1 (Mai POV)

When I opened my eyes I had no idea where I was and I barely remembered who I was, but I clung to my name as it was the only thing I remembered at that point.

Mai. Mai of the...something. I'll just go with Mai for now till I remember the rest. My name is Mai and that is all I really know about anything...

I sighed and tried to sit up, but when I did, I felt dizzy, and laid back down, wondering where I was. I looked around, trying to figure it out and not having much luck. All that was around me was a white room, with white sheets, and I was even wearing white clothes, but I did see a blood red shirt and skirt laid out on a table with some mesh clothing next to it. I had no idea if they were for me, so I just stared at them. Then I heard voices coming from outside my door and listened in on them. "I'm so sorry Hoakage-Sama but we have no idea who she is, or where she is from. We just know she showed up with Orochimaru and tried to attack our Shenobi." Suddenly my head hurt with pain equal to about a thousand Kunai being shoved into my skull at once. I couldn't help but scream in pain. I vaguely saw two people enter the room as I screamed, and clutched at my head to try and stop the pain. I saw images and memories flash in my head.

There was a night sky. There was an edge, I was being watched. One painful choice. Running though the sandy desert. A snake man telling me to attack. My heart ripping to pieces. A note. A headband. My hate for the snake man that was Orochimaru. Blacking out.

The memories slowed, and soon stopped, but the pain in my head was still terrible, and I was sweating. I hissed with a cold hate in my voice "Orochimaru…" the two men who entered the room, heard me screaming, and looked at each other. The first guy was old, with a red and white shirt. He stood there with a goofy hat, and he looked at me. "Please calm down. Orochimaru isn't here. Not anymore at least." he said in a calming voice. My headache was slowly going away, and I relaxed a little, but I didn't know the men, and some sort of instinct made me glare up at them, but I lay back down anyway. "Hmm…so you have had ninja training then? Where are you from and who are you?" the old one said looking down at me. I looked at him with surprise and could feel that he was curious and being cautious at the same time. I cocked my head to the side "Ninja training. I wouldn't know if I had that or not, but from what I just remembered I must have at some point, though I'm not sure when. As for my name, I am Mai of the...something. I can't remember anymore than that, sorry." The one with a headband looked at the older man as if waiting for him to say something. "You may leave now." was all he said to the man with the headband one.

The guy with the headband quickly left, like he was told to do. I looked up at him, wondering who he was. "I am the Hokage leader of the Leaf Village. You are in the leaf village hospital, but the worst you seem to be suffering from is memory loss at the moment. I will check you out of the hospital now, since you don't seem to have a clue what's going on, and you don't seem like you're teamed up with Orochimaru." I looked up at him, surprised for some reason. I told him about my memories, then and he nodded in understanding. "Orochimaru must have put a jitsu that would make you lose your memories if you ever thought of betraying him. For now, you can go to the Ninja Academy here in the Leaf Village. I do have a few more things to tell you. Whenever you do regain some of your memory back, come and tell me right away. Also I will get an apartment set up for you to live in. I'll have someone escort you there later." he started walking away "Oh, those are your clothes if you want to change." and walked out.

I sighed in sadness. Something was hurting my heart, and I knew all of that pain couldn't be coming from the fact that I lost my memories. It was the pain I felt from my memory when I went with Orochimaru. It was heartbreak. I hope whoever I broke my heart for was okay and wasn't mad at me. I got up and wasn't dizzy this time, and changed into my blood red clothes and had the mesh shirt and legging type things on too. I looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was down and I was dirty, but I didn't feel comfortable showering here so I just put my hair up with some hanging out to cover my face, and thought I looked ten times better then with my hair up. And then I went into the bathroom and washed my face with warm water. It felt much better than the cooler air around me.

I heard a knock on the door, and soon a blonde boy with an orange jumpsuit on with goggles on top of his head burst into my room without waiting for me to answer the door. "So are you the girl who got the apartment next to mine?" he looked at me and when I didn't respond his blue eyes opened in shock for some odd reason, then shouted, "Wait…YOU CAN TALK RIGHT?" I flinched and lowered my hand down to my right thigh but nothing was there.

Why on earth did I do that?

I looked at the boy with a glare. It was his turn to flinch at me. "Of course I can talk! I was just wondering why a weird boy with and orange jumpsuit, would barge into my room without waiting to make sure I wasn't changing!" I smirked at him. He blushed and started to stammer a sorry when I laughed at him. "You should've seen your face! It was awesome, goggle boy! But really, next time, wait for me to answer, or I will attack you, ok?" I said all of this with a sweet smile on my face. The boy grinned at me laughing with my joke then he stopped as he thought of something. "My name isn't goggle boy! I'm Naruto Uzimaki, the next and greatest Hokage that ever lived!" he said it with such determination, that I couldn't help but smile a little. "Okay, I believe you and by the way where the hell is my house, and why am I stuck next to a future Hokage?" He looked at me and grinned. "Well come on! I'll show it to you!" he ran off and I had no trouble keeping up with him which surprised him since he was going pretty fast.

