and in exchange the girl did the housework, some gardening, groceries and various errands for the old woman. As a kid she often felt fed up with having to work odd jobs but it was obviously better than a foster home and she had already gotten used to the co-existing lifestyle the woman granted her. Helping her here and there was something she had to learn to live with as it was obvious that the girl must have been the unwanted child of someone from old lady Okada's untold past. Her bets had been on the businessman boss but there was definitely no family resemblence with the lecherous gremlin-faced short geezer of a boss that she crossed paths with from time to time on her various errands and the girl was glad for it. But even though Okada-san had many contacts thanks to her job, she didn't really seem to be personally close with them, so the semi-adopted girl could only wonder whether her predicament was only some favor the old lady was repaying to a person she barely knew, or had known in the past before some untimely death. They lived in a small old town in the outskirts of the Tokyo area, so it wasn't rare that the exchange of shady favors like that would be commonplace.

"Good morning, Miyako-chan!" said Azumi in the usual perky persuasive voice she used when she wanted Miyako to do something for her and the notion proved itself when she immediately followed her bright greeting with "I need you for a very special errand today. Do care to drop this after school at the address I've written on this note, would you? I've already called for you to be excused from club activities today."

An obviously overpacked large duffel bag was promptly shoved in the small girl's arms. Miyako realized just how heavy it was only when her knees started shaking and she had to change her posture so she could handle the weight. No matter how many displeased faces the girl went through, the bag didn't get any lighter, nor did her caretaker change her mind about the request.

"And don't open it! Thank you, dear!" Okada threw over her shoulder while rushing down the stairs.

Then, on the last step, she halted, turning halfway around to look at the girl with a disturbingly uncharacteristic worried expression. Miyako froze in bewilderment. She hadn't seen the old woman show such an emotion ever since one dark winter night a couple of years back when Miyako had come home from school an hour later than usual because she she spent too much time looking for her missing scarf that she had dropped around the back of the school. Okada-san slowly came back up the stairs going up to the short girl, dropped her purse and embraced Miyako tightly, causing the girl to drop the heavy weight and widen eyes in surprise.

What's up with her today? She's up earlier than when she needs for work, asks me to deliver this ridiculously heavy bag, gives me that look, and now this? The child grew more and more confused by the second.

"Do take care, Miyako-chan," Okada-san whispered motherly, still hugging the girl. She carefully let go, an odd smile on her face. An expression that was clearly showing she was trying not to cry and remain strong, although Miyako was unsure for what. Old lady Okada picked up her purse and while obviously suppressing tears, mumbled, "Oh, sorry, dear. I just realized I haven't hugged you in a long while."

Lie, Miyako quickly registered in her mind, eyes narrowing in skepticism, because old lady Okada had never been one for hugs. Like a poster woman for the Japanese tradition and culture of restraint, she never did like openly showing her feelings because, Miyako assumed, she apparently believed people might think she might have gone soft and it might cause her to lose face in the workplace.

"Well, I must go. I have some things to take care of before work. Goodbye!" Okada-san quickly excused herself and flew down the stairs yet again, in some kind of a forced hurry, as if she were afraid to stay back a second longer.

Maybe she's in her monthlies or something... Miyako reasoned with herself as she sweatdropped at the landlady's odd behavior.

Picking the duffel bag back up, she brought it inside the apartment, setting it down on the entrance floor with the address note on top of it so she wouldn't forget about it on her way out. Then she stood there, lingering to curiously peer down at the oddly stuffed dark blue travelling bag, wondering what in the world could Okada-san could possibly have crammed in there for it to be so full.

It's so strange. I shouldn't pry and open it but... Miyako knelt in front of the bag and started poking it. Soft... She pushed into it, sinking her hand a bit more the second time around, trying to get a better feel. Clothes? Is she making me give away old clothes or something? Her late husbands'? The girl dwelt over it for a moment, briefly weighing over whether she should let herself be consumed by her nosiness and disobey her caretaker to find out more about the contents of the bag or to go along with her ingrained loyalty and let it rest. Finally, she closed her eyes and sighed, opting to be the good girl and ignore the whole matter.

Miyako threw on her school's blue blazer and a pair of black sneakers, picked up her blue gray backpack and her caretaker's duffel bag and took off on the bike that she gotten from Okada-san a few birthdays back to use on her errands. The school wasn't too far from their apartment complex, only a few minutes' ride down the hill, but Miyako made a stop halfway, in front of a house painted warm yellow with a beautiful traditional garden. This was the familiar home of a classmate of hers, which she sometimes liked to imagine that if her life were any different, she might have lived in a comforting place the likes of that one. She propped her bike up next to the gate and strode down the path through the pristine front lawn to ring the doorbell, immediately hearing a woman's soft voice answer in return. The woman opened the door, smiling warmly as she chirped with a motherly tone.

"Good morning, Miyako-chan! How are you today? Please, come in, sit down!"

The woman was in her early thirties, slim with a creamy yellow dress, a frilly white apron, dark blond hair and forest green eyes. She gestured for the girl to leave her bags and shoes at the entrance and follow her inside. Going through the living room and into the kitchen, Miyako took a place at the table opposite a tall light bunette man well in his thirties, wearing navy trousers and a white freshly-ironed button up with a black tie. He was reading the morning paper while sipping on his favorite cup of morning tea.

"Haru isn't ready yet. Have you had breakfast? The ricecooker is just about done and soup is still warm. You liked eggrolls, right?" Haru's mom chirped, continuing the usual morning dialogue she always had with Miyako as she busied herself placing small bowls of steaming rice and hot miso soup.

"Good morning, Yamamori-san. I'm fine, how are you? No, thank you, I'm not that hungry this morning, otherwise I'd be happy to, your cooking's the best! How did replanting the magnolia go?" Miyako answered each of Mrs. Yamimori's questions and greeted Haru's dad with a polite smile.

"Morning to you too, Miyako-chan," the man replied absently while flipping his paper to the weather page, giving it a slight frown.

Miyako liked Haru's parents and how warm and friendly they always were to her. Their home was a small renovated traditional one, nice and cozy with a marvelous Japanese garden, appearing dreamlike when compared to Miyako's drab apartment complex. Haru's dad ran a logistics firm downtown and liked collecting and assembling small historical battleship models in the living room. He was mostly at work but still made time for his family and his maritime obsession. Haru's mom kept herself busy with housework or gardening. She bred and sold various plants to friends and neighbours. She was friendly towards everyone and had a very kind and caring nature. They looked like the perfect family. Miyako often dreamed about what it would have been like if she were their daughter.

"Micchan! Morning! Were you waiting long! I couldn't find my Calculus homework and I was up late last night doing it, too!"

Miyako snapped back to reality to watch a boy her own age trample his way down the stairs in the hall. He was taller than her, with his father's hair, only a bit longer and spikier, and his mother's eyes, only bigger and more childish. Along with their male school uniform's black trousers, white shirt and red tie, the boy had also put on a soft orange half-unzipped long-sleeved hoodie over everything. With a white-brown green-striped half-closed messenger bag thrown over one shoulder, his other was dragging their school's blue blazer hanging from one arm. That was to his deriment, because the free right hand sleeve of his blazer flailed with his movement to hang in front of him for a moment brief enough to make him trip. Everyone in the kitchen were transfixed, watching as the boy lamely rolled halfway down the stairs, his white-brown bag opening by itself and promptly spilling its contents across the floor.

"Morning, Haru. I see your Math homework isn't the only thing you're missing. You should also consider going back to look for the mastery over that incredible balancing skill of yours," Miyako joked when she went to help Haru as he pouted, murmurig a "ha-ha, very funny" while rubbing an aching backside.

His parents exchanged glances and smiled at the friendly teasing and their son's usual silliness, continuing what they were doing. Miyako helped the boy return his books back in his bag, receiving thanks in return. As Haru took a seat next to Miyako at the table, his mom was distributing small plates with eggrolls, pickled radish, seaweed cucumber salad and placed a tall bottle of ketchup in the middle of the table for everyone to use as they liked.

"I know you said you weren't hungry, dear, but you could at least try one or two," Haru's mom told Miyako while sitting down with her tea.

"Thanks, I will," the girl gladly accepted, picking up her chopsticks.

Haru followed suit by immediately seizing the ketchup bottle to drench his eggrolls so he could begin stuffing himself with entire chunks and a mouthfull of rice, downing his miso soup in one large gulp afterwards.

"I swear, you inhaled that soup in 0.5 seconds almost exactly the same as Naruto wolfing down an entire bowl of ramen," Miyako made fun of the boy's lackluster table manners.

Pretending to be offended, he turned with his occupied mouth to muffle something that sounded like "Nof twue!"

- xxx -

The kids said their goodbyes to Haru's parents, received a nod from Haru's dad and squeeze on the shoulder from Haru's mom and left for school. Since Haru was walking and the school was just a few more blocks away Miyako didn't paddle and pushed her bike beside her. Haru was on her other side, complaining about how difficult today's homework had been and that he hoped he wouldn't screw up push-ups in PE's standards testing day. As the boy whined about being tired by just thinking about it, a memory popped into Miyako's head.

"Hey, Haru, I think I just remembered what I was dreaming about last night. Or at least part of it."

"Oh, really? What was it about?" Haru looked curiously at her.

Miyako snickered and replied, "It had something to do about you blushing. That's the only thing I remember. But it got me wondering, what could possibly make you blush, huh, Haru?" Miyako smiled mischievously at the boy. "A girl maybe? Do you like someone, lover boy?" she mocked.

Haru's face turned redder and redder with each question.

