When they had reached the hotel, the group had almost jumped on Sora, excited to see her alive. However, the excitement was clearly not shared as the girl backed up terrified. Not only did she have to deal with her fear of thunder, she now had to deal with all these strangers being overwhelmingly present. To top it all off, she was starting to have one of those major migraines that she had been getting since she had arrived in this village a few days ago.

Her struggle did not seem unnoticed as the elderly woman, who had also been waiting for her, rushed to her aid. Bending over while holding her head, she tried to speak to the woman that had run up to her but all that could she managed to muster were a few groans.

"Sorry everyone, but it seems your reunion will have to wait. This poor girl needs her rest!"

In dismay, everyone backed away slowly. At least knowing that she was alive already seemed enough for now.

By the next morning, everyone that was still present had been informed. Reena had tried to call in the other team but had received no response. It would thus be a surprise for them to return to the hotel and find Sora. Now sitting all around the table, they could be seen eating silently their breakfast which was quite a rare sight. It was clear that they were all nervous to see the girl again and afraid to scare her off again. So when their friend finally mustered the courage to walk in the dinning room, she was met by seven pair of eyes. Surprisingly, as she stood there, a silence reign in the room. No one was sure what to say or do. With a bit more light from the sun, they could see what state she was in. A bandage was wrapped around her head and a heavier one could be seen around her left leg. She was wearing unusual colours, indicating that these clothings were not hers. Where her clothing did not cover her skin, cuts and bruises could be seen. What worried the group the most, however, were the dark rings under her eyes. They could have been there due to lack of sleep but the group silently thought that it could have also been the effect of the drugs that had possibly been given to her.

Shikamaru finally cleared his throat, making everyone realise how silent and awkward this reunion was becoming.

"Why don't you come sit with us, Sora?" he offered kindly.

"Oh yes! Do sit with us! We'll make a place for you just here!" said Reena all excited as she pushed Naruto beside her.

The blond boy gave her a pout which was short lived given the situation.

"Sora…" the girl whispered to herself as she started moving forward with what seemed to be a new pair of crutches.

Reaching the end of the table where Reena had made everyone on her side scoot over, she slowly sat down and looked at the boy who helped her the night before. She stared at him for a few seconds, wondering what she was doing here with all these strangers.

"So my name is Sora…?"

"Yup, Sora Tonbo," answered cheerfully Ino.

She opened her mouth to ask another question but was interrupted by the elderly owner that walked in with a tray.

"Well well, Kyuu. You're up early, like the rest of these folks if I may add," she told her with a warm motherly smile. Settling down the tray in front of the girl, the woman took a look at everyone sitting at the table. "I'm very happy to see that your friends have found you. I was starting to worry that you may be lost here. Now you can have them help you bring back your memories!"

Sora gave a small smile to the lady and nodded.

"Apparently, my name is Sora. We'll have to get into the habit of using that name now."

The elderly woman chuckled. "Of course, my child. It will be a hard habit to break but I promise to try."

The woman squeezed Sora's shoulder and smiled gratefully at everyone at the table. After looking at everyone, she started making her way back to the kitchen door. As soon as she was gone, Sora stretched out a shaky hand to grab the orange juice in front of her and slowly brought it to her mouth. Noticing this, Naruto spoke up.

"Hey, you know we're all friends here. No need to be nervous."

He then chuckled as if to lighten the mood in the room. Everyone exchanged guilty looks. Their fear of the possible outcomes was clearly not making a cheerful atmosphere.

"Though I am a bit nervous, I gotta say that my hands have always been shaky, at least since I woke up here. Some time it gets worse."

"Perhaps, the aftereffect of some drugs," suggested Shikamaru.

"That's what the village's doctor said. Either that, or I was born with a type of disease."

Shikamaru shook his head.

"I can promise you that it's not something you're born with. It's most probably due to the recent events."

"If you don't mind, Sora, I'd like to get a proper look at you after breakfast. I could most possibly heal a few things and see what kind of aftereffects you're getting from what happened," offered Sakura with a warm smile.

Sora looked at her confused. This pink hair girl didn't look like a doctor. Seeing her confusion, Ino cut in.

"She's a medic ninja. She can easily help you with your leg or any injuries you have."

Sora hesitated a few seconds before slowly nodding.

"Sure, I'm willing to give it a go."

With her answer, she slowly started eating the content of her plate. Looking more closely, Shikamaru noticed that she was playing more with the food than eating it but didn't want to bring it up. It seemed so easy for the girl to just close up when the discussion died.

"So what do you remember Sora? Do you remember us?" asked Choji excitedly.

