"Yukue?"
"You see? Doesn't she look exactly like Yukue?"
"Who are you talking about?" The hokage then took the moment to clear her throat, which thankfully snapped everyone's attention back to her.

"Ahem. She is not who you think she is." Tsunade-sama leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. She then started to explain for the hundredth time today, "This girl was found by Team 8 and she woke up in the hospital with amnesia. She doesn't remember anything at all and we are currently trying to do whatever we can to help her. So I don't think she is Yukue. Based from my records, the person who you're currently thinking about died 4 years ago."
The faces of the others in the room are the definition of sadness.
I felt terrible. It must be hard for them to have their hopes up about their missing friend only for it to come crashing down. "I'm sorry I'm not the person you are looking for." They smiled at me. "It's fine. You just look exactly like her, it's hard for us not to get our hopes up." Naruto tried to reassure me.

Naruto faced the hokage. "Granny Tsunade, you said that she has amnesia?"
"Yes I did. We believe it came from the amount of blood loss from her stab wound and that bump she has on her head."
Naruto, along with the others, nodded their heads in understanding. "What methods have you tried doing?" the Hyuga prodigy questioned.
"I tried using the Mystical Hand Technique." Sakura piped up.
"Yeah and my dad tried going into her mind as well."
"I'm assuming none of those methods worked." I shook my head to confirm Tsunade's suspicion.

Lady hokage sighed. "Well these things take time. Which reminds me", Tsunade opened her desk drawer and pulled out an envelope. "In the meantime, you will be staying here, in the village. I'll be paying for your living expenses until you're able to apply a job and earn your own money."
"This is great! Another friend will be added to the group!"
"You're allowing me to join you guys?" I questioned them. They all grinned at me. "Of course! The more the merrier!" I smiled brightly at them in happiness. "Thank you so much! You have no idea how happy I am to hear that." Joy filled up in me.

Tsunade-sama handed me the envelope. "Now here are the keys to your new home, the address, and a few papers. There is also some money as well for necessities." I took the envelope and hugged her. "Thank you so much for doing this for me." Happy tears spilled down my face. I am extremely grateful for these people. They're really going out of their way to help me.
Tsunade hugged me back then she released me after a minute.

"So everything is settled then." "Yes and she could hang out with us!" Tenten exclaimed happily. I nodded my head at them with a smile. "That's good! So whatever you need, or questions you have, go directly to your friends or ask me."
"Ok. But there's a tiny detail we haven't sorted out."
"And what is that?"
"A name." I said. "I don't want to be called "Girl with Amnesia" the entire time until I found my memories."
"For the mean time, since you don't remember your name, we will have to call you by something else. Do you have any preferences?" I shook my head, no.

"Ami?"

"Nope."

"Neria?"

"No"

"Heatu?"

"No"

"Oh I have the perfect name!

"Really? What is it?"

"Furgeson!"

"….."

".."

"NOT EVEN!"

"Hmm.. habbout Utari?"{1}
"… Utari.." I tested the name on my tongue. "It's perfect! Thank you Sakura!"
The pinkette smiled back.

"Ok so I have a place to stay, the things I need, and a name. I'm ready to go!" Tsunade nodded at me.
"Utari, you are now hereby considered a citizen of Konoha, the Great Hidden Leaf Village. I wish you luck." "Thank you Hokage-sama." With these being said, I walked out of the room with my newfound friends.

*Grumble*
"hihihi Naruto was that you?" The blond, blue-eyed boy put a hand to his stomach. "I must be really hungry. Habbout you guys?"
A chorus of "Yeah" or "I'm starving as well" could be heard throughout the group.

"Habbout you, Utari?" Sai asked me. "I'm starving!"
"Great! So where do you guys wanna eat?"
"How about barbeque? Shikamaru and Choji might be there around this time. We could introduce them to Utari."
"That's a good idea Ino!" Sai smiled at her. Ino's cheeks reddened a dark shade of red and a bashful smile appeared on her face. "T-thank you, Sai." Noticing her expression, I nudged her with my elbow and wiggled my eyebrows, motioning over to the oblivious Sai. Her eyes widened and her face grew even redder. "Utari!" She whisper-shouted. I snickered in my hand. 'I bet they'll end up together one day. It's too bad Sai is oblivious to Ino's feelings. I'm sure they'll be an adorable couple.'

"We're finally here!" Tenten cheered.
"Yes! I am starving!" Lee followed in after her.
"And we're right on time too. There's Shikamaru and Choji, and it looks like they reserved a table for all of us. Perfect!" We rushed inside the bbq place and quickly made our way towards to boys.
One of them has familiar black spiky hair, which he keeps tied is a high ponytail. Dark piercing brown eyes shown extreme laziness, but under all that (and I mean deep deep under that), I could see acute brilliance and intelligence. He wore a simple pair of studs which is similar to the ones Ino and the other boy were wearing. His black long-sleeved shirt is tucked under his green flash jacket with the metal plating of the forehead protector, sewn on his sleeve.

The other boy, who also had familiar spiky hair, was brown in color and was waist-length, had noticeable red swirl marks on his cheeks and under his eyes, which displayed kindness. He had a robust physique and he sports a red suit with plated armor covering some parts of his body. He wore a similar flak jacket to the one of the other spiky haired boy along with the same studs.