"Oh, so you do! Who is she? Is she from our class?"

The boy reddened more and avoided her gaze, refusing to say anything, thus, unintentionally answering the question.

"This is getting interesting! She's from our class and you've liked her for how long? Since first grade maybe?"

The blush on the boy's face reached his ears, confirming it.

"Is her hair dark or fair?"

His blush darkened with the first mention of "dark".

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it all along! You're so obvious!"

The blush reached critical levels as Haru snapped his frustrated panicked face around in her direction.

"Yamimori Haru likes Sugino Yazuki!"

The red died quickly as he face-fell.

"What?! What gave you the idea that I like her of all people?!" Haru was outraged and frowning.

"Well... You behave almost the same as Naruto, except that you're hard-working in school. Naruto likes Sakura and she's a smart confident egoist. There are two girls in our class that match that description. When I asked you about the hair, you reddened when I said dark and of the two I came up with, only Bakazuki fit the picture. What with her long silky black hair and deep blue eyes..." Miyako pretended to swoon, mocking him.

"Hey, I'm not like that that anime dude! And that's totally not the type of girl I'd like, especially not Sugino!" Haru protested the unfair way she was jumping to conclusions. "Besides, you hate her..." He inwardly reprimanded himself the moment he said that last part.

"Well, yeah, but I don't see why you have to get my approval before deciding who to like, so I figured..."

The boy continued to avoid her eyes, deciding to fiddle with the white-green strap of his messenger bag, a pink hue leftover on his face from his little panic attack.

Miyako sighed, thinking she might have gone a little bit too far with her teasing. "Don't be mad, Haru, I was just kidding. I don't have any idea if you even have anyone you like either way, since you never talk about this stuff. If my nagging bothers you that much, I'll stop making fun of you, okay?" She waved her free hand in the air and realized they were at the school gates.

"N-no, I'm not mad. It doesn't bother me that much, it's just–" Haru glanced mid-stutter at the school's clock and smiled. "Hey, look, we're not late this time! There's still time 'till first period."

"You mean you're not late, and thanks to me. If it's not for me to drag you here in the morning you'd still be dead asleep in your bed at this hour," Miyako pointed out as she left her bike at the bike stands.

She unhitched Okada-san's heavy bag from the back of her bike and swung it over a shoulder as the two classmates walked inside the school building, taking a stop to switch to indoor shoes at the entryway. It was then that Haru just noticed the large bag.

"What's that? Is Okada-san making you carry weights for Karate Club practice again or are you planning on finally running away from her and you brought all your stuff here to live in the school? Don't let it be the latter because escaping delivery-girl-fetish-training tyranny is not relly worth living here full-time. Besides, she knows the principal, you'll get found out and you know you can always come to my place, mom and dad wouldn't mind one bi–" The boy got interrupted by the big duffel flying his way. He caught it and barely managed to keep his balance.

"Hold this for a minute and take a break from you monologue, fetish boy," Miyako said while changing shoes.

"What the hell do you have in this thing?! Like, seriously! And hey! I'm not the fetishist here!"

The girl took the heavy weight from a fuming Haru, who was thankful for that.

"It's not for training this time, I'm supposed to skip club activities today to deliver this. I don't know what Okada-san is making me carry. It feels like it has something soft inside. If I have to make a bet, I think maybe she's making me give away her late husband's old clothes for charity or something, I dunno."

The boy nodded and put his dark blue sneakers in the locker next to the girl's as they exchanged shoes for the school standard indoor slippers. They picked up their schoolbags and after a brief walk along the main hallway, walked inside a first floor classroom.

The room was brimming with students eager to start the day. Some boys were sitting over desks and chairs in a semi-circle in one corner of the class, excitedly discussing the fine intricacies of some apparently major preliminary baseball game from the previous night. On the other side, some of the girls were heatedly fawning over what happened in their new favorite popular ongoing TV romance drama. Way up front, another smaller group of girls with an angered black-haired blue-eyed one leading them were arguing with an annoyed short-haired dyed blonde with brown eyes and a scared shorter girl with long hazelnut hair and blue teary eyes who was hiding behind the blond one. The smaller girl had fresh tears visible in her eyes, threatening to fall as she downcast her face in shame and tried blinking them away.

Disinterested in what he recognized as girl drama, Haru simply shook his head and went to join the guys in the other corner and their argument about the quickest way of defeating some videogame boss. Miyako however remained watching the situation with the last group unfold, since she was close to two of those girls and was confused over what could have happened.

"Why are you two being so difficult? I don't see what the big problem is for Tsukibara to just hand over her English homework. I'm just going to take a peak and compare, it's not like I'm gonna copy it or anything. Or do you want me to tell my dear cousin what a major loser you are and how much you're always ogling him? I already know you have a hopeless crush on him, it's useless hiding it, everyone does. You don't stand a chance anyway, there's many girls going after him and you're too pathetic and nowhere near fitting enough to be in a Sugino man's league," was saying the black-haired girl in a snobbish manner while flicking silky long locks of slick black over her shoulder.

Miyako knew her as Sugino Yazuki, their class' most outspoken and almost perfect-looking girl with a family that seemed to think they owned the town. Which wasn't far from the truth, considering the sleazy shortie of a businessman and company chairman Okada-san was an assistant to was Yazuki's uncle and the true owner of the land Miyako's apartment complex was built on, as well as rumored to be heir to the people who had built their school in the distant past. It just so happened that the school heartthrob, the cousin Yazuki mentioned, was the same chairman's son, and it was painfully obvious that both Yazuki and her cousin's small-town rich parents had married for looks and money and their kids were obviously compensating for lack of the attention they craved at home from their equally as superficial family.

As if wishing they could remain in her and her family's favor that way, the girls behind Yazuki supported her tyranny by throwing additional insults and laughing meanly as the frightened hazel-haired girl began stifling small sobs.

"Hey, don't talk to her like that, Sugino-snake! You take that back! You have no right to play around with Nanami-chan like that. She doesn't owe you anything just because of your ridiculous family. You aren't better than everyone else's and your cousin is hardly anything special. What's wrong with you people? Acting like he's some god or something, how cringe can you get?" the blonde was on a crusade, defended the crying girl behind her as she dared to mutter "Foul slithering bitch" under her nose.

Yazuki's face flushed in anger at the insult and attempted to raise a hand against the blonde. But her target caught her wrist just before impact with a trained ease that resulted in it being bent in a rather hurtful position. The fury on the black haired girl's face morphed into pain and fear as she mentally cursed herself for momentarily forgetting with whom she had been dealing with. This was no ordinary hotheaded blonde. Although from with relatively unmarkable heritage compared to Sugino's, this blonde was famous in school as the loudmouthed daughter of the local martial arts dojo, descent from the Hiiragi line. She was quick to rile up and jump to people's aid without a second thought. Close to what might be a delinquent in their usually calm elementary school senior year, she often found herself in the middle of small verbal and non-verbal fights. This girl rarely paid mind to higher authority and despised unfair treatment and people trying to control her, taking it as far as cutting her hair and dying it blond in attempt to distance herself from the traditional customs of her family, thus irritating her father to no end.

Yazuki knelt in attempt to lessen the pain and try to get out of the blond girl's grip. Neither was a success. The girls behind Yazuki were petrified at the sight of their leader having fallen so easily. They took a tentative step back and seemed reluctant to offer a hand to help her. Yazuki looked at them with desperate eyes but after realizing she wasn't going to receive any sympathy, started barking profanities to bellitle her fake friends and their fickle loyalties. This drew some attention, as the rest of their classmates ceased all conversation to spectate the scandalous scene unfolding in the middle of their own classroom. Yazuki was whimpering in her struggle to free her wrist and tried to scratch her captor with her free hand. This only allowed the blonde to catch Yazuki's other wrist as well and twist it behind her back. Yazuki shrieked, hating how pathetic she felt in her new position as she started thrashing in the blonde's hold as if throwing a fit.

Behind the blonde, the petite Tsukibara Nanami looked even more frightened. She hugged the blonde from behind and shrieked with a tiny voice, "Shun! Please! Stop! You're scaring me!"

"No! The snake deserves it!" Hiiraki Shun seethed between teeth.

She squeezed and twisted Yazuki's arms even more to the point where her victim gave in to the applied force and had no choice but to kneel down and face the floor, letting out grunts and heavy breaths of untamed anger. The small girl also let out a gasp, startled by her friend's cruel actions and, letting go of Shun, took a couple of weary steps back. The blonde was casually placing a leg between the brunette's shoulder blades and began pulling on the arms, causing alarming pain to surge throgh Sugino's shoulderblades as her face blanched, wrath momentarily forgotten in favor of a sudden sense of great danger.

At this Miyako had to intervine. The scene and its consequences were just too familiar for her to just sit back and watch as Yazuki's arms were about to be ripped out of their sockets. Blinded by rage, Shun didn't seem to have a clear idea of what she was about to do. Even though she went to the same club Miyako did, even though they trained in Shun's family dojo together and had regular sparing sessions together since they had been small kids, Miyako had never seen her friend act so intense and forget her surroundings. She wasn't controlling her own strength. She was mad. And she didn't even have the excuse of being possessed by years of hatred, revenge and a curse mark like a certain animated Uchiha character. That was the extent of how much she bore a grudge against Yazuki and her obnoxiously constant every-day trashtalking.

