Akira's POV

I woke up to the sun's rays shining brightly on my face, through my eyelids and warming my body. I groaned, rolling over the pull-out couch and reaching over and wrapping my arms around whatever was in my grasp, my pillow,–I assumed–simultaneously pulling it closer to me. As the pillow snuggled its head into my chest, a muffled sound escaping them, causing a small vibration in my chest. I chuckled as I realized that it was Kei who was currently cuddling and snuggling with me and not a pillow. Not that I'm complaining.

I opened my eyes to take a closer look at her face which was snuggled into my chest. She looks so peaceful and relaxed when she's sleeping. As if she were many years younger. Her face morphed into a cute frown as I tried to lean away from her to try to get a better look. She moved closer to me and tried to bury her face deeper into my chest, mumbling something again.

Adorable. She would totally kill me if she were awake, regardless of her being the one doing the cuddling. Completely against physical contact, she is.

Ah, the things that a good night's rest can do to you. It can make the bags in your eyes go away and make you look many times younger. I stared in amazement at her. 

Then I realized something was out of place. We were no longer in my house. We were outside in some sort of clearing in a forest or something.

I struggled to get out of Kei's hold silently. I slowly observed my surroundings, taking everything in. I was in a clearing in a forest with a beautiful and seemingly endless and beautiful sea of green. There seemed to be some sort of body of water far away from my line of sight, only seen as a blue line. There were trees,  a backpack, grass, trees, squirrels, trees, birds, butterflies, and oh, hey look, more trees. And another Backpack. Hold on, backpack?

I grabbed the closest backpack to me and opened it, looking through what was in there. Some sort of blue pills, most likely drugs. Food, more of the same clothing I was wearing, a ring, a letter that I couldn't read, a weird gel-like substance, three weird scrolls and a few kunai. That's a lot of shit there.

I stared at everything for a while, trying to figure out what the hell these were and what was going on.

.

.

.

Naruto. That's where those blue pills are from. The chakra pills, kunai, scrolls, and other miscellaneous items that didn't catch my attention at the moment.  

Was I really in Naruto? 

I let out a low breath of air. As much as I joke about traveling into the world, said event actually happen is a bit mind-blowing. This situation is pretty serious, regardless. Anyways, I need to find a way to look at my own features. Those apparently always change.

Consequently, I took another look at Kei. She didn't just look younger, she is younger. She has the appearance of a 5-year-old child. When she was cuddling with me, we were about the same size, with me having a slightly bigger and taller build. That means that my appearance is also that of a toddler..? This complicates things. In any case, I and Kei are both currently of size and appearance of a toddler. When are we? Where are we?

"Akira... don't burn......house." Mumbled a sleeping Kei, disrupting my train of thoughts and trying to bury her face into the ground.

"I won't burn it this time!" I yelled out of reflex.

"Akira..." She moaned. I felt something on my forehead, kind of like a pinch of pain, but ignored it. "..no.....brn..."

 I sighed and sat there staring at her for a few moments in hesitation before deciding to wake her up and talk to her about our situation.

"I dun wanna stop the fire, Kira..." She said raising her head and then letting it fall again on the ground. Ouch, that looked like it hurt. At least I didn't have to wake her.

"Shit!" She cursed, rubbing her nose and face while sitting up. "That hurt, Akira" She said while cutely rubbing her eyes making a chibi-face. My eyes sparkled with delight as I saw the chibi-face. I'll be seeing a lot more of these.

"What is it Akira?" She said, blinking her eyes a couple of times at me.

I opened my mouth to speak but instead dived forward, twisting my body and shoving Kei to the ground as I was hit with a sharp, flying object in my abdomen. 

I quickly moved my hands to make sure the kunai didn't hit any of my vitals in my abdomen and created pressure on the wound, hissing slightly in pain. I mean, who wouldn't be hurt from a stab wound that came from fucking nowhere?

Motherfucker. Who the fuck do you think you are, interrupting a conversation by trying to kill me? You obviously have to wait till I'm done talking, it's practically the number one rule in anime. Let the people finish their goddamned conversations and flashbacks. Wait no, nevermind. this one counts as an ambush. I never even spoke. More importantly, how did I not notice in the first place?

