White Rose

Okay, since I've started studying I have much more to do than in summer, so I really don't have the time for a weekly update. I will update this story now every two weeks and not later. When I should get really productive I might update earlier, just so you know. I'm really sorry, but I can't keep up with writing this AND my work. I hope you'll be fine with that.

My first thank you goes to the people who reviewed the last chapter: katarauchiha653719, IXLoveXMyXFishy, darkheart1992, enapets21, aquamarine-acaia and Sandra1920499

Another thank you goes to kitsune light for faving this.

Rates and especially reviews are highly welcome and keep me motivated to develop this story, don't forget that you don't need an account to do so

Last but not least: Have fun

I do not own Naruto

Story

Author's commentary/Yelling

Thoughts/Dreams/Memories

Forgotten Memories Part 1

A dimly lit room. Judging by the medical tools and items there it was a room nobody would like being inside. This room could give anybody the creeps just by thinking about it. Not that it was dirty or the smell unbearable, quite the contrary. Everything in the room was stainless clean, no sign of the things that were usually done inside. That fact made the room just scarier for everyone who knew of that room and the things that usually happened in there. Every single drop of blood that was shed in there disappeared into nowhere. There was no doubt that blood was being shed in there. Occasionally there would be agonizing screams coming out of it and if there were survivors they looked horrible after leaving that room, or rather being brought elsewhere...

If somebody would wonder about that room the answer would always be the same: "Stay away from that room unless you are told otherwise. That's Kabuto's experimental lab. He doesn't like people in there and you better believe me when I say that you absolutely don't want to go in there... "

Talking about the devil. The gray haired boy was currently with his master, explaining the situation about his newest experiment... The girl he had caught... She was inside of that room. Her body lay on a cold, metal plate Kabuto called his examination table. The whole room had a rather low temperature. Most of the time it was easier to work like that. She was tied to that plate and the chakra blocking material made it impossible to escape. If it wasn't for the blanket that lay on her she would have frozen, but Kabuto was sure to take good care of her. After all he couldn't let her die. At least not now, not as long as she might be useful...

"Aimi... ", a pale faced man pronounced that name playfully, testing the sound of it, "So we finally have her back?"

"Yes. And I do believe that little time out of her's made her more precious for your purpose, Orochimaru-sama. She has gained knowledge and power. I also believe that the emotions she has gone through will make it easy for us to deal with her", Kabuto handed a stack of papers to his master.

"Where is she now?", Orochimaru skipped through the notes.

"In my lab, sleeping. She was exhausted. Physically AND mentally."

"Be so kind and let me know when she wakes up. I would really like to welcome her back", he chuckled, "I haven't seen Aimi-chan for a while now... "

"Of course... ", Kabuto left the room, heading for his lab.

Once arrived he turned the lights on and sat on a chair next to the examination table. Grabbing a syringe he turned to his victim. Carefully he exposed one of her arms and sanitized it. His eyes shifted to her face. She looked like she was having a nightmare. Her face was grimacing in fear. He had to be careful while taking her blood since she was squirming from time to time. Silently he wondered if he had told her too much some time earlier. He hadn't expected her to break down after the few words he had uttered, but maybe he had approached the situation from the wrong side. After all she was a being with abilities yet unknown to him. Taking a last glance at her he started some research. The question of what she was currently seeing in her dreams was something that didn't invade his mind at all. Why should he? If he couldn't get any advantage of something it was simply useless...

A nightmare? NO. This was worse than a nightmare. This was hell! Why did she have to remember? Why did she have to live through her memories over and over again?! She had left that behind. She had started a new life. A better one! Why was she in this prison, forced to see all those things?! She had never really wanted to remember her past. She had been just fine with her present, but now? Damn that Toya or Kabuto or whatever - WHOEVER he was!!! If he hadn't reminded her... If he hadn't uttered those words... Damn him! And damn Orochimaru for everything he had done to her. That snake bastard... She feared and hated him. That was why she had fled a few years ago. Anywhere was better than this place! She wanted to run, get away from this monster, but she was trapped. Trapped in this hell of a nightmare, forced to relive her past...