Miyako dropped her bags on the floor and bolted towards the blonde, dropping down halfway in a calculated slide across the floor so she could swipe her heel under the one leg that was keeping the most part of Shun's balance as she had bent backwards while pulling on the arms. This caused Shun to lose her hold on Yazuki and falter to regain her balance. In the meantime Miyako had already risen behind the startled Shun and the girl's hands were securely pulled back and against her waistline to prevent her from lashing out on the squirming away black-haired girl again. Yazuki had taken that chance to frantically crawl back until there was a safe distance between herself and the snarling blonde. Still shaking from the leftover ache in her arms and from the mere thought of what damage could have been done to her, she faced Shun and Miyako with bitter tear-filled eyes, threatening to break loose. But insteat of her voice, the tongue-lashing came from Shun's usual sparring partner instead.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You can't get so worked up over a little slap attempt from Bakazuki! Do you even realize what you were about to do?! That move could've ripped her arms off! As vile as a snake she is, she's still not worth losing your cool over. This is why your dad always reminds us to control our emotions. You could get kicked out of school for hurting someone like that. Actually, I think you might get sued or juvenile jailed but anyway... Calm down already, Shun!" Miyako tried to knock some sense into her friend.

As she heard her name being shouted in her ringing ears, some kind of switch seemed to flip itself in Shun's head as she immediately stopped struggling in attempt to once again pounce at Sugino. Her head dropped hanging down, teeth clenching. "I know but..." Shun mumbled, "she's just so damn irritating."

From her tone, Miyako considered that the blond menace had come to her senses and wouldn't attempt to hurt Yazuki anymore so she let her go. Finding herself free to move, Shun flinched her head up to shoot Yazuki a warning look, making her yelp in fright, aware that there was nothing holding her back to make a second attempt at punishing her.

"Dare to open your mouth about this and I'll make it sure that everybody finds out what you do to Nanami every day, or even better, let you get a another round of this," she clenched a raised fist to make her point, "I'll turn your life so miserable, that you'll start wishing you really were the snake you are on the inside, so you could crawl down into the deepest darkest hole you can find to get away from me. Got it, you foul–"

"Shun, enough already, I think she gets your point," Miyako cut her off again.

Everyone in the room followed Shun with their guarded eyes as she made her way to her seat on the back desk in the middle row, without even waiting for the horrified Sugino to return any kind of answer to her threats. The small altercation between their class' bratty rich girl and the school's easiest to rile up loudmouth amazon was always bound to happen but they never expected it to escalate so fast and be disarmed so easily by just a swift kick from their resident otaku.

"Can you feel your arms and shoulders?" Miyako looked at Yazuki with a softer look than she would usually deserve.

"Yeah, whatever, Nagahoshi..." The brunette had seemingly returned to her usual bratty self, which Miyako took as a sign that she was fine. Yazuki stood up and retreated to usual her seat while being shadowed by her group of untrustworthy docile cronies.

"Wow, what a cat fight. Hate to be at the other end of that!" the boy sitting next to Haru voiced his thoughts, which resonated in the room, breaking through the noticeably heavy air left by the insane girl group.

Miyako looked at him in surprise as their whole class burst out laughing. She joined them with an awkward laugh herself, scratching the back of her head. That was one hell of a disaster that had been averted and even though Miyako was still a little bit shaken u by it, she was glad to have a guy like this in her class who was easily able to lighten up the room.

"Nice one, Tamaki!" some classmate threw back as the atmosphere slowly returned to normal.

Everyone were resuming their morning mingling again as Miyako took her seat next to Shun with Nanami sitting in front of them. The school bell rang, signaling the start of first period. Soon after that, the sensei came in and everyone stood up to show their respects. The teacher began the lesson and started to write on the whiteboard.

At the backmost desk of the middle row Miyako wrote something on a sheet of paper and sneakily slid it onto Shun's desk next to her.

"We have to talk, lunch break, 3rd floor bathroom!"

Shun wrote something else below Miyako's message and gave it back.

"Whatever..."

- xxx -

English class dragged on with lots of writing and the constant bellowing of the heavy-set sensei. Because Nakamura-sensei caught a boy called Hirameki Yasuo snoring loudly while sleeping on the last desk in the right row behind Haru, the whole class didn't get to have an earlier break like they used to when finished with their writing. He did that way too often to warrant such a punishment, considering he had avery good reason to be so tired, being the biggest brother out of four he had to take care of while helping his busy parents with the family shop.

Due to much begging, Haru let Miyako copy his Math homework during the break. This proved useful when their teacher gathered everyone's homework to grade. After Math was Biology. Miyako used up the break between classes in prep work again, this time to actually read the lesson for the day, as being busy with karate, errands and anime left her with no time for schoolwork. Then, along with Shun, Nanami, Yasuo and Tamaki, Miyako listened to Haru explain the lesson in his own words, all of them worried about getting picked for questioning.

He might be a wimpy klutz but he's damn smart, Mikami noted in her mind in praise of Haru's ability to soak knowledge so fast despite his constant grumbling about Math homework.

When that class ended, it was finally lunch time, so right after the bell rang Miyako could finally pull Shun out of her seat to drag her to the 3rd floor girl's restrooms. They closed the door behind them in comical secrecy as they ventured to the furthermost stall away from he entrance so no one could eavesdrop.

"Are you okay?" Miyako began the conversation carefully.

"What do you mean?" Shun acted surprised.

"Oh, please, the Blond Menace, being this quiet? It's weird enough when you start quietly paying attention in class, let alone when you start acting out like this. What exactly made you want to hurt little miss Ego so much? I don't think it was just what she said today about Nana-chan, I believe there's more. Tell me what happened, Shun." Miyako regarded her in all seriousness.

"Ugh. Fine. Well... I... actually... like someone..." Shun slightly blushed.

"Really? I still haven't experienced my first love! Who is it? Huh? Huh? Tell me!" Miyako dropped the serious act in favor of switching into nosy girly girl mode with a full on grin on her giddy face.

"Uh, um... Sugino Takao..." Shun blushed even more, looking away in embarrassment.

"Oh my Kira! You're kidding me! You like ego queen's cousin? Congratulations, you've just won the "Sugino Takao's 100th fangirl" prize." Miyako switched back to her usual teasing mode.

"Hey, I don't like him like some sort of fangirl!" Shun pouted.

"Tell it to the judge. You got irritated when I called you a fangirl and you've just pouted," Miyako continued to make light fun of her.

"Anyway, Friday last week after you left, I tried to introduce myself to him. I used "The Falling Books of Love Maneuver" on him," Shun started her story, "even though you based it on shoujo manga..."

"I told you my report was handy! My sources are irrelevant. Even if our literature sensei gave me those pitiful 60 points for my genius work, I still say every girl needs to know "The 14 Maneuvers of Love" by Yours Truly." Miyako puffed her lungs with pride.

"I did it exactly like it was written in your report. I faked that he bumped into me and dropped my books. I apologized, even though it wasn't my fault, and knelt to get my books with an apologetic smile," she continued.

"What did he do? What did he do?" Miyako was impatient.

"He got down to help me. When we stood up I thanked him with my head tipped to one side and the cutest smile I've got.

"I said, "You're Sugino Takao-kun, right?" And he said, "Yeah. And you're from my cousin's class. The idiotic delinquent girl with a short attention span, Hiiragi-sensei's daughter, right? Man, you really are a loser, just like the rest of your cheap family. Watch where you're going next time, peasant girl." His face even changed from the usual cool one to an annoyed one..." Now Shun was crying animatedly.

Miyako sweatdropped but still opted to extend her arms wide towards her pitiful friend, motioning with her fingers for Shun to come be consoled. Shun obeyed, gladly taking advantage of the invitation to comically cry her eyes out on Miyako's soon to be soaked shoulder. Miyako was familiar with the kind of cold attitude Sugino Takao had, that Sasuke-like little prick.

"Is there more?" Miyako asked in concern.

"Yeah," Shun got out of the hug to continue, "then Yazuki went by and rubbed salt to the wound by telling me that her cousin hates me and that he was just being nice when he called me a loser peasant. She advised me not to speak to any Sugino for the well-being of her family's nerves or brain cells or something like that. Why! That bitch! She got lucky today but next time I'll rip her to pieces!" Shun got mad again, shaking her fist in the air with a fiery anger in her eyes, gritting her teeth.

"Okay now, there's no need to get so pissed. We both know she can't help it. She's just some spoiled brat from a rich family with bad personality genes," Miyako calmed down her moody friend again. "So, that's why you got so worked up earlier?"

"Yeah..."

"Come on, Blondie. Let's go get something to eat before lunchbreak is over. That ought to cheer you up. I for one am starving and can't wait to find out what sweet little Nanacchi made us for lunch!" Miyako gave Shun another smile, grabbed her by the arm again as they merrily skipped back to their kind-hearted cute friend, Nanami's heavenly lunchboxes able to alleviate anyone's foul mood.

- xxx -

"Today we are going to make an art piece of our inner selves, the person we feel like on the inside. You can use whatever materials you want. For example, this is my painting," said the Art class teacher and held up a painting of a disproportionately bustier and younger version of herself. She was holding a bouquet of roses in one hand and a microphone in the other, standing in a spotlight with a red revealing dress and too much make-up.

The students could barely hold their laughter. Miyako was face down on the desk quivering as she was practically dying. Shun looked bored and muttered something along the lines of "Did she want to be a comedian of some sort?", worsening Miyako's delirious fit. Nanami was concerned about Miyako's mental health and was deserately trying to calm her down, but achieving the opposite effect. Haru and Tamaki had hands to their sputtering mouths and watery eyes, unable to contain themselves. Only Yasuo remained unaffected, already fast asleep yet again on the desk behind the two boys.

