Hey, so this is finally the story I wanted to put up on here. Yay!!! So, yeah, in case anyone didn't go to my page and see this, I will be updating every Friday. Hopefully I can keep myself above water with that deadline, because I'm lazy, lol. ;) So yeah, hope you guys like it! :)

As I climbed into bed that night, I grabbed my favorite manga book series of all time; Naruto.

Okay, yeah, I know, people are probably looking at me, dumbstruck, saying; "Seriously, Emily? You? The blue-eyed, blond-haired, supermodel girl? You like Naruto? That's such a kid thing. Why don't you grow up, or something?"
Yeah, yeah, whatever. So I'm a geek. Deal with it. There's nothing wrong with a little indulgence now and then. It's not like I have Naruto posters all over my room (okay, maybe a few…) and wear Naruto t-shirts (only once at a convention, I promise!) and actually bought one of those Leaf Village headbands (I've never worn it, I swear!)

…Okay. You've got me. Naruto is like my whole life. But a secret life, because I've never told anyone about it. Ever. Not even my pillow.

Fine, laugh if you want, but I'm serious. I'd be dead meat if anyone ever found out I was a huge fan. I have a reputation with the real world, you know. It's not a bad rep, either, if I do say so myself. Which is why I don't want to ruin it with my ultimate guilty pleasure.

Actually, since it seems like confession time at Naruto Fanatics Anonymous, I'll tell you my real ultimate guilty pleasure.

Kakashi. Damn, that man is hot! I know he's just paper and ink, but seriously! And he's so funny, and cute! And insanely sexy, when he wants to be.

And he's a ninja. A ninja! How is that not cool? He's the perfect man all rolled into one nice mysteriously bundled package. And I sort of mean that. I really want to see his face. It breaks my heart when we get so close, and then Masashi Kishimoto just yanks the opportunity right out from under our poor obsessive feet.

Meanie. But the greatest meanie that ever walked the earth.

Okay, so right now I'm reading my favorite out of all of the Naruto series-again. It's actually the second book, and I don't love it because of the action, I love it because of one teensy tiny picture inside. At the beginning of chapter 16, Mr. Kishimoto, the great meanie that he is, put a picture of Kakashi sleeping. No mask, no headband, no Jônin outfit. Just him, in his bedroom- or so I'm assuming, judging by the pictures- and having some sort of set of dog tags around his neck. Of course, no full face exposure, thanks to the well-placed hand and blanket, but still, the most face I'd ever seen in the many Naruto books I'd read. It instantly became my favorite book, and it still is to this day.

So, of course I was turning to that page first, to stare at it for an immeasurably long amount of time, before going back and reading the whole thing through, for the other little tidbits of Kakashi that I knew were there. I did this every night at least once before going to bed. I knew this book inside and out, backward and forward. I could even quote whole passages directly from it. It scared even me, sometimes. And if anyone knew about it, it would also scare away any chance I had with my real-life crush- Eric Saunders.

He wasn't a geek, either. We were the match made in heaven, from most people's point of view. Of course those two should go out, people said. Obviously he was the captain of the football team in high school, and she was probably head cheerleader. If they didn't date in high school, why don't they date now, in collage?

Yeah, I know. Shallow, right? Well, if it wasn't for Eric, I would be sticking a stiff middle finger to the popularity castes and all their rules and happily take my place amongst the ranks of geeks who would welcome me with open arms. And if they didn't, I could totally crush them with my level 65 Summoner/Red Mage on Final Fantasy XI, to prove my worthiness.

Eric seemed…different, sometimes. Sure, in collage, no one had the cliques they used to, because no one knew each other when you started. But you made friends, and looser versions of the cast system in high school were established, with groups of people hanging out, rather than the cliques who scorned all others and considered themselves best.

Some, however, couldn't let go. Like Natasha, for example. She had to have been the Queen Bitch when she was in high school, of that there was no doubt. She still acted like it, and she sure as hell looked like it, too. The only difference for her was that now she could get Botox and other fun stuff like that to keep looking it.

Natasha's main goal, from the instant she spotted him, was Eric. My main goal, from the moment I saw him, was to get him to be mine and save him from Natasha before she corrupted him. It seemed to be pretty easy to me. Go out with him, and bingo, saved from Queen Bitch. Simple as that. Plus, I got to be with Eric, too. Seriously, the guy looked like he belonged on the cover of GQ. Hell, he probably already had a contract, and he'd be the next cover boy within the month. That's how hot he was.