One of the oldest memory she had, was one concerning her mother. Little Aimi had been three years old, living with her mother on a farm with a tavern somewhere in nowhere. About three days away was a small village where some of the things were bought that couldn't be produced by the owners of the farm themselves. Reika, her mother, worked as a waitress, enabling them to live in that house. If there weren't much customers she would also go out to harvest on the fields or something like that. Aimi didn't know exactly since she hardly ever left her room. People didn't have the time to take care of her and Reika didn't want her to be seen by others too much anyway. About this was the time when her nightmare started. This was the place her mind had landed after falling asleep...

-Dream/Memory-

Aimi was in her and her mother's room, staring out of the window. Her eyes were glued to the small playground right next to the house. It didn't have much to offer, but it was okay. There was a sandbox, a slide and two swings. She had always liked playing there. The swing was her favorite. She loved it when she was high up in the air. Aimi always tried getting as high as possible and then jumped, flying through the air until her mother's arms would catch her. That had always been the most fun to her... Had been... It wasn't like she had lost the joy of playing there, but nowadays she knew that something was missing. Every time she played there she would be alone or with her mother and somehow it felt strange. It felt... lonely...

The owner of the farm would sometimes tell her how his children used to play together when they were still young. They would play hide and seek and chase after one another. That had been the time where a deep friendship had been molded between the siblings. Aimi never really understood what the old man was talking about, but she knew that she craved for something like that. A friend... Someone her age maybe... A bit younger or older would be fine too. Unfortunately she was the only child around. Everybody else was at least twenty or something, the small girl couldn't really tell. She could only tell if people were older than her or much older than her.

It was late afternoon and the wind was playing with the swings. The sun would set soon and Reika would come to tutor her daughter. After learning they would go out and play... Maybe... Aimi couldn't stop thinking of something else. She wondered how other children would look like if she ever saw one. What would they say? How would they be like? Would they be nice and play with her? Bully her? Okay, that was hard to imagine since Aimi had never been bullied nor has seen somebody bullying somebody else. People just kept telling her, that it was something bad. Something she wasn't allowed to do. The girl was rather confused. What was good? What was bad? She was clueless, probably too young to understand anyway. She guessed that she wouldn't mind at all when another child would bully her. She'd probably be rather happy to know that she wasn't alone in this world.

A sad smile left her lips. Time... Too much time passed without anything happening. Too much time to think about god and the world. So much questions she asked herself, contemplating... Even though she was so young she had come to understand a lot in her small world. She knew that she would grow up some day, just like her mother. Maybe she would have children of her own. Just like the cows and horses and chickens and all the other animals on the farm did. Thinking about that reminded her that she wasn't allowed to go to the barn and play with the animals. Sometimes her mother would take her horseback riding, but that had also lost it's magic. Aimi tried not attaching herself to those animals because they would end up as her food and clothes one day. Yes, she knew about that. Those animals were bred to be sold and made other use of. That was a major part of this farms and taverns income. Silently she sighed again. Poor animals, but that didn't stop her from eating them. It was a part of nature's way and it gave meaning to their lives... At least they led a happy life in this place. The farmers here were very nice to their animals. They got plenty of food, water, grazing land and they were free to choose who they wanted to mate with. Not that they had a lot of choices. Most of the animals were females since the males would be the first to be sold. She understood that new life could only be created by a male and a female animal and humans worked most probably the same. No birds and bees and no stork bringing the babies, she didn't believe in those stories. But it wasn't like she was watching the animals do whatever they did to have babies. Actually she had no idea, but she couldn't help but eavesdrop on some of the conversations that went through the house. That's how she found out...

Whenever she had time, whenever she wouldn't be sleeping and whenever she would be alone she would try sneaking out of her room. She was always curious of what the people had to talk about. Since she was just learning how to read she could only listen to the great stories of the people who passed this place and they were very exciting. She heard of many things during her secret adventures. Stories of great villages, great warriors, villains, heroes, conflicts, hate... friendship and... love... Of course there were other topics too, but those were the most interesting ones. Especially the friendship and love thing. They intrigued her very much since she couldn't comprehend that information very good. She wanted to understand how those things worked. She wanted to know how it feels since everything sounded so great...

That's why she had begged her mother to teach her how to read. The old man who owned the farm had a giant bookshelf with all kind of stories. At least in her eyes it was giant. She wanted to read those books even if the stories weren't true. She believed that her loneliness would be easier to bear if she was able to read. Maybe those book could be her friends in some way. After all she had heard that friends would tell each other everything, share their secrets and such. If she would be able to read those books they would surely reveal all their secrets to her, Aimi knew it. Unfortunately her progress wasn't as good as she wished. Reading was something hard to learn...

