Chapter 2
The room appears to be a regular hospital room at first glance, housing only one patient. Two things make it stand out from any other room in the village hospital: Its location in the high-security wing and the occupant it houses.
"She hasn't woken?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asks, contemplating the girl that ANBU Hound had retrieved from the site of her sudden appearance.
"Once, during surgery," Shiranui Genma, the guard assigned to her reports. "They put her under right away."
Hiruzen nods, frowning at the motionless redhead on the hospital bed. In all his years, he's never encountered a case like this. At first, he'd assumed her to be an Uzumaki, perhaps sent over by a kind of last-resort seal. But the information Yamanaka Inoichi extracted from her mind as soon as he could safely do so disproved that theory thoroughly.
And as if she wasn't enough of a mystery, lodged deep within her Inoichi had found a parasite, leeching from her very essence.
All of Inoichi's attempts at removing it had failed until Hiruzen had signed off on a highly risky procedure: To use medical ninjutsu to stop the girl's heartbeat so that the leech had no life force to feed on anymore. But to do such a thing to a child... it was a vile operation, and he feels dirty for approving it.
But it was successful. Outside its host, the wretched thing had withered away into nothingness.
"She's not expected to wake for another day at least," Genma adds, drawing him back to the present.
That gave Hiruzen enough time to decide on a course of action. Inoichi extracted enough information from her to determine just how little threat she posed. If she weren't from a different world, Hiruzen would have had her delivered to the orphanage.
But, considering the amount of power she had, leaving her to fend for herself would be unwise. The child hadn't appeared by mere accident. She had tunnelled through the fabric of reality and released enough energy to raise hairs in all of Konoha - and likely even further. It was a nightmare to cover up.
Certain parties were still looking into the incident despite orders to the contrary. Hiruzen needed to keep an eye on that.
But what to do with the child?
It becomes obvious soon that he will have more than ample time to prepare, for the new arrival doesn't wake for quite longer than estimated.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
Nightmares haunt Jasmine's sleep. Endless brightness envelopes her, darkness rends her apart, pain drowns out every clear thought.
She dreams of being in a place she knows makes up her own innermost self. It's there she encounters a wretched thing, and when it notices her presence, it lunges for her, fangs lodging in her chest even as chains appear out of nowhere to rip it away. Jasmine screams in pain, attempts to fight it off, yet it only burrows deeper.
And then, suddenly, it goes limp, and so does she. Like puppets with their strings cut, they both collapse. The beast is ripped from her, and even weakened, it tears a chunk of Jasmine with it as it disappears. The wound hurts, and though a strange light comes to soothe it, she grieves the loss.
An eternity she spends in this place, which is both bright and dark, cold and warm, everything and nothing. Adrift in an odd state between sleeping, waking, and dreaming.
She sees her parents dying for her, killed by a monster wielding what can only be magic. Observes as she's pulled from rubble by a man she knows she loves, only to be handed to a large and hairy stranger, who then passes her to strangers. They leave her at Privet Drive, alone for long hours until Petunia finds her.
She spends endless time locked in her cupboard under the stairs, hungry and weak, tiny spider feet crawling over her skin.
Re-reads Mrs. Figg's books while the cats huddle around her, traces her name on the pages, written under the image of a plant.
Relives Dudley hunting her through the streets of Little Whinging.
Over and over, her fingers close around that glass only to topple and fall.
Again and again. There is no end in sight, and Jasmine wonders if she this is hell.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
Strange sounds and scents surround Jasmine when she wakes. She lies on a bed and figures she must be in a hospital, for the place she's in isn't Dudley's second bedroom. There are tubes stuck in her skin, and were she not so drowsy, she would panic.
Her room has no windows, she's unable to see the outside. Its white walls are blank, there's not. even a clock.
Perhaps Vernon finally dumped her in a loony bin, like he threatened once or thrice.
Sitting up takes her a few tries. Getting to her feet makes her dizzy, and just standing drains her of what little strength she has. Jasmine decides against pulling out the tubes and walking to the door. Instead, she lays down on the bed again and waits.
It's miserable. The only thing she can do is contemplate her confusing dreams which is frustrating at best since they make little sense, but there's nothing to distract her from them either.
Her parents died in a car accident, they weren't murdered. Plus, things like magic belong in books and movies, not the real world.
And yet.
And yet Jasmine's hair is red when she dyed it brown. It's not the only odd thing that ever happened around her either. All those little incidents that weren't her fault, but which she was always blamed for...
Perhaps this explains the hurtful things the Dursleys always call her - freak, unnatural, evil.
Her fingers rub at her scar as she recalls how dream-Jasmine received it. Green light heading for her, something worming inside. She shudders and imagines a slimy worm squirming in her brain.
Dimly recalls that thing tearing into her.
Not real. Jasmine was dreaming. Motorcycles don't fly, people can't turn into animals, and she's just a normal girl.
Maybe if she keeps telling herself that, she'll believe it.
