Starting from this chapter, everyone's parts will all be on the same day. So there's no need to worry about having to go back and forth with the time stamps of each character's part.

..~..~..

It took a few days. But eventually, Kurogiri came to him with an odd looking, metal and rubber encased mask that was supposed to cover up the lower half of his face- its highest point being at the bridge of his nose.

Afterwards, it took Kiba a good three days to even begin to understand the piece of technology that required more than just the use of his chakra to control. It had dials along both sides, allowing him to control the amount of... pollution? He didn't really understand how it worked. He just knew that by turning the dials, he was able to smell more and less of the environment around him.

There was also a kind of control, small, barely taking up the size of his palm. It was supposedly the contraption that controlled the overall amount of air the mask would take in and how much oxygen it would filter.

Kurogiri had explained the mechanics and the basics. Kiba had understood this much. But he couldn't wrap his head around the idea of gaining so much benefit without even a minimal amount of chakra invested. Just like he couldn't understand how such an advanced piece of technology had been created in the space of less than two weeks... although, it did make sense if this was a product that had already been in the market before he had arrived- but that was somewhat unbelievable, considering how few people he knew in his world that paid any attention to their sense of smell.

Honestly, there was a lot about this world he didn't understand. But he didn't bother to think too much on the things he didn't actually understand. He wasn't going to be living here for the rest of his life, after all. All he needed to do was help Kurogiri out, track his friends down, (throttle Naruto,) and return to his own home. It was as easy as sharpening a kunai.

At the moment, he was fiddling with some of the dials on the left side of his face as he sat waiting at the bar for Kurogiri to finish cleaning up. They were going to head out into the (rank) city to test out the purifying device on his face and make sure that Kiba would be able to utilize it for his mission.

As he fiddled, he asked the man stupid questions he knew wouldn't really matter much in the long run.

"Favorite color?"

With a hum and the clinking of glass being set down, Kurogiri answered with a decisive, "Purple."

Oh, that was rich. And kind of amusing.

With a small smile- which was covered up by the purifying device in a way Kiba didn't know how to feel about- the boy nodded to himself. "Purple's a good color. But red's powerful."

"Something tells me we both have a bias towards our favored color, Kiba." Kurogiri remarked in a slight huff, before groaning. There was a muffled crash above them, clearly having come from the upper floors. "This is a madhouse precariously kept afloat by my ever thinning sanity."

Kiba outright chuckled at the comment.

"Yup. You're all insane; it's kind of comforting, y'know." finally, he stopped messing with the dials to the left of his face and turned to look directly at Kurogiri.

The man was standing behind the bar with a damp towel within his right hand. His left was currently grabbing the last glass he had washed, probably to dry it like he had with the rest. From what Kiba could see, that was the last glass he needed to take care of.

"Are you ready for the trial run?"

He didn't one hundred percent understand any of the mechanics- but he was smart enough to understand at least the process required to make this contraption work. So, even though he didn't feel comfortable at all, he knew there wasn't much point of delaying any further. What he knew he knew, what he hadn't understood he probably never would.

"Sure am!"

~/~

The first thing Kiba did when he stepped outside of the building was inhale deeply. The second thing he did was let out a loud whoop that immediately caught the attention of the scarce amount of people that were walking around in the lazy afternoon. And the third thing he did was turn to Kurogiri and shout at him that he was a genius.

This was a child. And his honesty and passion were incredibly novel to Kurogiri. It had been a while since he had been around anyone as naïve as him.

"I can smell that guy! He smells like sunshine, fertilizer, and dew!" he gasped as he pointed at a green skinned man that seemed to have leaves sprouting from his head. "And that lady smells like water and pure oxygen- bubbles! Kurogiri, she smells like bubbles!"

By the time he pointed at an incredibly muscular being with incredibly long hair and a rather harsh frown on their face, Kurogiri asked the teenager if he could stop pointing at people and shouting out their scents. So he did stop shouting it... even though he did murmur about the contrast between the person's appearance and their scent.

On they continued, Kiba dabbling with the ventilator so he could focus on specific scents and Kurogiri accompanying quietly beside him. Eventually they reached the marketplace; the one Kurogiri always enjoyed visiting to stock up on supplies; and Kiba stopped him.

"Alright. I think I've got the hang of this thing. Got any test for me?"

He did. A rather simple one, really.

"Of course." he nodded softly. "Have you managed to catch my own scent?"

