*Note: I forgot to put this on the other chapters, I do not own Naruto! Kat Himura, Zephyrus Ibikikuzo & Hana Soromura are my OCs! The italics are flashback, memories, visions, etc. Thank you for the few reviews I got for my story so far! I really appreciated it! :) Now you may enjoy Chapter 3! *Update 4/9/13: I fixed some parts of the chapter because i made an age confusion, but i fixed it!*

*Chapter 3: The Recovery*

I woke up in a white bed in a secluded room in the Leaf Village Hospital the next morning. Full of puzzlement, I scrolled my eyes from left to right, wondering how I ended up in there. I couldn't remember what happened last night, no clue what I did or why I was in the hospital.

I examined myself and spotted the bandages wrapped around each of my hands as both of my arms were laid by my sides. Curious about them, I raised them in front of my face so I could see clearly.

They had small blood spots seeping through the bandages and when I tried to wiggle my fingers to check if they were numb, both hands stung terribly, mainly in the palm area. Well that gave me my answer.

I lightly laid them on my lap and peered out the window, noticing how bright and sunny it was that morning. I was still clueless of why I was in there in the first place. Did I hit my head on something or what?

Three knocks were heard coming from the door to my right side. When I was sure it was knocking, I allowed entrance to whoever it could've been. They slammed the door open, making a loud crashing noise that caused me to almost jump out of my own skin.

My heart raced rapidly, I didn't know who it was exactly because the curtain that surrounded half of my bed was wide and covering me. What was worse was that if it was an intruder, I was still in no condition to protect myself; also my hands were damaged and useless. Fear swept through my entire psyche.

Suddenly, the titanium white curtains flew fiercely to the side and revealed my visitor.

"Kat! Oh thank goodness you're alright! When Sakura called and told me you were here, I flipped out and came running, hoping you were okay!," my good friend Hana cried as she threw her arms out and wrapped them around my neck, rubbing her cheek against mine, causing friction between them. I was grateful it was no dangerous assassin trying to murder me.

Hana Soromura was a year younger than Zephyrus and I; she also acted a little childish like me. Even teenagers are immature sometimes. Although I was the older one, she treated me like I was her younger sister, but that was because I didn't act my age and my appearance was not of an almost eighteen year old.

I have my normal womanly features, don't get me wrong, but people told me that the reason they believe I was either fifteen or sixteen was because of my short height. Being a little over five feet and a half isn't really benefiting me. Plenty of people have told me I looked adorable for an seventeen year old.

However, I have learned to deal with comments and as such, I was prepared to respond to them properly. Most of the time.

"Ow ow! Hana, you're leaning against my hand and it hurts a lot," I warned her as she sobbed and put more pressure on my cheek, her medium length brilliant red hair gliding on my lips in the process. Another thing about her is how exaggerate she can be when one of us is hurt.

She eventually released me and backed off.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to make it more painful for you!"

"It's alright," I gave a semi smile.

Hana sat down in a metal chair beside my bed and carefully grabbed the hand closest to her, observing it. She gave me a disapproving expression after taking a good look at it.

"What did you do to yourself?," she asked frowning.

"That's a good question, I don't remember what happened last night actually," I answered staring down at my other hand. I even shut my eyes closed in hopes that something would pop up if I focused hard enough. But there was nothing. Everything seemed blank.

Hana arched an eyebrow out of concern.

"Are you alright Kat?," she asked with a worried tone in her voice.

I fixed her lime green eyes with mine and nodded, including a simple smile of assurance.

I received a smile in return.

"So I take everything's okay in here?," A girl voice said. Hana and I both turned to see Sakura walk in and lean against the frame of the window, grinning in my direction.

"Sakura? Do you know how I got here?," I asked sounding desperate for an answer. I really wanted to know how I injured my hands and what went down the previous night.

"From what I received, a few shinobi heard someone screaming for help from the training fields and responded quickly. Once they arrived, they found you lying on the cold ground in a daze, barely conscious until you passed out on the way here. You had deep cuts and scrapes on both hands that needed to be treated sooner, so we did. I'm surprised you don't recall anything from last night. Are you sure there isn't anything you remember?," she explained with confusion on her face.

That's when it hit me like a volleyball to the back of the head. Everything was coming back to me in an instant.

I saw myself gripping the branch of one of the trees, hanging in a life or death situation. I was also very exhausted from training too much and extremely frightened.

"Help!," I screamed as loud as I could, wondering if anyone was even going to come for me.

That's when my hands were slipping and scraping against the rough branch, which put me in panic mode to the extent. As much as I tried to put more pressure and hold on tighter, the pieces of wood stabbed into my hands like hundreds of needles were prickling at them.