Thinking about it she slowly realized that her mother was late. Curiously she shifted her gaze, looking at the room's door. Nothing happened. Carefully she got down from the stool she was standing on. She was too small to look out of the window without some kind of help. The little girl walked to the door only to bump into it.

"Ouch... ", Aimi rubbed her nose and forehead. The door had opened on it's own, crashing into the girl's face.

"Aimi?!", a woman walked into the room, "I'm sorry. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah... I'm okay", she stopped rubbing her nose. It wasn't something too bad, she had had definitely worse. Aimi was rather clumsy. Tripping, bumping into things and hitting herself in any kind of way was nothing new to her.

"I'm late, I know. There were still some things I had to do", the woman smiled and hugged the girl.

"Teach me how to read, mom!", Aimi hugged her mother.

Reika lifted up her daughter and placed her on a chair next to a table: "As you wish honey", she smiled and turned to a closet.

Aimi took a peek at what her mother was doing. The closet was stuffed with all kind of things since they didn't have much room for themselves. Book, clothes, different boxes and documents could be seen inside. Reika cautiously pulled out a book from that more or less chaos and closed the closet again. Then she took another chair and sat next to her daughter, placing the book on the table: "Let's get started, shall we?", the little girl smiles brightly and the lecture starts.

About two hours with little progress had passed as the lecture ended. Aimi was discontent due to that, but she couldn't change it. After all she was just three. Understanding something didn't mean that it was that easy to execute. Sighing in defeat she laid her forehead onto the table. She wanted to grow up faster. Everyone she asked had told her that a lot of things were easier when she was a grown-up and reading was surely one of those things. If she were already grown up she wouldn't be the only one her age anymore. People wouldn't have to take care of her and maybe she could be helpful to her mother. She might find friends. Experience love?...

Again she sighed, turning her head to the side. Reika had fallen asleep with her head on the table. That was the actual reason why the lesson ended. Lately that would happen more often. She was always so tired from who knew what. Aimi couldn't tell what reason there was, but she could tell that her mother's position was rather uncomfortable for sleeping. Unfortunately she was too small to put her mother to bed all alone. Another reason why she wanted to grow up, but for now she would need some help.

Silently she got off the chair and left the room. Out on the corridor she headed for the stairs down to the ground floor. Once arrived she couldn't help but look at all the people who had gathered in the tavern. There was no place left to sit anywhere. The tables were all full. Luckily enough most of the people were just talking, hardly an order was placed. Good. She wanted to head into the kitchen, but her curiosity just got the best of her. Secretly she listened to some of the people talk. After hearing some of the stories she was disappointed. They were just gossiping. No one was really talking about her favorite topics. Oh well... Carefully she sneaked herself into the kitchen.

"Uncle? Uncle, can you help me?", her high voice chanted through the kitchen.

"Aimi?", an elderly man appeared from behind some pots filled with steaming food, "What's the matter? Why have you left your room?"

The girl was looking at the owner of this whole place. She could never remember his name and that's why she just called him uncle: "It's mum... She fell asleep again... Can you help me put her into bed?"

The man looked at her a bit concerned: "Again?... ", he grunted displeased, "I'm a bit busy here at the moment... "

"Is it that bad?", she made a sad face.

The old man couldn't resist: "Okay, I'll help. But we'll have to be quick", he pushed some buttons and turned switches. Then he lifted up the girl and together they walked up to her mother. Even though the owner of this place was already so old he was still in top shape. Carrying heavy things, cooking and taking care of the place were no issues to him.

As soon as they arrived in the respective room Aimi prepared the bed and the old man carefully placed Reika on it. The girl pulled a blanket over her mother's shape while he left. It took only a few seconds before she went after him: "Uncle?"

"Yes?", he turned to face her.

"Could mom get a day off or something next week?", Aimi was fidgeting with her clothing.

"I'm not sure... Why do you ask?", he looked puzzled.

"Ah... It's my birthday... ", the man fell silent, "I would just like to have her fully wake and not exhausted on that day... "

He smiled: "I think that should be arrangeable. Now go back to your room. Shoo!", playfully he motioned her to leave.

