a/n: My sister gave me a review trying to make me feel better about not getting one yet, and she was still signed in as me XD. So now I look like I sent it to my self…on other notes I got the next chapter up.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto but I do own Sanbi, Himika, and Narashite

Off the Scale

As two more weeks of being bed ridden went by I got to know a little more about the Hokage, named Tsunade, seeing as how I'd sent all the nurses that came into my room away in tears. I saw Himika a couple of times coming in with another jounin. Sometimes the jounin was different. Some times the same. Either way there was no introduction made and I never got to know the names of the people with her.

Shizune stopped by a couple of times, too. She seemed nicer than Himika or Tsunade. Himika didn't really talk to me any more after I managed to throw my glass cup full of water at her. The glass shattered, but the pieced didn't hit her. Unfortunately the water did, though and she stalked out of there fuming and soaked. Tsunade only came in to yell at me for scaring the nurses. Shizune actually talked to me, though I had my suspicions that she was asked to, and I began to like her more than the other people that walked in the small, dark, room. I never was comfortable around other people, save one in my life, and I'd always acted hostile around them.

I'd grown up mostly on my own, seeing as how I'd been orphaned when I was seven. Like most kids forced to make their way in a poor village, I'd stolen food and clothing. When I got caught I ran, and I ran fast. Though, one time when I was eight I got caught and couldn't get away. The guy who caught me turned out to be called Narashite.

Narashite became my idol. He was a ninja from some village to the west. He and his four comrades were on a mission near our village. We became friends in the way of student and sensei, and he and usually some other ninjas, came to visit me often. During those visits he secretly taught me ninja arts, due to my begging. I became faster, stronger, and stealthier and when Narashite was away (because he usually was the only one who caught me being the spoil sport he was) I stole more successfully. After I had mastered most of his training methods, because I was one of the sharper kunai in the pouch (so he told me), he then announced to me that I was a qualified ninja. Since I wasn't in a ninja village, though, it was just an empty statement. I just thought of it as a means of self-defense.

But that was the past. The two weeks went by boringly slow. Now today was the day in which the future arrangements were to be made. Himika was supposed to be coming any time now to show me where I was supposed to live while recuperating.

Then right on cue, there was the sound of foot steps in the hall, followed by a knock at the door. At least they gave me a little privacy. Until the got tired of waiting for me to answer and just barged in. Himika was the worst when it came to decency; she was always half way through the door by the time the knocking stopped. This time was no different.

She was wearing her usual jounin vest, and baggy, black pants. Her shirt that was worn under the vest had string attached sleeves. Today the sleeves were connected. Her forehead protector seemed shinier than usual, as if she had polished it. Her black hair was tied back in pigtails like always and her blue eyes glowed with good humor.

So, she was in a good mood today.

"Twerp," she says, addressing me, "today's the big day!"

A very good day it seemed.

I no longer trusted my self to talk to her after the previous times. So instead I just nodded in acceptance, noticeably biting my tongue to keep the words from freely flowing. She just laughed at my antics.

"You're learning fast." She says, grinning broadly at me. "Any way we should get going. Time to see your new lodging."

I nodded my agreement once again, still biting my tongue. There was a moment of silence, until Himika broke it.

I got up slowly, my sore limbs not really used to walking, even though I'd walked a little everyday for the past four days. As I managed to walk over to the wardrobe and open it, the walking got easier as my muscles became less stiff.

Inside was the pair of clothes that I had been wearing when I was brought in, new mended, though. The shirt was more or less Chinese style, with the high neck and tight long sleeves. The shirt opened up in the front with buttons spaced out from the neck all the way to the end of the long shirt, which I knew would reach almost half way to my knees. The shirt had slits in the sides allowing for more breathing area. It was tighter at the arms and chest than it was further down, becoming very loose fitted.

To go with it was a pair of baggy shorts which would reach a little further than the shirt. I also had another pair of tight, stretchy, under shorts, which stopped just above my knees. My clothes were all coordinating hues of gray and purple. I noticed that my shoes and hair bands were there also.

