A walk in the park
Dimension hopping for the ill-prepared
CH 1: a walk in the park
I don’t think I will ever forget the day I met the 4 people who changed my life forever. Indeed, I know I won’t.
It was a normal summer day in late June, hot, humid, and sweltering. I of course loved it.
Living in Montana I took every chance I could to soak up as much of the sun’s rays as I possibly could before winter set in. Winters here in Bozeman were long and dark, with an average 8 hours of sunlight on the good days.
The cold, dark, and snowy climate often made me deeply regret my choice to move here from Hawaii three years ago.
The saving grace was the summers. Especially in the early summer when there could be 17 hours of sunlight a day. This fact I was currently taking complete advantage of, and hiking out into the forests of Gallatin National Forest to a favorite glade of mine to soak up the sunlight. Even better I had heard that the bear grass was blooming this year, and I wanted to see the white flowers that were supposed to be so beautiful.
Robins glade was a hour a ways from where I parked my car at a brisk walk, the perfect distance I thought to get the needed exercise I needed to keep myself in shape. Being a college student who has to sit around and read books all day while snacking was not conducive to the best of health and I liked to keep fit.
I pulled into the graveled parking lot at the end of a long windy dirt road before turning off my car. Getting my bag out of the back seat I double checked that everything I needed was inside.
3 water bottles, one completely frozen the others chilled, a towel for laying on when I sunbathed, a knife, Para cord, and a compass in case of an emergency, a book to read in the glade, keys, 5 snack bars and 2 pieces of fruit. I was set.
Heading out on the familiar trail I had found two years before that had quickly become my favorite.
I had been walking for no more than 5 minutes when I started to hear the sounds. A crash, a clang, voices on the wind. I picked up my pace. Hurrying as fast as I could over the rough terrain I turned a corner to see the most startling sight.
A circle was hanging in midair, rapidly shrinking. As the circle, which seemed to be acting like a window shrunk down smaller and smaller I noticed people lying on the ground beyond it.
Five people to be exact.
Gasping in worry I quickly hurried over, thanking my lucky stars that I had gone into nursing and not science like my mother wanted as I could plainly see that most of them appeared to be injured.
Rushing over yelled out “is everyone ok? Can everyone who can, stand up now and move over here to my left.”
No one stood up, they were all unconscious.
And that’s when I saw him, stuttering to a halt, my heart pounding in my chest.
That mask, those clothes, the headband, that HAIR. My mind was racing, my hands shaking; blood was rushing in my ears.
I don’t know how, couldn’t possibly guess. But, somehow, Hatake Kakashi was leaning up against that tree.