My eyes gradually open, and I register the time. 6:30 AM. Phew. I woke up at an ok time. Extracting myself from my bed, I put on my ninja outfit.

I put on the fishnet, leggings, and dress. The neckline of the dress forms a wide scoop, in contrast with the turtleneck-like neckline of the fishnet shirt. The sleeves of the dress come down to a three quarter length, while the fishnet sleeves stop at my wrists. There's a tan sash, which connects to my weapon pouches of the same color. One holds kunai knives, the other shuriken. The dress hangs just above my knees, and so do the black leggings. The fishnet leggings are at a three quarter length, as well. But what I like most about this dress is the slit in the front. The slit starts from the tan sash-belt, and allows free, normal movement. The hem of the dress, both in front and back, is like an upside-down V cut in half, because of the slit.

I'm beginning to like the Naruto world. The real world's focused, in my opinion, too much on fashion. Models walking on runways, their bodies starved, for both food and attention. Actors that should be tanned, curvy, and pretty. But the abnormal Naruto world is so much more, ironically, normal. People only focus on being a good ninja, and missions, training, and exercise all help with being moderately fit. Girls aren't expected to be curvy and tanned, and boys don't have to have rock-hard six-packs, or ooze sex appeal. People look at talent, not looks.

Except for Sasuke and his fangirls. I remark internally.

I look at my face as I brush my raven black hair into a braid. Dark blue eyes, light olive-toned skin. Blue eyes and black hair isn't common, but sometimes I wish I had brown eyes. It seems so weird, but, I hate attention, aside from friends and family. Being adored at school just evokes a hard cringe from me. Having a horde of love-thirsty boys follow me around would make me contemplate suicide, or just moving away to Rio and changing my name. Having people point at me and exclaim, "Oh, wow! You have DARK BLUE eyes! Cool!" is pretty unsettling, as if the world needed to know why I have black hair and blue eyes. I have my mom's unique black hair-blue eye face, but I get my rock-hard attitude from my father. He was gentle when he needed to be, but when faced with a challenge, he would tough it out and keep at it.

I leave the bathroom, wondering what I should prepare for breakfast. I glance at the clock. 6:50. Ten minutes to eat, ten minutes to make breakfast. I accept the challenge! Ah. I know, ramen with cut up seaweed. Cooking the ramen is easy, and cutting the seaweed is a breeze. I make a mental note to make this meal more for breakfast. I take a sip. I expected to be repulsed by my lack of cooking skills, but the ramen does a lot of work, and so does the seaweed. It tastes slightly salty and sweet, as well as ocean-like thanks to the seaweed.

I slurp down the rest and start walking to school, when I notice my next-door neighbor. Blond, spiky hair. Blue eyes lighter than mine. A carefree grin. "Hey! Who are you?" he asks pointedly.

"Maiya Akimoto. You?" I ask.

"Naruto U-zu-maki!" he stressed the syllables.

"Oh, I've heard of you." And probably the rest of the world, too. "You're that guy always getting into trouble, right?"

"I prefer you call it being creative." Naruto grins.

"Hey, are you around here?" Naruto looks confused.

"No, I'm from a different area." I code my words, because somehow I know that if I tell Naruto that I'm from a different world, he will go insane.

We start walking to the Academy, and we both begin to open up, Naruto, then me. Naruto tells me his life, and we both relate to each other. We just click, I guess. We're both nearing the entrance, when, Sasuke the pest steps behind me.

"Maiya, you look good today." Sasuke notices. Why is he only referring to me? There are other pretty girls, right?

"Why, Sasuke, you pest, thank you." I emphasize the last words just enough to be insulting.

"We have a deal, right?" He bugs me. I sigh. I step in front of him. At home, whenever we went to the sea or nearby beach, I could always feel a slight tinge, a connection, even though a weak one. My friends and grandma just told me to ignore it. But I never believed them. But here, in the Naruto world, there are dozens of types of Chakra Releases. Mine could be Water. I connect, joining hands with that feeling again. I feel a powerful surge in the heart of my gut, and I form a sphere of water in my right hand, and aim it at the heart of the fangirl crowd. They quickly disperse, not wanting to look any worse than perfect in front of their Sasuke.

"Took you long enough, Maiya." Sasuke smirks.

"That was my first time." the comeback rolls off my tongue.

"Good. For beginners."

"What is it with you? You're moodier than usual."

The crowd of students quickly shuffles into the doorway, and Sasuke and I follow heed. In the hallway, I get plenty of dirty looks by supposed fangirls. Honestly. If they all like Sasuke, couldn't they at least not hate each other?