Sora looked up from her food again and stared at the one that ask her the questions. She thought for a moment.

"I get glimpses here and there. They don't always make sense. It's really all just jumbled up."

Reena took the opportunity of taking out a piece of clothing from her pouch.

"Well… We can start with your family," she mentioned while pushing it towards her friend so she could see the dragonfly crest. "This is the Tonbo's family symbol."

"Huh, a dragonfly…" Sora answered pensively. "I really do like dragonflies. They keep me company very often when I'm outside."

"They do seem to appear quite a lot around you to be frank," answered the white hair girl with a nod.

"Then, no offense to anyone here but, why are my parents not here looking for me instead of the lot of you?"

The people at the table exchanged a few looks. It seemed like Sora did not remember a lot. Seeing that no one really wanted to break the news, Shikamaru sighed.

"You lost your parents six years back. You've been living by yourself since then," he told her softly while trying to gage her reaction.

To everyone's surprise, she didn't seem to react at all. She stared at the boy in front of her as if trying to remember. A flash of two masked men at her door was all that she could seem to remember. She couldn't remember what her parents looked like. With a sudden thought, Shikamaru turned around and grabbed his backpack on the ground behind him. He then took out a bundle of clothing and unwrapped it carefully. In it was a pile of papers that seemed to have seen better days. A closer inspection revealed that the papers were a tad water damaged, most possibly from the boy's fall in the river. Yet, from some kind of struck of good luck, the damage was not that bad. The drawings could still be seen for the majority. He put them down in front of her tray.

"These are actually all your drawings that you had back home. Maybe looking through them will maybe help you?"

This actually brought a smile, a real one, to the girl's face.

"That's great! I can try to join them up with those I've been drawing since I got here. I've been drawing the images that I get in order to see if it could help me."

Seeing her smile raised everyone's spirit. What she told them gave them hope that they could help her. Seeing how objects seemed to help her, Ino took out the headband that she had been keeping in her pouch ever since Shikamaru had found it in the mountains. Slowly, she pushed it towards the other things that were on the tables.

"I think you should also take this seeing as this is yours."

Sora's smile vanished as she looked at the headband. She then looked at everyone around in the room to see that they also each had one, under one form or another. She then shook her head and pushed the headband back towards Ino.

"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. This can't belong to me."

They all looked at her with a very confused look.

"What do you mean?" asked Choji.

"Simple. There's no way that I'm a shinobi. I can't."

"But you are. You're a Hidden Leaf ninja like the rest of us. In fact, you're on the same team as Ino, Shikamaru and I," insisted the boy.

From his face, it was clear that this one particular lack of knowledge seemed to really hurt him.

"In fact, all of us here, with the exception of Sai," Reena pointed at the boy who had kept silent at the end of table so far, "went to the academy together. We're all friends here. "

Sora's face was becoming more and more white as people insisted. A few more people kept adding information such as their village, the kind of mission they do, her sensei, and the Hokage. Not able to take it anymore, Sora turned around, grabbed her crutches, and got up.

"I-I'm sorry. I can't do this. I'm not a shinobi. You're all mistaken. I need to be alone."

After grabbing only the piece of clothing and the drawings, she hurried the best she could out of the room. Everyone in the room looked sadly in her direction as she left. When she was gone, Choji spoke softly:

"I don't get it. Why is she so upset about being a shinobi?"

"And I thought things were going so well," added Ino while shaking her head in dismay.

Shikamaru sat there silently, staring at the headband and thinking. He was trying to see what could cause the girl to panic so much.

"Hey, Reena. If you would like, you could take out some steam in a little match with me in the back," suddenly spoke up Naruto.

Catching everyone's attention, people stared at Naruto then at Reena to see that the girl had her fists clenched and seemed to be shaking slightly with anger.

"Though I appreciate the offer Naruto, I have to say no. I can't wrestle you. It's not a good idea."

"But you know I can take it!" insisted the boy with a huge smile.

Reena got up and gave him a hard look.

"I said no. I need time alone. I need fresh air."

With these as her final words, she stormed out of the room as fast as she could, as if running from something. The rest of the group watched her leave.

"What's with her?" asked Ino dumbfounded.

Sakura shook her head.

"She's angry at the moment. I think we all are. She's probably just worried of losing it with Naruto and endangering him."

The boy crossed his arms and huffed.

"And I said I can take it. I'm tougher than I look. Heck, I'm tougher than anyone here."

"But she said no. At least, try to respect that," Sakura scolded him. "I'll try to see if Sora would like her check up. If I can figure out what aftereffects she's dealing with, I could try to whip up some remedy to help her. I'll let you guys know."