It was odd to not be able to see Kiba's mouth. Kurogiri had not noticed this before, but most of his expressions were shown with his mouth. His smiles were large and his frowns more than incredibly apparent. Having his mouth covered now truly hindered him from seeing the boy's complete emotions. Although, from the blinking of his eyes, he could tell the boy was curious... yet again.

"It's a really unique smell, Kurogiri. It's like cold air." his eyebrows scrunched up at this, and Kurogiri was perplexed by the odd explanation. "It's like... well, you've got perfume on, so I smell that too. But it's like I feel the cold in my lungs when I catch your perfume."

"Intriguing." Kurogiri nodded after a moment, then chuckled. "I assume my quirk has had such a drastic effect on my scent."

"Without a doubt!" Kiba agreed and crossed his arms over his chest, "Do I gotta hunt you down?"

Ah, well that was rather perceptive.

Without another word to his companion, Kurogiri dematerialized. Now he would just have to wait and see if Kiba Inuzuka could successfully track him through throngs of people and a litany of confusing scents.

Kiba, remarkably, had somehow managed to get in trouble with the police the very second he had arrived in this new reality. To Hinata, this was both regrettable and amusing... It was such a Kiba thing to do... honestly, it was something incredibly laughable. Especially because it was all just a rather large misunderstanding on the police's part. Kiba wasn't some criminal.

"He wasn't there to steal anything." Tenten informed the men with nothing short of complete confidence. "Forget the police report- Kiba crash landed in that woman's apartment against his will. He isn't some delinquent."

"Care to explain the facial tattoos?"

Hinata... didn't like the way that question was asked. It sounded... accusing. As if tattoos were immediate admissions of criminality. And considering their own world's history with tattoos, Hinata didn't find it farfetched that people in this world might think in a similar manner.

With a heat stirring within her chest- possibly, it could be that she loved her teammate with all of her heart and refused to allow anyone to see less than the best in him- Hinata opened her mouth to answer the question.

"They're cl-clan tattoos. His f-family, the Inuzuka," she gulped, suddenly painfully aware of the fact that all eyes within the room were now turned on her. She didn't like attention. But she pushed on. For Kiba. "It's tra-tradition."

The man called Tsukauchi looked at her through narrowed eyes that clearly said 'I don't believe you'. And Hinata was, admittedly, bothered by that. And... it emboldened her.

"An Inuzuka's fangs signify both their prowess in combat as well as their strong shinobi heritage." she crossed her arms over her chest as her own eyes narrowed, words becoming strong as she lost her stutter for just a moment. "Their tattoos mean a lot more than just facial decorations. Their tattoos belong to a long line of breathtaking warriors and everyone with a tattoo like that is pack."

And there were so many more things Hinata could say about Kiba and his tattoos and the Inuzuka's pack mentality. But Tenten poked her side and absolutely surprised her, causing her eyes to widen as she jumped slightly within her chair. The burst of indignation that had spurned her to speak in defense of her friend left her almost immediately.

"Well," the detective breathed out after a few moments of contemplation, "Tattoos in Japan aren't really socially acceptable forms of art- it's a sort of unspoken agreement. Even though much of our criminal tradition has petered out, there are still instances in which tattoos aid in interpreting a criminal's history. And facial tattoos are so uncommon that they're usually left to..."

The man with the long dark hair now breathed out, calling attention to himself. "Face tattoos are usually left to the hardened criminals prepared to do whatever it takes to find their own amusement. While they're not evidence to criminality, there is a clear pattern to tattoos in offenders rather than in the law-abiding populace."

Hinata was not taken aback by hearing this. Within their own world, there was also a history of a strong relationship between tattoos and criminality. But with the leveling of relations between Villages and a social evolution that encompassed the whole world, people were slowly coming to see that tattoos meant more than just imprisonment and crime. Specifically, Konohagakure was one of the main Villages for promoting such a change. The Second and Third Hokage, after all, had sported facial tattoos- as small and faint as they may have been.

But she was bothered by the insinuation of her pack member's guilt- as if he didn't believe that Kiba wasn't some kind of delinquent.

Granted, in a way, Kiba was a delinquent. The Inuzuka Clan had never particularly fit into the mold of other Clans within Konoha. But, in a similar fashion, no Clan ever fit that mold. Every single Clan was different in their own unique way. Few cared to admit this fact, but Hinata wasn't blind to it. With Shino and Kiba as her teammates, she was rather aware of many intricacies of different clans. And while the Inuzuka were the roughest around the edges, her own Clan wasn't exempt from being different.

