~~Chapter Two~~

I climb the tree and reach the top in no time. Tree climbing is fun. Hehehe.

When I stick my head out the leaves on top, my eyes widen in surprise. I was actually right. I can see Konoha from here, and it’s not even that far away. A one hour walk, I think… I jump down and run to my friends.

"I was right, I was right!! I saw Konoha! It looks awesome… But anyway, it’s only a one hour walk, I think… Shall we start?" I grin at them, and then turn around. I start hopping in the direction of Konoha, still singing.

"Can you please sing something we all know, if you have to sing at all? Preferably NOT Japanese." I hear in his voice that he saw through my plan of singing a Japanese song I made them listen sometime. Damn.

Instead I ignore him and keep singing.

After a quarter of an hour I climb another tree, to be certain we’re still going in the right direction. Luckily, we are. We walk for another quarter of an hour I’m wondering why no one has come to us yet… someone should be able to sense us, right?

At that moment I hear a rustle and someone, or something, jumps from the tree three meters away from our group.

It’s really fast, it’s actually a blur. When it stops moving, I see it is a man.

With a jolt I realize I know him from the series. "Hagane Kotetsu!" When he stares at me with a blank expression, I realize I said that out loud. Damn.

"Who are you, and why do you know my name?" He demands. He glares at me, which isn’t really that impressive with that weird strip of cloth over his face.

"We are… travelers, you could say… As to how I know your name, I won’t answer that." He glares again.

"And why won’t you answer it?"

"Because you won’t believe me… so I won’t tell." I grin at him. Then I look back at my friends, who are being much too quiet. Normally they just won’t shut up, and now they’re… creepy.

"Then I have no choice, I’ll have to take you to the Hokage."

"Really? That’s awesome… I really wanna meet Old Man Sarutobi…" Kotetsu looks surprised for a moment, and then goes back to glaring.

"Are you going to follow me obediently, or do I have to take you by force? You can choose." His gaze only goes to me. Looks like the others don’t look dangerous, or capable of running away… Hehehe.

"We’ll just follow… I swear." I smile at him, trying to look trustworthy.

Looks like it works, because Kotetsu turns around and starts walking. After a few seconds he glances over his shoulder, but only to see us following him. When he turns back, I notice his spiky hair looks weird from the back, like a weird porcupine, or something like that.

I laugh, and immediately he whirls around. That makes me laugh even more, and I clutch at my stomach. I have laughed too much today… it hurts.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Your head looks like a porcupine from the back! It's funny." I grin again.

"What did you say, you little…" His hands clench into fists at his side. "Well, whatever… but don’t try anything funny!" he turns back again, clenching and unclenching his fists again and again.

"Teehee…"

"You know, you are actually right… he really looks like a porcupine…" Jolien whispers into my ear. I snicker.

"No whispering!"

"Hai hai…"

Half an hour later we stand at the gates of Konohagakure.

"Wow, those gates are bigger than I expected… They’re HUGE…" I whistle.

Kotetsu doesn’t react, but walks right ahead. Then he goes to a little guard house thingy on the side of the road. We follow him.

"I found these kids in the woods, and they refuse to answer any questions. Say they’re travellers. So I’m bringing them to Lord Hokage." The other ninjas in the guard house thingy nod, and we walk on.

"Dyonne… what are those? Are those faces?" I hear Schelte whispering. I look at him, and see he’s pointing at the rock wall with the carvings of the heads of the Hokages.

"Yeah…"

"Why is there bright paint on them? It doesn’t look like that’s part of the statues…"

I look harder, and see he’s right. I also see a small orange figure hanging in front of the head of the First. It’s not hard to guess who it is.

"Ehm… Kotetsu…?"

He turns around. "Yeah?" Then annoyance spreads across his face when he remembers he has never actually told us his name.

"I think someone is painting on the statues of the Hokages." I say matter-of-factly.

His head snaps up, and he growls. "Narutooooo…..!!"

I chuckle. Then I hear whispering behind me again.

"Naruto? Wasn’t that the name of the anime?" Judith asks.

"Shh… I don’t think they know they are in an anime… But yeah, the main character is also called Naruto."

"That’s weird."

"I know."