When everyone had finally regained some semblance of composure, they could begin working on the assignment. Shun was drawing something that was apparently her as supergirl but it looked more like a five-year-old's wonky kindergarten doodle. Actually, it was so crooked that Miyako considered the previous description would be offensive to five-year-olds. Nanami still hadn't figured out what she was going to draw, finding the task of openly projecting her inner world to be painfully uncomfortable and embarrassing as she didn't want her perception of herself to be made fun of or ridiculed. Haru and Tamaki were already painting over rough stick-figure sketches of themselves as baseball players, each triumphing over the other one. Yasuo had finished a quick sloppy monochrome-painted scribble of himself sleeping on a cloud and snored away, perpetually tired from helping at his parent's shop at home. Miyako on the other hand was moving her hand without paying attention to what she drew. She was throwing glances over Nanami's shoulder from time to time, checking to see if the meek girl had even started.

When Miyako finished and submitted her work, the Art teacher looked at it strangely for a moment then wrote a full mark and set it aside without giving it a word. On the way back Miyako noticed that Nanami's paper was still blank. She sat down and started to think about what might best suit her rather meek friend. She spent the good part of a minute staring at Nanami's tiny back in full concentration until an idea finally popped into her head.

"Hey, Nana-chan, why don't you draw yourself as a fairy? Fairies are pretty, cute, nice and caring. You totally fit the description." Miyako popped bent over Nanami's shoulder with a smile, startling the girl.

The shy girl looked embarrassed at Miyako and blushed. "I do?! But..." Nanami burried her head down between her shoulders and muttered, "I can't draw any good..."

"You don't have to make some eternal masterpiece or anything, you just have to draw whatever, winging it. Take Shun for example, she can't even make a yellow circle round enough to look like a sun but she still tries and she doesn't care if it's good." The grinning Miyako pointed at her desk-neighbour's painfull to look at sheet of paper as Shun was struggling to still her brush enough as to stop colloring out of the lines.

"Heey, it is good. It's not my fault you don't have any appreciation for the avant-garde!" Shun whipped her nose in the air, feighning self-importance. It didn't seem to work though, as Miyako and Nanami looked at eachother and snickered.

Following her friends' assurances, Nanami decided to give it a try. When she finished, it was a fairly decent fantasy piece that kind of resembled like a more confident version of her. Miyako still helped her with the translucent fairy wings.

"After a few minutes we are going to discuss your works and any techniques you might have used from previous lessons," the sensei tried to outvoice the children's chatter.

"Umm, guys did any of you see what I drew? I kind of forgot..." Miyako said, grinning sheepishly, while rubbing the back of her head with one hand.

Shun, Nanami, Haru, Tamaki and Yasuo first sweatdropped, then shook their heads, saying that they didn't really pay attention to what she drew.

Soon the sensei started calling students one by one to talk about their art. After she managed to force Shun to sit down from her overly long tirade on espers, alien powers, mutant superheroes and the differences between how the Marvel and DC universes' powers worked, the teacher called for Miyako. She got up, becoming nervous while mentally beating herself up for not paying enough attention to her own painting. She hoped she didn't submit anything too embarassing.

The Art teacher put up on the stand a manga cover style portrayal of an airborne kunoichi in mid-jump among the backdrop of a dense forest who had just thrown a few kunai mid-air. She had Mikami's brown eyes and straight dark brown hair in a half-do. The typical Konoha olive flack jacket was open on her over a fishnet shirt with elbow length sleeves and a black tube top undershirt. Black shorts stopped at mid-thigh with knee-covering long black socks worn under black ninja sandal military boots. A long black coat with green trimmings was flung over her shoulder, flaring behind her back in a three-pronged leaf shape. Black kunai and shuriken holsters were strapped to her right thigh and small-sized Konoha swirling leaf protectors were fastened to the black fingerless gloves on her hands. She looked like a cooler adult Miyako.

The class stared dumbly at the edgy large-sized manga cover, thinking how typical it was for their otaku classmate to come up with such a nerdy thing. It wasn't strange that her interestes aligned with Shun's comic book obsession. Miyako just stood still, looking at her drawing, stunned speechless. She didn't remember drawing anything like that.

"Well, tell us about your creation," the teacher encouraged.

Miyako closed her eyes and sighed. If she was going to be embarassing herself, she figured she might as well go all the way. She opened her eyes to grin at the class proudly with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"My name is Nagahoshi Miyako! On the outside I may seem like a harmless idiot but on the inside I'm a tough kunoichi! So watch out world because I'm going to kick ass!" Miyako yelled in a blunt and proud imitation of herself with the widest closed-eyes smile. She didn't care what they would think of her anymore. She wanted to be just like the Miyako she drew. Brave and free.

While her eyes were closed, she heard mumbling and coughing. She turned to the sensei. The woman looked at her, clearly annoyed at her obnoxious outburst, shook her head disapprovingly and motioned for the girl to go back to her seat.

Then there was a sound of paper being crumpled and flying through the air. Miyako turned back to the class just as paper balls started raining on her. Everyone was shouting and laughing at her, seemingly taking advantage of her blunder in order to have some fun on her behalf. Her smile dropped as she dragged herself to slump back into her desk while classmates kept throwing paper at her.

"I thought that was really cool. You were awesome!" Shun tried to cheer Miyako up, her only ally with similar imaginary world centric interests.

Nanami and the boys in their friend group, sans a sleepy Yasuo, just looked at her with mild sympathy. Miyako was sure her class social status had just dropped so low that her friends might start avoiding her for a while until things died down. Except for Shun. But that was just because Shun was equally as weird as her with the exception that she didn't care about people's opinions. Her blind confidence protected Shun from losing her cool status, even when she acted more hyperactive than usual. The other person who would never change his opinion of Miyako was maybe Haru. Being childhood friends and all, he was so used to her presence that Miyako had her suspicions he might never last a day without talking to her, or he would go nuts. As would she to be honest, but she was never admitting that she might have needed him more than he needed her.

- xxx -

Physical education wasn't a breeze either. Apparently, rumors about Shun and Miyako's spicy catfight with Yazuki from that morning had travelled the school and the PE teacher had overheard, along with news from someone in the teacher's lounge that Miyako wanted to "kick ass" so he thought he could teach the girl a lesson on how "Nails that stick out, always get hammered down." Miyako considered the quote ironically familiar while the old man in the tracksuit explained to her why she and Shun were doing push-ups along with the boys while the other girls got dismissed early. They at least considered it lucky Nanami hadn't also gotten a bad rap about being the unwitting cause of the fight and was sent scott free, otherwize the poor small girl would be struggling to reach target until nightfall. The PE teacher was as sexist as Shun had insulted him to be but he apparently wasn't too unreasonable.

"Come on, ladies! Looks like the girls are doing better than all you little princesses combined. Do you want to be called wimps because you got beat by the ladies? Pick up the pace!" the sensei bellowed before blowing his obnoxiously loud whistle in Yasuo's ear, startling him from his attempt to take a brief break to lie on the ground and causing him to jump awake with a panicked shout.

"Ugh! Why is this happening to us?" Miyako whined to Shun in a whisper while in the middle of rising from the ground. "I told you you went too far this time. Look what we're forced to do now!"

"It's not my fault Sugino-snake blabbed to everyone! He's just a sexist pig, taking it out on us just to get in her family's favor!" Shun whispered back from behind gritted teeth, her irritation with old man showing. "She's probably enjoying this, that rat! Just wait until I get my hands on her next time..." Shun vowed to herself as anger guided her to push off the ground in wild bursts, making tired male heads turn in dismay at her seemingly endless energy.

"Please don't make this feud any worse than it should be..." Miyako sighed, knowing fully well there was no way to reason with Shun when she got her mind around something. "Maybe this is for the best, we might just build up some more stamina," she reasoned as she tried concentrating on her breathing. While controlling her intake of air, she started pushing herself up and down faster, ignoring the strain of muscles in light of a warm burning sensation coursing through her arms.

The boys stopped and just stood there, sweat dripping from their discouraged gaping faces as they just looked at Shun and Miyako in shock by the reckless abilities of the two female karate nuts from their class. The teacher was momentarily taken aback as well, rendered mute by the fact that he hadn't managed to dampen their spirits with his unfair challenge. The girls had simply turned their punishment into a race of which of them could do push ups faster, seemingly enjoying themselves as they did so, as if it were another one of their training sessions back at Hiiragi Dojo.

"Hey, hey, stop! That's enough! You pass. You might pull a muscle and then it'll be my fault!" he yelled as Miyako and Shun rose from the ground, content to have disappinted their sexist PE teacher in thinking they would drop dead from exhaustion. "You girlies can take a break, too. Class is over. You're dismissed."

- xxx -

After changing from the dirty PE tracksuit back into the school uniform and leaving Shun who would have to attend Karate Club practice without her, Miyako got her sneakers from the shoe lockers and said her goodbyes with Haru, Tamaki and Yasuo, while going outside to the bike stands. Just as she was about to hop onto her bike, Haru separated from the boys and called out to her. He looked as if he had something important to say to her. The slightly taller boy approached her, his best friends Tamaki and Yasuo waiting far behind him with knowing grins on their teasing faces. He opened his mouth, paused, looking stiff, and blushed madly, closing it.

"Are you okay, Haru? Your face is red. Do you have a fever?" Miyako peered at him obliviously and put a hand over his forehead, worry knitting her eyebrows together. "It's starting to get cold. Maybe you should hurry home or your fever might become worse."

"I-I don't have a fever..." Haru became even more embarrassed, shrinking under the hand she had over his forehead.

Miyako blinked at him, confused and utterly dense.

