Chapter One

Pain. All over. Everywhere. Consuming, ecompassing, unbearable pain. A gasp tears its way up her throat, creating a fiery path in its wake. She would scream, but she knows it won't help, knows it will make everything worse.

She tries to open her eyes and immediately clamps them again, shut tight. Somewhere in the back of her mind it registers that the lighting was dim, but it still burns her eyes, increasing the pain she can feel in every fiber of her being tenfold.

And yet… She knows she must open her eyes again. She's been lost to the darkness for too long all ready.

It's not so bright this time. She's been cast in shadow. Someone has come to stand over her, blocking her from the harsh light.

"Relax." The voice is calm and commanding.

And she listens. Her shuddering body stills, and she is lost to unconsciousness once more.

…

It's a strange, unfitting combination of sounds that wakes her next. She can hear birds chirping, but this is mere background noise. What really catches her attention is the shouting from the next room over.

"Would you stop nagging me, woman? I'm trying to work."

"You're not working! You're writing! Anyone can write! I can write! As a matter of fact, I've written a song! It's called I can't support my family writing porn so I should get off my fat ass and go get a real job!"

"Well maybe we'd have extra money if you didn't spend it all on booze!"

"Shut up! You'll wake my patient!"

"Too late."

The door swings open revealing two people, a man and a woman. She could recognize that they were both older, past middle-aged. However, if the conversation they'd just been having was anything to judge them by, they weren't lacking in the energy department.

The woman had brown eyes and long blond hair that was pulled back into two loose pigtails. She wore black heels that emphasized her already tall stature and a green kimono-like jacket over a gray blouse that showed off her ample chest.

The man had even longer, spiky white hair. He was also quite large, but certainly not fat as the woman's words had suggested. He had drawn thin lines from the bottoms of his eye sockets down his cheeks in red paint.

"Good, you're awake," the woman says, sounding much calmer than she had expected. She comes closer and looks her up and down. "And you look much better than you did yesterday."

She struggles to sit up, but falls back down before the woman's hand can restrain her. She's aware of a burning that seems to come from every pore in her body, though the pain is much duller than it was the last time she was awake. They notice her wince.

"I wouldn't move for a while," the man suggests. "Tsunade here's got you doped up on just about every painkiller I can think of, but I'm sure it still hurts quite a bit."

"I'm Tsunade," the woman introduces herself unnecessarily, "and this is Jiraiya."

She tries to nod, but that sends another inferno rushing down her spine with renewed vigor and they notice her grimace.

"We'll let you rest in a minute," Tsunade promises, "but first, it'd be nice to know the identity of my patient."

She opens her mouth to speak, pauses a second, then closes it. She has surprised herself by how calm she's felt through the parts of this whole ordeal that she's been so far awake for, but now panic floods her brain. What is her name? She should know that. She begins to search inside herself for other things she should know. Who are her parents? Her best friend? What's her favorite food? Her favorite color?

She swallows, takes a deep breath, and fights down the alarm. She remembers Tsunade's words from before and tries to relax. Slowly but surely, one word comes to her through the darkness.

"Hinata," she answers, still not as confidently as she would have liked. "My name is Hinata"

"And… do you have a surname?" Jiraiya questions, having noticed her hesitation.

Unexpectedly, her eyes fill with tears. "I don't know."

Review please!

I don't own Naruto!

I probably should have explained this beforehand, but this is an AU…