I don't think there is any way to explain what I felt when I woke up. I knew nothing of my past -- not my name, how old I am, what my favorite color is; nothing. My first memory, I remember seeing a lot of white, and very few furniture. Voices were traded back and forth from either side of me, discussing things I couldn't make any sense of. I remember a soothing voice asking if I remembered anything before they found me, supposedly outside their village, unconscious. All I could give him was a shake of the head, yet it felt like my head knew more than it was letting on.

I didn't know whether to be scared, confused, or relieved. Everything seemed so strange… A few days rolled by, and I learned that I was in something called 'The Konoha Hospital' in a village called 'Hidden in the Leaves;' whatever that means. That same voice from before I finally matched to a face of an elderly man with a rather interesting ceremonial hat on his head. He introduced himself as Sarutobi Sandaime and a strange word: the Third Hokage. I realized that Sarutobi liked to visit me a lot, and just talk. Not about what I can remember— that was the medics' job— but just of his day and what he learned. I began to feel comfortable around him and decided to find my voice…

Every morning, around ten o'clock or so, that same creek of a sound from the bedroom door sounded and in walked Sarutobi. And, like always, I'd be sitting in the hospital bed, the blankets askew around my knees staring at him. He'd smile, the wrinkles around his eyes curving as he removed his ceremonial hat and sat himself down at my side. I wanted to smile back, but I couldn't will the muscles in my face to go through with it.

"Good morning, did you sleep okay last night?" I nodded, keeping my dark eyes locked onto his friendly face. "I think, right about now, the students in the Academy are finishing up their exam. I wished them all luck before hand; I just hope it was enough," he chuckled to himself, yet I stayed silent, watching, listening.

Sarutobi studied me a moment then to my surprise got to his feet and made his way around the opposite side of my bed, blocking my view of the window. He was quiet for a while and I knew he was going over many thoughts in his head, but what? I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask why, how, when, I wanted to ask him what it's like to have the weight of an entire village on his shoulders with a smile like that. I had so many questions, like a newborn baby.

"I gave it a lot of thought, and I think I've come up with the right one," he said aloud after a long silence, gently lacing his aged fingers behind his back. I was a little confused, what did he come up with? As if to answer, he turned around to face me, smiling. "Do you like the name Memori?"

I blinked, the confused emotion filling my blank eyes for the first time. This only made Sarutobi laugh. "It simply means 'memory,'" he explained. "I thought it suited you, at least until you recover your real name."

I shifted my gaze down to my lap, going over the name in my head. Memori… Meh-more-e. I suddenly felt overwhelmed with an emotion I wasn't used to. I had a name, and my mind didn't feel so lost all of a sudden. Like the moment that name entered my thoughts, I grasped onto it, the only thing I knew. I was happy, no, I was ecstatic.

"Thank you… Sarutobi-samma," my voice was small, but held a strong tone.

Sarutobi seemed a bit surprised at the sudden sound of my voice but it was quickly replaced with a fatherly smile, one that he most likely used all the time. "Your welcome, Memori."

In the same instant, my face suddenly remembered how to smile and it felt so nice that I even pulled out a grin that curved up into my eyes. Sarutobi… I wondered if my own father was anything like him, if so, I must have been a lucky kid.