It's as if a veil was lifted from her eyes, and now that it's missing she wants it back.
At least she's doesn't have to suffer in solitude for long. The door opens and what Jasmine guesses is a doctor walks enters. He wears white and has a stethoscope dangling from his neck. A nurse follows in his wake.
Neither talk as they examine her. Jasmine can't bring herself to speak either, though she can't swallow a gasp at seeing the doctor's hands glowing with green light. Where it touches, the pain fades.
Okay, so magic might be real, and she doesn't want to think about what that means for her dreams.
He says something, a vaguely amused look on his face, but Jasmine has no clue what the words mean.
The duo leaves soon after though the nurse returns promptly with a tray of food. It's not much, rice and soup, a glass of water. She's uncomfortably full soon and almost leaves leftovers. But who knows when she'll get her next meal, so she forces it all down.
Afterwards, she's tired and falls into a deep sleep. Hours pass without dreams.
Jasmine finds herself alone still the next time she comes awake. Someone had to have visited, though, because a glass of water waits at her bedside. Jasmine gulps it down and wishes there were more.
The door swings open and three men enter as if her thoughts summoned them. They look strange, their clothes unlike anything she's ever seen anyone wear. The eldest one has on a red robe, a loose white jacket around his shoulders, and an oddly shaped hat on his head. To his left walks a man with blond hair longer than Aunt Petunia's, who would have a fit if she saw it. The third visitor's hairstyle is no less odd, tied back into a spiky ponytail that reminds her of a pineapple. Two scars mar his face, and Jasmine struggles not to stare at them.
He, same as the long-haired one, wears a weird headband with an unfamiliar symbol on it.
Something about them sets alarm bells ringing, makes her think they're dangerous. It's the way they hold themselves, the way they walk, the way their eyes take in every single detail about her and the room in an instant. Whatever it is unsettles her, but it also piques her curiosity.
The three study Jasmine, and she examines them right back. The silence worries her.
"Hello?" she finally greets.
The two men flanking the older one exchange a quick glance. The remaining man however gives her a friendly nod and speaks a word that has the sound of a greeting though again she doesn't understand.
Maybe she hit her head really hard. A brain injury. That happened in one of Mrs. Figg's novels.
The old man says something to his companions that has them relaxing. The pineapple-haired guy drags a hand over his face, muttering under his breath before focusing on Jasmine. Pointing at himself, he announces, "Shikaku," and introduces the blond as Inoichi. The wrinkly one is Hokage-sama.
"Jasmine," she answers, a little lost.
The man called Inoichi repeats her name, but he's unfamiliar with English, making it sound awkward. She frowns. Perhaps if she... yeah, that seems a decent idea. With her hands, she mimes writing on her hands. Hokage-sama, aiming a curious look at her, produces pencil and... a paper scroll? How odd.
Something's off about this entire situation. By now Jasmine is pretty sure that the Dursleys abandoned her in another country so they wouldn't have to bother with her anymore. Which, fair enough? She broke a glass and would have stolen food.
Jasmine receives pencil and scroll. She enjoys drawing and she's doodled jasmine flowers before, fascinated because a thing so pretty carries the same name as her.
She points at her drawing. "Jasmine," she repeats and gives the men a worried stare.
Hokage-sama's face lights up with understanding. "Riko," he translates.
Riko. That's acceptable, Jasmine supposes. It's still her name. Just a different word. She smiles and nods, trying to mask the confusion over everything else.
Silence follows before Hokage-sama exhales and gestures to Inoichi. The man nods and approaches Jasmine. She eyes him with trepidation.
Can't help the flinch when he raises his hand, the memory of Vernon striking her all too fresh in her mind. Inoichi retreats at once, and whatever he says has a soothing cadence. For long moments he waits, and she realises that he's asking for her permission to come closer.
He's not her uncle. And he showed her more consideration than any other person Jasmine ever met. So she nods.
Inoichi steps forward slowly and again places his hand on her forehead gently. A strange buzzing comes from his palm and Jasmine tries to jerk back, but her forehead sticks to him, she can't get away and then it's too late - clear thought is ripped from her.
Hundreds of foreign words and their meanings flow into her mind. Symbols, kanji, flash before her eyes. Sentence structure, word order, pronunciation. She drowns in information, and pressure builds up in her skull until she's sure it's about to burst and all the words will spill on the floor.
She wants to scream but can't find her voice.
And then the ordeal is over. Inoichi withdraws his hand from her forehead. Jasmine scrambles back, clutches her head, gasps for air. Her breath is coming too fast, she's drowning in words, tossed about like a leaf trapped inside a hurricane.
Something cool seeps through the tubes into her veins, and the world goes soft before it fades.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
Jasmine wakes up to miserable pain. Her head is pounding, her mind in chaos.
Inoichi gave her a language.
She laughs incredulously and stops because she sounds crazy. Even given the crazy situation. Magic is real, she's somewhere no-one understands English, and she woke up from a sleep that lasted long enough she was sure she was dead.
