Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

18. Not-So-Standardised Testing

As Kakashi's explanation comes to an end, something occurs to me.

"Hold on - what am I supposed to do?" I stick my hand up and ask.

"You? Here." Kakashi pulls something out of his pocket and tosses it at me. Once I see what it is, I let it drop.

"Ew, don't toss me your porno, I don't want it!"

"You wanted something to do." Kakashi shrugs like he didn't just do something vaguely disgusting and wildly inappropriate.

"Something that's not that." I scowl.

"Fine. You guard the lunches."

"And if they actually try to take one?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Scream." Kakashi raises his own in return.

"You're impossible." I huff, and cross my arms. So what, I'm just going to sit here and stare at a bunch of bento lunches until noon? Great. Obviously today's going to be so productive.

"Now then, remember what I've said, and... Begin."

With that, Sakura and Sasuke jump of into the surrounding forest, and Naruto...

Stays?

I groan and let my head drop into my hands. I may not know much about shinobi, but I've watched enough ninja films to know that you need to be sneaky.

Wait.

Ninja films.

Ninja shows.

Naruto.

Isn't this an anime? I sit up a little straighter.

It is! I've never seen it, but Naruto is definitely an anime. And a manga. And it has films.

Oh. My. God.

How is this possible?

Did the writer manage to visit this world before? But then how did they know about Naruto, the person. Am I in a TV show? Are people watching me? No, not possible. From what little I know, there's no characters from another world.

So what is going on?

Kakashi and Naruto fight it out while I mull this new development over.

Some kids in my class talked about it sometimes, I remember that. They... They didn't like Sakura, they loved Sasuke, for whatever reason, and Naruto. Some people went on about shipping them, and I kind of see it.

Argh! This is so frustrating!

I sigh heavily and flop back, my head landing between the lunches.

Okay, think stories. Think fan theories. Think theories in general.

Alternate universes. Alternate universes are a theory. What did that theory say? That they're all layered on top of each other? I guess that's not so important. I tap my feet against the stone.

What if the universe I'm in didn't come first? Like, the writer, Kishi-something, he came up with the idea and wrote it and the universe just popped into existence from the very beginning?

Oh, but writing is a process, things change. So you'd either have multiple universes with slightly different timelines, or the universe started to exist once he'd finished the story.

"Maya, pay attention!" Kakashi snaps before disappearing. I sit up and frown at the little after-image he left behind.

"I am paying attention!" I yell, "just not to you..." I add it in a mutter, not that he could hear me even if I spoke at a normal volume.

As I lazily look around across the field, I see Naruto sneaking towards a tree, with something small and shiny flashing at the base.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" I ask wearily.

"Kakasi-sense dropped a bell!" He crows, grinning madly. Huh. Lucky break, I guess. Wait, would Kakashi really do something so stupid?

"Hey, Naruto, I wouldn't-" too late. Naruto lunges for the bell, and gets himself caught up in a trap.

I'm debating whether or not to cut him down, when a pink-haired figure creeps out of the bushes and darts over to him.

"Huh? Sakura?" Naruto and I say in sync, staring at her in surprise.

"Shush." She hisses, and uses a small knife to cut the rope holding him.

"Why're you helping me? I thought you didn't like me?" Naruto asks her in a whisper.

"I don't really, but I figured it out. We're a team, right? So we need to work as a team."

"But the bells-"

"The bells don't matter, stupid! Well, they do, sort of, they're meant to make it harder to work as a team." Sakura explains softly, and I sit up straighter. She's right!

"Huh?" Naruto blinks, cocking his head to the side.

"It's... It's like a trick question on a test. He's trying to fool us so we lose!"

"Ooh, I get it."

"Wait, where's Sasuke? Didn't you tell him?" I ask.

"I tried, but he wouldn't listen. He says he can do better on his own." Sakura tells us sadly. That jerk.

"You guys'll show him though, right?" I prod, trying to lift their spirits.

"Don't talk like you're not part of the team!" Naruto cries, jumping to his feet.

"Huh? But I'm not a shinobi." It's my turn to be confused, and I cock my head to the side.

"No, but you're the perfect bait." Sakura grins wolfishly.

A/N: let it be known that it is really hard to follow the original story without copying lines from the anime or manga. But I don't know, I think I did alright. Sakura's supposed to have gotten the highest academic scores out of all the girls, so I wanted to show her smarts in figuring this out. That, and I don't think she deserved to be as pathetic as Kishimoto made her out to be.
Ta-ta~