Chapter 1

I woke with a groan at the crack of freaking dawn.

My whole body ached, and I had absolutely no idea what had happened to land me in this pained state.

Come to think of it, I didn't remember anything at all. Not my age, where I was from, what I looked like... Not even my own name.

I sat bolt upright when I realized this, letting out what seemed to be a mix of a scream and a growl when pain tore mercilessly through my abdomen.

"Son of a bitch," I snarled, clutching my stomach and waiting for the pain to pass.

Once it had, I began to look around the room.

I was laying on a nice, big bed in a tidy apartment.

I had absolutely no idea where I was, or how I had gotten there, or, if we were having a question-fest, why I was there.

I caught sight of the door that was located right across from the foot of the bed and immediately got up, ignoring the pain that was assaulting my legs and stomach.

I staggered through the door and found myself in a small bathroom. I wanted to at least know what the hell I looked like.

Once I was standing still and no longer in so much pain, I peered into the mirror above the sink, leaning on the sink itself in an attempt to keep myself standing.

The woman I saw looking back at me seemed to be about twenty-five or so. She had this tough look about her that, for some odd reason, gave me the impression that she was an orphan, and had had a rough life. Her waist-length blonde hair was a mess, probably because she had just gotten out of bed, and her gorgeous golden eyes held confusion as well as a strange glint that said 'Mess with me and you'll be picking your teeth up off the floor.' It was that whole badass orphan thing again.

I cocked my head and the woman in the mirror did the same. "Maybe I really am an orphan or something..." I shrugged. "Who knows? I should probably attempt to find my name out, first." I jumped when I heard a man's voice.

"Yes. That'd be a good idea."

I spun to face the person who had spoken and came face-to-face with a silver-haired man. All I could see of his face was his right eye due to the fact that a mask and Leaf headband were hiding the rest of his features.

"Who the hell are you?" I noticed that my voice was a bit hoarse, so I added, "And why the hell do I hurt all over?!"

"I'm Kakashi Hatake, and it's probably because someone tried to kill you. I'm not really sure what happened to you, but I found you laying in the middle of the forest just outside the village, badly injured and unconsciousness," the man explained with a shrug.

"Oh. Does that mean you don't know who I am, either?"

"You don't know who you are?"

"Nope. I also don't know where I am."

"Well, you're in my apartment in Konoha."

"Oh." I cocked my head, wondering why the village's name sounded familiar to me. "Okay."

We were both silent for a moment, just staring at each other, then he said, "I think I'm going to go buy you some clothes. I don't think any of mine will actually fit you." When a look of confusion appeared on my face, Kakashi cleared his throat and tilted his head toward my chest before rushing out of the room.

I soon heard another door close, but I was too busy looking down at myself to notice.

"Pervert," I muttered, staring down at my slightly-larger-than-normal breasts. "My boobs aren't that big." I then realized I was clad in nothing but my white underwear and some bandages and blushed. "Oh, great. A pervert saved my life." I limped out the bathroom door and mumbled, "Well, at least he covered my chest with those bandages instead of just leaving me all...naked..."

I flopped on the bed, only to utter another soft scream of pain when my back met the soft surface. I just waited for the pain to pass, then eventually fell asleep.

I awoke a while later to what was presumably the sound of Kakashi entering the tiny second-floor apartment.

I kept my eyes closed, so Kakashi, probably thinking I was still asleep, tried to be a bit more quiet.

I realized he was being quiet just so he could sneak up on me a moment too late.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his masked mouth right by my ear.

I screamed and rolled off the bed, letting out another, slightly quieter scream when I hit the floor at Kakashi's feet.

The man cringed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make you do that."

I slowly got to my knees, gritting my teeth. "It's fine."

"But seriously, how are you feeling?" Kakashi questioned again as he helped me back onto the bed.

"I was feeling fine until you made me fall off of the bed." I glared at him, but the pain in my gold eyes was hiding most of the look's intended anger.

"I already said I was sorry," the silver-haired ninja sighed. When I didn't reply, he said, "Well, I bought you some clothes." He handed me a bag, which I carefully set on my lap.

"Thanks. You seem to have gotten everything in the right size." I blushed the slightest bit when I caught sight of the bras mixed in with the other clothing in the large bag and repeated, "Everything..."

"That's good," Kakashi replied calmly, apparently missing my reddening cheeks. "You should probably get dressed, then. We have places to go."

"We? Where the hell would I have to go?"

"I have to go train my team in a few minutes, and I don't think it would be wise to leave you alone for that long. Besides, I want to test you to see whether you're a ninja or not. You didn't have a headband or any weapons with you when I found you."

"Oh." I got to my feet with my bag of clothes in hand. "Alright."

Twenty minutes later, I was standing nervously before a group of three kids, wearing a pair of strappy black sandals, a pair of tight white capris, and an equally tight sky blue T-shirt.

One of the children, a blond, seemed to be having way too much fun yelling at Kakashi for being late again. Another, a pink-haired girl, was trying to make the blond believe Kakashi's excuse of, "I had to help save a woman's life this morning" by getting him to notice me, after fawning over the third member of this little team of misfits, of course. The black-haired boy ignored the girl and studied me without a word.

Once the group had everything all straightened out, Kakashi said, "This is the girl I saved."

"What's her name?" that annoying blond boy asked.

"She can't remember it because she's an amnesiac," Kakashi stated with a sigh.

"Oh. What are we gonna call her, then?" Blondie questioned.

The older man cocked his head thoughtfully. "I'm not sure." He glanced at me. "What do you want to be called until you remember your real name?"

I shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. Just pick a random name."

