I just want to take a point to thank EVERYONE who has stuck with me this far in this story. You all are my inspiration and my motivation to keep writing. Now ten chapters in, thank you all so much.

Asuka

Where am I? A screamed pierced the air as if to respond and I found myself running in the direction of the sound. Intent on getting there first. My hands brushed over cracked foundations and the smell of something sour hung in the air. My knees shook and my heart pounded a dent into my chest. My mouth was dry and no matter how much I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat in only seemed to grow bigger. The shadowed alley came to a sudden end and I stumbled out into an open street. I found the source of the smell. Bodies. Each corpse lay mangled and soaked in their own blood, their mouths gaped and dry. The dead littered the pavement. My heart caught itself in my throat at the sight and I wanted to scream but fear stilled my voice. The sky was dark, the moon red with the murder. All I could do was stand there. Stand there while strength left my legs. Hot tears over the dead that lied at my feet stung my eyes and ran down flushed cheeks. Everyone was dead.

A firm hand placed itself on my shoulder and shook me. I recoiled at the touch, fear driving my instincts to get away from whoever owned that hand. I screamed and sat up, swatting at the man that wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace, in attempt to calm me. There was no calming. Everyone was dead!

"Memori! Memori, it's me!"

Kakashi's voice shook me back into my own room and I opened my eyes. My heart was beating so fast I was sure my chest would crack under the pressure. I strained my lungs to take in air but all I got was short painful stabs of oxygen between gasps. I couldn't see past the tears in my eyes but I could somehow tell it was dark and quiet beside my sobs and Kakashi's calming voice. My trembling hands grasped onto Kakashi's front. Seeking protection to whatever that was.

"It's okay. I got you. You're alright."

Kakashi pulled me up from the bed and carried me out of my room. He kept talking to me but I couldn't understand what he was saying. The only think I could think about was what I saw. Even if it was just a nightmare, my whole body ached and recoiled as if it was real. I couldn't stop myself from trembling and squeezing the handfuls of Kakashi's shirt as tight as I could. Clinging to the one thing I knew was real.

"It's okay Memori. It's okay." She was shaking like a leaf in his arms, wrecked with tremors. Kakashi had woken up in the middle of the night to Memori screaming. Even as he reached out to wake her, she turned away as if he himself was what was causing her nightmare. For a moment he was scared. Scared that the nightmare might be real enough to shatter her fragile mind. He didn't know what to do. All he could do was force her to wake up and hope doing just that won't damage her any more than she already was. Kakashi pounded a fist on the Hokage Manor's double doors. It was late and everyone should be in bed but a guard opened the door to meet him and allow him entry. No sooner was the Third called and he rushed into the office with a cowering Memori latched onto Kakashi.

"What happened?" Sarutobi swallowed everything done to remain calm as he placed a hand on the girl's forward trying to talk her into response. Nothing.

"Nightmare… She's told me she's been having a lot of them lately but I didn't think they were this bad."

"No," Sarutobi shook his head. "The ones she's been having before probably weren't as bad 'till now. We have to get her to relax or she'll fall into shock."

"Memori..?"

I wanted to open my eyes and address the person that spoke to me but my eyelids were too heavy to respond. A felt a hand in mine and turned my head to the left to find the owner, forcing my heavy eyes to open. A flash of pink filled my vision first and I had to close them and turn away from the sudden burst of color. I opened them a second time and found Naruto hovering over me.

"Memori? Are you okay now?" His voice shook with concern.

"Naru..?" My throat stung and was incredibly dry. His worried face flipped around to a relieved smile. I noticed Sakura was there too and she squeezed my hand tighter. "Where am I?"

"The hospital," responded Sakura.

Hospital? Why was I at the hospital? I started to sit myself up and was relieved to know nothing was wrong with my body other than my arms were cramped and sore. I lifted a hand to my eyes and found that they were swollen and probably red from tears. Then it came to me like a rushing current. That nightmare… I bowed chin to my chest, trying to keep it together in front of my friends but even after all that crying, tears managed to find their way down my face again.

I flinched and lifted an arm to rub away my tears as if it was a foreign act. I laughed quietly to myself. "Sorry. I'm okay."

"Memori…" The two that sat on either side of me couldn't find any words to say. And I was glad they didn't. I didn't want to know how pathetic I might look right then. Sakura reached out and rubbed my shoulder and Naruto proceeded to talk about everything and anything he could think about that didn't relate to my current state. Sakura snapped at him to stop rambling but I told her it was fine. It was only when Naruto was incredibly awkward and nervous did he start to talk and ramble.

"Sasuke didn't come?" After I breathed in a few calming intakes of air I noticed the stoic Uchiha wasn't around. I was so used to seeing the three together that it was odd to find one missing.

"Pff. Sasuke doesn't care about anyone," grumbled Naruto in a grudgingly way. Not true, I thought. "He probably has better things to do than visiting a friend in the hospital."

Any further bashing of her idol was ceased by a splintering punch. Naruto pleaded in apology pinching his bloody nose between two fingers and Sakura threatened again. I dropped my gaze to my lap and carefully stepped back into what I remembered about that nightmare. Was it real? Did it really happen or was it just like the other nightmares I've been having? This seemed different though. It was full of much more detail and I don't recall feeling the way I did now after waking up. I couldn't even remember how I got into the hospital but something told me that Kakashi must of panicked and brought me here. I sighed. There was nothing I could do and at this point there was nothing I wanted to do. I didn't want to go through that ever again and I can only hope to the gods that it was just a nightmare.

