Ai woke up the next day in her new room. She recalled the previous day's events, yawning and stretching under the dark-colored sheets of her small bed. The air in her room was stale and smelled faintly of something she couldn't put her finger on, but she didn't mind. She was just glad she was out of that other room. She stood up realizing she still had on her outfit from yesterday. She looked over to the small dresser in the corner of her room, to find an identical outfit to the one she had on, only clean and folded. 'Well, that's a nice surprise,' she thought.
A loud series of knocks came from her closed bedroom door. Ai quickly headed over to it before the person on the other side could knock again and opened the door. A fairly short girl with brightly colored hair stood in the doorway, a small smile plastered on her face. "Hey, I'm Tayuya. Sasuke sent me," she said.
"Oh, I'm Ai. Nice to meet you. Um… so what did he send you for?" asked Ai.
"Shut up, I was getting to that," said Tayuya. "I'm supposed to show you to the showers."
"Oh! That's good, then…"
"Yes, yes. Now let's go. You'd better bring your clothes you're going to change into with you."
"Okay," said Ai. Tayuya didn't wait for her to grab her clothes so Ai had to race after her once she left her room.
"So," said Tayuya as she walked down a stretch of hallway with Ai at her side, "I heard you can sing. I play the flute myself but not for entertainment purposes." She smiled. "Are you good?"
Ai instantly blushed. 'How fast does news spread around here?' she thought. "Um… I do sing but… I don't know if I'm good. I don't recall ever having an audience before…"
"Heh, I'm sure you're good. Rumors spread like wildfire around here… and I've heard nothing but good things about your voice." She changed the subject as they rounded a corner. "So you don't recall, ne? I'd heard you had amnesia but I wasn't sure Kabuto was serious."
"Are you friends with Kabuto?" asked Ai.
"Well… I wouldn't say that…" Tayuya opened a large wooden door and steam filtered out. "The showers are in here. Come on," she said. The door shut behind them as they walked in. It was a high-ceilinged room, or at least when compared to the other rooms, with wooden benches and a shelf divided into many cubbies, each holding a towel. "Hmm, I guess I'll have to get you a towel shelf…" Tayuya thought aloud. They walked over to the boxes and Tayuya pointed to an unused one. Upon closer inspection, Ai noticed every other one was labeled with a name of a different Sound ninja. "You can write your name on there," said Tayuya.
"Okay… Do you have a pen?" asked Ai. Tayuya grabbed a container of ink off the top of the shelf that had a brush resting in it, and handed it to Ai.
Ai took the brush and wrote her name as neat as she could, even though her handwriting wasn't great. "Thanks," she said to Tayuya.
A young kunoichi walked by and deposited her towel in her designated cubby. She turned when she saw Tayuya. "Hey!" she said. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Ai," said Tayuya. Ai didn't miss the fact that Tayuya didn't deny being her friend.
"Hi, I'm Kaori," said the girl. "You're the new girl, right? The one who sings?"
Ai blushed again. "Yes, that's me…" 'I wonder if I'll be known as the girl who sings forever… Everyone seems to know about that.'
"Good luck in Sound!" said Kaori, before departing through the large wooden door Ai and Tayuya had come in from before.
"She seems nice," noted Ai.
Tayuya nodded. "She is, but you had better watch your back around here. There are people who aren't so nice."
"Oh," said Ai.
Tayuya noticed the nervous expression on her face. "You'll be fine," she said, emphasizing as if she was sure of it. "I won't let the bastards mess with you." She had Ai grab her towel and follow her to another section of the room. "These are the changing rooms," said Tayuya. "You can get undressed and into your towel in there, and I'll meet you back out here in a second."
Ai nodded and walked into the small curtained room, drawing the curtains behind her. She quickly got out of her clothes and into the towel she'd been given. When she came back out, Tayuya was already in her own towel and waiting. "You're fast," said Ai.
Tayuya nodded, a smug smile on her face. "Well? Let's go!" she said.
Finder77: Okay, please review! I worked really hard on this chapter and I hope it is okay… This is my most popular story and I wanted to that everyone who reads it because I've gotten over three thousand hits! It's such a big number… Anyways, thanks even more to those who review! Reviewers make my day!