(Mai POV)
The memories were coming to me as dreams. None of them were complete, but I often saw the three from the picture. A boy with what looked like a mummy on his back and a cat-like hood, and purple makeup. There was a blonde girl with four pigtails and some sort of black metal thing on her back. The redhead boy with a gourd on his back, filled with sand. The redhead showed up in almost all of the memories that came back to me. I wished I remembered his name it would be like one more connection to my past that I needed. The flashes were becoming slow enough that I could tell what they were.
The redhead is sitting on a swing. The other kids are playing ball. I'm walking over to him, asking if he wanted to play. Him looking at his feet, and then back up to me, smiling, telling me his name. "My name is Gaara!"
The memories faded, and I opened my eyes. My head hurting the worst it ever had before. But I thought it was worth it to know how I met the redhead and that his name was Gaara. My headache would last until the next day. I could tell. I was weary beyond belief. I almost crawled over to my new bed and collapsed onto it falling asleep almost instantly. Not to my surprise, that night I dreamt about the redhead Gaara. I had almost worked out that he was the one I loved but I wasn't sure yet. I was learning to live with the heartbreak that wouldn't leave me until I saw whoever I left behind, that I knew.
I woke up the next day after only about five hours of sleep. I didn't know at the time how much sleep humans normally needed, so I thought it was pretty normal. I got up and realized that I didn't have any clothes at all after I had looked over to the table that ANBU had left my stuff. I saw a bag that looked like it could be full of cloth. When I looked into it I saw another note. When I read it, it basically said they knew I didn't have any clothes so they had gotten me some.
When I looked through them it took me a while to find something I was willing to wear. I ended up with a long sleeve black t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. After I got dressed, I started to put my gear on. I got my Kunai holster and my shrunken pouch. I found the picture on the floor. I picked it up, and put it on the window sill without really looking at it, even though I longed to see Gaara's face again.
I looked at my clock, and saw that I still had a half hour since it was only 6 o'clock. The Hokage told me to wake Naruto up pretty soon. I sighed and walked over to his apartment door, and taking a deep breath in case I had to scream of something. I started knocking on the door. Within seconds, he opened up for me, looking like he had just been in a deep sleep. "Mai? What are you doing here?" I looked at him in his pajamas and was glad I had woke him up earlier to get ready. "I'm here to wake you up. We have the Genin exams today, and I have no clue where the academy is. And I don't really feel like being late on the only day that I'm going to be there. So start getting ready Naruto." he looked at me with a blank face, then when it sank in, he ran off to start getting ready, filled with energy so early in the morning somehow.
I thought about the memories that came to me last night before I went to bed, knowing I would have to talk to the Hokage as soon as I passed the test today. I walked into Naruto's house to see that it was pretty messy. Scrolls were all over the place, and the sink was a pile of dirty dishes that I could smell, and clothes were more often found then the floor was.
Ok, this is just...gross. I guess I could try and help keep this place clean enough to live in. Gosh, I don't even know where to start...hmm, ok the dishes I can smell, so I'll do those, and maybe later I can work on the scrolls...I'm just not going to do his laundry for him, he can wash his own dirty underwear, thanks!
I walked over to the sink and started on cleaning the dishes. It was a lot harder then it looked, since some of them were stuck together. Gross. I finished most of them by the time Naruto even saw me, which was about fifteen minutes. "Uh…um…thanks." he said, when he saw me. I did the last dish and turned around to face him. "It's no problem, really. I just wanted to make sure you didn't die or something. I can get some breakfast going too if you want." He nodded. I could feel shock and happiness rolling off of him in waves. "Yeah, thanks Mai. I want ramen for breakfast!" I sighed and shook my head.
What is with this kid and ramen? And I don't really get why I'm doing this but it feels like I know someone like him...maybe it was that Gaara guy.
I made two cups of ramen, sat down, and started eating with Naruto. When we were done eating, he looked at me. "I didn't know you could make ramen so good! Why didn't you tell me?" he almost shouted at me. I was starting to get used to that actually. I laughed a little before answering him. "If I knew I could cook ramen this good, I would have told you, trust me! I don't think I ever had ramen before last night though, since it didn't bring any memories back." Naruto looked at me, shocked. "YOU'VE NEVER HAD RAMEN BEFORE! I'm glad I fixed that problem so fast!" he said while nodding. I laughed a little and then looked at the clock. "Naruto! We have to get going! NOW!" we only had about ten minutes left before class started.