He closed his eyes and let a deep breath out. He opened them and, while still painfully red in the face, took Miyako's hand away from his forehead into his own and lowered it without letting go, the unfamiliar action of her hand being held by his for so long making her feel like something was a little bit strange. It didn't help that he was also looking at her with an odd burning expression, quivering green eyes boring into hers with an intensity she didn't remember him ever directing at her.

Gathering a little more confidence from her lack of an attempt to flinch or run away from his touch, Haru pushed himself to speak.

"Micchan... You're... Y-you're my dark haired girl!"

Miyako made a stupid face, which nearly made Haru's determination falter as his face fell. Surely she was going to reject–

"Your dark haired girl about what now?"

The boy looked up, startled to find Miyako staring at him with an innocently oblivious little smile of obtuse confusion and no idea to what he might actually mean. Haru nearly fell over from his predicament. Why did she have to be like this? He was about ready to flip out.

"Don't you remember?! T-this morning...?!" Tightening his grip on her hand again, he tried to latch onto something.

"Remember what?" She blinked stupidly, still not getting it.

The boy sweatdropped at how thickheaded Miyako could be. Well, so much for the indirect approach... Heat returned to his face as his eyes found it hard to keep eye contact, but he didn't dare tear his gaze away, mentally begging for her to finally get it.

"W-what I mean is... Y-you're the one I like."

...

What?!

The words struck her like lightning, echoing in her head. Miyako was shocked speechless. As realization took over her, the hand that he was holding suddenly became unbearably warm and the mere contact of his fingers shot prickles of electricity dancing across her arm and travelling up to her face, making it feel like it had suddenly caught fire. She gaped at Haru, opening and closing her mouth like a breathless fish. She found herself unable to form anything more than basic sounds, yet there were thousands of questions in her mind.

HE LIKES ME?! Of all the cute girly girls in school he chose average boyish boring me?! But... why? I'm nothing special. I'm almost invisible. And after today, I'm even more of a loser. Yet Haru likes me?! Do I like him? Do I even have feelings for him? What is he to me – a classmate, a childhood friend or more than that...? Her brain was working on overdrive, dangerously near to becoming fried.

"Y-you don't have to say anything back, Micchan. I know this is sudden and I don't expect you to answer right away. Maybe tomorrow, when you've had time to think about it, o-or whenever actually. I just had to blurt it out like that and confuse you, didn't I? I'm so sorry! If you want, you can forget I said anything and we can pretend this never happened! Oh, god, I've probably ruined everything and made things awkward. Please don't hate me! I'll stop bothering you and just go away now!" rambling, Haru half-heartedly peeled himself from Miyako's frozen hand and briskly turned to scurry off back back to his friends, who were staring at them from the distance, snickering as if the entire scene was top quality entertainent, even if they were unable to hear anything from the distance.

Miyako's fingers were starting to lose heat. She realized that she felt warmer when the boy was holding her hand. She felt like she had contracted his fever and it had nothing to do with the weather. The girl stared at the retreating back of her classmate, her childhood friend, that had just made her swallow her entire vocabulary and turn into a mushy tomato with just one innocent simple word uttered.

Like.

Something in her mind just clicked.

She remembered the dream from that morning. All of it. She remembered it wasn't the first time she had a dream like that. She remembered the childish crush she had developed for him in first grade that she had quickly buried and almost managed to forget, confused and scared by the concept of feelings. Instead, she clung to him, befriended him, went to his house every day and shared her every little thought with him. And yet, all this time, he also...

He's definitely more than a friend, Miyako thought as she ran to catch up to Haru so she could stop him in his tracks with her criminally wide smile.

Glittering warm brown eyes looked at widening forest green ones. Miyako caught Haru's blazer and pulled him in, closing her eyes on pure instinct. This time Haru was the one looking surprised and both of them had a bright pink blush. Their soft untouched lips met as they shared their brief first kiss. More of a peck on the lips, really, but it still made Tamaki and Yasuo behind them gape at their friend's luck for actually receiving one for his very first confession. One of them swore and the other cheered, hooting loudly, and Miyako could clearly make out that the latter sounded like Tamaki. The two had probably made bets on how Haru's confession would pan out.

When they separated, Haru was still petrified but Miyako just smiled at him.

"Funny thing is, Haru, I just realized I've liked you too all along without understanding it! Wanna be my boyfriend? You don't have to say anything back. I know this is sudden and I don't expect you to answer right away. Maybe tomorrow when you've had time to think about it, or whenever actually," the girl copied the boy's words, making fun of him.

Haru's face finally changed from surprise to sheer joy as a wide grin grew on his face. "Of course, I would! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Haru almost boy-squealed as he hugged her and picked her up to spin her around amid his friends' playful hooting. It was obvious how much it meant to him that she returned his feelings. Or was it the other way around? It would probably remain a mystery who fell for whom first.

"Haha, I'm really sorry, Haru, but I have to go now."

"Oh, yeah, the delivery girl slave thing."

Haru hesitantly put her down and let go of her, although Miyako really didn't want him to do so either. He watched as she got back to her bike and hopped onto it.

Smiling at him once again before they parted ways, she added, "I'll leave it to you to tell Mom and Dad. "

Understanding she was referring to his parents, Haru flushed red again at the way she addressed them and at the thought of conversing with his family that he was going out with the childhood friend that they always teased him about. "M-micchan!"

"Oh, fine, you can ask me out on a date first before I get to meet your parents! See ya, Haru!" Throwing him a sly smile, Miyako joked one last time just to add even more color to her adorable new boyfriend's face.

Fuming in embarrassment, Haru muttered a pouty "bye" and turned his back to return to his two practically glowing best friends. Miyako waved to them and took out Okada-san's note from her pocket, reading the address she had to deliver the bag to with the instructions on the back. It was quite far away to the outskirts of town, but still, she drove off, wanting to get it over with as she had a new anime show episode she wanted to record on TV later.

- xxx -

The sky was dark with gloom, a thickening curtain of rolling blues and greys depraving the streets from proper afternoon daylight. There were no people around with barely any sounds other than the chilly wind blowing in a whistle as it changed directions, threatening to get stronger. A thunderstorm with heavy showers was due, judging by the ominous mass of darker clouds in the distance. Miyako in her school uniform on a blue bike with a big duffel bag and a light blue and gray schoolbag on her back stopped on the sidewalk of a secluded street at the outskirts of town. There were a lot of uninhabited traditional old houses, empty stretches of overgrown lots, barracks and factories in these parts. The girl got off her bike, unhitched the duffel bag from the back and left her ride on the sidewalk. She looked at the chipped number on the broken gate of one of the old wooden houses with traditional gabled roofing in front of her and then turned to check both sides of the paper note in her free hand with doubt.

Did I get the instructions wrong? It's supposed to be this address, but all the houses here look rundown and rotten like they've been abandoned years ago, Miyako thought while going over Okada-san's note for the fifteenth time now. She had the intrusive feeling that a girl like her was not supposed to have any business in this side of town and hoped her adoptive landlady hadn't randomly started peddling drugs, involving some orphan that nobody was going to miss. It's this one for sure but... who would live in that dump pile of rotten wood? Well, maybe it's just a delivery point.

She made her way to the front door while avoiding the overgrown dead weeds that had taken over the majority of the front garden past the broken gate. The wind started picking up and the house screeched. Miyako felt a chill run down her spine and stopped a distance away from the main entrance.

What's this vibe I'm getting? Just now... like somebody's watching me. Miyako stood still and closed her eyes. Maybe I can sense where he or she is... A moment passed as she concentrated on the general direction of the house but all she could feel was the wind picking up speed as it made a whirring sound. Ugh, no, wait, I can't. I'm not a ninja and I never will be... One of these days I should stop pretending and daydreaming like a little kid. She opened her eyes and sighed. I'm just an ordinary person.

When she looked back at the house however, she almost caught a glimpse of a shadow moving away from the dirty dark window and the tingle of static coursed through her. Her sense of wrongness was only heightened, giving her a deep feeling of dread. She felt like crying. She had no desire to play haunted house exploration but she still had a job to do.

...it was probably just my imagination, she tried to reason with herself, but I could have sworn...

Taking a deap breath as she pushed away all intrusive thoughts, Miyako walked up the door, took a deep breath and knocked on it, due to the obvious lack of a functioning doorbell. When no one answered, she slammed her knuckles harder, the worn door opening by itself from the force.

Uh, okay then, that works too.

She reluctantly peered inside.

The building seemed desolate, the stagnant smell of old dust and mold wafting from the dark innards. The air was still, furniture looking funky and dirty with white sheets draped over everything, covered by a sheer layer of grime. Old chewed curtains swayed lightly over the smudged cracked windows, broken in places. There was an enormous rotted hole in the ceiling, revealing part of the second floor, a sure indication that the house might be dangerously unstable. The strong wind was making the wood groan, adding to the creepy atmosphere. Miyako was continuously getting scary movie scene vibes. But she didn't feel that scared. Maybe all the horror movies she had seen with Haru were making the house look normal. The girl even felt sorry for the place. The noises sounded to her like wailings of grief.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Miyako heard a squeaky floorboard being stepped on in the neighboring room. She almost forgot about the delivery she had to make.

"Hey, is somebody there?" She ventured forward, closing the front door behind her to go further inside. "I'm Nagahoshi Miyako. I have a delivery for you from Okada Azumi-sama."

No one answered.

Miyako gazed around the room and spotted another note on the floor.

Her eye twitched.

I came all the way here for a second note?! If it's some sick delivery girl training again, I'm going home!

She picked up the note and read it out loud, "Yo, Miyako-chan! Look up!"