I suddenly let go and began falling fast. I had shut my eyes and waited to plummet into the ground, but instead, found myself floating in midair.

When I opened my eyes, things appeared blurry, it was difficult to move any inch of my body.

"Are you alright?," my mysterious savior asked me, grinning and held me in his arms.

I recalled the familiar details, which made him suspicious to me, although I was unable to piece it together.

Then I heard the voices of the shinobi coming our way.

"I'll be seeing you later, Katana," was the last thing the stranger said before departing from me, which gave me more of a reason to have grown more suspicious of him since he knew my real name.

Lastly, the men arrived and flashed a light in my face, blinding me a bit, then the lifted me and took off, but I blacked out before we even left the fields.

I snapped back into reality when Sakura and Hana silently looked at me with more concerned expressions.

"What?," was all I said.

I was released from the infirmary that afternoon and walked home with fresh bandages wrapped around my hands before I left.

I never told them flashback I got that moment they stared at me strangely. In fact, I pretended I still had amnesia and kept it to myself.

Walking felt weird since I had been lying down for a long while, but I needed to get some blood flowing in my legs. My hands were stinging less now that Sakura put some ointment on them when she changed the bandages.

I managed to pull out my key from my pocket to unlock my apartment door and lock it up once I entered. I guess the fingers weren't really affected. Or they healed faster than my palms.

I went to my bedroom, dropped my belongings on the floor and fell face up on the bed.

"So comfortable," I sighed.

I fixed myself on my bed so I was on it correctly, laid my head on my pillow and stared at my ceiling, stroking my hair absentmindedly.

Relaxing, I began to think about to my incident from yesterday evening. My train of thought led me back to my savior and how he looked even with inaccurate vision.

From what I collected, he was from the Hidden Stone Village, but his headband was slashed through the middle. He had long blonde hair, half of it in a high ponytail and the other half loose, with long bangs covering his right eye. His eye color was pale blue and he had darkening around his eyes. Light peach skin and he wore a black cloak with red clouds. I was sure they were red clouds.

Another mystery was that he knew my name and happened to catch me in time from the fall. Was he spying on me the entire time I was training? Was it him that I sensed earlier that night? What was a Stone ninja doing in the Leaf Village?

So many questions were left unanswered as they scrambled in my mind frantically. But something grabbed my attention to my small brown dresser that sat next to my side of the bed. I flipped on my side and used my free arm to gently slide open the little drawer and pulled out a black photo frame.

When I flipped it so that the glass side could face me, I saw an old picture of my childhood friend and me hugging each other when we were about eight years old. I had many other pictures of us throughout other years, up until we were fourteen, but this was my favorite one and I always kept it in this frame and by my bed.

It used to be set up on top of the dresser, but lately, it brought back painful memories that weren't easy to ignore, so I had it face down inside the drawer to hide.

This time, however, I decided to look at it, despite the risk of receiving tearful flashbacks of us together as kids.

We were lying on a grassy hill on one sunny day in the Stone Village. I was spending the night at his house as usual and we wanted to relax outdoors in the fields. We laid side by side, staring at the clouds and trying to describe what they looked like.

"Kat?," the eight year old Deidara called me as he kept his sight on the sky.

"Yes Dei?," I said turning my head to see him.

"How long have we been friends? Hmm," he asked sitting up and peering down at me with a curious look.

I had to count with my fingers to calculate it.

"Um… We met when we were about four, so… it's been four years. Why?"

"Wow. Only four? It feels like it's been forever! Hmm," he said throwing his hands up in the air.

I giggled as I sat up with him.

"And do you know what else?,"

"What?," I asked paying attention to him.

"Even though we live in two different villages and I talk to other kids from mine, I am much closer to you than anyone else. Hmm," he told me, peering up at the sky as the wind blew his short blonde hair back.

I was baffled by that comment and silence came between us.

"R-Really?," I was very shy back then, so it was no surprise if my face was flushed with tomato red.

He nodded and gave a sincere smile towards me.

All I could do was blush and look down at the ground timidly.

"Aw, are you blushing Kat? Hmm."

"Huh? Ah no! No I'm not," I denied, obviously lying.

"Aw you look so cute when you blush! Hmm," he teased and grinned.

"Stop it! I do not Deidara!," I yelled angrily threatening to punch him.

But back then, he knew I would never really hurt him, no matter the situation. I cared about him too much to be inflicting any physical damage to him. If I saw him now, I might have a second opinion about breaking his bones with my fist.

"Wait!," I thought immediately.