The girl's lips curled up to a soft smile and she went back. Well... There she was again, inside of her room. She was all alone again since sleeping mom didn't really count. Alone... Something she was too often for her taste. Silently she watched Reika sleeping. In Aimi's eyes her mother was a beautiful woman. She had dark, flawless skin and blazing, white hair. If she wasn't asleep like now people would look into eyes the color of green. Ever since Aimi had seen a picture of a forest she had called her mother's eyes forest green. She really liked that color.

The little girl sighed again, walking to the big mirror in the room. Looking at her reflection she wondered why she didn't look just like her mother. The skin wasn't dark, but rather tanned. The hair was white, but had a strange, red streak. Her eyes were crimson red... Why was she different? Recently she had wondered about things like that. She had also wondered why her mother looked so different to the other people around this place. Where was her father and who? Did she have one? Probably yes, but she couldn't bring up the courage to ask her mother since she always looked so sad when the word family was uttered. Aimi guessed that it was okay like this. She had a feeling that someday she'd find out.

She turned back to face her mother and noticed that the exercising book for reading was still on the table. Usually her mother would put the book away before falling asleep. Well, it's not like she had anything better to do. Aimi climbed up the chair and opened the book and tried learning without her mother's help. Some hours passed before she cuddled up to her mother and fell asleep. As soon as she woke up again her mother was already gone. Nothing new to her though. Being alone was a part of her daily life...

A few days past like this and Aimi's fourth birthday was approaching. It was about noon and the girl was in her room, bored. Her reading skills had become a bit better ever since she started spending more time on learning. She was eager to learn more. Curiously she opened the closet, searching for that exercising book. She found it somewhere up high between other things. It was the very first time she had opened that closet on herself. After getting herself a chair and climbing it she tried reaching for the book, but it was still out of her reach. Balancing on her tiptoes she was able to touch the item with her fingertips. After some fidgeting she was able to pull the book out of it's place. Unfortunately she lost balance, fell from the chair and pulled out some other items from the closet too. That was just typically her... A box hit hear head right after she had landed on the floor.

"Ouch... ", she freed herself from the things that had fallen onto her. She had to put that stuff back somehow. First she placed her book on the table then she looked at the mess she had left. Some not so neatly folded clothes lay there together with some other books and the box that had hit her head. Yep, with all spread on the floor it was a great mess...

Aimi wasn't sure what to do with the clothes since she didn't know how to fold them. She decided to take care of the books first. Carefully she put them back to their places. Luckily they didn't fall from too high in the closet. Afterwards she picked up the clothes and placed them on the bed. While doing that she noticed something shiny. It seemed to have fallen out of the box. Curiously she picked it up, analyzing it. It was some kind of cloth with a piece of metal stuck to it. There was something engraved to the metal, but she had never seen anything like it...

Aimi looked around and saw that other things had fallen out of the box. Strange items, reminding her of knives and stars. Carelessly she tried picking them up, but she stopped immediately after cutting herself: "Ouch!", immediately her lips had surrounded her finger. Coppery taste spread threw her mouth. Those things were sharp! Okay, now she would make sure not to touch those things again. While soothing the pain in her finger she noticed a piece of paper with a picture of Reika on it. She was wearing that metal plate thingy, a headband? There was something written there, but she hardly recognized any of those words. "Reika Shirobara... ", her mother's name was one of the very first things she had learned, "M... M-Missing? Missing what?", she grunted displeased. Most of the words on that paper were strange, she had never seen them. Her exercising book consisted mostly of animals, items of daily use and some verbs like swimming or playing. Nothing she could apply to that piece of paper.

Okay now, she definitely couldn't take care of this mess all alone. Aimi would need her mother's help, but she was a bit afraid of her reaction to this. Would she get mad at her? Probably... On the other side... Again curiosity got the best of the girl. She wanted to know what kind of items her mother possessed and why. And what was the thing behind that strange headband and her picture wearing it? After picking up the headband she left the room, searching for her mother.

Soon she found Reika in the tavern, serving food: "Mom?"

"Not now honey. Please go back into your room. I'm busy", the woman walked from one end of the room to the other.

"B-But it's important... ", Aimi followed her mother, trying her best to keep the pace and not trip and fall.

"Aimi, please leave now", another number of dishes were transported.

"I made a mess in our room and I cut myself with something."

"I'll take care of that later. Be sure to not touch it until then", the food was served and Reika hurried back to the kitchen.

