Ninjas and Hidden Villages are supposed to be unseen and a secret to the regular people. In Naruto, the ninjas took the spotlight while everyone else were the background characters, so I wanted to write about those background characters who lived in the actual towns and cities.

Never written anything before and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I have a general direction I want to take the story and the story may be subject to experimentation with writing styles (while I try to figure out this writing thing).

"Would you like some fries with that?" I said with a fake cheer.

"No." The disinterested response came through my headset.

"Alright, your order is comes to $3.79, please head over to the next window and I'll have your order ready in a moment."

After I finished with the order, my co-workers started coming in for the shift change.

"Working solo again I see. How was the graveyard shift?" James asked.

"So-so." I replied as I started cleaning up.

"I don't understand, they should just promote you already."

"Its like this at other the places I've worked at too." Anne said as she walked into the kitchen. "They're too cheap to pay the full wage if they promote you, so they'll just give you a small bump in pay to throw you a bone and distract you."

"Oh."

"Its cool, it not a big deal." I said. "Enjoy the shift, I'll see you guys later."

"Good night or morning."

"Have a good one."

After changing and grabbing my bag, I left the fast food restaurant I've worked at for far too long. I was pulling out my earphones out of my bag as I crossed the street when I heard a loud honking. Looking up I see a truck speeding towards me with its headlights almost blinding me. I acted to move out of the way towards the sidewalk as the truck swerved into the other lane to avoid me and the loud screech of its brakes sounded out.

After the truck stopped, the driver honked the horn again, this time in anger, before the passenger side window was rolled down.

"Watch where you're walking asshole!" He yelled before he drove off again.

All I could do was look up dumbly at the white sign next to me that had a giant 35 marked on it.

"Jesus...that was close." I let out a breath.

Ten minutes later I arrived at my apartment complex and headed up to the 3rd floor, room number 305 and knocked on the door.

"Yo Nate, how's it going?" He held out a fist.

"Yo Mikey, nothing much." I completed the fist bump. "I did almost got hit by a truck on my way here though."

"Sheeeeeeit yo, you almost got isekai'd."

"Haha, I guess I almost did." I said as I gave him $35.

"Here's your eighth man." Mike said as he handed me a baggy in return. "You got any plans or just gonna chill at home?"

"You know how it is."

"Alright then, I'll let you get to it, see ya later Nate."

"See ya Mikey."

I went up to the 5th floor afterwards and brought my keys out to unlock number 513.

"Your back." One of my roommates exclaimed.

"What are we watching today?" I asked as I dropped all my stuff on the coffee table, next to the unpacked Chinese food takeout already on the table.

"Who am I."

"The kung fu one?"

"Yup."

"Nice, haven't seen a martial arts movie in awhile."

"I'll grab Gary and we can get started."

I went to my room the drop off the rest of my stuff and change into something comfortable.

"Hey Gary! Wakey bakey, eggs and some more bakey." I heard echo from down the hallway.

After the movie and what was essentially my dinner, I went to washup before going to bed for the day.

'Huh? Why didn't my alarm ring. Am I going to be late for my shift?'

I woke up trying to shake the groggy feeling away, but I felt the sensations of a hard, uncomfortable bed and sheets that I didn't recognize prickling against my skin.

'Where did all the thread counts in my sheets go?'

After orienting myself a little I found myself in an unfamiliar room, even worst, in a body I didn't recognize.

'What the hell! Where am I? What happened?'

When I finally realized that something was wrong, adrenaline rushed into me as my body shot up and I quickly scanned my surroundings.

I had small bony arms and fingers that were definitely not mine, but belonged to that of a child's. The bed was like a worn out futon of some sort, there was another one nearby in the small room with someone sleeping in it, a young girl with black hair from what I can see in the darkness.

My heart started racing, breaths getting shorter, and body entering a state of panic.

'Shit, shit, shit. What's going on?'