I glanced at the picture and then thought back to what I remembered from the Stone Ninja that night. It was starting to gradually come together, piece by piece.

They both had the same colored hair and almost the same hairstyle. The same eyes. The same skin color. They were both from the Hidden Stone Village.

On top of that, they both ended their sentences with "Hmm" out of habit and he knew her name on the spot.

These connections were too surreal, I wasn't sure if I was overthinking things or I was going crazy from possible head trauma last night, but it all seemed true.

"Could it be…?"

The doorbell rang and interrupted my mini investigation. I placed the frame face down on my bed and bounced off to head for the front door.

When I got there and checked the peephole, I messed with the locks and opened the door casually. It was Shikamaru Nara standing with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. It was rare that he came over to my apartment for a visit, so it surprised me when he showed up at my doorstep.

"Shikamaru, nice of you to drop by," I jokingly said grinning.

He chuckled as I let him walk inside before shutting the door and locking it.

"Well I would visit more often but I always have work to do, it's such a drag…"

I silently laughed following him to the living room and sat across from him. He chose the three seated couch while I got the loveseat on the other side. I think I would have felt awkward if I had sat next to him. I still had some shyness in me.

"So what can I do for you?," I asked tapping my foot on the floor.

"I wanted to see for myself how you were doing. Sakura told me that you were taken to the hospital last night and woke up without having a clue of what happened," he explained resting his hands on his lap.

I grinned devilishly.

"You got worried about me didn't you Shikamaru?," I teased and giggled.

His cheeks changed to a hint of salmon pink and he looked the other way, which made me laugh more.

"You could say that," he said trying to avoid eye contact.

I liked playing around with him like that, he usually got embarrassed and I got some good laughs out of it. I liked seeing his reactions.

"I heard your hands are scratched up as well," he pointed to my hands.

"Yeah, I held on to a tree branch as tight as I could, even though I had a small percentage of energy left in me. I didn't wanna fall to my death," I explained.

He seemed puzzled at me, arching an eyebrow and tapping his finger on his leg a few times.

"Then, how did you get down? They said they found you on the ground face up," he questioned trying to register my last comment.

"Oh. Actually…," I paused for a moment, thinking of how to explain it to him. I wasn't sure if I should tell him the truth or lie through my teeth, since I made it seem like to others that I forgot what I did. But I was terrible at lying, so how could I?

"I… I really don't know how… It happened so sudden… It was all a blur," I simply said looking at the coffee table. Two different stories would cause problems between me and whoever knew about my situation.

Shikamaru had an empathetic look on his face. He must have believed I told the truth, which was all I needed to do. I felt bad that I lied, but I had to search out this one thing in private.

"I see. Well, at least you're doing well. I just hope that Zephyrus doesn't find out soon," he commented nodding his head once.

"Don't you worry. Lord knows I won't say anything. I just hope Hana keeps her trap shut though," I said narrowing my eyes.

"Are you gonna spill the beans?," I gave a death glare which freaked him out.

"I'm not saying anything. I'd rather not get myself stuck between your troubles," he firmly said.

"Good," I said, changing from glaring to kindly smiling.

"Well, I need to get going. Lady Tsunade expects me to go do my paperwork from the last mission I went on," he said as he stood up.

"Yeah, you better go do that. She might get crazy if nothing is done about it," I commented, laughing nervously as I stood up from my seat. He watched and followed as I went to the front door and unlocked it so he could leave.

He grabbed the doorknob, twisted and flew the door open. Then he stepped halfway out and turned back to look at me.

"Don't get yourself into more trouble okay? You tend to do that a lot lately," he told me as he grinned, poking my forehead.

"Fine," I pouted placing my hands on my hips absentmindedly forgetting that my hands were still hurting, but I ignored it.

He chuckled and exited the door, closing it behind him.

I locked the locks again and headed back to my bedroom, falling back on the bed.

"It was nice of him to visit and check on me," I said to myself.

It showed me what true friends I have here. But if Zephyrus found about it, that I was found in the fields and sent to the hospital and had injured my hands while hanging on a tree, he would flip his top, his face would flush with pure red and steam would blow out of his ears.

I really wanted to avoid that. I assumed the reasons he was overprotective all the time was because I was his closest friend, I somehow put myself into unreasonable and risky situations, mission or not, and the ninja life was just hectic in general.

He vowed that he would sacrifice his own life to protect the ones he cared for; basically putting his love for others before his own duty. But I felt lately, there have been times when it seemed like he put work over friends and family. I realized the life of a Sannin is very busy and dangerous, but he used to have so much time to spend with us, even when he was a Jonin.