I bowed in thanks to the woman at the front desk thanking her for taking care of me over the night. She smiled and accepted and I left the hospital with my pajamas under one arm (Sakura had gotten some clothes for me from the apartment) with Naruto and Sakura. When we exited the double doors I stopped in surprise over who was waiting out front. The Uchiha lifted himself from his rest against the fencing at our arrival.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed in her usual greeting while Naruto scoffed from my right.

Sasuke gave Sakura a second glance before locking his gaze with mine. I stared back mirroring his emotionless expression until his gaze dropped and he mumbled. "Are you okay..?"

Naruto squawked in surprise. I smiled to Sasuke and nodded. "Yes, thank you for asking."

"Kakashi said you had a bad nightmare."

"Uh, yeah…" I shifted uncomfortably. I didn't want everyone to know that I was put in the hospital for such a simple thing. Sasuke must of badgered Kakashi until he spilt the cause of me being in the hospital. "But it was nothing really."

"What was it about?" Sasuke didn't seem to care for the fact that what a person dreams about is private.

"Oi! Sasuke, she doesn't have to tell you anything!" Naruto stomped up to meet his rival in a glare. "So just leave her alone about it!"

"Naruto! He was just asking a question! Why do you have to be so defensive about it!" That's because Naruto knew that these nightmares might be a piece of my past and that I was scared of what it might all mean.

"It's okay Naruto." Naruto dropped his protective like stance in front of me and glanced back at a loss. I looked up to Sasuke and breathed in searching for a way to start but just thinking about it made my hands to start trembling. I hid them behind my back as quickly as I could but it went unnoticed by Sasuke.

"Nevermind. I don't need to know." The Uchiha turned on his heel and started his leave giving me one retreating glance before disappearing behind the gates.

"Sasuke-kun?" I think Sakura just enjoys hearing herself say his name over and over.

"Stupid jerk! Come on Memori," Naruto suddenly reached out and took my hand in his, pulling me along. My face flushed to a tint of red as I stumbled after him.

"Naru? Where are we going?" I asked wondering where the blond was pulling me.

"You wanted to learn how to do the Shadow Clone Jutsu, remember?" I smiled to myself and nodded. How does Naruto know exactly what to say to keep my mind off of things I didn't want to think about? Sakura hollered after them about something that she had to do with her parents and took her leave.

I spent the rest of the day with Naruto and his difficulties of trying to explain how a clone jutsu worked was so amusing that I couldn't think about anything else but how funny he was. I had to learn how to create a simple mirror image of myself first before I could possibly understand how a shadow clone—a physical copy—could work. Lucky for Naruto I had already read that chapter a dozen of times and just needed help performing it. It wasn't too difficult I noticed but performing a shadow clone proved to be just that. Naruto would perform the jutsu himself before I tried, noticing that I'm more of a visual learner and needed to watch it happen first. I watched Naruto carefully even though all he did was perform a single seal and concentrate his chakra. And POOF! a second copy of himself appeared giving the same confident grin.

"Alright, try again Memori."

Getting myself to create a shadow clone was quite frustrating. I think I tried about a million times before I finally achieved something. That something did look like me but it was very transparent and didn't last longer than five seconds. I was too tired to try again after that and fell back into the cool grass below with a groan of frustration. Naruto laughed and sat beside me. He didn't say it out loud but I knew he was enjoying the fact that something he knew was difficult to master for someone else.

"It's impossible," I panted.

"You'll get it. If you can learn a stupid fire jutsu," the mere thought of it reminding him of Sasuke. "Then you can make a dozen of shadow clones!"

"Yeah but the blazing fireball jutsu was hard too. I still haven't gotten it right. Jutsus are hard! I'm only good at taijutsu I think." I gazed at the small scars on my hands left from the burns.

A pause. "Hey, Memori?"

"Hm?"

"What was your nightmare about?"
I frowned to myself as the dream's details came flooding back to the front of my mind again. I sat myself up and stayed in silence for some time, timidly trekking through that memory that I wanted to forget. Naruto was patient and waited for my response.

"It was… sad and terrifying all at once." I wasn't sure if that was the right words to put it.
"Do you think it was a memory?"

"…I'm not sure. There's no way for me to tell one way or the other."

Naruto scratched his whiskered cheek in thought. "The last time you had a nightmare like that, did you do anything before you went to sleep?"

"Nothing really out of the ordinary. I ate, brushed my teeth and got into bed."

"There has to be something. But what?"

I turned to glance at Naruto whose sky blue eyes were in deep thought. I started to laugh which had me buckled over five seconds in from the flood of emotion. Tears welled in my eyes from the strain in my gut from how much laughing I was doing. It felt like someone was ticking me from the inside. Naruto stared at me thinking I've lost my mind.

"Oh my gawd. You've snapped!" He began to get worried, thinking that's what was causing me to laugh so hard.

"Hahahaha! Oh, don't worry Naruto," I hiccuped and rubbed my eyes, still giggling but stopped laughing more or less. I grinned as big as Naruto and rolled myself to my feet and stood ready for another round of attempting the Shadow Clone Jutsu. "One more time! This time, I'll get it right!"