Good? No good? Tell me what you think! Things are about to get real interesting now. Part one is about to be done, and Part two will soon be begun. I hope you're as excited as I am! :D

Enjoy~!

~Omo no shi

I felt like I was flying. My body felt as light as a feather, and when I could make myself focus, it felt as though I were slowly drifting back towards the Earth plain. It was hard to focus. There were so many beautiful things surrounding me. I was in so many different places at once it seemed; these were places I had never before seen. I smiled and closed my eyes as I fell. I wasn't scared, because I knew once I hit the bottom it wouldn't hurt anymore. If I hit the ground it would feel as though I had decided to fall back onto a comfortable bed.

Unlike every other time I had been unconscious, it was bright in this place. It was warm, unlike the cold I had become accustomed to. I could move as much as I wanted, and yet none of it felt right. In my mind I still felt the falling sensation, and yet I remained in this beautiful place. I didn't feel the desire to leave, but I felt like I needed to. There was something that I needed to do. But what was it? I reached up and touched my ears and frowned. If I was going to leave this place, how would I go about doing that?

I looked down at the ground and then sat down on my knees. I ran my fingers through the grass and dug my fingers into the dirt. It was soft and felt like I was digging through cotton. My breath was slow and steady despite the level of exertion I was putting forth now. I didn't know how long I had been digging for, but soon the ground began to open up near the bottom and I could see myself. I was lying in what looked to be like a hospital bed. I was heavily bandaged and hooked to multiple machines. It was one of the most horrible sights I had ever seen. Before I could wonder how I had gotten in that state, the ground beneath me gave out and I tumbled through the hole. I clenched my eyes shut and shielded my face with my arms, fearing the impact, but the only thing I felt was a sensation I likened to water rising up and swallowing me whole.

My body felt heavy. I wanted to open my eyes and take a look around, but I found it impossible at the moment. I could hear quiet beeping off to my right, and I wondered briefly if my hearing aid had never really been broken in the first place. I wasn't in pain; quite the opposite actually. Despite the drowsy feeling, I was the most relaxed I had been in a long time. But even though I wasn't in pain, I wanted to know why I was in the hospital, wrapped heavily in bandages and hooked to machines that appeared as though they had been designed to keep someone alive. It made me wonder if I had been close to death.

I concentrated on the muscles that allowed me to open and close my eyes. I could feel my eyelids fluttering just barely; using a herculean effort to open. Once they were open, which they hadn't opened very far, I let my eyes wander. I was alone in the small hospital room. The window was open, letting in a slight breeze. It was warm enough to want to get rid of all of the blankets on top of me, but unless I had someone in here to remove them, I wouldn't be able to summon the strength to do it myself. I took a deep breath, breathing in the mixed aromas of the sweet summer air wafting in through the window and the slightly bitter and clinical air of the hospital.

"Lady Tsunade, please help Sasuke next! Sasuke next!"

"Sa... su... ke..." I murmured. What was wrong with Sasuke?

"I'll check on Mizuki and see if she's okay. I'll meet back with you in Sasuke's room, okay, Naruto?"

I glanced at the door as it slid open and watched a girl with short pink hair walk in. When she looked up at me, she grinned and hurried to my side. She looked familiar, but I couldn't recall where I had seen her before. This had been the girl who had said she was going to check on me just moments ago. What was her name, I wondered.

"You're awake!" She exclaimed and gently hugged me as best she could without hurting me. "It took you long enough."

"How long...?"

She lost her enthusiastic expression. "You've been in a coma for just a week short of two months, now. The nurses said that it shouldn't have taken so long for you to recover, but you suffered some really major injuries during the Chunin Exams. Your shoulder was broken, your ankle was broken in three places, your spinal chord was damaged, and you had a little bit of internal bleeding and third and second degree burns."

"Did I... die?" I asked. There was no way I could describe to this girl what I had experienced. She would probably think I was crazy.

"You came close to it. When they pulled you from the preliminaries, you were going into cardiac arrest. You should have told someone sooner how much pain you were in. The body can only handle so much, Mizuki." She scolded.

I grimaced. "What's your name again? I'll have to remember it so that I can remind myself to avoid you."

