A sound. Muscles tensed. 'What is that?' He asked himself, with a frown. The sound came again, like thrashing in the bushes. And then a girl emerged, drenched in blood. His eye widened slightly at the many cuts in her clothing, and the crimson liquid seeping through them.
"Hello?" He called, as she swayed on the spot, falling to her knees. He loped over to her, abandoning the place where he had hidden after hearing her the first time. As he knelt down beside her, her shocking, almost luminescent, silvery-white eyes focused on him for the first time. Blood was dripping into one of them, and she kept blinking, as if to clear it.
"H…he…sur-survived. I am sorry. Or—" But she didn't get to finish her sentence, her eyes drooping closed as she passed out.
He had no idea what she was talking about, but dismissed it. She was probably delusional from blood loss. He slid his arms under her limp form, gently lifting her up. He had better take her to be seen by medical nin. And with that he ran back to the village hidden in the leaves.
--
I slowly opened my eyes, my body tensed for what would come. I had lost. I knew that much, I didn't know /what/ I had lost. I didn't know where I was, or how I had gotten there. How strange.
"Ah, you're awake now!" A girl bustled forward, giving me a welcoming smile. How long had I been asleep? /Why/ had I been asleep for so long? I looked around the small room, taking note of the soft cream walls, easy on the eyes, and the simple table beside me.
"Where am I? How did I get here?" The questions burst from my lips before I could stop them, the tone panicky. But I was safe, wasn't I? I thought I was, but the adrenaline rushing suddenly through my veins had different ideas. I sat up quickly, and felt slightly dizzy in doing so. Ugh.
The girl pushed me gently back down onto the bed, with a slight frown replacing the smile. "You are in the hospital, of course. And a man brought you in, because you were injured." Well, why else would I be in a hospital? But why had I been injured? I didn't remember being in a fight…
Slowly this time, I brought myself to sit, pushing the hands of the helpful nurse, at least I supposed she must be a nurse, away. The cream colored walls stayed where they were, no spinning. "Okay…" I bit my lip lightly before continuing. "Umm… how long have I been here? And /where/ is this hospital?" I could hear the barely suppressed nervousness in my voice, but hoped she hadn't noticed it.
"You have been here for two days, we had to sedate you while your wounds began healing. You have a surprising rate of healing, though, unlike anything we've ever seen. You are extremely lucky, though, even with that. Without Lady Tsuna—"
I cut across her smoothly, not particularly caring if she thought me rude. "You didn't answer my second question: /where/ is this hospital?" Now instead of feeling on edge I just felt annoyed. I still didn't know why I was here, or where here was. Usually people remembered being injured enough to be brought to a hospital…
"Oh, in the Hidden Leaf Village." She told me, taken aback by my brusque manner. She would get over it. I remembered vaguely hearing of the Leaf village, sometime in the distant past. I was from…. Oh. Where was I from?! Suna? No… Surely not Konoha… The adrenaline came back, my heart pounding in my chest, as I began to hyperventilate. "Are you okay?" The nurse asked nervously, her hands flitting around uselessly. I struggled to control my breathing, at least, but my heart continued to pump the adrenaline through my veins.
"Fine. I'm fine." I replied, my voice shaking slightly. I took a deep breath, my heart quieting slightly. That was embarrassing, especially since the beeping machines beside my bed that I had neglected to notice at first, were beeping alarmingly fast. Luckily, it soon slowed to a normal pace as I took deep breaths.
There was a soft knock on the door, and my body tensed once more, as the nurse walked over to open it. "Hello." He called, walking in to my room, grinning.
"Umm… Hello. Who are you?" My brain was on information overload. I didn't know where I came from. I didn't know why I was here. I wasn't completely sure where /here/ was, even with the name. I was in a hospital. And now some stranger had come to see me. Should I recognize him? I didn't think so.
He chuckled, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms. "I am Hatake Kakashi. Who, may I ask, are you?"
I paused, in the act of opening my mouth to reply. My name. What was my name?! Kasumi? No. Was that… a friend? I had no idea, but that wasn't what people had called me. "I… I don't know." I felt shameful, admitting to this weakness. My only consolation was that it wasn't my fault. I didn't think. Yeah, it wasn't a very good excuse.
