Without A Name Chapter 18: Part 34 Celebration, a naruto fanfic

~34~

Three hours before sunrise. It should be another hour before he must wake up but Sai rose up from his bed sensing something alien inside his apartment. The sight of a shinobi from Root would not surprise him. One would come at any give time to relay instructions from Danzo-sama.

"Boo!" It was Naruto jumping at him from the window.

"What are you doing here?"

"Well you see, the others were talking and decided it's a good time to go for yakiniku (barbeque)."

"At two in the morning?"

"Yeah sure. Everyone's up for a celebration."

"Celebration for what?"

"Uhm...Friendship."

Sai exited his apartment first. Naruto followed but as he did, he glanced back at Sai's room. A month earlier he visited this room and found Sai gone. All his belongings were gone. No framed artwork on the wall, no brushes, no scrolls. He tried to search around for clues and so led him to raise the mattress. And there it was, the picture book, the one possession he knew Sai cherished. It turned out that the Root Anbu assigned to clear out the room had no concept of possession or sentiments and so didn't consider that Sai would hide something under his bed. Maybe it was a stroke of luck. Or maybe, it was fate.

The gang was already gathered when Sai and Naruto arrived. Sakura was there. Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino of Team 10 were there; Team 8's Kiba, Shino and Hinata too. Neji from Team Gai was there along with Tenten and Rock Lee, who were whispering and giggling about something at Shino's expense. Shino frowned as he remembered how uncomfortable he felt getting probed by the two when he posed as Sai for 5 long hours in the laboratory room.

Sai was a little perplexed at the scene. Was it normal for people to wake up at two in the morning and have yakiniku? He should find a book about that. Everyone, particularly Ino, was unusually attentive, he noted. By 5AM everyone was still celebrating.

Right then, Sai noticed something odd on the wall near the bar. "Owner-san," he said. "I believe your calendar is off by a month." Everyone's heart skipped a beat as they looked at him. That's right, he just lost a month of his memory. In all the day's excitement, they forgot to make up an explanation for the gap. Tsunade had the sense to completely heal Sai's wounded arm and bruises that they left no trace but apparently, she also neglected the part of the missing memory.

"Uhm," Sakura began. "About that. Uhm...;" Everyone else stammered.

"Planning war strategies is easier than this," Shikamaru thought. "How troublesome!"

Sai wondered why they were acting that way.

"Oh you're right," the owner of the barbeque place said scratching his head. All eyes turned to him. He ripped the calendar page to show the next month. It was indeed off, in this case, late by one month. They studied Sai's reaction. He nodded to the owner then went to focus on his food.

"Do you know what day it is?" Naruto asked.

"Yes," Sai replied. "it's the 20th of October." He was right. But what of the lost memory?

"What were you doing the past month?" Shikamaru asked carefully.

Sai looked at him a bit confused. "Don't you remember?" he asked then he looked at all of them.

"We were on vacation together. We went to the hot springs."

It was Ikioku's surprise parting gift.

End

Epilogue

In a local inn situated on a small town near the edge of Earth Country, a girl stood by the balcony staring at a piece of square white cloth in her hand. On it was drawn a single thrush perched atop a leafy branch. Tsugumi stared far ahead off to the western border thinking about the artist who drew the picture with graceful strokes the night she first met him. She recalled his face when he said the only words she heard him speak before he left.

"When I come back, I'll make it fly." And he smiled.

~*~Thank you for reading...~*~

All fictional names and characters except for Ikioku, Hisamegoro, Hail shinobi and Tsugumi

This is only fiction. Don't ever let strange people in your room

(unless they're ninja, preferably with a midriff outfit. J/K!)

Author's Notes:

For anyone who cares to know:

Ikioku is taken from the Japanese word "Kioku" which means "memory" so Ikioku can literally be translated as "One Memory"

Hisamegoro is from Hisame which means "hail".

Tsugumi, of course, means "thrush" or more specifically Nauman's Thrush which I found on Wiki while searching for a good girl name.

Speaking of Tsugumi, I had not originally planned on adding an original girl character but when I got Sai wounded and stuck on a roof, I was stumped on how to get him back home. That's where she came. Ah well, the rest of my notes, along with this story are posted on deviantart. Here's the link: yui1dotdeviantartdotcom/journal/Fanfic-1-Without-A-Name-Notes-26431714 1 (replace 'dot' with '.' and remove space between 4 and 1 ) Some parts are also accompanied by my artwork there if you care to see them. That's where I first posted the story in parts while I was still writing it. I've done some editing since.