Chapter 1

An Earthquake, A Death God and A New World

Italics will = Japanese until stated otherwise

If there's one thing I fear the most, it is losing my family. I may have a crippling fear of snakes, clowns and spiders, but what I truly fear is finding myself alone in the world without my loved ones. It's unfortunate for me that I lost my family. What's really tragic is that I lost my world as well.

Date: May 16th 2012

It was a bright, beautiful sunny day. A rarity in Seattle, but one that was fully appreciated and enjoyed by the whole population. It's usually overcast in Seattle, so the sun we do get is never taken for granted. On that day, my parents and I decided to take a walk outsides. We took pleasure in soaking up the sun rays and smelling the scent of warmth and flowers. The ground was faintly moist from the morning dew and a light breeze kept us from overheating. Overall, it was a perfect Seattle day and we Seattleites were as happy as pie.

It was a very normal, and pleasant day. Who knew that day would come to be known as 5/16 - a name taken after a date is never a good sign as it often alludes to tragedies such as 9/11. At that time, I was eighteen years old and a senior at a local high school with less then a month till graduation. Recently, I often felt episodes of nostalgia and melancholy as I realized that I would be leaving my parents soon. It was hard for me to imagine my life without them, I would miss them, I was sure of that. For them my departure was heartbreaking because I was their only child. As a result, I tried to spend my free time with them, so I indulged them with a walk outside even though my true desire was to sit at a piano and just play.

That day, I spotted a strange looking butterfly in the distance. It was a shocking orange color and I was instantly intrigued, so I sped up my pace and overtook my parents. When I was, perhaps, about ten feet in front of them, the ground began to roll.

It was as if the earth beneath my feet was liquid the way it was flowing up and down. I soon lost my balance and fell to my hands and feet, both terrified and disconcerted. For some unfathomable reason, perhaps in my terror, I got it into my head to try and stop the movement under me, so I clutched the pavement with my hands and pushed down as if my strength could still the bucking earth.

My mom screamed, "Fay! Tree!" And my head whipped up. For a minute I was distracted by my wavy black hair in my face before my large green eyes widened in shock. The last thing I remembered was a huge evergreen tree groaning before smashing down at me.

x

I woke up. This alone I thought was a miracle. But my relief was short lasting as I was soon bombarded by terrible pressure and emptiness. It was as if my whole body was drained of my blood. It was as if the weight of the world was crushing me. Somehow my limbs were screaming in pain, and it felt as if my veins were on fire. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. Pathetically, I just screamed weakly and cried.

It was then that a masked figure materialized at my side. He wore strange black clothes with a gray vest and guards. Most of all, I took notice of his cat shaped bone white mask. At that moment, I thought that the God of Death had come to take me away. Though I was surprised by the lack of scythe, somehow his presence was soothing.

Weakly, I eyed the small strange knife type weapon in his hand, and smiled. The pain was finally going to go away. But the man/God, whoever he was, just stared at me. I could faintly make out the black of his eyes through the eyeholes. He took a step towards me, hesitated, then finally crouched down at my side. With a sudden flick of his hand, the knife was gone. And gently, he picked me up into his arms.

Then I was flying. Then I blacked out again.

x

Silence and hunger was what I woke up to. For a minute, I desperately kept my eyes closed in an attempt to stay asleep, the last time I'd woken up had been torture, so I was too scared to face it again. Within a few minutes, I slowly came to realize that the crushing burning pain had faded to a dull throb. My limbs still felt strange though. They felt unusually warm as if my blood had been replaced with lukewarm syrup. It wasn't a bad feeling, comforting in fact, but it unnerved me nevertheless.

Hesitantly, I opened my eyes, and I suspect that my pupils retracted to pinpricks in my green eyes as the harsh light of the room blinded me. With a groan, I shut them again, and brought up one arm to lay across my pained eyes. I thought that the strange feeling in my arms would make my limbs heavy and difficult to move, but I felt lighter then ever. It was as if my arm was as light as a feather - as if I was floating in water, but without the resistance.

A door clanged open, and though I wanted to hide behind my eyelids and forearm forever, I carefully opened my eyes and gingerly sat up. It wasn't only my arm that was easy to move, my torso felt light as well, and I also could feel the strange warm feeling flowing throughout my upper body. I wondered if it was the warmth that made me light.

The first thing I noticed was that I was sitting on a simple cot in a bland white room. The room (cell, I realized) was bare of all other accessories but for a small wooden chair at my bedside. There wasn't even a window. I next took note of the four men who had entered my room.

One was an old man wearing a strange white and red outfit. There was also a perplexingly unfashionable hat perched on his head. He held a pipe in his hand and puffed thoughtfully as he observed me. I was strangely reminded of Gandalf. Next was a tall blond haired man who wore his hair in a high ponytail. I wasn't sure what I thought of him, his blue eyes were unnerving. If I was keeping to the 'Lord of the Rings' theme, he would be Legolas. The next man I noticed was a young man with light blue...BLUE...hair. He wore some sort of loose white uniform. It too was very unflattering. He was...well, he could be Frodo I suppose. Finally, the last man that entered was the masked Death God who had saved me. Now that I wasn't delirious, I felt myself tense in fear at the numerous weapons on his person. There was some sort of short sword on his back, and I was sure that his pouch held many sharp objects. Aragorn...but 10 times more scary.

