"Enkai," said Tezema, "What if you can't find one and you're not the right blood type, or.."
"Tezema," I interupted, "My dear, new friend. There is no can't. I will find you a heart. What blood type are you?"
"I think I'm AB," she said.
"I am, too," said I, "So if worse comes to worse, it should work. What did your mother die from?"
"Her immune system suddenly started attacking itself. Why?" I had an epiphany. "Was her heart allright?"
"Yes," said Tezema, "But she was O positive. My body wouldn't accept it."
"Here's what we're doing," I informed her, "You are getting my heart. And I am getting your mothers. Hopefully, my body will accept it."
"Oh, Enkai!" she said as she fought back tears, "But you might die! Let me take my mothers heart!"
"No," I insisted, "I'm getting hers. The hospital probably still has it."
"O-ok," she said as a single tear ran down her cheek. She knew I'd insist and it was no uses arguing with me.
"Nurse!" I said, leaning out the door, "Come here, Nurse! We have a plan to save this girls life."
"Bless your heart, child," said the nurse after I had told her my plan, "But your mother must sign to show she agrees." I peeked out and saw Mother and Gai sat confusedly in my room across the hall.
"She's in there." The nurse called her in and we told her my request.
"Absolutely not!" Mom said. Gai sat quietly, obviously deep in the thought process.
"My child will not risk her life no matter how many people it sa-.."
"Salie," Gai interupted, "Let her do it."
"What!?" Mom was stunned. "You want me to sign something that could possibly, and will most likely, kill my daughter?!"
"If you don't," he stated, "And this other fine young girl dies, she'll wish she was dead and she'll never forgive herself. Or you."
Mom thought a moment, and tears ran down her cheeks. "Allright. I'll sign it," she said, writing her name on the line and looking at me, "But, Baby, I hope you know what you're doing."
With the signing of that paper, there was no going back; my heart was going to be given to Tezema and I would recieve her mothers heart and hope for the best.
"We better do this quick," said the nurse, "There isn't much time." So they quickly found the heart and put Tezema and me under for the surgery.
First, I was told, they skillfully opened our chests and took out my heart and placed Tezema's mother's heart inside of me. Then they quickly removed hers and put my beating heart in it's place, and sewed us back up. It all happened within twenty minutes, I found out. Our still unconcious forms were wheeled to one room. They figured if we could share organs, we could share a room. All together, it was an odd experience. Losing an organ of your own and it being replaced with someone elses was a weird thing to know. I had a part someone else inside me; someone I didn't even know. Tezema must've woken up after the surgery first, because when I did, she was staring at me with big, concerned eyes.
"I'm not dead," I tried to laugh, but it hurt a bit, "I'm fine. And I feel the heart pumping, so I guess it's cool."
"Good," she said with a sigh of relief.
"How's my heart doing?" I asked.
"Perfect," Tezema said with the worlds largest, whitest smile, "I feel better than I've felt since I can remember."
We left the hospital in about two weeks. We were healthy, and it felt so good. Tezema had a sad realization: she had no one to go home to.
"My father died a few weeks before I was born," she said, "My mother was all I had."
"You can come stay with me," I said, "Gai, my mom's boyfriend, can get another bed and we can share my room."
"Oh, Enkai!" said Tezema, "You are the worlds most wonderful friend!"
"I'm really not," I said honestly, "I'm not very friendly, actually. But Konoha.. I think it's changed me. I feel..."
"Nice?" she laughed. I laughed, too. This whole-hearted laugh felt so wonderful to me.
So this is me, I thought, I've always been this on the inside, but Konoha drew it out of me. Konoha... It just then occured to me the twins might still be missing.
"Come on!" I said, taking her hand and running, "I have to see if my sisters are back!"
"Back?" a confused Tezema asked.
"They went missing the day I ended up in the hospital!" I informed her. When we got home, I yanked open the front door to a suprising site: Kazan and Yumi sitting on the couch.
"Where were you guys?!" I asked, half-angry and half-relieved they were safe.
"Dad came to Konoha!" Yumi said, smiling.
"We went to stay with him," said a grinning Kazan, "You should see how awesome the Raikage suite is! Who's the girl?"
I was furious. "You mean you disappeared and stripped Mom from my bedside whileI was in the hospital because you wanted to see your dad?!"
"Yep!" They said in unison.
"What's so great about your dad, anyway?!" I snapped, "Nothing good comes from fathers! Nothing! Only hurt!" I felt tears forming in my eyes, so I ran to my room and slammed the door.
