Ryuna's eyes opened to a dark and cracked ceiling. She looked down and saw that she was tucked tightly into a tiny bed with a smelly sheet. A blanket of stars against a night sky greeted her view as she looked to the broken window next to her. Ryuna turned her head the other way to take in the setting and spied another person in the room. She groaned as she rubbed her sore and blurry eyes.

"Did you have a nice nap?"

"Who… are you?" Ryuna's eyes struggled to adjust to the dim lighting.

"Kimimaro. I am the reason that you didn't bleed to your death earlier."

Ryuna blinked several times in an attempt to see who was talking to her. Her eyes widened as they finally made out the figure on the other side of the room.

"I-it's you!" Ryuna gasped, "From the tea house!"

"Good to see that your damaged head didn't mess with your memories."

"Damaged… head? How dare you call me that! Y-your head is the one that's damaged!" Ryuna was still not aware of her situation and fixed Kimimaro with an angry stare.

"Take a good look at it and see for yourself," Kimimaro moved towards the bed and threw her a mirror from the bedside table.

Ryuna carefully held up the dangerously jagged bare piece of reflecting glass. The sight of her bandaged head triggered her realization of what had happened before her consciousness was cut short. This caused her to grab the mirror tighter until blood was poked from her fingers.

"I… I was being lectured by Kyo like always… I was expecting the usual slap, but what I wasn't expecting was the falling. Maybe he hit me too harshly this time, or was it because body finally got the best of me?"

At this point Ryuna's hand holding the mirror was beginning to shake as blood leaked from where her fingers were being pricked by the sharp glass. Kimimaro saw this and took away the mirror before she could do even more damage.

"Don't worry about me," Ryuna said, "I'm already thankful to you for saving my life."

She looked back to her hand as the blood took the same strange, unnatural form from earlier and was being coaxed back into where her fingers where cut. The injuries were then sealed completely, as if the bleeding from a moment ago was just an illusion.

"It's disgusting, isn't it?" Ryuna pondered with a sad smile, "Everyone thinks it is."

Kimimaro did not reply to this.

"Anyway, I can't recall much of what happened after I fell. I just remember this very loud shattering noise before I fainted," Ryuna looked at Kimimaro and said, "Sorry, but do you mind giving me a recap of what I missed when I was out cold?"

Kimimaro quickly ran down the events after Ryuna lost consciousness, including the reappearance of her split personality.

"So you've already seen my ability to manipulate my own blood," Ryuna said, "No wonder you didn't react at all when I healed the cuts on my hand unlike everyone else, although I didn't really expect you to, anyway."

Kimimaro just looked at her.

"Stop giving that silent I'm-cooler-than-you-and-I-know-it look! I-it's creepy," Ryuna commented, "Besides, aren't you supposed to be somewhere else by now? You don't look like you're from here or someone who would stick around a random village too much."

"That is not of your concern."

"Then why did you take the time to save me? You don't look like you're the kind to go out of their way to help others."

"That is true, but I do not like it when I hurt someone that I was not ordered to."

"My accident had nothing to do with you! It was my own fault that I got hurt," Ryuna could not understand the man standing next to her one bit.

"I had the power to stop you before you spilled that tea everywhere, but I didn't."

"I would have gotten lectured just the same either way! Even if I didn't collapse on that shelf today, I'd get into some kind of serious accident eventually. B-but thank you for taking care of me," Ryuna blushed, "I really appreciate it."

"Thank your village's infirmary, not me," Kimimaro explained, "I just brought you here."

"A h-hospital?! But isn't that really expensive? I don't have that kind of money to pay you back!" Ryuna looked like she was about to cry.

"Don't worry about it; I've got it covered."

"A-are you sure? I'm willing to work twice as hard to pay you back, although I rarely am accepted a—" Ryuna broke off in the middle of her sentence as she suddenly grabbed her forehead with both hands and made a choking sound halfway between a scream and a growl.

"Are you alright?" Without moving, Kimimaro looked at her with an emotionless stare that an observer would have mistaken as concern.

"Sh-she's c-coming back… I-I don't want her… to t-take over" Ryuna's back arched off the bed as she struggled to keep her other personality at bay.

Kimimaro was just about to step in when her agonizing battle abruptly ceased.

With her hands still covering her forehead and eyes, Ryuna's face slowly upturned into a sly grin.

She rose up to a sitting position and twisted to face Kimimaro.

"Oh," she said in a flat tone, "It's you again."

"You could at least show a little bit of gratitude to your savior."

"I really could care less. I've told you before and I'll tell you again; I'm not as weak as the brat that tries so hard to keep me suffocated inside her," Ryuna fixed Kimimaro with a death glare, "Don't play with me as you do with her, or you might just regret it."

