A/N: All flashbacks in this story are in italics. Also, all conversations in the flashbacks are in Japanese for this story, so they are written with no articles or contractions. This will also be how the conversation will be written in later chapters where the characters begin speaking in Japanese.

Chapter 2: The Memories of Kai

"What are you doing here?" asked a young boy from Konohagakure. "You are not even from this village. What do you want?" Then, when Kai didn't answer, he threw a medium sized stone at her. It hit her in the back of the head as she turned to leave, and she fell forward. Her ratty brown hair had fallen into her eyes, blocking her vision. Her eyes were a deep hazelnut brown, and with those eyes, she looked sorrowfully at the boy who had hit her.

"Young man," came the voice of the Third Hokage, recently retired. "Is this how you treat young lady who is lost?"

"But-" the boy began.

"No excuses. Go home, and I will be along later to tell your parents what you have done." As the boy left sulking, the Third Hokage turned to Kai. "It is okay young lady," he said, helping her up. "He will not hurt you. What is your name?"

"I am Demonio del Colmillo, but people do not call me that," the girl said.

"So, what should I call you?" the Hokage asked.

"I am Kai." The Hokage smiled down at her and agreed. Then he called for a young girl who had just turned the corner.

"Anko," he said. "Do you have moment?" The girl nodded and ran over to him.

"Can I help you Sandai-sama?" she asked.

"Would you please take Kai to doctor?" he asked. "And then get Minato," he whispered to her. "We will need to get member of Kirigakure, because that is where this girl is from. Her clothes are evidence of that." Anko nodded and led Kai away to the doctor. Once in the doctor's office, she laid Kai down on a bed, where she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

* * *

Kai coughed up smoke as the trains movement blew it into her face. The blowing whistle alerted her that they were probably close to a stop, and that she should get back into the railcar. She climbed down, still coughing up smoke, so she went to a bathroom on the train to wash out her throat. After cleaning her face and gargling several mouthfuls of water, Kai felt much better, so she went back into the railcar. Seeing Jason, she went to sit down beside him. Another boy, a short one, was sitting across from her.

"You alright Raila?" the short boy asked.

"Um, yes," Kai answered. "I'm just a little foggy from the trip, uh- um…Ukobi!"

"Maybe you need some rest before we get to Korea," he said.

"Yeah," Jason agreed. "You seem a little out of it."

"I think so too," Kai said. Then she curled up in her seat and fell asleep. Before she fell asleep though, she heard Jason ask Ukobi-

"Is it just me, or is Raila using contractions and fragments?"

"And slang," Ukobi pointed out.

* * *

Kai awoke what she thought was a few minutes later, but it was actually the next morning. She heard two men talking by the foot of her bed.

"Sarutobi said that she was from your village," one of the men said. The other man, Kai saw when she peeked through half-closed eyelids, wore a headband from the mist village.

"I do not know who she is," the man from the Mist village said. "But her clothes are common to our village. Perhaps if we take her back, then we can find her family." Just then, Kai sat up in her bed.

"No," she said to them. "I do not want to go back." The two men looked at her startled.

"Why young girl?" the man from the Mist said. "Your parents must be worried. Surely you do not want them to worry."

"I am Kai, and I do not want to go back. My parents are dead anyway."

"Dead?" the other man, the one with the leaf headband, said. "How?"

"Probably died in attack, sir," the Mist man said. "We had bad attack recently. Someone killed half of village." Kai looked down as she quietly stood up.

"Kai-chan," the other man said. "My name is Minato, and I am Fourth Hokage of Konoha." He got down so that he was looking right into her eyes. "Why do you not want to go back to your home village?"

"Because-" Kai stopped and eyed the door. It was wide open. She could run, so she made up a reason. "Cause Mist Village hates me!" With that, she broke out of the grip of a shocked Minato and swept past the man from the Mist village. They called for her to come back, but Kai didn't stop running. She ran forever, through grass as high as she was and rain that pounded her skull. For days, she ran until she reached an endless desert. Then her strength left her, and she began to slow down, but she still moved on. Finally, she couldn't carry her weight anymore, and she collapsed in the sand outside of a small village.

* * *

"Raila," called a voice. "We're here, get up." As Kai slowly awoke, her throat bone dry as though she had truly been running for days without water, she glanced around her and saw that she was on the train, and it had stopped. Ukobi was standing above her. "Raila," he said again. "Get up, we're here." Kai slowly got up and stretched. Then, grabbing her suitcase and staff, she left the train, trailing behind Ukobi and Jason.

After they rode shortly on a ferry, the group was on the island where the land of the villages was.