"Hi, I'm Tezema," she said in the other room, "Enkai said I could stay here." I heard Yumi and Kazan introducing themselves. I was in a horrible, angry mood, and acting impulsively.
But that's my nindo, I thought angrily, to make bad choices and screw everything up. I opened my window and hopped out. Once I hit the ground, all I did was run. I didn't know where I was running to, I just had to get away from Kazan and Yumi.
I ran until I couldn't catch my breath. As quickly as I had began running, I stopped. I was in some kind of park, so I leaned on a tree and slide down to the ground.
"Could it be any worse?" I asked myself outloud, then added, "Oh no, I shouldn't have sa-.." My regretful statement was interupted by a rumble of thunder and a sudden downpour of rain.
I almost thought the rain to be good; if I began to cry and someone saw me, it would just look like rain running down my cheeks. They'd never know of my sorrow. There'd be no reason to pity me. Well, no more so than usual.
One thing was sure for sure: I had fallen asleep under the tree in the rain. When was debateable, but where was undoubtable. Yet, somehow, when I woke up in the morning, I was in my own bed, still dripping wet. Tezema in a bed new to my room lay sound asleep, and the clock read 5:30.
Oh no! I thought, I overslept! I bolted up, got into fresh, dry clothes, and headed out. I decided to use the training area used by Team Kakashi that first day. When I got there, I let out my desire to win. Punch after punch. Kick after kick. Blow after blow on that punching bag I felt my strength increasing. I needed that strength today; it was the day of the Exam. I didn't know at the time the first part was written.
I wasted my enegery on that bag for a good three hours until I went to the school for the test. I saw where my fellow Kumo ninjas sat. mentally preparing.
"Ready?"Manami asked with a smile. My heavy breathingtold her I had been training. Of anyone from the village of the Cloud, she understood me the best. She and I were both Taijutsu specialists, though her Genjutsu and Ninjutsu weren't exactly bad. In fact, they werereally good.
Anyway, I turned to talk to Yumi, but as I opened my mouth to speak, she said, looking the other way, "Hey, Ino! Wait up, girl!" and ran towards a blonde girl.
I was about to say, "Blondes must stick together," as a joke to Kazan, but her eyes fell on Shino, Hinata, and a boy with a dog, and she sprinted over to them.
I noticed each of my fellow ninjas of the Cloud found someone to talk to instead of me: Manami found TenTen, Yoshiro found Kankuro (those darn pranksters), Jaiden found a boy with reddish hair standing by Ino, Hayame found no one, but didn't want to be near me. Even Mom had ditched me.
Instead of standing by myself and panicing about the Exam, I took myself over to Team Kakashi. I figured now would be as good a time as any to ask Kakashi-Sensei of my favor.
"Kakashi-Sensei," I began, "I believe I require additional training.. which requires an addition sensei..."
"You want me to train you?" he asked, suprised.
"Very much, Sir," I said, bowing respectfully.
"Allright," Kakashi replied, smiling, "But for now, the Exam is about to start. Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke: show her where to go." With that, we four walked into the building and went to find the Exam room. First we got lost, but then we found it.
Before we entered, Rock Lee came to us. I had previously thought he liked me, but his language and eyes told us all he liked Sakura. I got this crummy feeling, but I snapped myself out of it.
Why do I care? I thought, it isn't like I like him or anything. We're just friends. I should be happy for him. After talking to Lee, we entered the room to find out the first part of the Exam was written. When they told us the rules, they said if our teams failed the exam, we could never take it again. Some kids gave in and quit then and there. Wimps, I thought, they'll never become Chuunin that way. I saw Yumi, sitting next to Temari, obviuosly debating if she should raise her hand to leave or not.
"Don't do it," I mouthed, "You'll pass." Then I looked at the questions. Everyone else was sweating it out and trying to cheat without getting caught.
Knowing I had no way to cheat, Gaara, who sat next to me, whispered, "Want the answers?"
"No," I quietly replied, "I don't need them." After that, I scribbled down the answer to each question. I felt the stare of eyes on my back, so I turned around. Neji was behind me, and his veins by his eyes were big, and his stare seemed to go through me.
"Byakugan," he mouthed, "Hope you don't mind."
"I don't," I mouthed, "You just better hope I get them all right." And then it was over and they revealed the secret final question; there was none! We had passed this part of the test. It didn't matter our scores! All who were left passed. That is, all who didn't quit or get thrown out, because if you were caught cheating, you were done. For curiousity's sake, they graded the papers as we left, anyway. I was last to exit, and as I did, I overheard the scorers.