The Old Man started towards me and the others followed behind him. I thought the Old Man might sit on the chair at my bedside, but instead he stood towering above me. He looked down at me with blank evaluating eyes. Despite myself, I clenched my fingers into the thin white sheets over me, and curled into myself defensively. My heart thumped in fear.

"Now who might you be?" he asked.

I couldn't understand him. Instantly, I recognized the language as Japanese. My mom and I had watched enough foreign films for me to recognize the sounds. I knew how to speak four languages. English, Spanish, French and Mandarin. Actually, I'd always fancied myself as a linguist of some sorts. Egoistical, I know. Both my parents could speak English and it was my native language, hence how I could speak English. My mother could speak Spanish, and my father could speak French, that's where I learned the languages. Mandarin was a language I learned on my own. I'd requested my parents for lessons after Chinese New Year. The free money given out in the little red envelopes had fascinated me. I was actually fluent in Mandarin, having started to learn it since the age of five. However, Japanese was not a language I had even thought of learning. I regretted it greatly.

"I'm sorry. I can't speak Japanese. English? Do you know English?" The four men traded glances with each other when I asked them if they could speak in English.

"You can not understand me." The Old Man stated something with a sigh. He was looking at me curiously though.

"You're useless then, I must kill you I suppose."

I didn't know what he said, but he looked at me with expectant eyes. I just started at him blankly, utterly lost and confused. "I'm sorry...what was that?" I repeated helplessly.

"It seems that she really can't understand us Hokage-sama." The Blond Man spoke.

"Yes, it seems so. I thought she would show a reaction if I threatened her with death...however."

"She could be a skilled actor." The Blue Haired Man spoke for the first time.

"Perhaps."

"Tell me again how you found her?" The Blond Man spoke again.

Death God shifted before speaking towards the Blond Man. "I heard her sounds of distress while on my patrols of the village. She was collapsed on the ground in training ground 9 and I thought she was a civilian at first as I could neither see a hitai-ate nor sense chakra from her. However, I then realized I couldn't sense any chakra from her at all. It was my belief initially that she was a skilled kunoichi with the ability to mask her chakra, but her pain seemed genuine so I brought her to the hospital."

The Old Man turned to the Blue Haired Man. "Is it true then? She had no chakra?"

"Yes Hokage-sama. When ANBU-san brought the girl to me, I diagnosed her and found that amazingly, she truly had no chakra. She should have already been dead! Her chakra channels were collapsing from her condition and her core was absolutely empty. I knew that if she did not receive a chakra transfusion, her heart would collapse within minutes so I made the decision for immediate transfusion. Her body accepted the chakra well, and she soon fell into a healing sleep where she has been for the last six days before the monitoring seals around the cell picked up on her movement."

"Inoichi. It'll have to be you then. The mind has no language after all." The Old Man said, turning to address the Blond.

The Blond Man nodded curtly at the Old Man before turning towards me. I really, really didn't like the cold bland look on his face as he approached. His hands raised and to my utter embarrassment, I flinched, curling even further into myself. Blond man's eyes softened minutely I noticed. He was saying something to me, I could tell from his lips, but I was so scared that I couldn't even make out the sounds. There was only a panicked ringing in my ears as he gently cupped my face with one hand. His large coarse hand completely engulfed a whole half of my face, and I think even the blond man was surprised by how small I actually was.

I knew that at a petite five foot zero I looked small, childlike and delicate. More than once, I've heard people tell me that I looked fragile. Men would hesitate to squeeze hard when shaking my hand, and even girls would open heavy doors for me. Naively, I thought that I could perhaps use my naturally harmless looks to gain sympathy from the four strangers.

The Blond Man pulled my face to look at his and then our eyes met. At first, nothing happened, then I suddenly became very aware of a lump in my mind. I know that's a bad description but that's all I can say. It started out as a foreign bump then it spread suddenly and painfully. The warmth that flowed in me began to boil without warning. It felt as if I was being cooked from the inside. I screamed and screamed and I was only vaguely aware of the Blond Man hastily pulling away from me. His expression was one of shock and surprise. He firmly held my thrashing body down as I was liable to fall off the bed any second.

The pain gradually, too gradually, started to fade away as the seconds went by. And at last, the terrible pain dropped to a dull throb before finally fading away completely. I realized then that there were tears streaming down my face and that sometime during my fit I had wet myself. I was utterly mortified.

I noticed that the Blond Man, the Old Man, and the Blue Haired Man all looked stricken. I couldn't tell what Death God was feeling due to his mask. The Blond Man gave me an apologetic look, and stepped slowly away from me, his hands held out in a gesture of peace.

The Blue Haired man took his place and gently laid his hands on my head and his hands started to glow green. I knew then and there that this wasn't my world.

x

A/N: Thank you for reading. I would like critical criticism so please feel free to point out anything. However, please no outright flames or trolling. I haven't read/watched Naruto in quite a while. Though I do keep up with the manga, I have forgotten a lot of the earlier plots. If I make any mistakes, please feel free to mention it.