"Fuck" I swore at my negligence and pain, quickly pulling out the now bloodied kunai against better judgment. I saw the gleam of something metallic headed my way and rolled on my back jumping up and doing a backflip, dodging the other 6 kunai that were aimed at me. A tall man now stood in front of me, his face mostly covered by his mask leaving only a pair of sharp brown eyes and eyebrows. His mask had a design that seemed to swirl and curve, creating a beautiful golden three-clawed dragon on a sleek black mask.

I. Want. That. Mask.

"Look, kid, just give me all your valuables and supplies and I'll lead you to the next village, alright?" The man bargained. I knew all too well that we weren't going to live if I did that. A smart man leaves no trace behind.

I steadied my breathing and smirked, twirling the kunai in my hand. "How about you give me that mask, and those scrolls you have there?"

He looked at me in disbelief(I assumed), and scoffed, "Yeah right kid, as If I'm going to give that to a toddler"

"Whatever, If you won't give them to me willingly..." I paused, taking a few steps backward. Then I ran at a great speed and was behind him in less than a second, kunai in hand, diving toward his back.

"I'll just take it by force."

The sound of metal against metal and his heaving breath was all that was heard for the next few minutes. I was pretty good for handling a kunai for the first time if I do say so myself. I hadn't cut my fingers off yet. Though I had made my hands and arms a bloody mess in addition to all the wounds he'd given me.

"I'm impressed and insulted." He stated in disbelief, quickly jumping back what would be a reasonable distance away from me if I weren't able to close that distance in a short amount of time. I raised an eyebrow at him, watching on with curiosity at whatever he was planning.

He took a deep breath, forming familiar hand signs. I know this one!

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" He yelled, exhaling a huge fireball. I grinned, this is nothing compared to when I cook.

I took the flames head-on, charging at him directly with my kunai long forgotten and my arm pulled back. 

His face revealed a frightened expression as I burst through his jutsu unharmed and silently uttered the words, "Monster" before my fist connected with his face.

His body soared through the air for a few minutes, crashing through many trees and rocks until he then got stuck on a bigger rock quite a distance away.

"Akira!" I heard someone yell at me. Uh oh, Kei. "What did I tell you about using 1% of your power?" Kei scolded me.

I slowly turned around and dropped my head low so I was looking at the ground. "Not to do it." I muttered guiltily.

"Yet you do it anyway." I could just feel her rolling her eyes at me.

"But I was having fun, and he wouldn't give me the mask or the scrolls.." I knew the moment I started this, that I couldn't win. I never could seem to win an argument against her.

"Yeah, and now he might be dead and any information we could have obtained may now be obsolete thanks to you." I could feel her glaring at me, so I lowered my head even more.

"Hold on," I paused, taking a slow breath, trying to figure out how to explain to her what I've come up with.

"You're not Akira." She stated, immediately changing her friendly but irritated gaze into a tight and guarded expression.

"Yes, I am, Kei."

"Prove it." She demanded. I rolled my eyes at her and picked a particularly annoying memory for her but a heartstopping memory for me.

"In sixth grade on the bus when we were sitting together, Mrs. Ramirez did one of her frequent stops like she always did and-" She abruptly cut me off by putting her hands over my mouth.

"Shut up! We agreed never to speak of that!" She hissed at me, her eyebrows furrowing in displeasure. I raised an eyebrow at her as she still hadn't removed her hands from my mouth. So I did the obvious thing in that situation.

I licked her hand.

She yanked her hands back and wiped them on my shoulder. I looked at her amused.

She glanced back up at me scowling as I smiled at her.

"Your turn," I said innocently.  She glared at me before speaking, making sure she expressed how much she loathed me at that very moment.

"Well, in seventh grade..." Her mood completely shifted as she hesitated, glancing at me again before she continuing, "Starfield, You and your brother-" I cut her off, slamming her into the nearest tree pinning her hands above her head.

"Shut up." I seethed, angry beyond belief. Her eyes widened in fear, as she stared directly into my eyes, her face morphing into a fearful expression.

I quickly released her and turned around, forcing my eyes shut.

"I'm sorry." I gritted my teeth, directing my anger at myself.

"Are you ok?" I asked, my voice full of concern but avoided eye contact. I couldn't properly look her in the eyes. 