Himika left the room. I quickly changed clothes and followed Himika out. Out side, the hall was brighter than my room, seeing as how I'd never cared enough to open the window, and my eyes needed a moment to adjust. Himika just kept walking, obviously expecting me to follow. I ran to catch up, my newly braided hair swinging every which way. She always seemed to be five steps in front of me no matter how fast I walked. I was getting suspicions that she was putting chakra in her feet. Eventually we signed out and exited the hospital.

I stared in awe at the beautiful surroundings. How prosperous was Konoha? As we began to walk toward our destination, I forced myself to look at the buildings instead of the people. I might have been inclined to terrorize the people if I hadn't noticed the way the buildings all seemed very bright and new. The trees seemed to swallows the village in it. Maybe that was why it was called the Leaf Village. After a good ten minutes of site seeing (in which I wouldn't have been able to describe a single person I saw and would have given you the exact details on how to get to just about any place in the village) we arrived at our destination. It was an apartment building.

It looked nice enough on the outside. There was an over hang that connected the roofs of the apartments across from each other together. Walking inside I discovered a bathroom, a kitchen connected to the living/dining room, and a bedroom. There was a couch, a radio, some blankets, and some kitchen appliances. Those things made up the house's furnishings. I could see that this was going to take a lost of work.

"The apartment was a favor to the Hokage; you'll have to thank her." Himika said. "All you really need to get is some furniture and food."

I looked at her as if to ask how I was supposed to pay for it, and she seemed to catch my meaning.

"There are many ways you can earn money around the village, though being a ninja is one of the easiest," she laughed. "Anyway since you are new here and everything, we're cutting you some slack."

She hands me an envelope. The word money is written on it. I look at it for a moment and then looked back at Himika to see her leaving.

"I'll see you later, but right now I have other affairs to deal with. In about an hour other 'arrangements' will be sent over. Try to be a good kid, and don't leave." She said as she left the house.

I just stared after her for a good two minutes before doing something on my own. It seemed like forever before I heard the knock at the door. I walked over tentatively, not really wanting to go for the eager look. Opening the door I saw three girls. The one that stuck out the most was the middle girl because she had short pink hair (and green eyes I also noticed). Another one that also stuck out had white-ish-lavender eyes, and long blue-black hair. The last one wasn't as shocking, but she had brown eyes and dark brown hair that was styled in two buns atop her head. They all had forehead protectors somewhere about them. I simply stared; obviously my self induced silence hadn't worn off yet.

It was the pink haired one that spoke first.

"Hi, we were sent to come get you." She explained. "I'm Sakura Haruno. This is Hinata Hyuga," she said pointing the long haired girl, "and this is TenTen." She then pointed to the brown haired girl.

I nodded in acknowledgement at her statement.

"I'm Sanbi Nikumu." I said simply.

Regular POV

There was an awkward silence, but Sakura broke it.

"We should get going. We're going to show you around the village." She stated.

Sanbi had no desire to leave with the three girls at that moment. It wasn't very helpful to think that the three kunoichi probably had weapons and attacks that could kill her if they wanted. She decided to go along with it any way, though, without a hassle because she saw that those girls meant business and probably wouldn't leave without her under and circumstances. She just sighed and left with them, unaware of the horror she would have to endure next.

Shopping. Lots and lots of shopping. If it wasn't grocery shopping it was clothes. Sanbi was beginning to hate money because she discovered that with money you could still buy more. There fore she was forced by the trio to do so until she was almost out of it. The three girls seemed nice enough and they were different and alike in many ways. Sakura and TenTen talked a lot, but Hinata was shy. Sakura and Hinata were more into healing techniques and herbs, but TenTen was a weapons specialist. All of these things Sanbi discovered while shopping (along with the fact that the three were chuunins). Out of all the people in the village maybe these three could become Sanbi's friends.