Jasmine spends the next few hours attempting to sort out the chaos of her thoughts. Tries to speak sentences, goes hunting for words that are now hiding in her memory. The sheer quantity of knowledge is too vast to grasp, but leaving it as seems a terrible idea.
Plus, she has nothing else to do. At the very least, it distracts her from dreams that might be rooted in reality.
My name is Riko, she practices saying.
Every word she gathers up and puts meaning to tastes like victory.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
Some time passes. The nurse brings more food and then helps Jasmine shower.
She can't suppress a distressed whimper upon seeing herself - good lord, her hair - in the mirror. It's that bad.
The nurse, sympathetic, ends up giving her a new haircut. Jasmine feels odd about it - Petunia, for all she complained about her hair, had always refused to make it shorter. It had reached past Jasmine's waist, last she remembered.
By the time the nurse finishes trimming Jasmine's red locks, they only tickle her shoulders. Her head feels oddly light. The sensation isn't unpleasant, and she likes how the strands curl, no longer dragged down by their own weight. Instead of falling in her face - "To hide that ugly scar," Petunia's voice echoes - they frame her features. Her bright green eyes stand out starkly, which distracts from said scar.
She's given clothes that are entirely different from the shapeless dresses Aunt Petunia used to supply her with. A dark t-shirt and grey shorts in her size, or they would be if Jasmine weren't so thin. Losing so much weight - she can count her ribs, can see the blue of her veins under her chalk-pale skin - means that the clothes swim around her.
She still looks like a different person. The difference haircut and clothing make startles her. Jasmine straightens and tentatively smiles at her reflection.
Her relatives won't like her appearance once she's sent back, but she'll enjoy it while it lasts.
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
Jasmine stumbles out of the bathroom, her body still weak and her legs protesting the movement. She pauses when she's met with the sight of Hokage-sama and Shikaku waiting for her.
Inoichi's absence comes as a relief. On the one hand, he'd given her a language. On the other, it had hurt. A lot. She'd assumed he was okay, but then he caused her pain by merely touching her.
Hokage-sama speaks, voice friendly. Jasmine recognises the words Riko-chan and evening. A greeting? The question he asks after that he has to repeat at a slower pace. Only then does she understand he's asking how she's feeling.
The vocabulary is in her brain, but it hasn't settled yet, and she hasn't figured out just how they fit together in a sentence. It's hard to form a clear thought at all, with her mind in so much chaos.
It'd take time, she supposes.
"Better," she answers, and then adds, "Sir."
He nods and says something else. She recognises the word pretty.
If he's talking about her looks, then he's just saying it to be nice. She's skeletal and far too pale, the shadows under her eyes are awfully dark. Fixing her hair and clothes won't change that.
She wobbles over to the bed and collapses on it. With care and effort, she asks, "Where am I?"
The old man sighs. He speaks slowly, mindful of her poor language skills. "You are in Konohagakure no Sato in the Country of Fire."
Jasmine feels a distance sense of fear. The name is wholly unfamiliar. It sounds like something from a story.
She shrugs with forced calm. "My relatives brought me?"
"Someone found you unconscious on the outskirts of the village. We regret to tell you that we have no way of sending you back."
Perhaps it should be a shock to hear this, but Jasmine doesn't have the energy to care. And it's such a Dursley thing to do, to knock her out and leave her somewhere she has no way to return from. Uncle Vernon had made threats to that effect often enough.
Well, if nothing else, she's rid of them. That's good.
"Okay," she answers quietly, clenching her fingers in the bedsheets to hide their trembling.
The duo exchanges a look. "As you have nowhere to go, I offer you a home in our village," Hokage-sama continues.
As if she even has a choice. Jasmine nods weakly and attempts to seem grateful. "Thank you."
She may not have liked the Dursleys, but being abandoned is still painful.
"Shikaku-kun here has agreed to take you in. For discretion's sake, you will be a distant cousin of his wife who had to move here."
She only understands half of his words at most, but the gist of it is clear. This stranger is supposed to let her live with him. He hasn't even talked to her yet beyond introductions.
Yet staying with him seems a better choice compared to going to an orphanage. The Dursleys had always told her how lucky she was that they had taken her in instead of leaving her at one of those awful places.
"I'm afraid you must stay a few days longer in the hospital." Hokage-sama suddenly smiles. "Welcome to Konoha, Riko-chan."
▬▬ι═══════ﺤ -═══════ι▬▬
A/N: I'm going for bi-weekly updates. No promises though, life's kinda stressful rn. All your kind responses make it a lot better, however! I was really moved at the outpouring of support I got. Thank you so much!
Rewrite notes:
- reworked the whole dream thing and merged it with the flashback scenes of the original chapter 2
- again, removed pretty excessive Awful Things Happening In Riko's Life
- the dialogue and Riko's reactions were weird, fixed that, too