"y-Yeah" She answered shakily. "It was my fault, I brought it up." I shook my head. It wasn't her fault at all. It was mine. I was the one that had made her prove her identity when it was unnecessary.

"It was my fault. Not yours." I spoke in a tone that left no room for argument. She nodded demurely, and followed me, picking up her backpack as I did mine.

"We should probably go get him before that mask gets bloodied" Kei joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, he probably needs your awesome medical skills, or he'd be dead" I laughed. Then I noticed the distance between us and the waterfall. If we didn't take the path I had in mind, we'd be there by nightfall, and then he would be dead.

Between Kei and I, I am the strongest and most agile. If I carried her, we would reach the waterfall fairly quickly. 

I took off my backpack and put it on my front and then I squatted down in front of Kei, my back facing her.

"Hop on"

"Uh, no." She refused. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Just get on so we can get there quicker" I heard her sigh deeply, before complaining.

"Can't we just run there full speed?"

"No" I answered. I want to give you a piggy-back ride and let you catch up on your sleep, you stubborn woman. Let yourself rest for once.

I also want to take my time and mull over our situation and observe our current environment. Although I came to the Naruto conclusion pretty quickly, I need time to adjust to our situation.

"Why?"

Because you need your sleep and it's an excuse to hold you close. But I'm not going to tell you that.

"You ask too many questions"

"Knowledge is power." She spoke, giving me a look.

"Power corrupts." I rolled my eyes. 

"Just get on already" I sighed, not wanting to delve into a philosophical argument.

She sighed in defeat and got on.

"Finally." I groaned, stretching my legs.

"Shut up."

~Time Passes~

It was already nightfall and the stars were beginning to show. It seems as if the daylight hours last longer here than back in our world. Now that I think about it, it was already getting pretty late when the dude with mask showed up. Time is really slow here. Or maybe ours was faster? This universe logic is really screwing me over.

I was actually taking it slow here in the tree branches. I didn't feel like moving all that fast. I wanted to take my time, to be honest.

After a few minutes, Kei yawned and rested her head against my shoulder, falling asleep. A while after she fell asleep, I marked the certain places so I wouldn' be lost. After about half an hour's worth of time, I picked up the pace and we were at the waterfall in ten minutes. So, I let her have a 40-minute nap, basically. Kind of. My sense of time is terrible.

I gently laid her down against a tree. Looking at the tree reminded me of earlier.

"I'm sorry" I whispered. Topics on my brother were sensitive subjects that easily riled me up.

I then went to the masked dude who was currently stuck on the giant rock I mentioned earlier. He was bleeding, a lot. I'm amazed. He should be dead, but he's not. Anime amazes me.

I crouched down low and then hopped from one rock to a higher one until I reached the guy. I put my feet on either side of him, grabbed his arms and pulled.

We would've both fallen into the river that was below the waterfall if I hadn't jumped off the rock that was there.

I heard a low groan from him as we landed and I glanced at him before dropping him at the base of a tree next to Kei.

I walked over to Kei and gently woke her up.

"We're here"

Kei took off most of his clothes and worked on him with some medical things she found in her backpack. I took his mask, his pouch of weapons and his scrolls, and his clothes. He can have his weapons back later. Maybe.

I walked to the river and began washing the mask before I washed his other bloodied clothes. Then I cleaned the rest of his clothes and looked for some firewood and a way to make a fire. 

After that, I looked at the scrolls while Kei fished for some food.

~Time Skip~

Ok, so one of these scrolls were super important. It was Konoha's forbidden scroll, the one with all of its secrets and forbidden jutsu, and history. It such an important scroll, that I couldn't help but wonder how the hell that guy got his hands on it.

The second scroll was one that was filled with multiple different jutsu. There was Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning, Sand-which was strange- there were even other forbidden jutsu, and there was even the crystal style and Futon style. I was impressed, to say the least.

The third and final scroll was simply filled to the brim with medical supplies, Kunai, clothes, chakra pills, and other similar things. But no food or water. That must be why he wanted us to give him all we had. Too bad he got me instead.

Now he's practically bleeding to death with Kei tending to his wounds every hour or so. I didn't think I hit him that hard. Seems like my strength increased Ten-fold since coming here. It seems I kept the strength I had previously in my matured body while in my toddler bodily state. In fact, my strength increased by many folds. Which means that my present self could still improve.