Shes's so pretty. I think. I look at her, sitting in front of me. Even tucked away in a long braid, her raven black hair is beautiful, the same shade as mine. Her lapis blue eyes take in the class. Her outfit also goes along with what I think is her type of Chakra Release. Water. From what I can see, she's advancing quickly, learning skills that would take days for normal students to understand in 5 minutes.

"Okay, class. Today, your homework will be to study what we have learned over the past week. Tomorrow, we will determine what team you're in, as well as if you pass or not." Our sensei, Iruka Umino, says. The class begins to disperse, starting to buzz about which team they hope they get on. Nonchalantly, I walk over to Maiya's desk, and ask, "Do you want to train together?"

She glares at me. For a second, I thought I was walking on thin ice, but I refuse to let any signs of weakness or nervousness register. She relents, to my surprise, and agrees.

"Meet me outside the Academy in half an hour." she says. In the meantime, I sit down on a bench, rearrange my hair, and act British. In reality, I suck at staying away from fangirls. But I would never say that to anyone. Especially Maiya.

I barely make it back to my apartment before I meet Sakura. She comes up to me, and tries to provoke me, I can tell.

"Who are you? Why are you talking to Sasuke?" she angrily shouts.

"I'm just being me. Are you hiding a little monster behind that nice face, too?" I ask, gently teasing her. I don't want to come off as mean, but also don't want to come off as weak and gullible either.

"Stay away from him!" she yells, pushing me. I make a small sphere of water and splash it on her. Her reaction is worth it. I don't really like her, mainly because she never scored many winning fights, and even then, those were long, dragged out fights. She always hit Naruto, probably for comic relief, but the worst part was that she worshipped Sasuke.

I rush inside while she's still soaked. I close the bedroom door and pull off my dress. I adjust my bra, then slip a blue sports bra over, courtesy of Kurenai-sensei. Slipping my dress back on, I climb on the window and latch to the tree, climbing down quickly so Sakura doesn't see me. I start running to the Academy, with a mixture of fear, excitement, and nervousness down my spine.

I meet Sasuke there, in a clearing in the woods for fangirl reasons. He smiles, actually one of the rare, real smiles I suppose he does alone where no one can see.

"Let's start. Ok. You still haven't learned everything, so let me catch you up and we can begin to spar."

"Fine." I agree. My mind is still ringing from the slew of lessons I had to learn.

Sasuke goes on about how to use shuriken and kunai knives, as well as determining genjutsu or ninjutsu. When his speech finally ends, we begin to circle each other, a practice spar in a clearing. Sasuke takes an offensive position. I lean back on the defensive. We trade equally painful hits.

(2 hrs later)

By now, we're both tired, yet too stubborn to admit it. We go at fighting again, until my breathing grows heavy and pained. Sasuke doesn't look good either. Like a stone wall. Dent it, and it will begin to crack. Keep on hitting it, and soon, it will collapse. I sit back, leaning on a tree. Sasuke follows suit. We rest, for what I think is 20 minutes. But it seems like a blink. A blissful rest. My breathing returns to normal, when Sasuke gets up.

I wonder what he's getting up for, when the world seems to become dimmer, and dimmer.

Sasuke was about to talk to her, but then Maiya just had to fall asleep. He walked over to her, crouching down, so he could see her better. Her eyelids were gently closed. Her hair fell in a long, sleek braid, like a streak of black, tumbling down her shoulders and barely falling to her stomach. Carefully, when he was sure she was asleep, he reached and pushed back a stray strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear.

He leaned closer to her, and while he would never say it aloud, he would never be brave enough to kiss her on the lips. Instead, he planted a short, sweet kiss on her forehead, and cupped her face in his hands. She was so peaceful when she was sleeping, never yelling at him.

He didn't even understand why he loved her. Maiya Akimoto, a human who became a ninja of Konoha. Yelling at him, never swaying to become a fangirl, like a tree that didn't sway to the wind pushing against it.

Sasuke didn't know why he loved her. All he knew was that he was in love with her.

Ok. So, HUMONGOUS shout out to Bella-swan11 for favoriting Neji and Hinata! Anyways, thanks for all your visits, and I promise promise promise I will keep on writing. I won't ghost you guys. In the short 5 or so days I've been here, I've discovered a wonderful community of creative stories. (lol too cheesy for meh.)

I will be busier, because:

Middle school stuff

Piano MTAC Assessment stuff

Clarinet Solo Ensemble stuff

Band stuff

But I will keep on posting to keep you guys entertained! :D