"Hey guys!"
"Naruto! You guys! What you so long?" The chubby boy questioned.
"Oh c'mon Choji! Don't act like you've been here for hours."
Who I assumed was Shikamaru, smirked at the ever-annoyed Naruto. "No but it is very troublesome to wait for everyone. Choji here was getting hungrier by the minute."
"Well let's go get our grub on!" Ino grabbed Sai by the arm and dragged him all the way towards her seat.
"C'mon Sai, you could sit next to me." Everyone snickered at her action while Sai looked at all of us in confusion. 'Sai you are so dense!'

"Who's this?" I heard someone question.
"Oh which reminds me. Utari, this is Shikamaru and Choji, my teammates." Ino pointed to the respective person as she said their names. "Shikamaru and Choji – Utari."

"I am assuming you are the new girl we heard a lot about from Lady Tsunade?" It came out more of a statement than a question.

"I guess so. Utari is my "temporary" name by the way." Shikamaru nodded his head in understanding. "Temporary huh?"
"Yup!"
"Welcome to the group, Utari-chan!" I grinned at Choji. "Thank you!"

Greetings were exchanged and we finally sat down on our respective seats.
"Hey! Where's Team 8?" "Oh they weren't able to make it because they're currently out on a mission." "That's a shame. I want Utari to officially meet the squad that found her in the training field." With that said, my thoughts suddenly drifted to the boy who I first met. His piercing eyes, messy hair, the cute red triangle cheek marks..
I felt Sakura nudge my side. "Reckon someone from that squad gave you all those flowers?" she whispered soft enough that only I could here. But that didn't really work out because as soon as those words escaped her lips, the girls present in the table leaned close to us and started to whisper as well.
"What flowers?" and an "Are we taking about a secret admirer here?" Came out of the other girls.
"Thanks Sakura..." she laughed nervously in response. "Hehe sorry."
"Now back to the topic, what flowers are we talking about here?" Ino questioned. Sakura then happily- and to my embarrassment and displeasure- explained to the females, "Well fortunately for Utari, here, when she was admitted to the hospital, for about a week or so, a "secret admirer" would send her flowers everyday."

A chorus of soft coo's and "aww's" came from the other females. I hid my beet-red face in my hands. "We don't know who it is. No one knows. Not even the other nurses nor the receptionist know wo did it."
Tenten had a thinking face on. "So he could've snuck in somehow, or he could've entered through the window. Wait a minute. Ino do you know anyone who bought flowers from your shop everyday for a week?" Ino put her hands under her chin and looked to be thinking really hard. "No I don't think there was anyone who bought from us consecutively for onewhole week… which means.." The girls' eyes widened in realization. I didn't have any clue what was going on. "What? What does it mean?"

"It means, Utari, those flowers that you have been receiving, since it didn't come from my flower shop, we're guessing your "secret admirer" has been freshly picking those flowers for you everyday!" Excited squeals escaped their lips.

"Hey. What are you guys whispering about?" Naruto's spiky blond hair popped up in the middle of our group. "Nothing!" We suddenly jumped apart. 'Thank goodness Naruto intervened. I couldn't take any more of their squeals.'
"C'mon guys! It's a good time to celebrate and eat barbeque! We're adding another friend to the group!" Choji's words snapped me back to the conversation.
"Yes! Let us have a youthful celebration in welcoming our new youthful friend, Utari!"
I smiled gratefully at each and every one of them. "Thank you guys so much. No words can explain how grateful I am to you guys."
"Cheers!"
A chorus of loud "Cheers!" echoed around the group as we raised our glasses in the air and clinked them together.

After taking a sip of the delicious juice (since Lee couldn't drink alcohol), the night progressed on and so did the laughter and conversations. I looked around at our table. Sakura, Neji, and Tenten were having their own discussion, while Choji was stuffing his face full of barbeque, not minding anything that's happening around him. Naruto and Lee were having some sort of rivalry talk and Shikamaru and Sai were having their own conversation, while Ino was still trying her useless attempts to catch Sai's attention. I smiled at them happily.

'I'm grateful to these people. Not only are they doing everything they can to help me, but also they give me another reason to be happy. I can start fresh from here. A new life with new friends and new memories that could fill the void.'

-
~Meanwhile~
In the Hokage Mansion, 3 pairs of footsteps echoed through the corridors of the great building. Knocking on the door, they were signaled to enter the office of the great Lady Hokage. Serious expressions were on every one of their faces.
The hokage then put the papers she was holding, down on the table and folded her hands on the tabletop.
"So what have you discovered about our new friend?"
The 3 leaders of the great clans Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi, stood in front of her desk, troubled and stressed looks on their faces.
They turned seriously to her. "You were right about what you had said earlier, Lady Tsunade."

She nodded her head in understanding, leaned back on her chair, crossed her arms in front of her, and closed her hazel eyes in deep thought. She nodded her head. "So I was right after all. Her amnesia isn't normal. It didn't come from any natural causes like blood loss."
"No."
"Then what do you think is the reason for all of this?"
"We believe that there is something going on entirely. A greater power might be at work here."
"What are you trying to say?"

The three leaders gave heavy sighs.

"Something might be blocking us from unlocking her memories."

~0~0~0~

"Love has no boundaries; no matter how small it is, no matter the amount it is given, whether it is little or great, if it is strong enough, it will surpass anything... even worlds."

~0~0~0~0~

{1}Utari is the Japanese word meaning one's fellow man; kin; comrade.

~0~0~0~0~

Hey Reader-chan! It's me, Ki-chan! :3

So this is the other half of the chapter I was talking about. I hope it's ok.

Arigatou for continuing to read this story.

Tell me what you think and

Comment, 3 (if ever), and continue reading :3

HAPPY READING!

P.S. All Rights Reserved to Kishimoto-sama! ^_^