He looked at the clock, and then took off running. I followed him, catching up with him easily. We ran as fast as we could and got there within about five minutes to spare. Some of the class still wasn't there. I walked in with Naruto, and I felt a few people stare. I looked at him, waiting for him to react to the stares with a glare or something, but instead he was laughing. "Well I guess we didn't have to run so fast, huh, Mai?" he said, still laughing a little and his hands behind his head. I couldn't help but laugh too "Huh, I guess not. But I do think we made a record for fastest running today." I said a little sarcastically, laughing at the same time. Naruto looked around and saw a black-haired boy getting a lot of attention from a group of girls.
Oh, great. This guy has fan girls and probably thinks he can get any girl he wants. Hmm…I'm going to have to prove that wrong, but it won't be very hard. I'll just be me, and he'll probably annoy me so much that I won't have to work at it very hard.
That's when I saw Naruto staring at the boy right in his face. I sighed and wondered why Naruto didn't annoy me like he did everyone else. Suddenly, a guy's elbow hit Naruto in the back, and knocked him into the other guy, kissing him. I jumped up, and pulled them apart quickly, before anyone else had time to react. "Hey, Naruto I get that you may want to kiss somebody, but there is no need to go after some jerk that has his own fan club. I would go for a girl if I were you." I said to him, smiling. I could feel shock and wondering coming off of the guy behind me, but before he could say anything Naruto spoke up. "Eh…yeah…it was an accident, and I would never go for anyone like Sasuke! He thinks he's better than anyone else. Whatever!" he said the last sentence with almost a hint of hate coming from his words, but I could feel jealousy coming off of him.
The black-haired boy, named Sasuke spoke up from behind me. "Who are you? You must be pretty new to town to be hanging around with that loser, Naruto." he said. Naruto was kind of weird, but what really pissed me off was that he had just made fun of my only friend. "Yeah, I am new to town. My name is Mai. You better remember the name of the girl that's about to kick your ass for talking that way about Naruto. Oh, and just because you have a fan club that might try to kill me if I hurt you, doesn't mean I will ever like you, nor will it stop me from maiming you if you keep talking about my friend that way, got it?" he looked up at me, shock rolling off of him. It was barely showing on his face.
"Oh, so you have a crush on that loser, and you aren't like the rest of the girls in this town. So what? That doesn't mean you're stronger than me." Ok, it was stupid to get mad, and I knew that's what he wanted to do. Find my weak spot. So I kept my voice clam when I replied. "I don't have a crush on anyone. I am in love with someone, and he isn't from here. Whoever, and wherever he is, I will find him and hope he doesn't hate me for losing my memories, so I can leave to protect him. Oh, and Sasuke? Is that your name? I could kill you with one arm. I have been trained to be stronger than almost anyone. I could take down all of you without a problem. I can tell by how weak your Chakra levels are. Though you are the strongest of them all." my heart started to hurt a little when I talked about the boy that I loved, but I hide it easily.
Sasuke stared at me, no emotion crossing his face, but I could feel anger, disbelief, and an urge to battle me. I walked away before he could come up with anything else to say to me. The fan girls attacked me as soon as I walked away to go sit next to where Naruto was waiting for me. The one that was bothering me right now had pink hair, and talked like she knew everything. I wanted to break her nose, but I remembered that she may get on my team, so I tried to hold myself back. "I bet you don't even know anyone besides Naruto in the whole village. And you lost your memories? Yeah right! You just want to make yourself sound different in front of Sasuke because you like him too!" she said. I was trying really hard not to punch her out. So instead of letting everyone hear my answer I went up to her and whispered in her ear. "Look, bitch, I could take you down so easily, I wouldn't break a sweat. You don't know what loving someone is until you have them ripped away from you, and you can't get them off of your mind. Until someone doesn't believe that you love someone. Until you accept all of them no matter if everyone else hates them. That is when you love someone. Don't mess with me, and I won't have to start killing people before I'm even a Genin for the Leaf Village." I backed away, smiling and walked over to Naruto. I could feel her fear and shock coming off of her. I just smirked.
