"..." Normal chat.

ABC. Thought.


Chapter 2


"No. 9...?"

My heart skipped a beat the moment he mentions the old name, which I have left fallen into the void for a long time ago, together with the memories from that place.

"W-Who are you people?! What do you want from us!"

The blonde haired man wearing black sunglasses doesn't answer and keeps coming closer to my spot. Quickly, I reach to the daggers hanging around my waist and prepare for any ambush. There must be at least 20 of these guys here, and I'm quite positive that there are still more hiding somewhere nearby.

Of course they would wait for Ryu to leave the village to initiate the attack. Without him, we're already at our big disadvantage. And now these people are completely outnumbered us, with high-tech weapons no less.

Despite Momiji's callings for me to escape, I charge forward with the daggers in my hands. Hoping to at least knock down some of them and free her so that we can leave this place together.

Only a few more steps away from the group of enemies. However, that man from earlier has aimed his weapon and shoot an giant orb, which core sparks out some kind of deep blue-colored electric energy, at me to stop my attack.

Luckily I'm fast enough to dodge it in time but that thing, it follows me wherever I go. Figured that one isn't enough to hold me down, he begins sending more of them.

What the hell?! Not only they're not slowing down but also getting faster in seconds. And what is coming has to come, those energy balls catch up to my pace and I have no choice but to endure the impact. From all of them at once.

"Nina!" Momiji watches the girl gets electrocuted and collapses onto the ground in horror. She tries to get out of the enemy's grip to save her but these guys refuse to move even in an inch.

"Don't worry, we're not here to kill her." The man ensures the panic miko and picks the unconscious Nina up onto his shoulder. After a short moment confirming to someone through the phone, he starts walking toward to the helicopter's stair, which is now approaching closer to their spot from the sky.

After successfully getting into the helicopter, he flies away. Leaving his subordinates behind to deal with Momiji's outrage.

..

..

..

Slowly gaining back my consciousness due to the sound of crashing metals going around me, yet doesn't have enough strength to get up by myself. I continue laying on the spot and pretend to be asleep. Soon the noises stops and I start hearing people's voices, seem to be talking to each other. Unfortunately, they're too far away from my spot so the best I can hear are some broken words or sentences here and there.

"...My greatest creation!"

Whose voice is that? Why does it sound so familiar...

"Where is she?! What did you do to her?!"

Wait a minute! That's Ryu's voice! I jolt up from my day-dreaming and realize I am now locked inside something that looks like a small, transparent room. Floating in the middle of the air inside a huge high-tech facility.

Apart from all of these machines and large tubes full of colorful liquid that I've seen before from the past, I don't recognize anything more about this place. Perhaps it's either my mind was fuzzy back then or they had moved into another location.

On the glass floor I see a pool of blood and scattering around are multiple parts belong to something that is much bigger than a human being. Kneeling in the middle of the room is an injured Ryu with a sword in his hand, and standing in front of him is an average looking Japanese man, seems to be in his 40s. Wearing lab coat and grey pants. Short brown hair and eyes, Having glasses and a golden ring on his left hand, at the thumb.

For some reasons his voice is the only thing I can recall of. Not his face or anything else, I wonder why.

Therefore the man starts mocking and pointing another strange looking gun at him. "Years ago you destroyed my lab and took her away from me. I only came to retrieve what was originally mine."

Destroyed his lab? So that how it was. No wonder we were being chased by those weird looking bots back at the forest. And I can understand the part about him claiming me to be his but. Why did Ryu do all of these things? For what cause?

More importantly, why didn't Ryu tell me anything about it? Just what was he trying to hide?

Still, this is not the time to think about the past. First, I have to help him escape then we can start talking about it later. Once we get home safely.

With that thought, I start looking for an exit by searching around the room. There is no door, no window, no strange device lying around, nothing looks suspicious but a small bed and an empty desk. There are some small holes at the top for air supply but that's it.

What the hell?! It's as if these walls were made only after they put me inside or something.

Hold on, perhaps I can reach to Ryu from here. Fortunately enough, this is not a soundproof room. In order to alert Ryu, I start banging my hands against the transparent wall and calling out for him. "Ryu nii-sama. I'm up here!"