A surge of indignation took over her. And Hinata prepared herself to defend her teammate once again- but froze up when she felt a hand fall on her shoulder. When she turned to look at its owner, she found Naruto smiling softly at her, as if trying to calm her down. Her cheeks immediately began to burn and all fire of anger was replaced with the gushing feeling that Naruto was touching her.

"Trust us. While Dog Breath has his issues, he's no criminal." Naruto spoke up, "We need to find him and fast. He'll lead us to the rest of our teammates." after a moment's thought, he added, "Or Akamaru. He can lead us to the others- probably even better than Kiba, honestly. Whichever of those two works."

Akamaru was with him. That was good. That was... great, logically speaking. Akamaru and Kiba were the only members of their team that could sniff out others, after all. With Akamaru, he would be able to hunt down the rest of the teammates he needed to find before they could even think about a way to return to their home.

Apparently, Shouji- six whole arms- and Akamaru had both experienced something similar to Shikamaru and Todoroki. The dog had been dumped, essentially, into the teenager's room in the middle of the night and left no evidence of where he had come from. The only difference to their story, essentially, was the night when Akamaru had appeared. It had not been the same night that Shikamaru had arrived.

Immediately, this led Shikamaru to believe that, even though they had been pulled away from their world at the same time, they had been dumped not only in different places, but also different time stamps. And that would mean that the displacement ratio they had been separated by had just widened considerably. Who knew if the rest of his teammates were even in the world right now?

And... well, he only had Akamaru to work off of. And Akamaru had landed rather close to him, relatively speaking; it was pure luck that they had arrived in the same building within this strange new world. So, if that data was indicative of a pattern, it meant that the rest of his friends would be arriving here any second now and they would appear close to this area.

Shikamaru could not help but sigh and close his eyes at this final thought.

With their kind of luck, odds were that his friends would land in the United States, if they had not still arrived by this time. Or, worse yet, they had already landed here and had begun to look for the rest of his teammates- because odds also were that everyone had been separated in the travel to this world. And by trying to find them, they had become so incredibly lost in this place that they would never be found again.

Inuzuka sense of smell was legendary- but it was not infallible, godlike, or perfect by any sense of the word. And it certainly could not find someone that was another continent away.

Akamaru might be able to track the rest of their team down, but he wasn't capable of hunting them down if they truly were half the world away. In Konoha, Akamaru could track someone from an incredible distance- all Inuzuka nin-ken could. But Shikamaru doubted that the dog would be able to track their friends now if they were more than a few kilometers away.

But... well, Akamaru was still their best bet.

"So... why the name?"

After almost half an hour spent explaining their origins and the nature of their world to the six armed teenager that had found Akamaru, the teen was still completely focused on Akamaru's name. He wasn't confused by the reality of chakra, nor was he surprised to find out about real life ninja or people without quirks. No. He was... wondering about Akamaru's name.

Shikamaru sighed, but smiled softly.

That kind of one-track mind was something he was honestly beginning to miss. He hadn't been around Naruto for too long and it was obvious now.

"There's something called soldier pills in my world. They enhance the person that consumes' them skills and power, essentially." Shikamaru shifted slightly on his knees, all the while Akamaru yawned, tail thumping lazily against the bed he was laying on. It was odd to see the dog draped over a human that wasn't Kiba, but Shikamaru guessed that this Shouji character was completely trustworthy if the dog was so at ease with him. "If Akamaru eats one of those, his fur turns red."

"Oh." Shouji blinked, his hand pausing momentarily as it pet the dog's fur. "That's... a very specific name, then."

The Inuzuka were an odd bunch. But the teen wouldn't know that.

Todoroki cleared his throat after they fell into silence, "Akamaru's a tracker, correct? That means that he'll be able to track your other teammates down."

Shikamaru nodded, even though he didn't voice out all the concerns he had that pertained to that specific plan. At this point, Akamaru was their only bet at finding their teammates... if they were anywhere near.

"I'm guessing there's no one else in the dorm, right?" Shouji questioned and it was incredibly odd that he was speaking through a mouth that sprouted from his arm, rather than his actual mouth... did he even have a mouth on his face? Or was the lack of a mouth the reason why he wore the mask? "Sato- I mean, Akamaru, only scratched at your door, Todoroki. I think it's because he caught Nara's scent."

