Chapter Five: Process

Arashi woke up early the next day. As he pulled on a shirt, he thought about what to do for the day. But first, he wanted to make a nice breakfast for the girl. Honestly, Kami knows what she had to eat while in the holding cell. Arashi vaguely wondered what she would want to eat. Did she like bacon? How about ramen? Was ramen considered a breakfast? What if she was a vegetarian? He didn't have anything remotely vegetarian. He would have to wing it. He considered his cooking skills; they were good enough for him, but what about her? Should he really care this much if his food was edible by a girl's standards? He settled on getting to the kitchen before worrying anymore on the breakfast dilemma.

He walked by his bedroom door, slightly ajar. The view the crack gave him was enough to confirm that the girl was still fast asleep. He paused as he watched her breathe, her chest rising and falling. He noticed how her pale skin looked green due to his digital alarm clock. His stomach grumbled.

He made his way into the small kitchen. Arashi murmured in an annoyed tone when he looked into his empty fridge. He had forgotten to go shopping the previous week. He took out the few things he did have, which consisted of five eggs, a single tomato, some leftover chicken and a sad wilted piece of lettuce. Arashi considered what he had. He threw out the lettuce. He chose to make scrambled eggs. He needed to cut the tomato and the chicken up before adding it to the eggs.

The concoction was complete. Upon further investigation into his limited cupboards, he had managed to find some spices to add to the eggs. Setting the table, Arashi thought the meal was semi-respectable. Although somewhat lacking. Arashi frowned. Sure, he had scrambled eggs but then maybe he should make something to go with it.

Toast. That was it, he needed to make some toast, and then the meal would be complete. Arashi busied himself with the making of the toast, thinking on how to perfect his 'fine' cooking.

So busy with the now burning toast, Arashi was unaware that the girl had been watching him make breakfast for the past five minutes. She smiled at his antics, clearly touched that he had made the effort to make breakfast.

Arashi turned suddenly, burnt toast in hand. He saw the girl immediately. "Oh, umm, hi, I, uh, made breakfast." He was flustered at how quickly the kitchen had turned against his sincere efforts to make a nice breakfast. And now the girl was there witnessing its uprising.

The girl looked at the burnt toast in his hands and looked at the set table. Her face brightened and she said, "Eggs huh? I love eggs, got to be the best part of breakfast. Don't worry about the toast." She nodded towards the blackened bread. She sat herself down.

Arashi stared at the girl as she grabbed the serving spoon from the pan and started to move copious amounts of the egg to her plate. She seemed content enough to be eating eggs for breakfast… I guess that rules out vegetarian, thought Arashi. Wait, were vegetarians allowed to eat eggs? Arashi shook his head of his many questions and sat down to eat breakfast.

Sadly his next thought was too persuasive to ignore, it bugged him, nagging at him. How did she know she like eggs? He remembered asking the Hokage at an earlier date the exact memories he had managed to return to her. Eggs weren't one of them. "How'd you know you liked eggs…? I thought you didn't have any of your memories. Or, very few."

Her gaze was icy. Maybe he shouldn't have reminded her of-

"I don't think me liking eggs could exactly qualify as a memory. Liking eggs is just part of me. Just like I know my favourite colour is orange. I'm sure there is a memory behind why I like the things I like, but for now, based on my current situation, I'm happy just knowing what I like." She cocked her eyebrows before taking a huge mouthful of egg.

Arashi found it hard to disagree.

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"Promise?" the girl asked, a look of doubt gracing her features.

"I promise," Arashi said sincerely.

"It's just that, well, you're not exactly the Hokage, and I never even saw what he did. You know I was… unconscious at the time." The girl still looked doubtful.

"Don't worry. I asked exactly what the Hokage did. Don't be so quick to forget that I did create the jutsu in the first place. I'm pretty sure it won't be too painful." Arashi reassured her.

"It was painful last time." The girl had said it quietly enough that Arashi had to lean in to hear her words.

Arashi was unsure as to what he should say. It made sense though; the pain had lasted beyond the extraction of the memories, therefore becoming her 'first' memory. The thought of only having a single memory, and one of pain was making him uneasy. How strong this girl must be. "I'll make the utmost effort to make it as painless as possible." His smile did nothing to comfort her.

"Just get it over with," she muttered darkly. "Wake me up when it's over."

Arashi nodded and the medic-nin injected the sedative into her arm. Arashi watched her eyes slowly glaze over before finally closing. She looked exhausted. The medic-nin quietly exited the room. Arashi took the multitude of jars filled with memories and began.

