Kiyoko was bored. Really bored. She laid in her bed and stared at the ceiling. Since Naruto had been released a couple days ago, she had no one to talk to. As her body healed, Kiyoko became more restless every day. She wanted to get out and explore the town, meet the people, and search for clues as to where she came from.

"Oi, Kiyoko!" came a voice from the window, pulling her from her daydreams. It was Naruto, hanging upside-down and tapping on the glass for her to let him in. Kiyoko smiled widely and opened the window, relieved to have some company.

"Hey, Naruto. What's up?" she asked.

"Jiraiya-senin gave me the day off, so I thought I'd drop by," he answered.

"Well, I'm glad you did. It's so incredibly boring here," Kiyoko laughed. Naruto grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the door.

"Then let's go! I'll give you the official tour of Konoha," he said. Kiyoko wondered if he was always this hyperactive.

"I'm supposed to stay here, though," she pointed out.

"Don't worry, you'll be back before they even notice you're gone."

"Well, I have been wanting to explore the town a bit-"

"-Then it's decided, we're playing hookey!"


"And this is were they make the best Ramen in town," Naruto explained an hour later, insisting that they stop and eat there. This sure beats the hospital food, she thought. A girl about their age with light pink hair walked in. Naruto waved enthusiastically and called out, "Sakura-chan, come meet my new friend!"

"Congratulations, Naruto, you got a girl to talk to you," she smirked. "Hi, I'm Haruno Sakura. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Sakura-chan. I'm Kiyoko. Just Kiyoko."

"Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I helped her escape from the hospital," he whispered. Sakura raised and eyebrow in question. Kiyoko blushed and explained, "I needed to get outta there for awhile. I've been cooped up in there for over a week."

"She has imesia," Naruto added. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Amnesia, dobe. Not imesia. Well, I gotta go train with Tsunade-sama now. See you around, Kiyoko. Hope you're better soon."

"Arigato. Bye, Sakura-chan."

Naruto took her around town, showing her the ninja academy, the stone Hokage monument, and finally the training grounds. "This is where I spend most of the day training," Naruto explained proudly.

"Cool. Can you show me some of your moves?"

"Yeah, sure! I'll show you the easy stuff first," he said. "This is a kunai. You use it for throwing or just fighting."

He pointed to a series of targets nailed to some posts. "Watch this."

He threw one of his kunai and it hit the target near the middle. Then he took out two kunai and threw them at the same time, and only one missed the target. He took out three more.

"Betcha I can get three bulls eyes," he bragged. Kiyoko laughed and rolled her eyes. He threw them, but his aim was off. Two of them dug into the wood of the target, but the third ricocheted off and bounced back towards Naruto's head.

She didn't have time to think, her body reacted automatically. She leapt in front of her friend and snatched the weapon out of the air while doing a catlike twist to avoid landing on any sore parts of her body.

"Holy shit! How'd you do do that?! That was a totally ninja move!"

"I don't know," Kiyoko answered in amazement. She was as surprised as Naruto. "I just... did it. I didn't even think about it."

She thought for a moment. "Hey Naruto, let me see a few of those kunais."

He handed them to her with a questioning look. As she gripped the blade in her pale hand, she felt a sense of familiarity. Then all of a sudden, a single memory flashed through her like lightning. I'm a shinobi. She threw all five of the kunai Naruto had given her. They all hit the center of the target.

"Naruto," she said softly, then exclaimed "I'm a ninja! I remember!"

"Really? That's great! What else do you remember?"

"That's all I remember. I don't know what village I'm from or where I was trained, but I remember how to throw kunai and shuriken, mold chakra, and do jutsus too!" Kiyoko exclaimed happily. She had found a missing piece of herself. Suddenly inspired, she quickly formed a series of hand seals. She concentrated all her chakra into her right hand and slammed it down onto the ground, releasing all her chakra at once into the earth.

"Doton: Maruishi Tounyuu!" ('Earth Element: Boulder Throw')

Half-a-dozen or so basketball-sized boulders exploded from the ground. Kiyoko used her left hand to raise them up into the air and hold them there for a moment before releasing them at the targets. They hit in an explosion of dirt and gravel. When the dust cleared, Naruto was sitting on his ass on the ground, eyes wide in amazement.

"That...was...so...COOL!" he shouted. "That was the coolest earth jutsu I've ever seen!"