"Don't tell me you don't know who I am," she gasped. "Mizuki?"

"Do me a favor and help me sit up." I said, ignoring her. "Where's Sasuke?"

She put her arms under my shoulder and lifted me into a sitting position. "He's in the other room. The woman who will become the new Hokage is treating him now. She's a top-notch Medical Ninja."

"Whoa, hold on a second. We don't need a new Hokage! What happened to the Old Man?" I panicked. "Why can't he be the Hokage anymore? I know he's old, but he's still in his prime! He's more than capable of handling the village!"

She averted her eyes, but I grabbed her chin and yanked her head back around so she could face me. I stared at her, watching the strength in her eyes fade to something that could be called grief. Tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks. Her reaction was supposed to clue me in on something, and I knew it, but I still wasn't quite comprehending it. I shook her, tightening my hand on her jaw.

"Where's the Old Man? Huh! Why isn't he here?" I could feel my own tears rising against my will. She was lying to me! Even without saying a word, I had finally understood. There could be no way that the old man had kicked the bucket. He was the Hokage. You couldn't just kill the Hokage like that. How had it happened? Why? He didn't deserve to die!

"During the Chunin Exams, the village was invaded by Hidden Sand and Hidden Sound shinobi. The Hokage died defending the village. Apparently, they were planning on destroying the village with that boy from the Hidden Sand. He was some sort of monster."

That struck a nerve. "Boy from the Hidden Sand? What was his name?"

"Gaara."

I stared at her, trying to fully comprehend what she had just said. There could be no way the Hokage had been killed. There could be no way that the boy I had met when I was just a little girl, and who had also conveniently been my first kiss, could have been the force behind the destruction of the Leaf. When we had shared that moment in the Forest of Death, I believed that I had seen something in him that no one else had. I could see so clearly that he had merely locked himself away from everyone else. He was lonely. There was no way he could do something like that.

Right?

"You're lying!" I shouted. Without warning, I ripped the sheets back and pushed her away, running out of the room as fast as I could. I could hear her running after me, calling out for me to stop and listen to her. How could I listen to a bunch of liars! Gaara would never do something so horrible, and there was no way that Old Man Hokage was dead. I couldn't believe it. Everything had turned into one, big, inescapable lie. There was nothing to believe anymore. I could remember saying something about finding the obstacle that obscured my true path, but that couldn't be an option. How did I know if that was a lie or not? What did I have to believe in?

When I turned a corner, I tripped and tumbled through an open door. I hit the ground with a painful thud and rubbed my head. I sat up and looked around, forgetting for a moment why I had been running away. There was a boy lying in a bed before me; his eyes were closed and he was breathing low and easy. He was obviously asleep. The girl who had been chasing after me ran into the room and tried to catch her breath. She was doubled over with her hands pressed against her knees, gasping for air. Was she just that slow, or had I been running just that fast?

"Hey... who is this guy?" I whispered.

"You don't remember him, huh?" She let out a sad laugh and shook her head. "That's Rock Lee; the boy you fought against before we started the Chunin Exams."

She kneeled beside me and placed her hand on my shoulder. I ducked out from under her hand and watched her with narrowed eyes. I didn't know who she was, but she obviously knew me from somewhere. If that was the case, why didn't I remember her? I felt like I should, but I didn't. She was staring at me with sad big green eyes. It was hard to look at her when she was wearing that expression; it made me feel horrible for not remembering her, but remembering other things.

"I'm sorry..." I cast my eyes downwards and stared at my hands. They were wrapped entirely with bandages, covering wounds that had been inflicted on me during the exams. "Truly I... don't remember you."

She sighed and rubbed her face. "It's okay. Maybe your memories will come back in time."

"I don't know. I get the feeling it won't be that easy. What's your name?"

"Sakura." She said.

I sighed. Even hearing her name didn't make me feel anything. There was no sudden recollection of past memories or feelings; nothing. Just the same way I had been feeling for the past ten minutes I had been awake: angry, confused, and undeniably sad. All of these feelings that were in me swirled together and made me unstable. I could hardly think straight. I didn't know this girl and because of that, I couldn't trust her. The boy in the bed I couldn't remember, though I had fought him. I had been told the Hokage was killed, and the Hidden Leaf had been invaded by the shinobi from Sunagakure and Otogakure. Everything around me was familiar and yet new. It seemed that random things had been wiped from my mind, leaving absolutely no trace of the memories. Did this mean I could never get them back? Would I have to start past relationships over from scratch?