"What is this thing and why are you wearing it in that picture?", she lifted both items for her mother to see it.

Reika almost tripped herself as she took a short glance at the items. Without another word she grabbed her daughter and rushed with her to the kitchen. There she was out of sight for all of the customers. Reika quickly snatched the items from her daughter.

Aimi was confused: "Mom? Are you mad? Did I do something wrong?"

"Where did you find that?", her voice was stern.

"It was a box in the closet. I wanted to get my reading book, but I lost my balance on the chair and pulled different things with me. The box fell onto my head, but it doesn't hurt anymore... "

Reika quickly checked her over. A relieved sigh left her lips as she saw that her daughter was okay: "Aimi, I'm sorry, but I can't explain you what those things are... "

"A-Are you mad? Did I do something wrong?", the girl pouted. It looked like she would cry any second.

"I'm not mad, honey", she hugged her daughter, "You stay here until I brought out my last orders and then we'll go together into the room and clean up, okay?"

Aimi nodded slowly. Reika stored the headband in her apron while throwing the piece of paper into the fires of the big oven in the kitchen. Aimi watched the picture of her mother disappear in the flames while waiting. Afterwards both of them went into their room and Reika cleaned up the mess. Aimi had to promise her that she would never tell anybody about the box and it's contents.

Since then Reika seemed somehow different, but just a tiny little bit. It was nothing people would see on her face or her behavior. It was more of a feeling that had spread in little Aimi. A feeling that something wasn't okay...

The days passed just like before. Not much had changed. Aimi would be alone, bored and would try to learn reading. Since that incident Reika didn't put the book away anymore so her daughter wouldn't have to get it. It was more or less the same until the night before the girl's birthday came.

It was about three in the morning, maybe four. Aimi couldn't really tell. All she knew was, that there was noise coming from somewhere and that the bed was feeling empty. Dozily she turned to the other side, hugging her stuffed bear. More noise entered her ear, but she tried ignoring it. She was just too sleepy to pay great attention. After a while she grunted displeased as the noise wouldn't stop. Again she rolled herself over, trying to gain a comfortable position. Not too long after that the noise stopped. Pleased she snuggled herself into the bed, slowly drifting away.

Some time later she was being bothered again, this time somebody stole her blanket: "Aimi! Wake up, honey", it seemed to be her mother, "You need to get up."

The girl just turned away again: "Don't want... be tired... "

"I know and I promise you can sleep later as much as you want, but for now you have to wake up", she lifted her daughter out of bed, placing her on a chair.

"Mom... ", Aimi yawned, "Too early... "

Reika took a pair of clothes out of the closet and gave it to her daughter: "Get dressed and give me your nightgown."

Even though she was really tired Aimi did as she was told. From time to time she would doze off for a few seconds, but in the end she was done: "Are we going somewhere?", she had noticed that her mother was packing a backpack.

Reika didn't answer. Instead she shouldered the backpack, took her daughter and left the room: "Close your eyes honey... "

Aimi hugged her mother and her bear before closing her eyes. There was definitely something wrong, but she was just too tired to do something about it. Feeling her mother walk down the stairs and further. She dozed away at a certain point, but woke up again fast enough. After a while she would look over her mothers shoulder. She could see that they had left the tavern already and that her mother was moving really fast. Smoke was coming from the house and soon it was burning, this finally woke her up.

"Mom!", she squirmed in Reika's arms, "It's burning!!! Our house! It's burning!", tears built up in her eyes.

"I know honey... I know... ", her voice was sad, "Forgive me... ", she whispered the last part, but Aimi couldn't hear it.

"Is uncle still in there? What will he say? Who did that?", she started crying, "Why are we leaving?! Why are we not helping?!"

"We can't help them anymore... ", they got further and further away from the burning house, "Calm down Aimi... We'll find a new home... "

The girl didn't understand what was going on. She just cried and pleaded her mother to go back, but it didn't help. Soon she was exhausted from crying and fell asleep in her mother's arms. 'Happy birthday, me... ', was the last thought before her consciousness was gone...

What a sad past... Poor Aimi... Too bad it's going to get worse from now on...

This time no sneak preview because this chapter theoretically isn't over yet. I just didn't want you guys to wait too long and that's why I split it.

And PLEASE, PLEASE review my dear readers ^^°