She paused with a dull look on her face.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean? And what's with the weird one-eyed masked smiley face drawn at the bottom?" Miyako looked up without realizing she was following the note's instructions.

Up on the edge of the decaying upper floor, visible from the huge moldy hole in the ceiling, were crouched several figures in some sort of strange matching military attire that Miyako immediately recognized, despite it being her first time witnessing it in more than 2D. Three men and a woman wore standard issue Leaf ninja uniforms of Konoha blues with olive flack jackets. They had very real ninja sandals, fingerless gloves, kunai and shuriken holsters, grey pouches behind their waists, grey backpacks on their backs and a Konoha Leaf headband which they all wore like a bandana to hide the top of their heads. Their faces were also hidden up to the nose with the dark blue shirt's trutleneck so only their eyes were showing, making them mostly unidentifiable.

"Yo! Glad you could make it, Miyako-chan! We'll be taking over from here," one of the ninja said in an oddly familiar voice, the one who had only one visible eye from under his bandana, which was shut in such a mirthful way that made him look like he was smiling behind that mask.

While the stunned Miyako was still struggling to wrap her mind around why a bunch of high-level cosplayers were standing around a random abandoned building in her small boring town and how in the world they knew her name, the one-eyed man snapped his fingers, the gesture immediately causing the other other ninja to disappear from up the wall in a blur of inexplicable body-flicker. Before the girl could react to the magical dematerialization of bodies, she was seized her by the arms and shoulders, two figures keeping her in place as a cloth with an intoxicatingly sharp scent was pressed to her mouth and nose by someone from behind. Suddenly feeling an overpowering wave of sleep taking over, the girl involuntarily relaxed herself in the hands of the two ninja holding her and could only watch trough half-lidded eyes as the one-eyed ninja casually hopped down from the moldy edge of the gash in the ceiling. He stood directly in front of her, pulling the headband away from his scarred left eye.

...I swear I know him from somewhere...

The last thing she saw before she fell into a deep dreamless slumber was a blood red spinning eye.

The ninja pulled down his forehead protector over his sharingan and spoke, "That should keep her in stasis for our trip back."

He took off his uniform in one sweep, revealing an everyday person's civilian attire. Putting a scarf over his face-mask and a coat he got out of his backpack, he took off his headband completely, revealing silvery hair and the scar on his closed left eye. The ninja uniform he stored in his backpack, taking out a fedora hat to tip over his scarred eye.

"We can still make the train leading to the mountain range on time. For convenience's sake, it would be better to reach the tunnel leading to the Elemental Nations before the storm catches up to us. You remember your roles, right?" The question was directed towards the others in his team, followed by their nods.

They had placed the girl on the draped couch while changing their clothes. The female spoke up.

"Yes. Kuma and I, Tori, will be the girl's parents with fake IDs – Nagahoshi Yuudai and Eri. Ryuu and you, Captain, are our family friends – Daiki and Masaru, travelling with us," the woman stated. She had light brown hair and dark yellow eyes.

"And the status of our funds and provisions?" the leader asked the man with reddish hair and the same eyes as Tori.

"I've already aquired money for road expenses and we still have enough food and water for the trip back," said Ryuu as he looked through his backpack. "Hey, Sis, you still on a diet?"

Tori's eye twitched. "Stupid! Don't reveal our identities!" She hit the back of his head, making him groan in pain. "But yeah, I am. Why?" She crossed her arms and glared.

"So I can eat half of your share of the food. Please, Sis, can I, pretty please?" Ryuu grinned.

Tori's eye twitched again and her brother got another whack on the back of his head.

"Ow! What's wrong with you?! Why do we even need to use codenames in this boring stupid ninjaless land? Not that I'm complaining about being Dragon. Although, sis, The Super Awesome Cool Crimson Dragon from the Mighty Heavens was way better, you just have to agree with this one."

"Ugh, idiot! I told you that name is way too long and moronic!" The woman palmed her forehead. "And don't call me Sis! The captain already told you it's in case we were followed."

"But–"

"That's enough. We need to get going," the captain ordered as he picked up Miyako's belongings.

"Yes, Captain!" Tori chirped, happy to oblige.

Ryuu muttered something about some stupid copy-nin interrupting him and that he should have been appointed squad leader instead, while throwing his backpack over a shoulder. Kuma silently picked up Miyako and shifted her onto his large back, imitating a piggy-back ride, and left the run-down house behind them.

- xxx -

In the morning on the fifth day they were already in the Village Hidden in the Leaves with Miyako in hands, reporting the success of their mission to an old man with white and red robes and a hat in the same colors with the character for fire on it.

"We met no difficulties in bringing the girl here, Hokage-sama. We've sent a messaging bird before entering the Tunnel with a coded letter to inform Okada-san that Miyako should arrive safely in the Elemental Lands. She'll be regaining consciousness soon," the gray-haired masked ninja spoke, glancing briefly to the sleeping kid hung over Bear's large back.

"Good work! You may lay the girl and her belongings over there. I'll take over from here." The Hokage motioned for Bear to put Miyako on the out-of-place futon not far from his desk. "Your mission is complete. Kakashi, a word, if you will? The rest of you are dismissed," the old man said as the three behind the one-eyed ninja bowed their heads and body-flickered away with no complaints.

Kakashi glanced as they disappeared, then turned back his attention to whatever matter the village leader wished to address.

"Kakashi, I'm asking you to lead a specific genin ninja team at the end of this academy year. One with four members, should there be any, since we might have an odd number. And I've arranged that Miyako be on that particular one assigned to you, even if it doesn't come to having a team of four. You have failed every genin you've had so far. This way, if the four don't pass your test, this year's graduates will remain in three-man cells as always."

"Wait. Doesn't the senior class in the Academy already have an adequate amount of students for team arrangement? Don't tell me you're planing on enrolling this girl we've just picked up into that particular class? My apologies, Hokage-sama, I don't mean any disrespect, but how do you expect her to learn so much and train her body to exhaustion for a mere few months and force her to struggle to reach her classmates' level of skill? She can barely hope to pass the graduation exam, never mind any jounin's test after that. There are students at the academy who have worked hard for years and still can't throw a kunai properly or muster the right amount of chakra to produce a simple clone or transformation," Kakashi tried to reason with the old man.

Hiruzen looked over the slumbering child as he spoke, "This may be the first time since her infant years I've laid eyes on Miyako but I knew her parents. Okada Azumi has been discreetly training the girl, testing her with various missions and hand-to-hand combat training in hopes of keeping her physical condition in shape and has spoken well of young Nagahoshi, that she has taken after her parents in every bit. I respected these people and trusted them and I see no reason not to believe in their child. I have an obligation to give this a chance. I'm going to arrange for her to be in a four-membered team, should there be one, depending on the number of graduates. This way if Miyako's not experienced enough, the others can compensate for what she's missing. She will be able to improve her shortcomings eventually. Before they died, I gave her parents my word that I would bring her back to the village and help her become a ninja, should she wish for it. If she doesn't manage to pass, she can always choose to start with next year's beginner class. Besides, Azumi described her as a stubborn quick learner just as her father and his sister were."

Kakashi had to agree with the Hokage this time. Sarutobi had made up his mind to uphold his promise. The old man had been head of the village for a long time and Kakashi knew he wouldn't be doing things without a good reason. He trusted him.

"Okay then, I'll do as you ask," Kakashi bowed his head, "But what if they pass my test? You know I'm not going to fail them just because they're more people or because Miyako hasn't gone through the entire official Academy training. The larger the group, the more my test becomes harder for them to pass."

"Well, then you'll end up with a bunch of fresh genin, the first to have passed your test, waiting to be honed into fine ninja by the fabled Sharingan Kakashi," the Hokage said with mirth.

The two of them glanced at Miyako as she shifted in her sleep.

"You're free to go. I believe she'll be waking up soon."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

As Kakashi disappeared from the office, Sarutobi sat in his desk, busying himself with paperwork as he waited for Miyako to come about.

- xxx -

The room was warm and bright. There were large windows behind a large desk creating a soft glow around the Hokage sitting in his chair. It was early in the morning and the sky was outlined with grading colors from deep blue to rosy orange, caused by the rise of the sun. Not far away from the desk, on the floor next to the bookshelf wall, was a dark brown haired girl on an weirdly placed futon. The girl shifted slightly, slowly opening her eyes. Feeling as if the weight of a truck had knocked her out, she sat up rubbing her numb face. Miyako had slept like a log. Removing the hand from her face, she blinked in mute disbelief at the sight of the room she had woken up in. It was some kind of an old wooden office, the peculiar style of which looked unusual but quite familiar. Wasn't she usually supposed to be waking up in her room?

Her sleepy confused eyes paused briefly on the strange old man in white robes casually sitting on a desk while smiling at her as if they were supposed to know each other. She paused, staring at him, seemingly waiting for an explanation for this weird encounter.

"Good morning," the old man greeted warmly. "Did you sleep well? Oh, excuse my manners, I haven't introduced myself. I am Sarutobi Hiruzen and known as the Third Hokage which is a leadership position of this place you have found yourself in."

The girl looked at him with a funny disbelieving expression. Sarutobi was expecting her to be a little afraid of him perhaps, but she just smirked instead.

"Yeah, sure. Nice cosplay, you look like the real thing."

However, when Miyako heard herself speak, it made her sober up a little and seemed to remember something which caused her to panic.

"Hey, wait a minute! I've been kidnapped by a bunch of ridiculously realistic cosplayers! Where am I?! Who are you?! And why the heck are all of you roleplaying ninjas?!"