(Sasuke POV)
I was about to respond to that new girl, Mai, when she walked away right into a group of fan girls. I sighed. I never would get to say anything around her. I could tell. Then I heard Sakura's voice. She was yelling at Mai in that annoying tone of hers, "I bet you don't even know anyone besides Naruto in the whole village. And you lost your memories? Yeah right! You just want to make yourself sound different in front of Sasuke because you like him too!" I sighed again. She just didn't get it did she? Mai didn't care about me, and just wanted to get down and sit next to Naruto. It made me feel weird that she wanted to be by that loser more than me. It was a relief at the same time though. I could tell she was stronger than most Jounin, and I didn't want to be afraid that she would kill me all the time. I did know that I wanted her on my team though. If I had to work with someone, I wanted them to be strong.
I saw Mai back away from whispering in Sakura's ear with smile on her face. Sakura on the other hand, looked scared out of her mind from being so close to Mai. She ran over and sat next to me. I would have preferred if she had went to the other side of the room and left me alone. She didn't say anything though. She was thinking. I looked back over to Mai, and saw Naruto was trying to see if he could pick her up. When he finally did, he fell backwards and she fell on top of him, laughing. I could feel something boiling up inside me, I pushed it away and laid my head down waiting for class to start, but couldn't help but think about the new girl.
(Mai POV)
"Hey, Naruto! Sorry that took so long. I had to make sure people would remember me for who I can be." I said to him with a smile. He smiled right back at me and I felt an idea come to him. "Hey, Mai? How much do you weigh?" I smiled, slightly worried about where this was going. "Hmm…about ninety-five to maybe a hundred..." he smiled even wider at that, and moved over to me. The next thing I knew he was trying to pick me up, bridal style, and when he finally did, he fell backwards and I landed on top of him laughing like crazy. "Gosh, Naruto! I didn't know you were so weak!" I was still laughing. When I said that, he started laughing even harder. I slowly got up, still laughing, and helped him up when a ninja came in with a scar across his nose. "Ok, you guys! Calm down and get to your seats!" he may have been yelling at us but I could tell he was nice.
"That's Iruka Sensei." Naruto whispered into my ear. I nodded and sat down in the spot next to him. "Ok, today is the Genin exam. I will call you in one by one! Line up outside the door in alphabetic order by last name! I will see our new student first!" I felt many eyes look at me, then look away. I got up, and walked over to the Sensei. "GOOD LUCK MAI!" Naruto screamed, and then tackle hugged me to the ground. "AHH! Get off of me! I can't move!" he laughed, and I could hear Iruka Sensei laughing above me. "Ok, ok. Wait for me outside when you pass!" I laughed then, he had so much confidence in me.
"Ok, Mai. I wanted you in here first because you're new and because of your last name." I nodded. I had figured it was something like, that but didn't want to sound too cocky. "Ok then. Now that you know, all you have to do for me today is the shadow clone jitsu." he said smiling.
Hmm…I like him. He seems to care about what happens to his students. I like that about him. We aren't just weapons in his mind.
I started to do the hand signs my hands that blurred together. "Shadow clone jitsu!" I said. Soon enough, four more of me popped up around from nowhere, into their existence. Iruka Sensei was looking at me, strangely. I was looking at him, waiting for him to say I passed. "Umm…yes. Well done! Here is your headband then!" I looked, and saw it was in black, and remembered the other headband I had gotten only a few days ago. I nodded, took it, and tied it around my neck as a necklace, then walked away. I looked over my shoulder and spoke to him. "Thank you Sensei." I said quietly, though I knew he had heard me, and walked outside and sat on a swing that was tied to a tree.
I watched as the new Genin came out one by one to see their parents. They got hugs congratulating them. Naruto was one of the last people out, and he didn't have a headband. "N-Naruto, what happened?" I asked letting worry show though my voice. "Nothing. I failed again. That's all." he said and then jumped away into the woods. "Naruto!" I yelled after him. He didn't listen to me. I just sighed and walked around till I found a training ground that was deserted. I started training by myself. I didn't feel comfortable when I had too many other people around me, so I figured I would feel the best alone and away from everyone. I started to practice my Tijitsu on some logs and trees, pushing myself as fast as I could go. I started to think as I worked.
I wonder where Naruto ran off to. I just hope he doesn't get hurt or anything. I'm more worried about my team, I guess. I really don't want to be put with the pink-haired girl or that Sasuke's team. I hate both of them. It's funny how easy it is for me to hate. The only one I've felt that could even be my friend is Naruto. I guess I could try with some others, but I don't really think any of them will talk to me after how I acted today.
I sighed and saw that the sun was starting to set. I decided that I would look up at the night sky for a little while before going home to get a few hours of sleep. I was more tired than I realized. So I fell asleep in the clearing.