I could hear whispers and people glaring at us. Maybe they were just about him. My head started to hurt again. I needed to get somewhere to rest without all these people around, so I didn't scare them from screaming. "Hey, Naruto! We need to get there...and fast!" he looked at the pain on my face and ran twice as fast. We got there within a minute, and my head felt like it was being stabbed again, and the flashes then started.

There's a red head with black rimmed eyes, about seven years old. I'm holding hands with the boy, while people whisper around us. I feel anger toward the people. I felt the fear and anger from the people to the boy and some even at me. There's sadness on the boy's face. Then he looks at me, and he cheers right up...

The pain went away slowly and I could get back to my feet within a minute of falling to the ground in pain. I could tell I had screamed again. I looked at Naruto, who was at eye level with me, a worried look on his face. "Hey, are you alright? Uh…um…Gosh I don't even know your name yet!" He looked worried and shocked by his discovery. I laughed a weak laugh. "My name is Mai of the... of the...something. That I don't remember at this point in time. Look, can you wait for maybe ten minutes while I take a shower and then maybe take me to the Hokage? He told me to come to him if that ever happened again."

Naruto still looked worried and shocked, but nodded his head. I could feel slight excitement coming off of him about seeing the Hokage. I smiled just a little. I took a quick shower, and put my hair up while it was still wet. Since my red clothes were the only ones I had, I wore them again, even though they were too thin for this kind of climate. I walked out to see Naruto waiting for me in the front room. And, the only room, other than the bathroom, looking impatient for me to be ready. "It's about time! Let's go! I want to know what's happening to you, Mai!" I looked at Naruto in slight shock that he cared that much. Then I nodded "I'll ask if the Hokage can help me explain, since I don't know even know where to start…" he nodded, and jumped off.

I sighed and followed him, wondering where he got his energy from. Soon, we were at the Hokage's office - the guards let us through, but I had already made a plan in case they didn't let us past, and kept it in mind, just in case I needed it later. 'The Third' looked up, saw me, and looked sad. Then he saw Naruto and almost smiled, but held it in, even though I could feel amusement coming from him. My personal nickname for master Hokage is 'The Third' because he is the third Hokage. "Ah, Mai, I'm going to assume you didn't mind your companion and you found your house then?" I nodded, but since I still looked worried I guess he caught on.

Took him long enough to realize why I'm here...

"Tell me what you remember. But first, sit down please." he gestured to a chair in front of his desk. I nodded and sat down. Naruto followed, and sat down next to me. 'The Third' looked at me, but I just nodded like I wanted him here, and I did. I felt like I knew someone like him, and wanted to be around him more. "Well Naruto and I were running back to my apartment, and I could feel people staring at us and whispering, almost like they hated us or something. My head started to hurt like it did when you said Orochimaru's name. I yelled at Naruto to hurry up so I didn't make a scene. And then, as soon as we got into the door, I couldn't hold it back anymore. The images and feelings started flooding into my head. There was a redhead with black rimmed eyes. He looked about the age of seven. We were standing together. I was about the same age. We were holding hands as people whispered around us. They were whispering terrible things about the boy and about me for being too close to him. I could sense the hate and fear coming from the villagers, and sadness coming from the boy. Then, he looked at me and seemed to become much happier..."

I sounded like an idiot. I seemed to think so, but Naruto looked at me, shock on his face, like he had never seen anyone like me before in his life. I decided to look into his emotions a little more, but not his mind, I would never use that unless I had to. It was an invasion of privacy. I could sense the shock, the wonder, the happiness, the worry, and was there jealousy? I couldn't believe it. He was jealous of a little boy that I don't even remember the name of! All because he held my hand! I could tell why. I didn't even question it. Naruto would just have to get used to the fact that this kind of thing would happen sometimes.

"Hmm…well it is strange that whispering would cause that sort of reaction, but thank you for telling me right away. Continue to tell me whenever this happens. I suppose we should explain this to Naruto so you don't have to do it alone. Naruto, Mai here has lost her memories, or should I say she's had them suppressed so that she can't access them at free will until something unblocks them such as names or things that remind her of something that had happened to her before she came to the Leaf Village. I have offered her to stay until all of her memories come back. I am also just now offering her to train to become a Leaf Genin, but of course if you find out you are already a ninja somewhere else. I would allow you to leave freely." the Hokage told us.