At about noon the streets started to fill up. Sanbi started getting uneasy, and the kunoichi could tell. They slowly made their way to the park where less people would be. The park was also known to shinobi and kunoichi alike as the training ground. Regular civilians didn't go to the 'park', and currently there were only a few people there.

Sanbi liked this area better than the other shopping one. All four of the girls dropped their bags on the ground next to a tree, intending to come back for them later. Suddenly one of the people from the park comes over and shouts a greeting to the three kunoichi. The girl is blonde haired and blue eyed. Her long hair is held back in a pony tail. Sakura seemed the happiest of the three to see her. Then the girl just stares at Sanbi, as if suddenly seeing her, which was probably the case.

"So, who's she?" the newcomer asks Sakura.

"This is Sanbi. Sanbi this is Ino Yamanaka. Sakura says, introducing them.

Ino looks at Sanbi again, as if categorizing her. The she turned her attention to Sakura again. TenTen seemed kind of annoyed with Ino's arrival and she gave Hinata a look that said lets go. TenTen gave Sakura and Ino a brief good-bye explanation saying they would be back, and then proceeded to walk away with Hinata and Sanbi. They walked over to the more used trained area where some people were.

Sanbi's POV

I couldn't help but think that Ino was a chatter box. It sure was a good thing that TenTen got us out of there. Now we were walking toward more people. Great. Let's hope they're not as annoying as the last one. There were three guys over here. One was blonde haired and blue eyed like the last person. Please don't let them be related. He sees us first and starts right on talking. Yup annoying.

"Hey, Hinata, TenTen." He shouts to them smiling like an idiot. The other two that were with him turn around to see what he's talking about, but I don't get a good look at them.

"Loud as ever," I hear TenTen mumble to herself.

Suddenly the kid is upon us. He obviously saw me because he was staring at me, ready to question TenTen and Hinata. Suddenly I felt sorry for them for having to deal with him.

"Who's that, Hinata?" I hear him loudly ask the poor, shy girl. She seemed to be blushing.

"Um, um, th-this is Sanbi." She says in her shy manner that makes me pity her. Thankfully for her TenTen helps her out.

"We're showing her around the village…She's kind of new to Konoha." She says. Then she turns to me, "Sanbi, this is Naruto Uzumaki."

My speech was coming back and I couldn't resist. It was just so tempting.

"Are you sure he's not related to the blonde girl back there?" I asked this to TenTen. Erg, I'm doing it again.

TenTen, Hinata, and Naruto just stared at me, as if try to decide weather it was a joke or not. I sighed. They couldn't even tell anyway when I was making fun of them.

"Never mind." I mumbled. Grrr, now they probably think I am the stupid one.

The other two were over here now. One of them had black hair, bowl cut style, wearing some sort of green spandex suit with a chuunins vest over it. He started to talk.

"Hello, Sanbi. I couldn't help but over hear your name. I am Rock Lee, the hansom green beast of the Leaf Village." He said with a smile that made his teeth shine, and he gave me a thumbs up.

If I just died I wouldn't have known the difference. I didn't even know the world had people like this. I was embarrassed for him. My eyes were wide open, and I could almost feel myself start to twitch. I couldn't even laugh. I was pretty sure my jaw had dropped, too. The others had similar expressions, also, I noticed, but he was completely oblivious.

Suddenly the third person was saying something. I turned to him, closing my mouth with a snap.

"Hi, I'm Neji Hyuga." He said with a trace of a smile on his face.

If I as staring again, I knew why. Neji was wearing a tan robe outfit, with black pants underneath. His hair was dark brown, and almost as long as mine, maybe longer, and it was worn loosely in a hair tie. His eyes were the same shade as Hinata's; white-ish-lavender. I knew by looking at him that he wasn't a chuunin or genin; but rather a jounin. He was around my age of 16. Oh yes, I knew why I was staring. This Neji Hyuga, in front of me, was down right off the hotness scale, and he was so completely out of my league.