Crossing Over (#2 In Shifting Series)

The Hidden Leaf Village

Melissa stood silently in the modest home that Kakashi and Sarah occupied with their sons. She could not help but stare at Kakashi as she waited for Sarah to come out of the back room.  He glanced over at her and raised a brow, catching her in the act.  She felt a blush warm her face before gave him a nervous smile.  It was surreal seeing Kakashi in person.  She almost pinched herself again.

She forced herself to turn away from him and started looking around the living room.  The couch was very low to the ground, in what she assumed was a Japanese style.  They had a television that teleported her back to when she was a kid, it was definitely in the old style.  She smirked slightly as she caught sight of the book case and slipped over to it to look at the titles. 

"So... Kakashi..." She said with a grin in her voice, "What happened to your Make Out Tactics books?"

"They... uh... had to be relocated to a more secure location until the boys are older," he responded in good humor.

Melissa picked up a photograph from their wedding and stared at it.  She shook her head in amazement.  Might Guy's appearance looked just like his anime except in a three-dimensional Bruce Lee sort of way.  Sakura was gorgeous and she really thought they did her wrong by making such a big deal out of her forehead.  It really wasn't that large. She then picked up the photograph of herself with Sarah that they had taken at a Comicon the first year of their friendship.  It was one of her favorite photos of the two of them. She set the photograph down and then looked at the portraits hanging on the wall.

She smiled slightly at the two boys' images that were side by side.  They were really cute but what a handful.  She was exhausted just watching them the short way back to their house.  Sarah had her hands full with those two.  She then gave a sad smile as the looked at the image of Sarah's first child, Demiana.  It then hit her; how did Sarah have photographs from their world?

Melissa turned towards Kakashi who had been watching her closely. She wondered if it was out of distrust or curiosity.  He looked a little bit uncomfortable and folded his arms in front of him.  "How did..."

"Sarah had her phone when she came.  A friend of mine extracted photos off of it for her."  He tilted his head to the side, "So this fan page...  Was there a lot of people on it?"

Curiosity.  Melissa grinned, "Thousands."

His eyes widened, "Thousands?"

"Just on that one page.  You have a huge following, Kakashi, in our world," She responded as she turned back to look around the room more.  "The chat group we met in, though, had about eighty of us ladies and we would share sexy fan art or videos of-"

Sarah came out of the bedroom and hurried to her side.  She covered Melissa's mouth while chuckling nervously, "Yeah, it was an interesting group we had a lot of fun."  She gave her a look as she lowered her voice, "Not another word if you want to live."

Kakashi's brows were up as he looked at Sarah who had dropped her hand from her mouth, "Please, Melissa, tell me more..."

Melissa was shaking with silent laughter as her bestie started forcefully pulling her towards the front door.  "Sorry, dear, I want to get her around town before it gets dark.  You don't need to come with... The boys look like they're having fun in the back yard with Max and oh, look, Pakkun came back."

"Sarah..." Kakashi said with a gleam in his eyes.  "I think we need to talk later... about multiple things."

Sarah laughed nervously then yanked Melissa out of the house in a quick retreat.  She didn't speak again until they were well down the lane leading up to the home.  "Girl, that man will get a big head if he finds out how many women are lusting after him in our world."

Melissa laughed, "Worried?"

Sarah's face turned a little red before she chuckled before saying, "Maybe a little.  To be honest, I'm still stunned that he came after me the way he did.  I didn't think I had a chance with him when I arrived."

Melissa stopped smiling at the reminder of her supposed death. She would never get over receiving that call.  Her heart had broke when she thought her bestie and soul sister was dead.  It was still fresh for her.  She blinked as the quaint residential area morphed into busy shopping district.  The street was becoming a more congested as they grew closer to the center of town.  She wanted to ask Sarah about it but the massive stone faces looking over the city caught her attention.

"Naruto is the Hokage?"

"Yes," Sarah grinned.  "I'm actually taking you to meet him now. He will want to know immediately that someone else from my world has arrived.  Honestly, I hope he doesn't get too mad that I brought you without asking permission first.  I popped in by accident but you... I brought you intentionally."

Melissa gasped as she realized she was about to meet the most powerful man in the Naruto world then started raking her fingers through her dark auburn hair.   The red was so noticeable in the sunlight.  Inside, it looked browner but when the sun hit it... flames.  Sarah had always thought the color was gorgeous.  Melissa turned her eyes down herself and grimaced.  She was still wearing her work uniform.

"Wait, wait.  I need a change of clothes before I meet anyone.  I don't want to make a bad impression and my work uniform just isn't doing it!"  

Sarah smiled completely understanding how she must feel.  Even though she knew Naruto probably wouldn't even notice, it was more for Melissa than for him, "Okay, we can do a little shopping first.   I know just the place to get you a few outfits.  You'll need them now that you're here and don't have anything."  She chuckled, "Wow, what an adventure this will be for you.  God, I remember how I felt when I first got here.  Excited, happy, and honestly overwhelmed by all that was changing.  It was a complete do-over."

Melissa gripped her arm, "I'm really starting completely over, aren't I?  There is no going back is there?"

"Do you want to go back?"  Sarah asked her.  "I could try opening the portal again and you could jump back over if you don't want to stay here."

"No," Melissa responded quickly.  "I'm just a little overwhelmed that all of this is real.  It's like a very vivid lucid dream."

"Keep thinking you're going to wake up at home, right?" Sarah grinned.

"Yes!"

"I was the same way for a very long while. Trust me, there will come a moment where you'll realize it isn't going to end.  Then... Boom, real mind job there." Sarah abruptly hugged her with an excited squeal, "I'm so glad you are here.  I missed you so much and we always had such good times together.  Especially drooling over the men..."

"You said something about the hotties?"  Melissa reminded her.

Sarah laughed before pulling her into a shop.  "First things, first.  Let's get you all glammed up. Once we do that and you see Naruto, then I'll see about introducing you to the guys.  I've met all of them, you know, by now.  Kakashi is buddies with all our favorites... well the living ones any ways."

An hour later, Melissa felt like some kind of exotic princess from the myriads of clothes she had tired on.  She had never spent that much time or had that much attention on her in her life as she tried on clothes.  Sarah seemed to be viewing her as her own little doll to dress up.  She felt a bit silly, but she was having fun. Her bestie also seemed to have some clout in town as everyone jumped to attention whenever she spoke.  It was obviously good to be married to the Sixth Hokage.

"Girl, you got to wear that one out of the store," Sarah said, her eyes gleaming.  "You're going to catch the attention of every man in town in that one.  You look like a real bad ass."

Melissa eyed herself critically.  She didn't see anything special in her appearance, other than the really cool outfit that they had found.  The same old blue-green hazel eyes stared back at her.  Her auburn hair now looking brown, falling in waves to mid-back. Her full lips were twisted up in a skeptical smile.  The outfit was amazing, though.  It was a blend of leather and a dark navy material.  It encased her body in such a way that her best parts were emphasized and quite honestly, as her bestie observed, she looked like quite the badass.

Melissa gave a grin then nodded, "Yes, I'm definitely wearing this one out.  It's perfect!"