That was the only logical explanation. Shikamaru hung his head. "We'll have to begin searching outside of the dorm's grounds."

"Now that you guys have finished up with questioning one of our teammate's morals," Tenten cleared her throat after they had fallen into an uncomfortable silence. "Will you guys help us?"

The men didn't answer immediately. Honestly, this didn't surprise her, nor did it bother her too much. She could kind of maybe understand where they were coming from; even if she certainly didn't like all the caution and suspicion on their part.

"That artifact- the one that supposedly had you teleport here- where is it?" the small mouse creature finally asked after around a full minute of silence between them all. "Do none of you have it?"

Tenten shook her head. Even if she did have it with her, honestly, she wouldn't tell them the truth. She wasn't stupid enough to give their only connection to their home away. But she didn't have it... it would only make sense for Naruto to have it. So... oh no.

"Nope!"

Her heart clenched in both disappointment and relief.

If Naruto had it with him, he would have answered so. And then that meant that the people around them would have access to the magical artifact that had transported them into this new world; that would be incredibly bad, especially if they decided to take it away from the blonde. Knowing this, it was obvious that Naruto didn't have the artifact with him. Which meant they truly were as stuck in their return home as they had been a few minutes ago.

No steps forward... but, well... at least no steps back either.

"N-no." Hinata's stutter had returned.

Well, at least it was real nice to find out that she cared enough about her teammate to show off that she truly did have a spine. She didn't use it often, but, at least she possessed one for things other than Naruto.

"Could you at least describe what it looked like?" the detective pried, "Maybe if we are aware of its appearance, we might be able to be on the look out for it."

And if they found it... then... well, maybe they would give it back. And that would be a step forward.

"If you find it, you've got to tell us." she glared at the detective directly in his eyes. He only smiled back and nodded, giving his word.

Tenten sighed and explained that it looked like any other sealing scroll. Its cover was red, the binding a thick black, and written in bold white on top of the black was the simple word 'magic'. Honestly, if she had seen the scroll with her own eyes without knowing about its magical properties, she would have laughed at the absurdity of its incredibly mundane appearance.

After the detective had scratched down his notes, the man with the long dark hair coughed and grabbed everyone's attention. "You don't seem to have any ill intentions and while it is incredibly hard to believe, the fact that you bypassed all our security but were still caught does lend credibility to your unwillingness to land inside of U.A. property."

"While this is the first I hear of any visitors from a reality unlike our own, it is not too farfetched in a world as spectacular as ours." the mouse murmured in slight agreement, "You will be allowed to stay within U.A. for now and we will attempt to aid you in your return to your home."

"Thank you!" Naruto blurted out and the long haired man immediately groaned.

"But ground rules will be established. First and foremost, we cannot have you parading around campus as you are." now he closed his eyes and sighed, "Physically, you look like normal teenagers from this world. But those are clothes are odd."

"Indeed." the mouse nodded as he jumped down from his chair, "We will be giving you an appropriate change of clothes that will aid you in blending in... oh, and new identities as well. Just to not raise any suspicion around campus in the meantime."

"Wait a minute." Tenten called out, only to be ignored as the other men began to get up from their own seats.

New identities? New clothes? Blending around campus? What were these guys going on about?!

"Please follow me, now. I will explain what the faculty and board of U.A. have decided to do with you three as we go to the Development Studio."

"Ooh! Tenten! Hi, how are you?"

Naruto blinked at the disembodied voice that boomed from the ceiling of the large room they had just entered. Then he looked over at the kunoichi that had been called by name, only to find that Tenten was actually... well... smiling.

"Hatsume, right?" Tenten called out... and did she know she wasn't talking to anyone?

"I'm glad you remember me! Because I-" the voice was getting louder. Naruto was sure of that. "Remember you!" Oh. There was the person. Landing on the ground with steam flowing from her back. A completely normal sight.

"Hatsume Mei." Nezu called from behind Naruto's feet.

The blonde turned around to look down at him, only to find that the mouse was looking at the pink haired girl that had flown from seemingly the depths of darkness with disdain in his beady eyes.

He... looked so cute when he was trying to be serious.

Control yourself, Naruto. Cute and cuddly doesn't mean you have to cuddle.

"Did Power Loader not tell you this area was to be cleared of all students?"

