A/N: Characters Ichika, Kaiden, and Haru are partly based off of Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura from Naruto (the show)
The photo is a picture of Ichika ( based on Naruto ) when he's angry, but Ichika's nice and sweet

It's been a few hours since I've left the village and I'm already feeling a bit homesick. I don't know the terrain around here and the people aren't nearly as welcoming as the elders back at home.

"Gah, it's so different out here!" I whined. "Won't even let me eat an apple without paying."

"But isn't that sort of expected?" A new voice suddenly butt into my conversation with myself.

"Then expectations are a piece of poop." I pouted. My stomach let out a horrendous growl and scared the local birds away. Well, isn't that embarrasing?

"Would you shut up?" I said irritably, glaring down at my stupid stomach.

"Who, me?" The unknown person asked. "I didn't even say anything."

"No, not you." I told the person, looking at the bushes where they were hiding behind. "My stomach's being stupid so I told it to shut up."

The unknown person suddenly stood up and revealed their self. To my surprise, it was another guy.

'What was he doing, hiding behind a bush?'

"Hi, I'm Ponpa." He held out his hand for me to shake. "Nice to meet you. I'm here to help people."

"You help people," I said dubiously, looking around the empty path for more people I may not have been aware of. "on a practically abandoned path?"

Ponpa laughed nervously, not answering my question. "Never mind what I said." He looks at me with expectant eyes. "What brings you on this path?" He asked as we continued to walk through the forest.

"I'm heading to the Hunter Exam!" I exclaimed happily. "I need a Hunter's license to travel the world in order to find my Sensei." I grinned radiantly, thinking of their joyous expressions.

When I mentioned the Hunter Exam, Ponpa slightly frowned a bit, to my curiosity. "Hm, is something wrong?"

"Sorry to tell you this, but this route isn't the way to Zaban City."

"Oh, is that so?" My head tilted to the side in confusion. "I could have sworn that this is the way to Zaban City."

"Sorry, but your on the wrong path." He shook his head as if he were shaming me. "This path takes at least twice the amount of time it should take to get there."

"That's quite a disadvantage if you ask me." Ponpa said, looking at me curiously. "Not to mention, quite tiring for someone of your size."

I felt almost as if he were inspecting me.

"I'm not short, y'know." I told him as if he were the most stupid person in the world. "I'm freakin' FUN SIZE!"

He just sweatdropped, noticing that I probably wasn't even listening when he was talking about this path. I just smiled, not really caring about the distance I have to go.

"Are you sure you're really gonna travel this way?" He asked me unsurely, to which I nodded vigorously.

"I can get us there in a same amount of time as the other path!" I exclaimed, but all Ponpa did was just stare incredulously. I'm so amazing, I even have this guy mesmerized!

"That's not possible-"

Ignoring his negative protest, I grabbed his hand in an unexpected death grip and said, "C'mon, let's go!"

He screamed aloud as I dragged him along, speedily rushing through the forest. With my light feet, I left no tracks behind. Unfortunately, the path took many turns, at which Ponpa would occasionally, but accidentally, hit a tree.

"Sorry!" I shouted out to him, but he didn't reply. When I looked around to check, he was knocked out with drool flying out his mouth.

"Oops!" I giggled, laughing at his ridiculous face."I didn't mean to knock you ou-OW!"

I slammed into an extremely large object.

Very hard.

And it hurts.

...

Really bad.

I moaned in pain, my vision fuzzy for a second. "Guuh, what happened?"

Ponpa was beginning to wake up, his chibi 'x' eyes gone. Instead he was blinking his eyes open, and asked tiredly, "What happened?"

"But I just asked you that..." I moaned, but Ponpa didn't take any notice.

"All I remember is hitting a really big tree at what seemed like 90 miles an hour..." He muttered as he glanced around, clearly confused with the situation.

"Oh, yeah..." I said nervously. "I sorta, maybe, kinda ran too fast and swung you right into a tree or two...maybe three...or four..." I said, each time getting a little bit softer. "On accident, I swear!" I put my hands up in a surrender motion. Although, to be honest, that may not have actually been an accident.

He sighed, "Never mind that. I just want to know how you can even run that fast." His voice was tinted with a tone of demanding.

"And why'd you suddenly-" He cut himself off, noticing the huge boulder that I ran into. "Oh, never mind."

"Y'know," I told him. "You tend to say 'never mind' a lot."

"Just an old habit." He stated. "Anyway, how did you seriously run that fast?"

I looked at him, my confusion from the hit gone, "I'm a ninja specializing in the hidden art of ninjutsu. Speed is a given ability of a ninja."

I scooted closer to him and flicked him on the forehead.

"OW!" He shouted in pain, holding his new bruise. "You shouldn't hit injured people!"

"You're not injured." I pointed out, surveying him for any injuries. In the end, he didn't have any.

Liar.

"What was that even for?" He scowled irritably at me.

"For being dumb, you baka!" I said arrogantly. "Ninjas are stealthy and fast, and anyone should know that." I rolled my eyes, clearly unimpressed with this guy's amount of knowledge.

He groaned in pain, "You're so mean..."

"I'm not the one trying to stop another from taking the Exam." I stated seriously before getting up and brushing myself off. "Now, are you coming or not?"

Just a bit stunned, he replied, "How'd you know?"

"A ninja must see through deception." I told him, the faces of the elders who told me that appearing in my mind.

I looked at him with a deadly smile, "You just aren't very good at tricking people."

"So I'll ask you again." I said monotonously. "Are you coming or not?" I asked, switching to a sincere grin. "We can still be late if we take too long of a break, y'know."

"You're quite scary..." He shivered as he followed behind me.

I nodded and replied, "So I've been told."

***

We walked together in silence for the next few hours, pondering our own thoughts. Well, really, I was just enjoying the walk while Ponpa was thinking to himself.

Soon enough, we came to a small village for travelers on the path. It's not like my grand village, but there was enough people to keep the place running. Although, the place wasn't exactly a pulchrous (pretty), it reminded me just a bit of my village.

"You want to grab a snack or something here?" I asked Ponpa. "I've heard they sell some pretty awesome cookies!"

"You're heading to the world famous Hunter Exam," He said slowly, trying to process the information himself. "where you know you're risking your life," His voice gave away the fact that he was extremely confused. "and you want to take a break for cookies?" He asked incredulously, staring at me like I was some bizarre alien.

"Yeah," I said. "so what?"

He groaned irritably. "I really don't understand you."

"A lot of people don't." I shouted out loud. I could've sworn even the animals in the forest turned to look at me. "I'm a mental case in a tiny body! What do you expect?"