Kiyoko was silent. She just stared at the destroyed targets. Holy shit. Did I do that? That was definitely not a genin level technique. Where did I learn that?

"Kiyoko? Yoo-hoo, earth to Kiyoko," Naruto said, waving his hand in front of her face. She shook her head and looked up at Naruto with an innocent smile. "I sorta made a mess, didn't I?"

The targets were nothing but a pile of splintered wood, and the ground was torn up and littered with rock fragments. Both their faces and clothes were brown with earth, but Kiyoko couldn't help but feel pleased with the destruction before her. She felt powerful. She felt satisfied. She felt invincible."

"I've been looking all over for you," came the angry voice of Tsunade from behind her. She felt busted.

"Naruto, what did you do?" she demanded, indicating to the aftermath of Kiyoko's jutsu. Naruto shook his head vigorously and protested, "I didn't do this!"

"Then who did?" Tsunade asked, not believing him. Naruto opened his mouth and closed it, trying to think up an explanation so he didn't have to snitch on Kiyoko. "Well, uh, you see-"

"It was me," Kiyoko interjected, looking down at her feet. She explained to Tsunade what happened, and the Fifth Hokage smiled slightly when she finished. "I had been trying to find you so I could tell you that you're healed enough to be released from the hospital. My plan was to have you find a job so you could have something to occupy your time until your memories return. However, this is quite an advanced earth jutsu, at least C-rank. I think it would be better to place you on a team as an official shinobi of Konoha. Is this something you would be interested in?"

Kiyoko answered by tackling the fifth Hokage with a hug. "Thank you so much, Tsunade-sama! I won't let you down!"

"Okay, okay, enough of that," Tsunade laughed. "There's still a problem of housing. We're still in the process of rebuilding much of the town, so vacant apartments are in a bit of a short supply right now."

"She can stay with me!" Naruto exclaimed, wrapping his arm around Kiyoko's shoulder. He gave Tsunade an adorable, pleading look. The blonde senin thought for a moment. "Well, I don't see any harm in it. However, I will be sending someone to check up on you every once in a while."

"Yes!" shouted both youths at once.

"C'mon, let's go and get you moved in," Naruto suggested, and the two rushed off towards town. Tsunade smiled knowingly. If anyone can help you, Kiyoko, it's Naruto. He has a gift for helping people. She teleported away in a flash, leaving the empty training ground looking like a war zone.


"Is this where you live or where you empty your garbage?" Kiyoko asked, almost serious as she entered Naruto's apartment. There were scrolls littering the floor, shuriken scattered here and there, and even some stuck into the walls. Empty bowls, garbage, and god knows what else covered the room in a thick blanket.

"Heh-heh, both?" he laughed. "It's kinda messy, but it's still an apartment."

"Oh, is that what you call it?" she laughed. "So where do I sleep?"

"There's a guest room, but we'll have to clear all my junk out of it," he explained. Kiyoko nodded. "Well, it's noon right now. If we get started, we can probably get this place cleaned in time for dinner."

Ignoring Naruto's protests, Kiyoko set them to work cleaning. She was surprised when they finished in only a few hours. Then they celebrated by going out for ramen.

"Hey, Naruto," Kiyoko said. He looked up from his third bowl and replied, "Yeah?"

"I need clothes. I can't keep borrowing off you," she pointed out, indicating to the black shirt and bright orange pants she was wearing. The pants were a bit too big and looked horribly baggy on her thin figure. "Is there anywhere I can do some work for a bit of money?"

"You could try going around and see if anyone needs some help with some odd jobs or something. That's what I usually do," he suggested. Kiyoko nodded and got up, telling her friend that she'd be back home by dark, but not to wait up for her. She stopped at a few little shops, but none of them needed any help. Then she finally had some luck at a small flower shop.

"Hello, welcome to Yamanaka Flowers, what can I help you with?" asked a young blonde girl. Kiyoko walked up to the counter. "I was wondering if you needed a spare hand. I'm new in town, and I just got released from the hospital, so I need a job."

"Actually, you came at just the right time. My father and brother are off on a mission for two or three weeks, so we're a bit short here," she explained. "When can you start?"

"Right now, I guess. Arigato," Kiyoko answered, giving her a polite bow. Wow, that was easy.

"By the way, my name's Ino. Yamanaka Ino," she introduced herself.