"Sakura." I murmured. "Haruno..."

"Yes!" She smiled. I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Sakura... were you lying to me earlier? You know... about the invasion and... and the Hokage?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mizuki."

"It's... okay." I tried to keep my voice from shaking, but I hadn't fooled her. Sakura rested her hand on my knee and sighed, turning her eyes towards the boy in the bed. Over the month I had been in a coma, what had I missed? She looked so sad, and not just after remembering what had happened to the Third Hokage, but while she was looking at Rock Lee. There was something in her expression that told me the reason he was here had been completely separate from the incident that had killed the Hokage. I wanted to remember everything I had forgotten and know everything I had missed so desperately in was becoming a physical pain in my heart. I grabbed at my chest and clawed at the hospital gown I was wearing. Why was this happening to me? Why couldn't I just be normal? Why were my memories suddenly wiped clean from my mind? Why was I deaf? Why had I nearly died before the real fight had begun? Could someone tell me?

I wiped my eyes and tried to hide the fact that I was beginning to cry. Sakura said something but I ripped the hearing aid from my ear and threw it at her, pushing myself up from the ground and running out of the room again. When I had finally gotten outside, I collapsed to the ground and slammed my hands against it until began to hurt. Why! How come nothing around me was normal? This life I chose to live, was it really something I had a choice in?

It wasn't fair! I glanced back behind me and saw Sakura running out of the hospital with reinforcements. I wiped my eyes and launched myself off the ground and onto the surrounding buildings. I couldn't be here. I needed time alone to think about what I had to do next, and with people trying to force their lies on me, there was no way that I could do that easily. If they got ahold of me, there was no doubt in my mind that they would sedate me and restrain me somewhere until I had come to my senses.

When I had ran what I deemed far enough into the forest, I stopped and laid down on a branch high up in the canopy of the trees. The leaves swayed gently from left to right in the soft breeze. I wanted to regret throwing my hearing aid at Sakura, but I didn't. This is something that was truly familiar to me. My body had a much different feel to it than it did back when I was younger, and the circumstances were different now, as to why I was here, but everything else was the same. I stared up at the leaves, watching their graceful dance and allowed myself to relax. If I could relax I could think properly on my next move; rationalized thinking was important for a shinobi.

I couldn't dispute the fact that I had truly been in a coma, but I could argue about everything else until I saw it with my own eyes. The village didn't look as though it had been attacked recently, so how could they prove to me that the village had actually been invaded? Where was the proof? I was being difficult, but I had an honest reason to be. There was no way to trust the people you didn't know. I wanted to hear it from someone I could remember, someone I felt like I could trust, like Sasuke. He wouldn't lie to me.

Before I could react to the hands I suddenly felt all over me, they had pinned me down against the branch. I thrashed against the ones who were holding me down, but my strength was nothing compared to theirs.

"Let go!" I cried, finally freeing one of my legs. I kicked the man who tried to restrain me again and he flew back against the tree and collapsed, unconscious. I felt someone put something in my ear, and suddenly, I could hear the sounds of their struggle. I screamed and fought against them with everything I had. To them I probably looked like someone who belonged in a mental hospital. "Why!"

"Mizuki Hyuga, please calm down!" One of the men shouted. I stopped fighting and let my body go limp. I stared up at the canopy of the trees and felt the warm trails of tears sliding down my face. They were quiet, waiting to see if I would start fighting again, but I had suddenly lost my will to fight just then. It had left me because I had never truly had that will in the first place.

"He can't be... Old Man..." I whispered. "It's not his fault... Gaara. Why did this happen? Why..."

"I think she's stable."

"Someone carry her back to the hospital and keep watch over her."

"Don't let her out of your sight. As of right now, she's capable of anything in her state of mind."

I reached up stared at my bandaged hand. "Someone tell me why."

Their silence was my only answer.