However he still doesn't aware of my presence and I decide to use stronger methods. Like kicking and slamming my body against the wall. It's not until the floating room starts shaking horribly and about to lose its balance due to the impact that Ryu finally pinpoints where I am.

"So she's awake, huh?" The man has also noticed me from afar and shifts his attention away from the shinobi kneeling before him. "Hmm... Much sooner than I thought."

Taking the rare chance that the enemy isn't looking, Ryu kicks the gun off the man's hand and charges at him. Successfully stealing a remote hidden inside his pocket and clicks the button. The four walls floating on the air start falling apart and I land onto the ground below, unharmed.

Concerned, Ryu releases the man and dashes to where I am to get me out of here.

Not letting us escape so easily, The man in lab coat approaches one of the machine nearby and start typing on them. Releasing an army of white armored robot which are around human size, two metallic hands that sharped like swords and legs, no face or neck but a huge red eyes in the middle of its round head. The ones that I've seen chasing after us back then, but much more upgraded in combat and smaller, more agile than it used to be.

Despite having destroyed anything that gets in his way. More and more of them keep coming and only a minute later, Ryu ends up getting surrounded. Not wasting any second, the man grabs his gun lying on the floor and approaches to where Ryu is standing to seize him.

There are too many of them! At this rate he won't be able to last long! Figured that it would be unwise to join the fight, I decide to look for another solution to help him. By sneaking behind the giant tubes and crawling my way toward to the machine that man has used earlier.

I remember he hit some buttons on this thing to activate those robots. Perhaps I can deactivate them with it too? I scan the white machine box's keyboard, large screen which are full of weird symbols and buttons to look for a clue. Then my eyes stop at a giant red button and a level, two of which are sitting next to each other at the top of the table.

Since there's no time thinking, I activate them both. And among the indecipherable words pop up on the screen, there are yes and no options. Quickly I pick yes, multiple times. Maybe this is it?

Immediately the machine suffers from over voltage and completely shuts down. Black smoke begins appearing and I quickly back away in case of any explosion. Then alarm starts ringing all over the place and the whole room turns into one red color by the lights on the wall. Coming up next is the whole ground starts shaking horribly.

No! She must have mistook the control board to... Horrified for what is about to come from his latest, unstabilized experiment. He shouts at me and quickly finds a place to cover himself. "Get out of there! Now!"

"What?" As I try to make a run for my life, however, a black hole which is triple my size, generates out of nowhere on top of my head and starts sucking me into it. Everything happened so sudden and fast that I didn't have the chance to grab or hold onto something to save myself.

And just like that Nina is being picked up into the air helplessly like a little toy and vanishes into the dark space, much to Ryu's terror. "Nina!"

Quickly he pushes his way through the robot army and tries to follow her through the portal but it's already too late. The black hole has been closed and disappeared completely.

..

...

"...Hey!"

..

How noisy, leave me alone...

..

"Hey! Are you alive?!"

Who...? That's not Momiji's or Ryu's voice... My eyes open slowly and as soon as the view is starting to get clear, I see a boy's face which is awfully familiar. Blond, spiky hair and blue eyes and three whisker markings on his cheeks. Wait, isn't that Naruto?

Am I still dreaming? Too tired to care, I close my eyes and attempt to falling back to sleep. However, sharp pain starts to kick in all over my body and I yelp. Successfully awaken me completely. "Ouch!"

And now, right in front of my face is Uzumaki Naruto, in flesh. Not someone that is created by some special effects or an illusion that I saw on one of the TV shows. Still not believing in my own eyes, I sit straight up and our heads hit each other hard in result.

"Ouch!" The boy falls backwards onto the grass due to the sudden impact, yelling. "That's hurt, ya know!"

Bright sunshine, white clouds, blue sky and trees, birds chirping all over the place. I feel the wind carries the scent of wild flower through my face. Is this a forest? Why am I in a forest? It was still a lab a while ago...

"Please don't move around too much, You're badly injured." Much to my surprise, Haruno Sakura approaches me in concern. However she starts acting awkward as I keep staring at her from heads to toes.