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The procedure took the better part of the day. Five times longer than removing the memories. It was worth it though, Arashi thought as he stood over her sleeping form. Her tired eyes were closed, giving her a look of pure peace. Arashi opened the window before leaving the stuffy hospital room. He conferred with the medic-nin waiting outside of the door before heading outside.

Once in the open, Arashi noticed the extra nin patrolling the hospital grounds. Was it because of the girl? Did the Hokage believe that she needed the extra protection? If so, shouldn't he be the one doing the protecting? He turned back to the hospital and headed towards her room. She'd only be there for a maximum of three days after all, that's what the medic-nin said anyways.

He wondered if she would realize that she was missing one memory. Arashi didn't know what the memory was, but he was sure that it was pivotal for the future of the village. Would it be blaringly obvious? It didn't matter. She would create new memories. With him.

The realization caused an unusual stirring within Arashi's chest. The only memories that people had of him were almost all work related. The only ones that weren't were when he was in the orphanage and when he was in school, with his teammates.

"Uzumaki-san, there's a problem with the information you've given me, concerning the girl you brought in this morning. I'm afraid I missed what you said she was named…" the mature medic-nin trailed off.

"Sakura. The girl's name is Nakamura Sakura." Arashi hastily responded.

"Of course, thank-you," she replied, "That was all. I hope she gets out soon." The medic walked off.

"Sakura," repeated Arashi softly.

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He walked her back to his house Friday, three days later. She was rather quiet, compared to what she was four days previously. Maybe this was who she really was, with her memories. Arashi was fine with this assumption; he wasn't much of a talker anyways. If it turns out, however, that she was a chatter-box, Arashi was fine with that too, he should learn to talk more anyways. It was decided, he would try to accommodate her as much as possible.

Arashi's thoughts turned to how she felt now. Would she be depressed at the thought of having to possibly spend the remainder of her life in the past, unable to take back the life she once had? Arashi's spirits downed at the thought of having to live in the past.

He had many questions he wanted to ask her, now that she had her memories. It wasn't the same as merely looking at them. She had experienced her memories. She would know what they would mean, how they were connected. He wanted to know how she had arrived here. He knew about the chakra pulse, but he needed to know how, what had she done to get here. He knew that it wasn't part of her memories; neither he nor the Hokage had remembered a single memory concerning her arrival here. Perhaps though, they had seen it, but had not made the connection. That's why he needed to ask her, herself. She alone understood her memories.

"I know you don't want to hear this right now, but do you remember how you got here?" Arashi began.

The girls head dipped lower, "No."

"Are you sure, if we did, we might be able to send you back." Arashi stated.

"I'm sure I would remember how I got here. All that I remember about that day, was I was having a picnic. I was eating this really good chocolate chip cookie when all the sudden there was this bright light. I'm not sure where the light emanated from, or if it is even possible to recreate it. I'm not sure myself it there was a person who did it or not."

"You mean, you didn't try to experiment with some random hand signs or anything like that?" Arashi questioned.

"No," she was quick to reply. "If anything, it's possible it was one of the Academy students. I seem to remember them having a field trip that day. Maybe one of them thought it would be 'cool' to try to make up one of their own jutsu." Her voice was beginning to quiver, "Isn't that a sad thought? I may be here just because of some random jutsu that misfired." The laugh that followed was coarse; the only emotion portrayed was of bitterness.

"We're"- Arashi began to say having now arrived at his home.

"I remember." She said.

Arashi was silent.

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Later that evening, as Arashi mad his way to the bathroom, he was brushed against as the girl made her way back to her 'official' new room. Arashi didn't miss the tear stained eyes, or the muffled cry that followed.

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Her red rimmed eyes flicked upwards, she had barely registered his quiet 'I'm sorry.'

Arashi was closing the door when he heard her say in her own quiet voice, "It's been done."

The door clicked shut.

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Arashi caught her dancing in her room the next morning. He didn't say a word as she span slowly on her feet. She stopped when she saw him.

"I made breakfast," he said.

The girl smiled.

Hello people, it's currently midnight... I'm going on vacation! Woohoo! Anyhoo, hope you like this chappie.
Disclaimer: Naruto Not Mine (sadly...)
Hurray for reviewers! I live for reviews! Hey Shadowsakura321, does the whole 'smiling' thing count as fluff? And just for you lamarin yang, I will try to not have lots of fluff right away, make it gradual... slowly, but surely. Ahem, I would like to formally dedicate this particular chapter to my brother, who didn't laugh at me when I said I was writing a story. Right, that's about it, hope you are all having fantastic summers! Oh, and one last quick question, should I continue to put in indents after uploading? Can you even see them? mmm. G'night.