"Now don't get too testy," Kimimaro returned her glare, "At least your twin doesn't have a rotten temper like yours."

Faster than Kimimaro would never have predicted from her, Ryuna was right beside him in a split second. The bed sheets hardly rustled in her abandonment of them. Not only that, but she had a thin and sharp blade transformed from her blood pressed against his neck.

"I won't allow you to talk of me like that," Ryuna said through gritted teeth, "She is not my twin and never will be. Don't you ever dare underestimate me."

"I never said I underestimated you," Kimimaro replied with a smirk, even though he was indeed surprised by her ability.

"Good, now get me out of—" a soft gasp severed her voice as Ryuna suddenly dropped the blood-dagger began to fall forward.

Kimimaro extended an arm and caught her before she could reach the floor.

"P-pervert…" Ryuna spluttered, "Don't touch me…"

Kimimaro granted her wish and let her crumble to the cracked tiles on the floor.

"Why does she... fight me so hard…" Ryuna's voice came out in heavy rasps, "Can't she tell that I'm… trying to protect her…"

The blade on the floor shifted into several abnormal streams of blood as it was summoned back into the palm of her hand.

Seeing that Ryuna has complete passed out, Kimimaro picked her up and laid her back on the bed.

Kimimaro stood and stared at Ryuna's sleeping form while his mind began to speculate the cause behind her identity disorder. He remembered a conversation Kabuto once had with his still bed-ridden body one day while doing some checkups on him.

...

"How is Lord Orochimaru?" Kimimaro managed to whisper.

"He's doing fine," Kabuto replied, "You need to stop worrying over him; you know that I'm always watching over his back."

"Sorry."

"No need to apologize," Kabuto said with a smile, "With my help, he swiftly took over another village today, although this one was slightly more difficult to defeat than usual."

"How so?"

"There was a rather strong female jutsu user that surprised us. She first showed a weak personality that obeyed all of our orders, but we were suddenly attacked when we turned our backs on her," Kabuto explained, "It was almost as if she became a different person, but it was probably just an act, since identity disorders are quite rare."

"Identity disorder?"

"It usually affects those who have suffered great amounts of trauma during their childhood," Kabuto pushed up his glasses, "These 'separate identities' sometimes surface without the host's own will, as they had helped the individual cope with harsh times and painful memories and are a part of the host as a result."

"What happens to the host during a personality change?"

"The host's body is taken over by a very different personality for a certain amount of time," Kabuto replied, "But when the host's normal state returns, they remember little to no details of what had occurred during one of their alternate egos."

...

A cough forced Kimimaro's attention back to the present.

"What… what happened?" Ryuna struggled to sit up.

"Your alternate personality took over again," Kimimaro explained.

"Oh no!" Ryuna gasped, "What did she do this time?"

"She threatened me with a blade made by your blood."

"I-I'm sorry! She gets offended easily and always relies on violence to solve her problems. Did you get hurt?" Ryuna apologized, "Unfortunately, she's the one who emerges the most"

"Are you saying that there are others?" Kimimaro looked slightly curious.

"Oops, I didn't mean to say that," Ryuna covered her mouth with her hand, "But yes, that is the truth. I refrain from telling others because I'm afraid of being thought as even more of a freak than I already am. There are two other versions of me besides the violent one, but they rarely ever show up anymore. Also, none of my different personalities know about each other; they only know that they exist inside the 'real' me."

"I see," Kimimaro said, "Also, if you don't mind me asking, what led up to your multiple personalities?"

"I…" Ryuna looked away, "I really don't want to talk about that, sorry."

"Sorry for asking."

"P-please don't apologize; it's my fault," Ryuna said without facing him.

"You should continue resting while you can," Kimimaro commented, "The medics only allowed you to stay until sunrise."

"Where will you be?"

"I am to continue back to where I was heading towards before stopping at this village," Kimimaro turned towards the door to leave.

"W-wait! Kimimaro, that's your name, right? I want to thank you for all you've done for me today," Ryuna said sincerely, "A-also, no one has ever accepted me like you did, so thank you as well for not running away from me like everyone else does."

Kimimaro paused to hear this, but did not say anything in acknowledgement.

"Good bye," Ryuna knew that any efforts to make him say something heartfelt would be fruitless.

Just as she had guessed, Kimimaro disappeared behind the door without another word.

Smiling herself to sleep, Ryuna hoped that they would meet again someday.

-I did do some research on DID (dissociative identity disorder) and will try to keep Ryuna's case as realistic as possible, but since it's fanfiction of an unrealistic show, of course it won't be 100%. I do what I feel like will benefit this story.
-Sorry it's boring and rushed at parts. (And it probably will be the entire time. I'm not a good writer.)
-Ryuna's backstory will be revealed in time. (And it's quite sad if I do say so myself.)