Fairy Tales From Around the World

Naruto and Naruko

Naruto used a small piece of bread he was given to make a path back to the little house, but little did he know that his plan was going to backfire, horribly. As the two sat down by another fire further in the forest this time, they fell asleep and by the time they woke up, the sun was almost completely under the horizon.

"Come on, Naruko. It's getting late," he said to his twin sister as they stood up.

"But how? You didn't leave any rocks on the path this time, did you?" Naruko asked.

"No, not this time, but don't worry about that. I left a trail of... Oh no!" Naruto gasped in shock as he looked back at the path.

"What is it?" Naruko looked at what her twin brother was seeing and she saw it. The path was bare and the bread crumbs were gone.

"The bread, no!"

"Oh no! The birds must've gotten the crumbs while we were sleeping! What'll we do, big brother? Now we can't find our way home. We're completely lost out here."

The twins slept on the cold, hard ground of the forest the entire night and in the morning, they were back on their way trying to get home again. But they were really hungry and they didn't have enough strength to keep going.

"Hey, what's that smell? Smells good," Naruko said with her nose high in the air.

"You're right. Smells finger-licking good. Wonder what it is," Naruto said sniffing the air as well.

"Come on! Let's check it out!"

The twins followed the smell further down the path and they soon came upon a house and their eyes widened in awe and surprise. This was no ordinary house. It was made entirely out of sweets! The walls were made out of gingerbread, the roof was made out of peanut brittle, the walkway was made out of rock candy, and so many more delicious things were seen all over the building along with a sweet aroma filling the twins' noses.

"Wow! Would you look at this?!" Naruko said as she ran toward the candy house. "I've never seen anything like it before. Have you, big brother?"

"Nope, never!" Naruto said as he joined his sister.

"Whose house do you think it is?"

"Who cares? It's food! I'm starving!"

"Aw, the heck with it! I'm hungry too!"

The twins were overcome with excitement when they saw it and they immediately started to eat parts of the house. Naruto was trying some of the roof while Naruko was eating part of the window pane.

"Taste good?" Naruko asked with her mouth full.

"Yeah! You?" Naruto answered after swallowing. "You bet your boots it does!"

"Nibble, nibble, like a mouse. Who is eating up my house?" A new voice said from inside.

The twins froze in place, unaware of where the voice came from or who it belonged to. Then, out of the candy-coated house, came a strange-looking woman with short light purple hair and eyes. Naruto and Naruko backed away from the stranger in fright. They didn't know what to expect from her.

"Hello, children," the woman said kindly.

"Oh, is this your house? We're really sorry to have disturbed you, ma'am," Naruko apologized.

"Not at all, not at all. Look at you, poor little children. You two are welcome to stay with me as long as you need to," the woman offered.

"What? Oh no, we couldn't. We don't want to impose," Naruko said.

"Oh no, no, no. Really, I insist. It's no problem at all. Come with me and I'll make you both something proper to eat," the woman said as she activated her magic, lifting the children off the ground and into her candy house.