The Third was at a loss. The girl was looking at him as if he would jump her any minute, repeating "don't come near me, old geezer, get away!"

"Roleplay? Oh, my robes must be foreign to you. Now, now, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you. I was the one who ordered those ninja to bring you here. You weren't kidnapped, your guardian Okada Azumi-san knows you're here. She cooperated with me to bring you to your birth place, Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

Miyako's eyes widened even more.

"SHE LET ME GET KIDNAPPED?! This is really the sickest idea of delivery girl training since that time she made me stop an armed bank robbery using Kyokushin with my shoelaces tied! Truly the cherry on top! There's no way that's true! How do I believe you're not tricking me?! What proof do you have?!" she went through a rather jumbled panicking rant.

"Calm yourself. I don't have the slightest idea what you're babbling about but the village is proof enough. Come and see." The Hokage got up and turned to the windows, motioning for her to take a look outside. Miyako carefully got up and reluctantly walked up to Sarutobi while eyeing him with her distrustful eyes, in case he decided to try anything funny. He opened a window for her and a morning scented fresh breeze blew in.

There were typical Konoha styled houses and greenery everywhere, the birds were greeting the sun and there was steam lazily ascending from the far hot spring bathhouse. Miyako recognized other familiar buildings throughout the village along with the typical for the Leaf piping, cables and variety of signs, lamps and lanterns throughout the streets. There was a high circular wall visible stretching along the far horizon, surrounding the village to separate it from a lush green sea of forestry. Everything was so heartaching Konoha-like that it was too good to be true but Miyako had to admit she was indeed currently looking at such a realisticly built lived-in replica of what she had imagined the real Hidden Leaf Village in the Land of Fire to look like. She could even swear she noticed the movement of shadows flickering over a roof or two now and then, hinting at the professional military force of loyal ninja working about some misculaneous jobs in the early morning. It all forced her to admit that she was really standing inside a tall floor of the Hokage Tower in the very real Hokage's office of the supposedly until that point completely fictional ninja world she had so far only watched on TV and read about in her favorite shounen manga magazine. More than that, the very Hokage claimed Miyako was actually born here.

"I'm really not dreaming, am I? This is real. You are real... You said I was born here, but how is that even possible?!" Patting her own cheek limply, Miyako was so stupified by the mere notion that she was very much awake that she didn't know what to to believe anymore.

"We're in the middle of the Elemental Nations, part of the known vast lands where ninja dwell, unlike where you ended up growing up. This is the home where you spent the first few days of your life together with your parents." As the old man explained with a bit of bitter melancholy in his voice, it seemed that he didn't seem to fully comprehend the true reason behind her bewilderment, but it was still enough to make something stir up inside the small girl.

Miyako felt her eyes watering. Sarutobi knew something about her parents. That meant that she might not have been thrown away into Okada-san's care by some unknown broken couple. She smiled to herself sardonically, head down to bashfully hide her wet eyes as she sniffed to bottle it all up, to not admit her deeprooted fears, a hand coming up to dab at her tears.

"Home, huh?" she said quietly, marvelling at how nice it felt to be able to say that one simple word. The girl leaned over the window frame to spend a moment just gazing around the view of the waking village, admiring its simplistic beauty, the realism of which almost made her forget that it was supposed to be a fictional world as she wondered what it could have been to live out her days here, fussed over by her actual parents.

Sarutobi smiled warmly at the child, patiently allowing her the well-deserved space for her to take in the sights of her birth place. But Miyako wasn't a person who stood quiet for too long. She was still looking outside when she decided to voice out some of her many questions.

"Are they here?" She raised her head slightly to see better behind a tall building with an orange roof, failing to feign disinterest as her voice wavered a tiny bit.

Guessing the nature of her question, Sarutobi obliged, "No, sadly. Your parents passed away many years ago. You must have been about a few months old when they sacrificed themselves in battle."

"So I'm still an orphan, huh?" Miyako was disappointed for a second until another notion popped into her head. "Wait. They died in battle?" This time she turned to look at him, eyes widening in suspense as what first came to mind was the last Ninja World War.

The old man nodded. "Yes, they were ninja. Some of the ones I respected most. They were very skillful shinobi."

Miyako beamed at the prospect of being the daughter of ninja. But was she the only one?

"Siblings?"

"No, you were their only child."

The girl's spirit died down. "No family at all, huh?"

"Your father had a twin sister but I'm afraid she passed away along with them. I'm sorry to say, but you don't have any living family members."

"It's okay. I didn't have any before today as well. There's no point in being sad over something I never had anyway." She looked back outside gloomily.

"On the contrary, you just had family for less time than others. You should also remember that your relatives aren't the only people who can care for you and make you happy. The world is full of people in need of a friend."

Miyako rolled his words over in her head. Sarutobi had a point. In Konoha, for example, Hinata had family but wasn't treated well by the cold stern Hyuuga and their high expectations of her as an heir, her bitter cousin being especially cruel to her. Sasuke still had a brother left but was left to rot alone in the village with no choice but loathe Itachi for alledgedly erasing their entire clan in a quest for power, leaving only his little brother alive to agonize and go crazy over the fact as if it were some kind of sick sadistic joke. On the other hand, Naruto didn't have any relatives, just like Miyako, but grew to be perfectly happy and content with just having his friends to rely on.

"Yeah, you're right." The Hokage had been the first person in years to cheer Miyako up successfully. "Oh, and I'm sorry for not believing who you were."

"No need to apologize for anything. I'm sure it was just a reaction to everything that is happening to you."

"On a previous note, how did my parents die anyway?"

"Right about the time you were born, in the same year a demon fox spirit had attacked the village. Many ninja risked their lives to protect the villagers, your parents among them. While we were discussing how to lessen the damage with the village elders and the council before I joined the battle alongside the Fourth Hokage who was confronting the demon at that very moment, they came. Your parents begged me personally to hide you until it were safe. They didn't know if any of us would survive the attack, so they wanted you far away from that chaos. They were keepers of the passageway that leads to the ninjaless land you've lived in until now. Your parents and very few others knew about this very well-guarded secret. Okada Azumi was a dear friend and neighbor of your parents at the time. She volunteered to take you to the Beyond. Unfortunately, that was the night your parents lost their lives for the sake of the village."

Aside from the realization that her parents had aparently perished in the Nine Tails' attack, a ploy the deluded Obito posing as Madara was responsible for, Miyako took a moment to let something more impending sink in, because she wasn't ready to start deliberating whether she was supposed to be mad at until then fictional people for resulting in her being raised an orphan. The Third had outright admitted to her the existence of multiple worlds, a multi-verse the likes of which had only been mere theory in her previous world and had solely been used for entertainment purposes in comic books. There was a tangible link between their two worlds, the world of ninja and her previous one, a mysterious path between two universes that her parents had known about, one that they were somehow intimately connected to. And Sarutobi had absolutely no idea Miyako knew all about the Elemental Nations from a mere anime show, exposing all of their precious ninja secrets. Their two worlds were more linked than he knew, to the point that some of ninja reality had apparently bled through in some unfathomable superficial way to the point of allowing regular people from the alternate world like her the possibility of future knowledge. Because if Sarutobi was still alive and in front of her, this meant the events of the Chunin exam finals were yet to take place and Miyako was currently the only one in their world to know about it.

Miyako's face darkened, avoiding the Third's painfully sympathetic gaze as she suddenly felt too ill to be facing what was practically a dead man, yet being acutely aware that any mention of his grim fate would only result in her being detained and questioned about things that she and her twelve-year-old brain couldn't even begin to fathom. Something deep inside her was telling her that divulging the existence of what was essentially a fortune-telling device in the form of an anime show would rain a slew of trouble both on the unwitting creator of the Naruto manga and onto Miyako herself. For all she knew, Kishimoto was completely unaware his mind and imagination was conected to or either birthed an entire separate universe connected to his own and wouldn't deserve the heart-attack that would be a bunch of ANBU crashing into and raiding his workroom. Miyako paled, realizing in that span of a second that making ANBU aware of this would immediately result in also alerting Root and Danzo of the possibility of tampering with future events in their favor, the mere possibility of which made her sick to the stomach.

Miyako couldn't allow that. Telling anybody about what she knew of what was to come wasn't an option if she ever wanted to remain alive and keep the future as predictable as possible for her to be able to guarantee the survival of her and the rest of the cast of Naruto she had sympathized with. So, stilling herself with whatever resolve she could gather and policing her behavior, she made every effort to remain calm as she steered the conversation in a slightly different and more personal direction.

"So my parents were heroes?" Miyako tried to prod the Third for more information about her parents instead while still reluctant to meet his eyes.

"Naturally. They fought fearlessly the demon side by side with other valiant leaf ninja and saved many lives. Their names were carved on a stone memorial for their service to the village."

Miyako immediately thought of Kakashi's favorite thinking place – the stone memorial on the training grounds where his teammates' names were carved in. But she wasn't sure if that memorial held only names of the lives killed in action only during the Third Ninja War, or if anyone with uncollected remains who had given his life for the village in general ended up having their name carved on that stone.

"That's... I mean, I'm grateful," the girl corrected herself while absently rubbing her face. "So, um... why did you bring me here? Actually, how was this even possible? You mentioned some kind of passage?"

"When your parents asked for you to be sent to a safer place, they also asked for your return here. I gave them my word that I'll make that happen, and kept it, even though it took a ridiculous amount of time to manage to pinpoint your location due to us having limited knowledge of the land beyond the gate. You know, your father was the first one to arrive from the other side, from the Beyond, along with his twin sister back when tehy were young. They were the first ones to find the passageway, so it was in his right to ask of its usage to guarantee your safety. You can figure out why your father had decided to stay here after he had met your mother."