She then also left. As soon as she was gone, Naruto started getting up.

"Where are you going?" asked Ino, sceptical of what he could do.

The boy made a face, the one they recognised as when he is up to no good.

"I just need to talk with Reena."

"Sakura told you to leave her alone! Do you seriously not want to at least respect Reena when she asked to be alone?"

"But she didn't ask per say," he said with an intense grin.

"Naruto!" she shouted as he suddenly hurried out of the room as if he could run away from the argument.

"Let him go, Ino. We can't stop him. What's the worse that could happen?" said Choji.

Ino sighed then turned towards Shikamaru for some support only to find him still thinking intensively.

"I know that face. What are you thinking?"

Shikamaru blinked a few times then looked at his two teammates. He noticed that there were only the three of them left. Sai seemed to have left unnoticed.

"Sorry, I was still thinking as to why Sora might be afraid of being a shinobi. I was thinking that she might have adapted to the thinking here in this town."

The two started thinking.

"It could be but how long do you think she has been here?" asked Ino.

The two boys shrugged.

"It really depends how quick she managed to escape the three brothers and how quick they reached the cave in the mountain," suggested Choji.

"She's been with us for almost a week now," said a voice behind them.

Turning around, they saw the elderly woman walking out of the kitchen.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry," she said. She then looked at all three of them. "I take it that things didn't go as well you would have hoped?"

All three of them shook their heads.

"She got spooked when we showed her the headband she normally wears and told her that she's a shinobi," explained briefly Shikamaru.

"We're not quite sure why," added Ino.

The old woman walked around the table and took a seat in front of them, pushing aside the still half full tray that Sora left behind.

"Well, she seemed to have been afraid ever since she got here. I remember her telling us that she had to hide but she didn't know from who or what. She could have associated that fear with the villagers' mentality here."

"Maybe…" said Shikamaru.

Though he agreed with her theory that resembled what he had come up with, he did not manage to agree. Something was telling him that there could be more to it.

"Does she ever talk about what she remembers?" asked Ino.

"Well, she shows us a few drawings that she makes. We found a few other sheets of papers with a drawing that we can't quite make out since it's been scratched out. She also gives us a few drawings. I think she believes that she owes us despite me and my husband constantly repeating to her that she doesn't," explained the woman, looking amused by the last fact.

"Maybe the drawings that you gave her will help, Shikamaru," said Choji while looking at his friends.

"I know it's easier said than done, but try to go slow with this girl. I've seen her progress quite a bit since we welcomed her here but I can see how too much information or pressure may just send her back," warned the woman.

The three nodded.

"We understand," said Shikamaru.

"It's just a bit hard to sit and wait," added Ino while scratching her head.

"Oh! Thank you for the delicious food by the way!" suddenly said Choji.

The woman laughed at his enthusiasm.

"My, my, you're welcome any time, child."

She slowly got up and started heading towards the reception desk. As she did so, she looked up the stairs, seeing Sakura come down and nodded at her. Once she reached the floor, Sakura headed towards the group left in the dining room.

"So what's the news?" asked Ino.

"Well, she didn't want me to look at her when I got there. It took a lot of convincing. It seems that she's not too hot with anything related to shinobis at the moment and that includes my treatment. However, I managed to at least change her mind about me at the end. Her leg is fixed but she'll need to avoid putting too much pressure on it till the pain that's still there is gone, like it was your case, Shikamaru. As for the aftereffects, I have a good idea about what is needed. The drugs she got were pretty strong unfortunately. It's affecting her a lot in different ways. Thankfully though, the remedy I'll make should help. I'm just short on several herbs. As for her head, I can't say. I got to look at it long enough to know that she suffered from a concussion, probably from a bumpy ride in the river. It explains her memory loss. However, she started getting another huge migraine and asked me to leave her head alone. It's probably another aftereffect. You guys want to help me find what I need to make the remedy?"

"Sure, it's better than staying inside, not knowing what to do," answered Ino with a shrug.

The other two agreed. Getting up, Shikamaru grabbed Sora's headband from the table. He would at least keep it with him until she was ready to see it again. Sakura then led them to the front desk. She scribbled on a piece of paper a list of what seemed to be a list of herbs and asked the owner if she knew where she could find them. The good news was they could all be found in town as they were not any kind of rare herb. The bad news is that they would need to go to different shops to find them which meant a lot more unfriendly stares from the villagers. Shikamaru let out a sigh. What was best: unfriendly stares from the villagers or the unrecognisable stare from Sora?