And yet, I still felt that Kakashi could kick his ass any day of the week. And I don't just mean it literally. Kakashi always had this vibe to him, like he was the real deal all the time, when Eric had to hide himself from the world, pretend to be something different.

But what if he's not hiding anything better than what he pretends to be? What if the real Eric is worse? The thought entered unbidden into my mind, but I shook it off and tried to blur everything else out by staring at Kakashi's sleeping face. Because it was a black and white drawing, I didn't know if it was night or day, but something told me that it was early morning. And I didn't mean the clock that showed the little hand on twelve, but the hour somewhere in between five and six. (I still laughed every time I looked at it.) It was just a gut feeling I had, maybe some sort of higher level of perception that humans had, but ignored in these modern times, when such senses weren't required.

Or maybe it was the clock. Either way, I was pretty sure it was morning. I could almost see the beams of sunlight lancing through the window, just at the right angle so they didn't shine into his face and wake him up, and the soft breathing that moved the blanket a little each time he inhaled. I could almost hear the ticking of the previously mentioned screwy clock, and it seemed as though everything was in color.

I blinked.

And then had to clap my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming at the top of my lungs.

I wasn't snuggled in my bed, nice and cozy, reading my Naruto manga like I did every night.

I was standing in the corner of an unfamiliar room, and it was early morning.

Trying not to have a panic attack, I crept out as quietly from Kakashi's bedroom as possible, hoping he wouldn't wake up too soon. Because if he did, I was seriously worried about my chances of survival.

Not that I was really much of a threat. He was a highly-skilled, highly trained ninja. A jônin.

And what was I? A terrified college junior from another time, another place, with no skills or training whatsoever, just dropped into his bedroom for no reason at all.

Yeah, like anyone here would believe that.

I realized I was standing in a living room. There wasn't much to it. A couch, large enough for a person to sleep on, was in front of me. It was a little worn, and there were a couple holes in it, but it seemed alright. There was a small coffee table in front of the couch, and there was a small TV in the corner, but it looked dusty. A few pictures hung on the wall. A younger version of Kakashi, without the sharingan eye, with two other ninja who appeared to be his teammates, were in one. In another, there was a man that I recognized as Kakashi's old sensei. Opposite the living room, a small kitchen. It looked hardly used, but the appliances looked dependable enough. Guess the super-special elite ninjas didn't have much time to eat in.

I stood uncertainly in the living room, unsure of what to do next. I certainly wasn't going back into the bedroom, as much as a big part of me wanted to do, just to get a peek of the sexy sleeping Kakashi. He wouldn't be sleeping for very long if I went in there, I reminded myself. I probably sounded like an elephant to his well-attuned ears. I'd have a kunai at my throat before I could even speak.

I opted for the safer option, which was to wait until he woke up to talk to him. If I was lucky, he'd be in a good mood from a good night's sleep, and he wouldn't kill me on the spot. If not…well, I just hoped someone would feed my cat.

"Prraow?" someone asked me. I jumped three feet in the air, sure someone was here to kill me. I looked down, and the breath rushed out of me. It was my cat, Snickers.

I picked her up and cuddled her close to me, trying to calm my pounding heart. She was lying against me when I had been reading the manga, I realized. She must have been sucked in with me, because she had been touching me when it happened.

Walking over to the couch, I curled up on it with Snickers and scratched her chin. Snickers purred and looked at me with her big blue Siamese eyes. I kissed the top of her head, and she purred again.

Suddenly I realized something was off. The colors in this place, though rather plain and ordinary, were much too bright. And Snickers, as I looked at her more closely, looked strange, too… she reminded me of…

I froze. I think I stopped breathing. Slowly, almost afraid to look, I picked up Snickers' tag on her collar, identifying who she was and who someone should call should she run away. It was reflective, and as I looked into it, I saw one blue anime eye that blinked at me in surprise.

I clapped my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming for the second time in ten minutes. I was a cartoon. No, wait, that was wrong. I was anime.

This was insane. Totally impossible. I was dreaming. I had to be. There was no way that I could possibly have fallen into the world of Naruto, and was now an anime. No way. This was all a dream. I must have fallen asleep when I was looking at that picture of Kakashi, and now I only thought that this was real.

It sure as hell didn't feel like a dream, though. Everything felt as it would if I were back home; Snickers' fur was the same, my hands still felt the way they would, and the couch I was sitting on was only slightly uncomfortable, like I'd predicted. It felt like a normal couch, but when I looked at it, it was part of the anime world. It was a strange feeling. Very, very strange.

Maybe I wasn't dreaming.