"Yeah, I can." Miyako smiled to herself, assuming her father must have been very intrigued and smitten back when he met her mother if he had been so adamant on remaining in such a foreign land. "Hey, you didn't say anything about how this passageway works. This sounds like something huge–"

"Exactly," Sarutobi cut her off, "and I expect you to be quiet about it, now that you are one of the few who know about the Tunnel. The properties of this passageway however, remain confidential S-rank information and you are in no way entitled to that knowledge."

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?! Are you trying to tell me that I'm not old enough or something?" Miyako frowned. "Because it sounds to me that it's something like a legacy of my father's, which means that if anyone should know about this, then it should be me, the girl who apparently crossed this passageway twice without her knowledge. You practically just told a kid there are two vastly different realities with a magic tunnel between them and you're gonna leave her with no explanation whatsoever?! We're either talking about different dimensions or otherwise whole ninja-filled continents are somehow hidden from the population of an entire chakra-sensitives deprived planet, not to mention that... um... actually... nevermind..."

Consumed by her rant, the girl had almost accidentally told the very Hokage that there was a man in the other world who apparently must have invented the Elemental Nations in his head and was drawing a manga about one obnoxious orange clad boy, thus spending his time spilling top secret ninja intel in mass print to millions of people all over the other world's globe in the span of several years. It didn't seem like such a bad idea to keep quiet up about it and omit any future slip-ups of this sort to anyone else in the ninja world if she didn't want to end up at Torture and Investigation facing Ibiki's mind-tricks or Ino's dad's mind-probing. That didn't help her stop panicking over the fact that this was actually happening to her, nor did she have any idea how much did these ninja know about the other world and specifically about the whole Naruto manga ordeal.

Also, SERIOUSLY?! There's some inner-dimensional tunnel or portal or whatever in Japan, leading to Kishimoto Masashi's made-up ninja world?! HOW HASN'T ANYONE FOUND IT YET?! Except obviously my dad and his sister, WHO WERE A COUPLE OF FRIGGIN KIDS! A FREAKING PORTAL-TUNNEL?! IN THE ACTUAL REAL WORLD?! In that retrospect, since I don't really appear in the franchise, THEN WHICH IS THE REAL WORLD?! WHICH DO I BELONG TO?! WHAT AM I EVEN?!

"I see you have calmed yourself," Sarutobi put a hand over her stiff shoulder, "I understand this must be a lot for your young mind to handle–" Oh, you have absolutely no idea. "–but I should advise you to try and forget about the passageway for the time being. I promise you that, even though there is no legacy of any sort, if in due time you have earned the privilege of obtaining more knowledge about the Tunnel, I will make sure to let you know," Sarutobi sounded borderline sarcastic, since he didn't seem to really believe Miyako would ever become part of the few S-ranking elite privy to such mindblowing intel, but Miyako wasn't letting that ruin her hopes.

"I'm wild-guessing that includes me coming of age, am I right?"

"Your guess would not be wild at all. And also, since I mentioned that this is classified S-rank information, you may consider working your way through the ranking system, if you're that keen on finding out the truth about your self-appointed so-called legacy." The old man smiled knowingly at Miyako, seemingly intent on dangling that bait in front of her so he could trick her into striving to become a strong asset to strengthen the village.

"Wait a second, are you saying you're allowing me to live here?"

"It's your birthplace after all. You can stay if you want to. I can't force you, of course."

Miyako looked at a couple of singing birds on a tree outside. She was lost in thought about what she would be leaving behind.

There was a lot she was going to leave behind back in the other world. But all she had ever known was that little shabby apartment with Okada-san downstairs. There was still school in the morning with wild Shun, shy Nanami, mischievous Tamaki, sleepy Yasuo and oblivious Haru. The few friends she had despite her peculiar geekish antics always made her day. Who was going to encourage Nanami, calm down Shun, keep Yasuo awake and joke around with Tamaki? Who was going to keep a leash on ego queen Yazuki or make her oh-so-cool cousin Takao lose his cool? And lastly, who would be there to make sure Haru went to school on time? Help him up when he trips or correct his table manners? Who would be there to copy his homework or listen to him retell the lesson in his own words? Who would be his dark haired girl? Who would return his feelings? Could she abandon her newfound love Haru, her friends and her old life to start a new one? Yeah, she had a very high chance of meeting the characters of her favorite anime and yeah, she was pretty sure the persuasive old Okada-san had already thought of a ridiculously unbelievable excuse for Miyako's absence, but was it all worth leaving her old life behind, just for the slim chance of learning a little more about her already gone parents? She was also never going to be able to find out how the rest of her favorite anime and manga series ended and all of her dutifully hoarded merch was just going to rot away untouched in her room, unless Okada-san decided to throw it away or sold it off.

Something clicked inside her head. The girl left the birds outside be as she looked at Sarutobi, a tiny sliver of hope burning in her eyes.

"Am I ever allowed to go back? Not now, but some day maybe?" Miyako seemed like she was asking for something really dear to her. A small vacation in Konoha wouldn't kill anyone, or so she persuaded herself, glad for the chance to be free of her normal day tedious schoolwork at the least.

"Although I would discourage any unsupervised reckless use of a potentially dangerous unstable passageway between worlds, I suppose it's in your right to wish to return and I can take full responsibility for any such future arrangements." The Third deliberated on the matter.

"But while I'm staying here, where would I even live? What about money? I didn't bring any clothes with me either," she worried.

"The bag Azumi-san asked you to bring carries some of your belongings. I've arranged for you to live in your parents' old apartment and you'll be given a monthly allowance until you start working. There's a Chuunin, a middle-class ninja, waiting outside to guide you."

"Really? You've prepared so much! Thank you!" Miyako was honestly grateful the old man had gone to such lengths to uphold his promise. It was evident he had held her parents in very high regard and she couldn't believe her luck in the opportunity he was presenting her with. She was only left wondering about on last detail. "By the way, who were the ninja that brought me here?" She was nearly certain she had recognized one of them sa Kakashi himself and considering the timeline she was supposedly in, it wasn't a far-fetched belief for him to be assigned to such a sensitive mission.

I can't believe I was actually kidnapped by Kakashi and got to see his eye, even though I was drugged and hypnotized. She still felt queazy from whatever chemical had been shoved in her face. On second thought, I can't believe Konoha is my actual bithplace. Actually, I don't even know what to believe anymore.

"I'm sorry but I can't tell you that. It's confidential." The Third seemed to find a little bit of fun in conceiling things from her despite the seriosness with which he adressed the matter.

"Of course it is..." The girl sighed, expecting the unnecessary secrecy. "And you mentioned something about having to work my way through the ranks...? I'm sure you made some mistake, I have no ninja training what so eve–"

"Am I mistaken that Okada-san has had you train in various other-worldly combat training and has been sending you to complete numerous complicated tasks in order for you to develop an adequate basis for exercising proper taijutsu?"

"...You have got to be kidding me." If Miyako's jaw could drop any lower, it would be on the floor right about then.

IS THAT WHAT THAT INSANE ABSURD DELIVERY GIRL TRAINING WAS FOR?! WHY I OUGHT TO–

"Oh, I assure you, I kid you not. I have promised your deceased parents to bring you back here especially for you to train as a ninja, if you wish to follow in your parent's footsteps that is..."

Miyako's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?! How could I not?! This is sick!" It really was too much for her to get her head around. She could even become a kunoichi?!

"Well if you dislike the idea so much that you find it sickening, I cannot force you to become a ninja against your own will–"

"NO–I mean–YES! I do want to be a ninja!" She started jumping excitedly. "When do I start?"

"Calm down child! I made sure to enroll you in the last year class of the Ninja Academy, a training facility with other children your age hoping to become ninja. But be aware that there's only a few more months left until the end of the academic year. You'll need to undergo extensive training and rigorous study in order to catch up to your classmates. At the end of the year there will be an exam that will determine which students have aquired enough skill to become genin, the lowest ninja class. No need to worry though, if you are not able to graduate, you can be sent to the beginner class and you can still get another try at becoming a ninja if you wish so."

"Alright, I'll do it! I know it's going to be hard work but I'll make it, for sure!" the girl declared with childish enthusiasm, barely thinking now that she was presented with the option.

"Then it's settled. You can begin your training today. The chuunin outside will be your sensei. His name is Umino Iruka–" Iruka?! "–He will guide you to where you'll be living and explain what you'll need. Good luck!"

Miyako nodded happily. She went to retrieve the blue duffel and her schoolbag that were next to the out-of-place futon. Going up to the door, she turned back to Sarutobi just as she touched the handle.

"Thank you for everything!" Miyako beamed a heartfelt smile before exiting the office.

Hiruzen smiled on his own as well, throwing a look to one of the drawers in his desk. Opening it, he pulled out an old worn photo album, turning it over to a certain page featuring one of his students – Jiraya and his first batch of freshly graduated genin assigned under his care. One of the students could easily be mistaken for a longer-haired whiskerless Naruto, only it was a kouhai of the Third Hokage's – the Fourth in his youth. The second boy in the photo was full-cheeked and tan with short freshly-cut black hair and the third boy... no, wait, it was just a rather tomboyish girl. A dark-eyed girl with tied up dark hair, if only she had made a happier face than the stoic one she had adopted and if only she had her hair down, she would have been a splitting image of Miyako.

"Nagahoshi Misaki... I've done as promised. It's all up to Miyako now."

- To be continued -

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