Do I have something on my face? Why is she looking at me like that? Sakura smiles wryly and begins studying the mysterious girl closely.

Messy orange hair down to her neck, yellow eyes, fair skin but face covered in blood and dirt, dry lips with several cuts perhaps due to a fight. Average body figure, age and height are probably the same as hers. Orange kimono, butterfly hairpin on the left side of her head, a shinobi's pocket on her right leg, a couple of daggers on her waist, gloves, stocking and knee-high boots. Nothing too special.

Kneeling next to me is Kakashi, who is speaking to the other members in his group while checking my pulse and limbs. "These wounds must have been caused by falling from high places, I'm surprised that she still make it out alive."

What the f*ck is going on?! Hatake Kakashi, the Sixth Hokage to be, is seriously sitting right beside me?! He's so real that it's feel so weird no matter how much I look at him.

"What the hell? Are you saying she fell from up there?!" Naruto shouts in disbelief. Pointing at the top of the hill, which is conveniently lying nearby. "Who would be crazy enough to jump from there?! Was she trying to kill herself or something?!"

"Perhaps she was being chased by someone, or something." Kakashi concludes.

Though what's more surprising is that the girl is actually healing herself. Not at fast as Naruto but still recognizable. The white haired man frowns, watching the deep cut and broken bones on her body starts mending without any medical help. I'm quite positive that her condition was much worse before we found her.

Not being bothered as much as the other three, Uchiha Sasuke just stands nearby watching. Throwing comments here and there. "Judging from her attire, this girl must be a shinobi. And yet she has no headbands on. I wonder if she belongs to any village around here."

"I.. I..." Overwhelmed by everything, my mouth can only produce inaudible words. And before I'm able to answer in something informative, darkness has once again taken over me.

"Ah! She fainted!"

Hours later inside one of Konoha's hospital rooms.

"Gasp!" I jolt up from nightmare and find myself lying on a hospital bed, body full of bandages. Surrounding me from closest to farthest are the kid version of Naruto, Sakura (still keeping her hair long), Kakashi (except him) and Sasuke. It's team seven again! Is this another dream?!

"It's alright, calm down. Everything's fine now." Soon I realize the painful truth that this is not the moment feeling Sakura's gentle touch on my shoulder. "Rest some more, since you're still weak."

I know that she's trying to calm me down but still, it definitely not helping at all.

"No! This is not alright." I cringe, trying to get out of the bed and get the hell out of this place. "Why am I here, I am not suppose to be here!"

How can I be resting in peace when Ryu is waiting for me back there, and not to mention that man is having him captured. There's no way I'm going to sit in one place and doing nothing!

"What do you mean you're not suppose to be here?" Getting curious about my sudden outburst, Kakashi, who has been leaning on the wall and reading his book, approaches my bed. "What happened to you?"

That black hole from the lab must have something to do with this! It must have brought me into this place! I grab my head and groan at the unexpected turn of event. Of course, meeting and talking to Naruto's characters in real life has always been one of my lifetime wishes. But right now is really not the time, especially not in this situation.

"Don't worry. No one here is going to hurt you." Assumed that I'm suffering from a serious trauma, Sakura assures me.

"I know that, it's just..." After spending a while not being able to explain my situation properly, I let out a long sigh and drop my head, defeated. Presumed that it would be useless throwing tantrum here and slowly giving up to my fate. Since I have no idea how to go back home and there is pretty much no one here who can help me. "You just don't understand."

"Understand what?" Kakashi's eye suddenly sharpens and I gulp.

"N-No, it's nothing. Never mind that."

Is it okay for me to tell them that I've come from another dimension? Would they believe me or start doubting that I've hit my head somewhere and become crazy?

"Anyway, what's your name? We can't just keep calling you *girl* or *you, right? There must be another way for us to address you properly." Therefore Saskura suggests, pointing at herself to begins the introduction then to the spiky yellow-haired boy next to her. "Well my name is Haruno Sakura, and this is Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hatake Kakashi. I'm their teacher." Kakashi states and Sakura gestures her hand toward to the grumpy black-haired guy standing at the corner of the room. The one that hasn't spared a glance at me and keeps staring at scenery outside the window ever since the beginning. "Over there is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Nina." Figured that it would be rude not to say something in return since they have saved me, I start answering their requests.