I pinched myself, just to see what would happen. I had to stifle my cry. I'd pinched myself harder than I'd meant to.

Okay, pain was still working. So, no jumping off cliffs to see if I would live, because it would hurt, and I'd probably die. So, if I died now, would I wake up, like it was a dream? Or would I go into some sort of afterlife, he way people supposedly did when they died?

Wow, this was confusing.

I put my head in my hands, trying not to cry. I really didn't like this.

Suddenly I heard the soft pad of footsteps coming from Kakashi's room. I gasped in surprise before I cold stop myself, and the footsteps ceased.

Now I was really scared. I gathered up Snickers and held her close to me, not wanting her to run away when Kakashi appeared. I was also sort of hoping that the cat would deter Kakashi from holding a kunai to my throat.

It didn't.

In hardly a heartbeat, Snickers was sitting on the couch next to me, meowing in protest, and a kunai was being held against my throat.

Fuck.

"Who are you and why are you here?" Kakashi asked, his voice low and dangerous. Add to that the fact that his voice was rough from sleep, and it was a combination my fangirl self was swooning over. Too bad I was so terrified I couldn't move, or I might have enjoyed it.

My frozen brain almost didn't realize he was also speaking in Japanese. I opened my mouth, almost said something in English, closed it again, tried to remember the Japanese I'd been learning since my freshman year in collage, and opened my mouth again.

"I-I'm Emily Berretta. I'm not any threat to you, so could you please take the kunai from my throat before I faint out of fear?" Brutal honesty combined with a little smart-assiness might have been really, really bad if I wasn't lucky. But, in this moment, I was, and after a moment's hesitation, Kakashi took the kunai away from my throat and sat on the coffee table in front of the couch, still close enough to kill me quickly if he chose. The kunai was being held loosely in his hand, but, from what I knew of Kakashi, he wasn't as relaxed as he seemed.

I also noticed that Kakashi had taken the time to cover up his face and his sharingan eye with his mask and his headband. Guess I wasn't getting lucky today. Oh well. At this moment in time, it wasn't on my top priority list.

"So… Emily," Kakashi said, tripping over the unfamiliar name, "could you please enlighten me with the story of how you managed to get inside my home without my knowing?"

I let out a huge breath. I had known this was coming, but I still wasn't entirely sure how to word it to make it seem like I wasn't a huge Kakashi fangirl. Or a Kakashi fangirl at all. I was quite sure Naruto mangas weren't selling in this world.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me," I said honestly. Kakashi eyed me with suspicion, trying to discern whether I was lying. "Right now I would believe anything," he said, sighing and folding his arms across his chest.

I bit my lip. "Okay, fine," I said. "But you asked for it." I gave him the short, glossed over version.

"I'm not from here. And I don't just mean this village, which is pretty obvious, but I mean this entire set of continents. This entire world.

"There are no ninjas where I come from. They are the stuff of stories, legend. At least, not the kind you are. If anyone has any chakra, no one knows how to use it. And…" here I paused, unsure of how to go about this next tricky revelation.

"We know a good deal about your world. This one, I mean," I said, gesturing around us. "Those of us who read the right things know more than the average person on the street. We don't know everything, of course," I said quickly, in case Kakashi thought I was some sort of spy. "But there is some basic information out there."

Kakashi didn't say anything, and of course his face gave nothing away, so I took a deep breath and continued. "And as for how I ended up here, well…I was reading one of those books, and it had pictures of this world, I was studying them, and before I knew it, I was here, completely bewildered and totally frightened."

I lapsed into silence, and waited for Kakashi's response nervously.

I was afraid he would see through my glossy coating and demand to know the truth, which I just couldn't- wouldn't- tell him.

To my surprise, I thought I could see Kakashi smiling under the mask. Well, that wasn't exactly a good sign if I wanted him to believe me.

"Did you really think I was going to believe that?" Kakashi asked me. I sighed and went for a nonchalant look, stretching out on Kakashi's couch and putting my hands behind my head as I stared at the ceiling.

"Told you wouldn't believe me," I said. Kakashi raised his eyebrow as he looked at me.

"Were you hoping that you could get away with something as crazy as that? Hoping that maybe I would be distracted by the absurdity of that story long enough to make your escape?" Kakashi said disbelievingly.

I turned my head and stared at him. "I guess you don't have much faith in the supernatural," I said quietly.

"Do you?" Kakashi asked. I smiled slightly. "I do now."

Kakashi shook his head, still not believing me, and I tried one last tactic. Time to give him a little trivia.