"Alright. Does Keiko work?"

"Sure," I answered with a nod.

Kakashi turned back to his students and said, "Keiko."

"Okay!" The blond rushed over to me. "Hi, Keiko! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be Hokage someday!"

"Um... I'm very happy for you, Naruto," I said, looking down at the hyperactive bastard with my pale eyebrows raised.

When it looked like the boy was going to start rambling or something, the pink-haired girl hit him over the head and shouted, "Leave her alone, Naruto!" After glaring at the blond boy for a few more moments, she looked at me with a smile. "Sorry about my annoying teammate's...annoyingness. I'm Sakura Haruno, and this is Sasuke Uchiha."

My expression became one of confusion as I studied the black-haired shinobi that had just been introduced. "Sasuke Uchiha..." I murmured to myself, now focusing on the ground. "Why does that sound so familiar?"

Cold red and black Sharingan eyes flashed through my mind as the words, "Avoid my younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha, at all costs. I wouldn't want you killing him before I've had the chance to do so," echoed inside my head. I stumbled back as these words were followed by, "Your mission is to-"

The memory stopped when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you all right?" Kakashi asked softly, looking concerned as I put a hand to my head.

"Yeah," I whispered in reply, unable to speak any louder. "I'm fine. Just a little headache."

"Do you think your headache will effect your fighting abilities at all?"

"My fighting abilities?" I asked, looking at the masked man while my voice went back to its normal volume, although it was still a little bit hoarse. "Do I even have any of those?"

"We'll find out." The smile I could see through that damned mask made me feel uneasy. His gaze wandered back to the three genin he called his team. "Attack her, but go easy on her until she seems to be able to fight. If she ever gets to that point, anyway." That being said, he stepped away, his hand falling from my shoulder, leaving me as an easy target for a few young shinobi.

The children eyed me like I was no more than fresh meat, then lunged at me with kunai in hand.

I screamed like a scared little girl as I turn and ran for the cover of the surrounding trees.

A kunai grazed the side of my leg suddenly, and I stumbled, but kept running, anyway.

"Hey!" I called to the silent forest, the trees of which were now hiding the three kids from view. "That's not nice."

A few shuriken careening toward my face were all I got in response to my words.

"Little bastards," I growled while instinctively sidestepping the weapons with ease. "Huh... Maybe I am a ninja..." I began running again, reaching back and catching a kunai that was headed for my skull with that same instinctive ease.

Still armed with that single kunai knife, I gracefully leapt up onto a tree branch and began jumping from tree to tree.

Next thing I knew, I was spinning around and blocking the sandal-clad foot of Mr. Uzumaki. The force of the blocked attack knocked me off of the tree branch, but I easily back-flipped in the air and landed on my feet. A looked up and found Naruto hurtling toward me, a single kunai prepared to collide with my face.

I blocked the weapon with my own kunai, then shoved the blond genin back with more strength than I knew I had before delivering a nice roundhouse kick to the poor guy's face. His back hit a tree way harder than I thought it would, then he fell to the ground, unconscious.

I cringed. "Oopsies." I didn't have much time to feel guilty about knocking Naruto out, though. I found myself blocking a punch from Sasuke before I even knew what I was doing.

While I shoved him back a few feet, Sakura came at me from the side, hands gripping several pointy kunai. A powerful kick to the stomach knocked her on her ass pretty damn easily.

She sat up slowly, trying to catch her breath while watching Sasuke charge at me, performing hand signs the entire time.

He slid to a stop a couple of feet away from me and yelled something containing the words "Fire Style." I was too busy preparing to block the fire I knew was coming to hear the Uchiha's exact words.

When the flames cleared and Sasuke expected to see a charred corpse, I was nowhere to be found.

My shout of, "Ha ha! Suckers!" gave me away, though, as I jumped off of a tree branch behind the black-haired boy, performing hand signs I didn't even know for reasons I didn't know.

I figured it out when I hit the ground with lightning-like sparks of electricity dancing around my fair-skinned hands, one simple sentence flashing through my mind: "Lightning Summoner Technique."

Blocking the punch I had aimed at his face did no good, seeing as the electricity crackling around my clenched fist simply raced up his arm, anyway. He cried out as the shocks just kept coming, running along his entire body until he collapsed, unconscious like his dumb, blond teammate.

That left only Sakura to fight me.

Her green eyes widened, following the electricity that danced around my hands, now flowing up my arms and illuminating the sudden dangerous look I had in my gold eyes.

I was about to lunge at her when I gasped, staggering back. The chakra making up the lightning crackled gradually out of existence and that hint of deadly psychoticness left my eyes. I sank to my knees, panting.

"What the hell?" I rasped, my voice even more hoarse now. "How did I do that? What exactly did I do? Why did I... Why did I..." I couldn't say it out loud, so I finished it mentally instead. Why did I want to kill her?

I felt Kakashi's presence at my side a few seconds later, but I didn't dare look at him, fearing that my eyes might still hold that twisted expression I had felt filling them earlier.

"Keiko, are you all right?" he asked gently, apparently having missed my look of murderous intent.

"Yeah. I'm...I'm fine," I lied, gazing down at one of my trembling hands.

"Okay. That's enough for today, guys," Kakashi said, looking around at his three students, all of whom seemed to be at least partially conscious now. "You're dismissed."

The children scattered like I was going to suddenly try to eat them or something.

Kakashi ignored their obviously too speedy retreat and turned his attention back to me. "Let's get you something to eat. You're probably hungry now, and your wounds are more than likely hurting again." He helped me to my feet, unaware of just how right he was.