I just looked at him with my multicolored eyes, huge with shock. I nodded slowly. I thought that by being a ninja I would have more of a chance to meet people from my past and unblock my memories. Who knows? Maybe just seeing one person would help me. "Good. You'll start tomorrow at the academy at 7 o'clock! Oh, and if Naruto isn't banging on your door by say six thirty, you can break his door down since tomorrow is the exam. Naruto, I need to speak to Mai alone for a few minutes." Naruto nodded, and walked out of the room without a word.

I looked at 'The Third' and waited for him to start. "Mai, you probably have forgotten all of your jitsu, so I'm going to teach you the jitsu you will need to pass tomorrow's exam. Then maybe that will unlock the others that you know." I nodded and watched closely. He made a few hand signs that I already knew for some reason, and started to copy him with ease, slowly remembering all of my jitsu, and then I stopped the hand signs and started the cloning jitsu again. This time, though, my hands were a blur, so I quickly made about ten clones of myself. Then I transformed them into different things. After I got bored of that, I released the jitsu.

I felt shock and slight fear coming from him. My head started to hurt once more. This time I embraced it to come to me, wanting to see the boy again, if I got lucky.

There is a hallway, where kids waited to get access to become a Genin. I looked back and saw the redhead again, except this time I could feel different emotions coming from him. There is sadness, anger, hate, slight bloodlust, caring, worry, and the faintest trance of love. He looked right at me with his cold eyes. I heard a voice. "Mai," then there was a pause. I knew it was me, so I started walking forward "Mai Of The Desert." I sighed as his voice had trembled. I could tell the redhead behind me smirked, because I thought the guy was a sad excuse for a Shenobi, and because he had me using his last name. That made him happy. I walked into the room and was told to do a few jitsus. I passed easily, got my headband, and walked away without a word.

The memory faded. I looked up at 'The Third' and as soon as I had caught my breath from screaming, I stood up and I told him my whole memory, realizing I sounded like an idiot again. When I was finally done, 'The Third' looked at me, and told me to not leave the village for a few days while he tried to contact the Kazekage. I could feel shock, and even more fear coming off of him.

I'm not a monster, or a bloodthirsty killer! So, why is he acting like I am one?

I just shrugged it off, and told him I was going to find Naruto. I didn't plan on going back home until I could cheer up this boy. There was always an under layer of sadness in him. It had faded, just a smidge, and I was still planning on going to the academy tomorrow. Then, I would go back to wherever I came from. But I still had no idea where that was, exactly. I just knew it was in the desert somewhere. Not much help really. So for now I was going to make the most out of my life in the Leaf Village, and I was going to start that by making sure Naruto was happy, for real.

I wandered around town, until I saw him go into a ramen shop. I was so hungry, that I thought Why not? Then, followed him in. "I need a large pork ramen!" I could hear Naruto practically shouting. I sighed. There was no way he would be able to eat all of that. "Hey, Naruto." I said as I walked into the shop, I ordered a small beef ramen. "Hey, Mai. How did it go with the Hokage?" he asked. He tried to sound like it didn't matter to him, but I could tell on the inside he really, really wanted to know. "It was…ok I guess. he taught me the jitsu I needed to know for tomorrow. Just by doing that one jitsu, I could remember a lot of them. Oh yea, and after I did that, I regained another memory." I tried to say calmly.

Naruto didn't care how I said it, but it seemed like that by saying it like it was no big deal. It got him mad for some reason. "YOU CAN'T JUST ADD THAT IN LIKE YOU FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT!" I looked at him, yelling at me without flinching or even acting like

I heard him. He would have to learn to politely respond to yelling. "Naruto, please stop yelling. You're causing a scene. And I don't like people looking at me. I will tell you everything that happened if you sit still, shut up, and let me speak." I said all of that without my voice even being raised, or anything else, which, for me, was quite an accomplishment really.

Naruto looked at me, sat down, and started to listen as I told him everything, except the emotions coming from the redhead that I was attracted to, I will admit. He seemed...different than the other guys. Naruto looked at me and I wondered if he was going to point out the way I talk about the boy. I got lucky. "So your full name is Mai of the Desert, huh? That is the weirdest last name I have ever heard!" he said, and started laughing. I joined in after a minute of staring at him like he was crazy. "Ok, ok, I will say that it is pretty different, but I feel like it isn't really my last name. It's just something I use." Naruto stopped laughing at that, and started to think. "Why would you do that?" I just shrugged and paid for my ramen. "Well I'm heading home, we have a big day tomorrow." he nodded, paid for his food, and started walking with me to our apartments.

When we got there we said a good night to each other, and I walked into the house to see a package on the table with a note. It said,

Mai,

We found you with these things on you. We only did a Chakra search, so everything should be in order for you.

It was signed by the ANBU black ops. I sighed, and opened my bags that were on the table, and found a picture of me and three other people. One of them was the redhead. The pain became too much, and I blacked out again.