"Just Nina?" Naruto tilts his head and I nod.

"Really? No surname or whatever?"

"No."

"How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"Oh! the same as us!"

Yes, What a coincidence...

"And where are you from? Your parents?" Then Kakashi takes his turn to ask.

"Somewhere far away." I answer what I thought was best. "And I don't know anything about my parents."

Parents huh? Either they're long dead or I was abandoned. Who knew. I recalled nothing about my life before waking up as No. 9 and following Ryu into his village.

No friends, family, not a single feeling of longing for a certain place or an attachment. To be honest I didn't really care about these kind of subject until Kakashi started bringing it up. Even back then Ryu, Momiji, Ayane or Kasumi had never asked me anything like that.

But I wonder why they did not? At least for once mentioning about my parents? Did they really have no idea about it or they were hiding something about them from me?

"Is there anyone from your place we can contact with?" Kakashi asks me again and I shake my head.

There actually are but I doubt that any of you will be able to reach to them anyway. At least not with the technology from this period, where Team Seven is a bunch of kids struggling with B rank missions and the Third Hokage is probably still alive.

After spending a short moment of deep thinking and staring at me. He speaks up. "Is there anybody who survived?"

Survived? Could it be that Kakashi thought my village was massacred by bandits? And somehow I was the only one who managed to get out alive. Judging from both of my messy mental and physical states, blood-stained clothes and mysterious background.

But then again coming from Kakashi, I bet later on he's going to investigate in secret to gain more information about me to check whether I'm lying or not. At least to make sure that I'm not here as a spy or having any intention to harm Konoha.

Much to everyone's shock, I shake my head again and he sighs. "Figured as much."

"Poor girl..." Sakura shows her sympathy to me while the boys expressions turns sour after hearing briefly about my miserable situation.

I guess it would be best to play along with Kakashi's temporary theory as much as I can. Saving myself a long way from having to explain everything about crazy stuff from another world to everyone here. Something that I am pretty certain no one will ever understands or cares about.

"Uhm... Did you really jump off the hill because those guys who destroyed your village were after you?" Naruto asks to confirm whether Kakashi's prediction earlier was right. "Do you remember their faces or anything special about them?"

Jumping off what hill? What is he talking about? His question causes me dumbfounded for a moment before the memory gradually kicking in. Now that reminds me, when we first met they did mention something along the line of, "Jumping off the hill because I was being chased by someone or something."

How fortunate! Now I don't have to find an excuse for these injuries that definitely caused by that damn black hole, which had probably dropped my body in the middle of the sky and almost killed me.

"I had no choice and no, I don't have any memories about them."

I wonder if he's trying to help me to take revenge on those who killed my people. How nice of him, considering we've only just met and knows nothing much about each other, except for sharing the similar pitiful background.

"What are we going to do with her?" For some reasons Sasuke finally opens his mouth to speak and turns to face me.

"Well first thing first, we need to wait for her to completely recovered." Kakashi suggests everyone to go home to rest since it's almost night. "Then tomorrow morning we will bring her to Sandaime and let him decide from there."

The next day at the Hokage's office.

As I've expected, the Third Hokage is alive and well. Sitting behind the table full of documents with a cigarette in his mouth.

After having explained everything to him, including the not so informative data about my identity that Kakashi learnt behind my back in the same day he found me and so on. The old man smokes his cigarette for a several times before speaking to the team seven's leader. "Well since you're the one who found her..."

Somehow I have a bad feeling about this. Kakashi gulps in silent, waiting patiently for the old man's instruction.

"Then I'll leave her in your care." Hiruzen smiles, much to the team seven's shock. "Eh?!"

"But first." Not waiting for any complain or objection, the old man turns to me. "We have a test for you."

"Eh?!" This time I'm the one who gasp in shock like a dead fish. I'm only here for no more than a day and you've already decided to test me?! Are you for real?!