Gone [Naruto fanfic]

#5

Two hours later, I was sitting on the wooden floor of a small apartment room, having just finished cleaning the place up a bit.

-I have from now until tomorrow morning to wait for Tsunade's message, and I have no idea what I'm going to do.

*Well since you have no idea how to get around this place, how about you look around a bit so you won't make a fool of yourself tomorrow if you have to show up somewhere quickly, dummy?

-What do you know? The Lord of Sarcasm has actually decided to be helpful!

*One of us has to run the show around here, and you're an irresponsible teenager, *sighs*, which means the heavy burden falls on my shoulders....

-Drama queen...

************

Kids played in the dirt streets, chasing each other and making noise. The shops and restaurants were bustling with people. I walked with my hands dug into my hoodie pockets, going a little slowly so I could take note of everything. As I passed by, I could feel the curious gazes of people resting on me, wondering where I came from and why I looked so ragged.

"Hey there!"

I spun on my heel, trying to search for the owner of the voice. It was Sakura. She jogged to catch up to me, her eyes friendly.

"Are you Amira?" she asked as she fell in to step beside me.

"Yes. You're Sakura I presume?"

"How did you-? Oh wait, Lady Tsunade said something about you coming from somewhere else and knowing a lot about us...." Sakura glanced quickly around us, then leaned a little closer to me.

"Are you really from another world?" she whispered, just as curious as Tsunade was.

I couldn't help but chuckle a little.

"Yep, I really am from another world. I know a lot of things, but unfortunately not enough to really predict far into the future. The place I come from isn't that much different from here, the only differences really are that there are no shinobi villages, you can't use chakra, and the technology is slightly more advanced, but not by much though."

"Wow!" Sakura breathed, becoming a little lost in thought as she tried to picture the world I just described.

"By the way," I asked, "Is there a library here?"

Sakura snapped out of it, much like Tsunade had, "Library? Oh yeah, we do. Lady Tsunade sent me to show you around a little bit so you wouldn't get lost. I can take you to there later if you want." She smiled, "But why do you want to go to the library?"

"Well for one, I like reading a lot, but since I'm so old in comparison to when you guys usually first start your training, which is around five or six, I want to catch up quickly and learn as much as possible. And I'm also curious about medical jutsu, and I was hoping I could find a little more info about it there."

Sakura looked at me curiously. "You want to become a medical ninja?"

"Yup. I'm already somewhat familiar with medicine in general, and I'm not really squeamish when it comes to the stuff." I shrugged, "I'm probably going to kill myself trying so hard to catch up and learn so much so quickly."

We both laughed, and continued on our little tour of the village.

Twenty minutes later, my hands begun to itch. I took them out of my pockets and frowned.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked.

"Well, I'm a bit of an artist you see, and it's been over a week since I've had access to any drawing materials, so my hands feel a little restless...you know what I mean?"

"You're an artist?"

"A self-proclaimed one anyway." I smiled, "Ummm, do you know where I can get some paper and pencils?"

"Sure, I know just the place! I use a lot of notebooks and paper myself, usually for my medical homework."

We walked for another five minutes, taking a few turns and going down a couple narrow roads until we reached our destination.

It was a tiny shop, almost invisible had it not been for the small, bright green canopy over the doorway. We walked in.

"Oh Sakura-chan, is that you?" The voice belonged to an old lady that stood behind a counter, a few papers out in front of her. Her gray hair was up in a loose bun, and a welcoming smile was on her face.

She moved over to us, squinting at my face slightly, before she realized that her glasses weren't on. She patted her head, looking for them, and then found them hanging on her neck. She delicately placed them on her nose.

"And who's this with you? I've never seen her around here before Sakura-chan."

Sakura gestured toward me, "This is Amira, she just arrived at the village, and will be staying for a while. She's looking for some paper and pencils to draw with."

I bowed politely to the elder woman.

"Ah, You have come to the right place then! And no need for formalities Amira-san," she waved her hands at me, telling me to stop, "Any friend of Sakura's is a friend of mine. Now, what kind of paper are you looking for?"

For fifteen minutes I was in pure heaven, the elder woman letting me look at and try out various pencils and paper samples to see which suited my needs. Both she and Sakura marveled at my 'doodles', which were basically quickly drawn portraits of both of them, along with one of Lady Tsunade.

Finally, I ended up choosing a small set of sketching pencils, along with a pocket size sketchbook. Aaand then I realized I didn't have any money.

"Ummm..."

The old lady seemed to realize my little predicament, and waved it off.

"Consider it my welcoming gift to you," She winked, "after all, talent such as yours should not go unrewarded."

I blushed slightly, embarrassed by her kindness.

"It's not really talent," I blurted out, "I just worked really hard to become good, but even now there is still place for more improvement. There will always be someone better than me..."

"That gives me all the more reason to give those to you as a gift, whether or not you think about it as hard work or talent, there is still one thing that remains the same for me: you have been polite and courteous to me the whole time that you have been here. And it always warms my old heart to see someone like you who holds kindness towards others highly."

My already hot-pink cheeks became red.

The old woman laughed.

"Um, I've been here for a while now, and I still don't know your name."

"Oh, my name is Akane. But you can call me Grandma Aka if you like." Akane smiled warmly.

This time I laughed.

"Alright then! See you around Grandma Aka! And thank you so much for the gifts!"

I waved as Sakura and I exited the small shop, my hands itching with excitement and eager to draw.

============================MUST. DRAAAAWWW!!

Haha! Anywho, I hope this chapter wasn't too boring for you guys. But I'm sure those of you who are a little more on the 'artsy' side can totally relate to this. XD