"Of course, Principal Nezu. But I was working on some last minute modifications to the sensors Tenten here absolutely demolished and I had honestly predicted the touch up would take up much less time than it did." the pink haired girl's smile was large, but it was unapologetic.

Naruto knew that smile. He had worn it many times.

This Hatsume Mei seemed like someone that would be easy to get along with.

Without really waiting for her principal to say anything else, Hatsume began to ask Tenten a whole slew of questions about possibly running some more tests on her, just to be able to truly gauge the extent of her skills. And Tenten seemed to follow her rapid fire speech with little to no issues, seeing how she was able to answer quickly every time Hatsume ended a question and paused to give the kunoichi a chance to answer.

As this happened, he looked over at Hinata and found her with her bottom lip worried between her teeth. Her eyes were glaring down at the floor. So slowly he shuffled towards her, then leaned over to ask her if she was alright.

In an instant, Hinata's face was alarmingly red and she had stopped biting at her lip; now her lips barely made any kind of expression.

Behind him, he heard Nezu sigh softly. "Well, I guess it cannot be helped. And Hatsume is one of our most promising support students."

"Are you sure about having her help, Principal Nezu?" The really tall, lanky guy with a glare to match Sasuke's normal expression questioned. "This matter is incredibly sensitive, after all."

"Yes. It is. But she has been exposed to this issue and seems rather eager to interact with Tenten. And her skills are exemplary." Nezu now shrugged, "Maybe offering extra credit on the grounds of keeping quiet about this occurrence will be enough to keep her from telling anyone about this."

This... Right.

Wasn't it weird that kids were made to spend so much time in school for something as easy as physical work? 'Cause, really, that's all there seemed to be in the work of a hero- well, at least that's what Naruto had understood from Nezu's speech as they walked over here. And ninja didn't need to be cooped up in an Academy for so many years to learn their craft! A hands on approach was much more productive in his eyes.

It had been years since he had to attend an actual school. It might actually be pretty interesting to go back for now; just until they were able to figure out how to go back home.

Never before in his life had Akamaru cursed his amazing sense of smell as much as he was cursing it right now.

"He's sneezing an awful lot. Is that normal?" Six-Arms sounded awfully concerned and that made Akamaru feel a bit better.

Going out into the city with Todoroki, Shikamaru, and Shouji proved that searching for Kiba and the rest of their human teammates would be no easy feat.

Admittedly, Akamaru had underestimated just how badly the pollution of this place truly was. He had been happy to believe that the mild pollution within the dorms was the norm for this place- not the exception. And he had been heavily disappointed to find out that he had been sorely mistaken in believing in such a pipe dream.

His nose was absolutely burning right now and his chest was beginning to hurt. It was as if his lungs were actually trying to punish him for having decided to wander out into this putrid air.

"No. Not really." he couldn't even smell Shikamaru's delicious deer-tinged scent. That's how bad the smells around him were.

Before they had hit the city, Akamaru had been able to make out the smells of his companions and some other humans. He was a tracking expert, after all, and he had been trained from a young age to ignore pollutants in the air and focus on specific scents. He had thought he would be capable of doing such a thing when they had left the dorms... but he had seriously underestimated the filth of humans.

Now they were in a market that had so many horrible, delicious, and interesting smells that any unique scent he may have been able to pick up was completely muddled and confused. The pollution was too strong.

Did he dare say it?

His nose was... it was useless.

Once more he sneezed, feeling his nose becoming congested as it begged him for refuge from the horrible scents. He keened now, trying to paw at it and clear up some of dirty smells; it felt as if they had actually managed to grab onto him and were clear in every single inhale he made.

"Is his nose sensitive?" Six Arms now knelt beside him, and the hands that were now trying to steady him were warm and somewhat comforting. "It looks like he's in pain."

Once again he sneezed.

He hated this.

Akamaru growled and barked sharply, only to sneeze once again.

He heard the human that smelt equally of ashes and rain murmur, "Maybe we should return to the dorms. Maybe the smells in here are overwhelming."

What sucked the most was that there was a familiar scent permeating his senses; a scent more familiar than Shikamaru's own; but he couldn't make it from what direction it was coming or even to who it belonged because he just couldn't focus!

"Maybe we should." Shikamaru groaned softly, "C'mon, Akamaru. We're not going to torture you anymore. We'll find another way to track our teammates."

He growled and sneezed, but soon began to follow after the teenagers.

He hated this.

And he missed his partner.

Stupid human pollution.

~..~..~

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