He might deny it but I could see the reality of it. We were slowly slipping apart.

I tilted my head to the side and felt it hit something on my bed. I scrolled my eyes to see that it was the photo frame lying face down like I had it. I yawned and my eyes were beginning to shut. "I must be still tired from yesterday. Maybe I should take a power nap…"

I slept for about four hours, longer than I predicted. Once I rose from my bed, I gathered my pajamas and my towel, and went into the bathroom connected to my room to take a shower.

After thirty to thirty-five minutes, I came out in my black spaghetti strap tank top and loose red capris that reach under my knees. The bottom of the capris had elastic so it was closed and to me. I had my white towel wrapped around my hair to dry it.

I decided to watch TV and kick back on my bed, so I laid back on a pillow and clicked the power button on my remote control to turn on the television.

I glanced at the flower calendar that hung on my wall. It was going to be the tenth tomorrow, which was also my birthday. I had a little spark of excitement when I thought about it. I was about to turn eighteen and I would finally be considered an adult. Isn't that thrilling?

To me, not really.

Now that meant I have to take care of more responsibility and it's already a bad habit that I'm lazy and immature. So many things I could dread about the subject.

I checked the time and it read 8:56 p.m.

One of my drama shows was about to come on in a few minutes, so I had to be on alert to remember to flip the channel to it.

While I waited, I opened my dresser and took out a roll of bandages and wrapped my hands again after applying some ointment. I needed to protect them from infection until they were completely healed.

Looking down by my side, I saw the frame, stared at it blankly before picking it up and flipping it over. Again, as I observed the two of us in the photo, I went from plainly looking to glowering when I kept my eyes glued to him.

"Deidara?," my eight year old self called to him as we laid in the grass.

"Yeah?," eight year old Deidara said.

"What do you wanna be when you grow up?"

Deidara sat up and looked at me quizzically. We never discussed what we planned to do when we became adult before. I thought it was the perfect time to ask.

"Hmm, well I do wanna become a ninja someday, to become the strongest in my village I guess. Hmm. What about you?," he said looking at the clouds.

I already knew what I wanted to do and I smiled when I thought of it.

"I wanna become a powerful kunoichi of my village, just like the Legendary Sannin Tsunade! Then I can prove to everyone how skilled and worthy I can be!," I shouted excitedly. I beamed at him after that.

He blinked, surprised that I broke out of my quiet mode when I said that. I usually talked to him with no problem but I was still timid around him sometimes. With an outburst as such, he smiled back at me and laughed a little.

"That's awesome! Hey, let's make a promise to each other. Hmm," he said as he got on his knees.

"What kind of promise?"

He raised his right arm and held it up in front, between the both of us.

"Let's make a promise, from this day forward, we will do whatever it takes to achieve our goals, once we become shinobi of our villages. Hmm," he stated awaiting for my returned handshake.

It was a vow worth handshaking to, so I raised my arm, grabbed his hand and shook on it firmly. The both of us smiling brightly as we let go.

"Alright!," he announced happily.

I nodded my head in approval and clapped excitedly.

"Also, maybe when we're old enough, I can make you my wife. Hmm" he said lightly placing his index finger on his chin and grinning towards me.

My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped in shock. I couldn't believe what just he told me!

"W-WHAT?!," I exclaimed placing my hands on my cheeks.

"That's right! Hmm," he laughed, giving me a thumb's up.

I started crying and squeezing my grip on the frame tighter. My tears rolled down my cheeks and drip from under my jaw, landing on the photo and on my lap.

My heart ached at the thought of all our hopes and dreams being tossed out the window because of the things he did in the past.

How he went far as to steal a forbidden jutsu from his village, became a terrorist bomber and then left the village, classified as a Missing-Nin, an S-Ranked Criminal.

I never learned of his reason for leaving the Hidden Stone, but I was furious either way. It had been years since I last saw him at his home. We were fourteen, the age he began turning to the dark side, as far as I knew.

I cared about him very dearly, I would've done anything to help him and be by his side. It was too bad I couldn't stop him from destroying and disappearing.

Startled by the doorbell and a couple of knocks, I quickly wiped my tears away and put the frame away in its place in the mini dresser. Then I stood up, unwrapped the towel from my hair and hung it on the bathroom doorknob.

Making sure I didn't look too bad after weeping, I took a deep breath and walked for the front door. Without realizing it, I forgot to use the peephole and went ahead with unlocking the locks.

When I opened the door, I peered down at the floor at first, slowly moving my head up to see who it was. My eyes widened once I saw their face.

"Long time no see, Kat. Hmm."