His smile vanished, replaced by bewildered curiosity. "Really? That's strange. What were you mumbling about, when I found you, about someone surviving, if you remember?"
I frowned slightly, thinking hard. I didn't remember anything. Except the general things that you learn no matter who you are. Like what a hospital is, and things like that. Well, and shadows of what I /thought/ I was called, but couldn't be sure. It frustrated and frightened me, this lack of memory. "I have no idea."
"Huh, well maybe it'll come back to you with your name." For some reason this didn't seem to bother him too much, as if he hadn't expected more than that. "I am the one who found you, if you haven't guessed."
This immediately put my back up, and my reply was perhaps more scathing than it needed to be. "I'm not a baka, of /course/ I figured that out. That's like asking me if I had figured out if one plus one equals two yet." I scowled, folding my arms across my chest.
He put his hands up in a peacemaking gesture, the smile back on his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."
"Fine." I hated to
note that my voice sounded pouty. Was I usually pouty? Right, because
I knew, sad as that was. But I really hoped I wasn't usually prone
to that sort of thing. I let my arms fall to my side. "When can I
leave? Today, hopefully?" I asked, bringing my tone back to
neutral. The nurse looked a bit nervous. "Oh come on!" I was
back to angry. "I'm fine." To prove my point I swung my legs
over the edge of the bed and stood up. Nothing happened. Once again
the walls stayed where they were supposed to. "See?
I asked
scathingly.
"Well I suppose…" She said, still not quite sure about it. I would have to jump on it before she changed her mind.
"Great! Where are my clothes?" What ever my clothes were, I wasn't about to walk out of there in a hospital gown.
Kakashi was the one who answered me, surprisingly enough. "We have clothes you can borrow until you get your own, as your original clothes were destroyed when we brought you in. And before we let you walk out of here we'll have to do an assessment." Assessment? I had no idea what that was. Luckily, he seemed to realize this before I had to look like an idiot. "To see if you have any ninja training. And then, if you don't you are free to leave and… wander, as I assume you don't know where you came from. If you /do/ though, we would like you to join us. Of course, we would have to be sure of your allegiance first."
Okay, so no clothes. Not a big deal. But the assessment sounded like a /very/ big deal. Especially since I doubted I had any ninja training, so I was likely to fall flat on my face. Great. "What? Even if I /did/ have training, how am I supposed to know? You know, since I don't remember /anything/!" I wasn't sure if he was aware of the extent of my memory loss, but now he most definitely was. Oh well.
"Muscle memory," he explained simply. "If you had any training your body would remember it, even if your mind doesn't it. Would you like your clothes now? That's why I came…" He held out a bag to me, which I took cautiously. Hopefully he didn't pick it out. I had a feeling that he might not have exactly gotten anything I wanted to wear. "I'll leave you to change now, meet me outside." And with that, and a little wave, he walked out the door leaving the nurse and me alone.
"I'll give you some privacy and check you out," she said with another friendly smile, before scurrying out of the room. Okay, whatever. I looked into the bag, and didn't exactly like what I saw.
There was tight black leather pants of what I assumed was a cotton material, as they were very light, that didn't exactly look like I would be able to move properly in them. Maybe they /wanted/ me to look like an imbecile. The next thing I pulled out was a tight black T-shirt of the same material as the pants. After that came a pouch. For kunai and shuriken? Apparently so. Lastly, I pulled out the traditional shinobi sandals in black. Wow, like black much?
I put the pants and shirt on, surprised to find that they actually moved with me perfectly for being so tight. After that I put on the sandals, and put the pouch on my right leg. I don't know what made me put it on that side, but it's not like I was going to use it anyway.
Conveniently, there was a large mirror on the other side of the table and I walked over ot this, apprehensive. Surely I was going to look like I got dressed in the dark. Or not. I stared at myself, my mouth open slightly. I had long, glossy, mahogany-colored hair that fell to mid-back. My eyes were a light golden with flecks of purple in them. I had skin that appeared sun-darkened, with calluses I only now noticed, on my hands. It was like I was looking at myself for the first time, which I guess was a good description. Then suddenly it hit me. "Naomi!" I shouted gleefully. At least I knew my name now. How I knew, I didn't know, but I wasn't going to complain.
With that comforting thought, I walked out of the room and into my new life.