"I'm Kiyoko. Just Kiyoko," she said. Ino was tempted to ask about her lack of family name, but didn't. She eyed the fresh scars and the somewhat painful, distant look in her eyes and shivered. This girl's had a hard life, if she doesn't want to tell me, I won't ask, she decided. "Okay, first off, I'll have you help me unload the new shipment of flowers."

Kiyoko was happy to have a fellow female to talk to as she worked. They discussed girl things like hair and makeup, plus shinobi stuff like how to do complicated jutsus without wasting your chakra. She slowly revealed to her new friend how she came to be in Konoha. Ino was good about not asking questions that she might not be able to answer, and Kiyoko was thankful.

"So, what kind of techniques do you use?" Kiyoko asked as they arranged flower pots for display. Ino wiped her hair from her face, smearing dirt across her forehead, before answering, "Well, I like to stick to the basic stuff. You know, just keep it simple. My clan has a specialty jutsu, though. It's called the 'Mind Switch Technique'. I can project my mind into my opponent's body."

"Wow, that's pretty sweet. I guess I have a knack for earth element jutsus. I remember how to do those, so I assume that's what I use the most," Kiyoko laughed. "Well, I have plenty of time to figure that out. Tsunade-sama is going to assign me to a team tomorrow. I can't wait to meet them."

"You'll have to let me know who you're with when you come in tomorrow," Ino stated. "It's about time to close up shop. After we're done here, we can take you shopping. Orange is definately not your color."

They both laughed, and Kiyoko agreed wholeheartedly. The orange made her pale skin look sickly. Ino brought her to a store called 'Shinobi Outfitting and Weaponry'. She explained that it was the perfect place to get clothes designed for ninjas, but still looked good. Inside, there was a girl of about fifteen hanging garments on racks. She had a Chinese style outfit with a pink top and green bottoms. Her dark hair was done up in two buns at the top of her head.

"Hey, Ino. You out of shuriken already?" she asked. Ino shook her head. "Hey, Tenten. This is Kiyoko. She needs clothes so she can give Naruto his ugly pants back."

Tenten took her measurements. "Okay, you're 5'1" and pretty thin, so we'll need to find something in a size small or extra-small. That would be these racks over here. The dressing rooms are back there. Call me if you need any help."

Ino helped Kiyoko sift through the possibilities. The only easy part was the standard fishnet undershirt; all she had to do was pick a size. Upon Ino's suggestion, Kiyoko tried on a pair of formfitting black pants. They went to just below her knees, and were a bit like leggings, but thicker. She brought them up to Tenten at the counter and asked her if she could help her find a top to go with it.

"What's your fighting style?"

"Huh?" Kiyoko didn't understand the relevance of the question. Tenten clarified. "Well, if you're a close range fighter, then you'll want something that will offer some protection against attacks. If you fight by hiding in the shadows and using genjutsu or other distance attacks, you'll want something that will blend in."

That made sense. "Well, I guess I would be mainly close to mid range. I use earth element jutsus, so that could be any range really."

"Well, then I would suggest something with some armoring to it, but doesn't restrict your movement," Tenten suggested. She went over to the rack and pulled out a green, sleeveless turtleneck vest. It resembled the chuunin vests she'd seen, but it wasn't nearly as bulky. It fit more like a shirt. Tenten explained that the front was made of a tougher material that was harder to pierce, but could still be penetrated fairly easily by a kunai. "It's mostly to cushion against taijutsu hits. It takes the edge off the attack, but it doesn't make you invincible by any means."

"I like it. What do you think, Ino?"

"You should get it. It looks great on you," she encouraged. Kiyoko brought it up to the front and paid for her new outfit. It used up her entire day's pay, but it came with a full weaponry set that included kunai, shuriken, smoke bombs, and exploding tags. When the two girls left, it was dark out so they each went home. Kiyoko showed Naruto her new clothes, fixed them a quick dinner, and then went to bed. As she laid in bed, Kiyoko smiled as she thought of what would be happening the next day. Tomorrow, I'll be an official ninja. I hope my team likes me.


Shiori's note: Here's some background info that might be helpful in understanding the story.

Extra info: This takes place in Konoha over a span of one year, starting somewhere in the beginning of the timeskip. Kiyoko is about 15 years old (her exact age is unknown), and Naruto and co are 14 (yes, I'm messing with their ages because I don't want to write a story about immature 12 year old brats). XOXO, M. Shiori

Next time: Chapter 3- Meet the Team