'I need to calm down, think about this, and figure out what is happening.'

I started racing through different possible scenarios that could have happened to me in my mind.

'Was i kidnapped? Wait, no that can't be right, I'm in the body of a child. Okay calm down and think about this slowly. Deep breaths. Deep breaths'

*Inhale* *Exhale*

'Maybe I was kidnapped and this is some government or private organization running some kind of experiment? Is that even possible with our current technology? Performing body swaps or some kind of backwards aging. Maybe I'm in some kind of really advanced experimental virtual reality? Could I just be really high, did someone drug me? No this feels too real. We didn't even go that hard before I went to bed.'

'What about the sci-fi type stuff? But I think those scenarios I already came up with are already bordering the realm of sci-fi.'

'Aliens? Or another human race? Some artificial intelligent lifeform? I don't even know.'

'The supernatural? It could be almost anything in the type of stories I've seen. Including those already I already came up with, it could also be my mind or soul taking over another body, my body changing to fit the world after transferring over or awakening some memories of a past life, just to mention a few.'

I don't really believe in the supernatural but I don't discount the possibility of its existence. Before we had microscopes we had no idea of the existence of bacteria, perhaps we just need a microscope for the supernatural.

'I'm getting no where like this. I need to find out more about the situation.'

After taking some deep breaths and calming down a bit, I slowly got out of the bedding, while trying to make as little noise as possible. I crept to the nearby door, sliding it open and close as quietly as possible and made my way out.

The room I entered was another small squarish room supported by wooden pillars with a square hearth in the center of the room. Around the hearth were straw mats for sitting and in the middle was a hook suspended from the ceiling with a pot hanging on it. Along the walls and floor were cabinets and shelves with mostly bamboo baskets of various shapes and sizes, as well as some clay looking jars. There was also various straw or bamboo items around the room such as fans, bags, hats and also an umbrella.

Tiptoeing my way around the room, wincing as the wooden floors squeaked, I made my way to presumably the front door, at a slightly lowered stone floor section with a bunch of straw sandals neatly lined up. After slipping on a pair of sandals that matched my size exactly, I opened the front door—another sliding door. I finally managed to unlock the door—the lock being a rope that tied the door to the wall, and took in my surroundings.

The first thing I noticed when I stepped outside was how clean the air was compared to the city air I was used to. The sun hadn't risen all the way but there was enough light peaking from beyond the trees in the distance in what seems like an early dawn grey sky to see the surroundings.

The buildings looked like they were the kind you would see in Asian countries back during the ancient times, made of wood with that unique tiled roof design. It was like I stepped onto the set for a movie. The buildings were all packed together on street I was standing on with some large alleyways every now and then. The roads were made of dirt that had been smoothed out from constant use and there was a well in-between the long old building I came out from and the 2-storey one next door.

Looking between the alley across the street, although it was a bit hard to see, a large tower-like building at the base of a mountain caught my attention.

'Where the hell am I?'

Further down the road, I spotted a man wearing a straw hat, leading an oxcart—with an actual live ox, away. Turning to the other side I spotted some people walking down the road with baskets on their backs, holding some tools. They were all wearing the same clothing I was—some type of linen, hemp or whatever robes often seen in asian movies.

'They look like they might be farmers or something?'

"******* ** ********* ** ********* *** ***** * *****"

"****** ** ******** ******* **"

"**** ** ******** * ****** ** ******* ** ********** * ****"

As they passed by the road in front of me, I think I caught snippets of what I thought sounded like Japanese. I didn't speak the language but that was what it sounded like to my untrained ears.

'Well, for now it seems like the clues point towards me being in Japan. Now that I think I know the where, I just hope my suspicions about the when isn't right...because if I am, I think I'm screwed...'

"Sheeeeeit."

Chapter TL;DR: Wake up. Where am I? Who am I? Confusion, speculation, examination. Ancient Japanese looking town? Sheeeeit yo...