"Did you ever notice how Gaara of the sands and Naruto lead parallel lives?" I asked quietly. Kakashi didn't answer, so I went on. "Both had a demon trapped inside of them at a young age. Their villages scorned them, treated them both like dirt. And here's where the one difference comes in: Gaara gave himself into despair and misery, and is now the creature you see in him today. Naruto never gave up hope. He kept his chin up, and vowed to show everyone what he was made of. He's a good kid, if a little boisterous at times." I smiled and let my eyes drift closed, now trusting Kakashi enough to not kill me where I lay.

"I also know about your sharingan eye," I said suddenly. "I know it's not yours, really, and I know how and who you got it from. I also know that Sasuke wants to kill his brother because he was the one who slaughtered the Uchiha clan. I know that your favorite book series is Make Out Paradise, and that you actually wear two masks because you're so afraid that someone will pull down the first and see your face. "Hmm…what else do I know?" I tapped my chin while I thought, and stole a glance at Kakashi to see if he believed me yet. He looked pretty close to believing something, that was for sure. I just hoped that it was something along the lines of what I'd told him.

Then I remembered something. "Oh! I guess this isn't something I really know for sure, it's just an observation on my part. I think that the fourth Hokage didn't seal the nine-tailed fox demon inside a random orphaned child, I think he sealed the demon into his own son, long-lost or secret, I don't know. His son being, of course, Uzumaki Naruto…in theory." I looked up at Kakashi. "So, how'm I doing so far?" I asked.

Kakashi was shaking his head, holding up his hands. "Alright, okay," he said, and I could hear the humor in his voice, "I may not believe your story, but I do know you're not from here. Your name, your speech, your clothing… I've never seen its like. Even if you're lying about not being from this world, you are most definitely from very far away, and appearing under very odd circumstances." Kakashi paused and thought for a moment. "Of course the Hokage will need to be informed of this…interesting turn of events," he said slowly. "But," he said suddenly, looking at me, "I think we'll just tell him that you're from very far away, and you've had a long journey. You don't want to be locked up for your wild claims, do you?" He smiled again before standing up and walking into his bedroom. "You're going to have to wait before you get an audience with the Hokage, though," he called over his shoulder. "Just give me a few minutes and we can go."

"Oh, darn. I was so very excited to tell the Hokage my story and get thrown in the loony bin as soon as possible," I muttered to myself in English.

"I don't know what you just said, but it sounded sarcastic, so shut up," Kakashi called again. I pointed my middle finger at the door in response and settled down to wait with Snickers as I compsed a good story that wouldn't get me locked up in an asylum.

Ten minutes later, Kakashi walked out of his bedroom, shirtless, with his hair dripping. He was rubbing his face on a towel, and he paused, remembered I was here, than swore and turned tail, escaping into his room.

My face was frozen, with my mouth hanging open, my eyes wide, and some drool hanging out of the edge of my mouth. I shook my head and slapped myself repeatedly, but I could feel a huge grin spreading over my face.

Hmm. Kakashi had a six-pack. Yummy. Too bad I didn't live in this world, or I'd have been all over him. I was suddenly jealous of any and every girlfriend the man had ever had. Those bitches. Life just wasn't fair sometimes.

Kakashi emerged shortly after that, looking embarrassed but fully dressed, to my secret disappointment.

"Sorry," he said, looking sheepish. "I'm used to living alone, and I forgot you wre here."

I was surprised. "No girlfriend?" I asked as I stood up, still holding Snickers. Kakashi shook his head. "I don't date," he said.

My heart fell a little as I heard those words. Not that it really mattered, of course. I couldn't-shouldn't- even try to go out with him, because I was going to find a way back home, and we'd never see each other again. Simple as that.

Plus, there was also that teeny tiny little fact that he probably didn't like me anway.I didn't exactly make a very good first impression, if you ask me.

We started to leave Kakashi's house, when Kakashi stopped and looked at me oddly. "Why are you taking that cat with you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. I hugged Snickers closer to my chest.

"First off, her name is Snickers," I said defensively. Kakashi looked at me oddly once again, and I sighed. "It's my favorite candy bar," I explained. "I guess you don't have them here. Anyway, second, she's a Simaese cat, which means she's a little weird by nature, and I don't want her ruining your house. Third, she had a friend back home, and, as Siamese cats will do when looking for their lost friend, she'll go crazy trying to find him. So, she's coming," I said, staring him down.

Kakashi sighed and shook his head. "You are a very strange woman," he said, and led me to my meeting with the Hokage.