"Two kids got all the answers right!" said one.
"Really?!" said the other, "Which kids?"
"Nara Shikamaru," said the first, "He's the black-ponytail boy. And Yusi Enkai. She sat next to the youngest sand boy." With a smile, I departed, feeling a brand-new feeling with myself.
Pride.
When we were all outside, a girl, Anko, told us the rules. Start with one scroll (Air or Earth), find the other, get through the appropriately named Forest of Death in some odd ammount of days. Got it. Before we set into the forest, Manami, Jaiden, and Yoshi came over.
"We should help each other," Jaiden said.
"Cloud kids should stick together," Manami agreed.
"We have an Earth scroll. It looks like you have an Air scroll. Perfect," said Yoshi. "We'll get the other. If someone with an Earth scroll sees us, they'll be off-guard."
"Let's split up!" said Yumi.
"I'll go with Yumi," said Kazan, "Jaiden, go with Manami. Yoshi, you're stuck with Enkai. Sorry!" With that, we all split up. I didn't like this forest, and being near Yoshi made it kind of awkward, so I suggested we split up, too.
"Cover more ground," I added at the end.
"Ok," he said. I ran one way and he set off the other. As it seemed to always happen when I ran, I hit somebody. And of course that somebody was Rock Lee. And he had an Air scroll!
"I'm going to have to take that scroll from you," I said, getting up.
"Are you?" Lee laughed, back on his feet.
"Yeah, I am," said I, pulling out my favorite kunai. It was old and had a blue ribbon tied on the end, but it was still menacing.
"You're prepared to fight me? After the beating I gave you?" he half-chuckled.
"Of course! Look, this is me and my sisters' dreams we're talking about!" I growled, "And I'm not letting anyone get in the way. Even you."
"If that's how it is," he said, smiling and holding out the scroll. "You can have it."
"W-..what?" I said, confused, "Y-you're lying! Surely! And I-.."
"Enkai," he interupted in the softest tone, "I'll tell Neji and TenTen I never found one. Now do you want it or not?" I was speechless.
How can he do this?! I thought, He's toying with my heart!
My heart...
This is where I admitted it to myself; I may have been in Love with Gaara, but I somehow had a crush on Rock Lee! Without words I took the scroll from his outstretched arms and ran. Occasionally I looked over my shoulder and saw a still grinning Lee. I ran until I didn't even see his figure in the distance.
Then I heard it. Screams in the distance. Cries for mercy. And then... silence. I went to find out what happened, and heard Gaara-Kun's cold, heartless voice saying something like, "I've never thought of you as siblings."
"Temari? Kankuro?" I said, timidly going towards them. "Gaara-Kun?"
"Enkai-Chan!" said Gaara in an almost friendly tone.
"W-what's going on!?" I was horrified by the blood splattered everywhere.
"Nothing," he said, "Just trying to pass this part of the Exam."
"I-I heard screams," I stated.
"Those were his opponents," said Temari.
"More like victims," Kankuro muttered, right before Temari's fist met his arm.
"So much blood..!" said I.
"Let's get out of here," suggested Gaara. "We have our scrolls."
"I have to find my team," I said, "For all I know, they could have no scrolls at all. Goodbye Temari. Goodbye Kankuro." My eyes turned lovingly yet seriously to him as I added, "Goodbye, Gaara-Kun."
As I left, I heard Kankuro saying, "You so like her!" and a moment later, "Ow!"
I found a distance away Jaiden, Yoshiro, and Yumi.
"We weren't the only ones who split up," Yoshi laughed.
"Any scrolls?" I asked.
"I have our Air," said Yumi.
"I have our Earth," Jaiden said.
"I have none," Yoshi said.
"I've got an Air!" I smiled.
"None.." said Manami, trudging over to us, "I found none..."
"Where's Kazan?" Jaiden asked.
"Enkai!" said Kazan, running over to us, "Enkai! You'll never guess what I saw! I was with Team Kurenai, an-.."
"Who's that?" Yoshi interupted.
"Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba," Kazan said, "Now. We saw Gaara, Temari and Kankuro and Gaara-..." She paused. "Hugged them!"
She doesn't want me to know of his 'opponents', I thought. How... sisterly.
"Hey!" said Manami, noticing something protruding from Kazan's bag. "You got the scroll!"
"It's Earth. Is that ok?" Kazan asked.
"Perfect!" the rest of us replied in unison. We sorted out whose was whose, then found the exit of the Forest.
"Well, that wasn't so bad!" said Yoshi as the rest of us collapsed
