On their way back from the market, it started raining again. Ino, Choji, Sakura, and Shikamaru were thankful for the cape they had brought along. It did also get a few of them to grumble at this continuous rain though. Yet, they were not so surprise when they noticed Sora sitting on a bench ahead of them, enjoying this rain.

"Well, apparently even her memory loss won't get her to stop loving rain," said Ino with a mocking smile.

"I guess some things are just not meant to change," replied Shikamaru with a shrug.

Ino looked at Shikamaru to see him looking sadly at the girl in the rain. It was clear that this situation was hard on him and that he was trying his best not to show it. She gave him a little push in the back that made him look at her.

"Just go. Go see her."

He hesitated. Seeing what her best friend was trying to do, Sakura did the same.

"Maybe just having only you around will be easier on her given that she'd feel less pressured."

Shikamaru looked at both girls and sighed.

"What a drag."

Both of them rolled their eyes at the same time and pushed him forward harder this time.

"Go," they both said.

It was quite scary seeing them both act in synchronism like this. In fact, he didn't see the two girls exchange a high five as he moved forward towards Sora though Choji clearly did. He slowly walked towards the girl, afraid that his presence would scare her away. He looked back in hesitation behind him to only find his three friends gone. How did they leave so fast?

"This place taken?" he said, pointing at the free spot beside her.

To his surprise, she looked at him with curiosity. No part of her seemed to be scared or irritated by him.

"Well, sure, if you don't like getting soaked by the rain that is," she said with a shrug.

He sat down beside her and saw her look back up towards the sky while closing her eyes.

"And it doesn't bother you?"

He always meant to ask only realize afterwards that perhaps it would have been better for him to wait until she regained her memories, if she ever did. Yet, she still seemed able to answer him.

"It's refreshing and calming. I can understand the annoyance of being soaked but, for me, it's something that's outweighed by the feeling of lightness I get from the rain."

She didn't see the thoughtful look he gave her. Maybe, just maybe, Sora was still in there somewhere and she could be reached unconsciously. He could now see how peaceful she looked there, just letting the light rain fall on her face.

"...I guess that the fact that I didn't listen to that pink hair girl's advice and went out without my crutches or any other type of support for my leg could also play in the fact as to why I'm sitting here under this rain at this specific moment," she added out of the blue, still looking up at the sky.

Surprised by the unexpected comment, he first looked at her in surprised then burst out laughing. It took him a few seconds to stop his sudden laughter all while she stared at him with a blush starting to appear on her cheeks.

"Sorry, sorry," he finally managed to apologize as he started catching his breath. "It's just that you've always been stubborn and it's finally catching up to you."

She looked even more embarrassed and finally decided to look the opposite way of him to hide her embarrassment. Seeing her act like so still got him chuckling. When he decided that he made fun of the situation enough, he took a deep breath to calm his laughter and finally offered:

"Want me to help you get back to your room in the hotel?"

"...if you stop making fun of me," she said, still not looking at him.

He could tell from her tone that she was more embarrassed then upset. With a soft smile, he got up and stood in front of her offering his hand. Once she grabbed his hand and pulled herself up on the leg that didn't hurt her, he asked:

"So which one do you prefer? An arm around my shoulders and I put an arm around your waist or do you just want a piggyback?"

She thought a little bit as a light frowned appeared on her face. Apparently, neither of the situation pleased her.

"There's no other option?"

"Well, I could carry you bridal style," he said as casually as possible to tease her.

She looked at him wide eyes, let out a huge sigh, and finally stretched an arm around his shoulders to show that she decided to take the first option. They first walk silently together as they slowly made their way to the hotel but Shikamaru soon realized that this silence was not the kind he was used to. He wouldn't have been able to put it into words but it was just not the same comfortable silence which finally made him speak up.

"So have you had the chance to look at the drawings I gave you?"

The girl let out a sigh.

"Yeah, I can definitely see that it's my drawings. They remind me about my parents. I can somehow remember them more now, especially my mother. Yet, I can't see any connections with those I've been drawings these last few days. What's even worse, I look at these drawings and can't tell what they are even if they were in my head."

Shikamaru thought for a second. She had flashes about things she remembered without remembering them.

"Do you…" the girl hesitated. "...think you could have a look at them and see?"

The boy was surprised by her question but quickly agreed to it. He didn't want to let that chance slip before he could take it. While he thought happily about the outcome, she brought him back to reality with a simple question.

"So, this is going to sound stupid but I'm really bad with names. Would you mind… repeating your name?"

Shikamaru first was sad about the question. However, after taking a deep breath, he convinced himself that he needed to be patient. Things wouldn't just suddenly come back all at once, would they?

"Shikamaru and I'll repeat any name that you want to have."

"What about that white hair girl that was sitting beside me this morning?"

"Reena, she's actually your best friend."

"My best friend? Ah man, I seemed to really have upset her this morning… well, along with the other people like the brown hair boy."

He gave her the best smile he could given the situation.

"Don't worry about it. Choji, Reena, and the rest of us understand the situation. We should actually apologize for all coming at you like that."

The girl looked down.

"I'm sorry. There's just something scaring me and I don't know what it is so I get really spooked easily."

Looking at her, Shikamaru felt like he was seeing a small broken and fragile animal. He truly felt bad for her at that moment. At the same time, he felt like he was dealing with a completely different person and that made him sad but he didn't want to show her and scare her away.

"So what are we?"

He blinked a few times, not understanding the question. He gave her a confused look.

"Well, I kinda came to the conclusion that you were perhaps my best friend given the previous circumstances but now you're telling me that the white hair girl… Reena, is my best friend. So what does that make of us?"

He hesitated. He didn't know himself because of what had happened right before this whole situation came down on them. Slowly, he started putting words together.

"Well… We are… on the same team… So we are teammates and… we are… close friends, being on the same team and all…"

For some curious reason, he wasn't able to look at her while answering which didn't seem to go unnoticed by the girl. She looked at him thoughtfully.

"Huh… I thought maybe we were perhaps something more but I'm not feeling it in me, so I guess not," she said quite bluntly.

He flinched at her statement and looked straight ahead of them. He couldn't believe what she just said. It felt like she had stabbed him with those words. Seeing the pain on his face, the girl realised her possible mistake and tried to catch up.

"But, you know, it's very calming to be around you. I'd really like it if you could help me…"

She then looked down at their feet, not sure if she could actually catch up anymore for what she said. Seeing how he wasn't responding, she finally added so low that Shikamaru almost didn't catch it:

"...the only thing I've been feeling continuously is fear. I can't seem to feel anything else."

That was when he finally looked at her. He understood that he couldn't blame her for how she was at the moment. It was just easier said than done at the end.

"I'll help you. Why don't we start with those drawings of yours?"

Looking up, she saw that they had reached the hotel's doors. They pushed through them and were welcomed warmly by the owner's smile. After smiling back at her, they went up the stairs, a floor above where the others' rooms were, and reached her room. When they got in, she separated herself from him while mentioning that her leg felt fine again. Seeing her walk around normally, as if to confirm what she had just said, he decided to tell her that he'd go get change in something a little more dry which would give her time to change too. Once again, something about seeing clothings sticking to her like a second skin was just not something he could deal with at the moment. Without giving her the chance to respond, he quickly left the room.

Going to his room, even for a few minutes felt like a good idea. Not only could he take off his cloak and feel a bit more dry, he could take the time to take a few huge breaths to ground himself. He realized at that moment that it was really difficult acting like everything was fine. When coming out of his room, he noticed that near the patio door, Sakura was sitting in one of the few chairs that was there and was mixing the herbs she had bought in a bowl. He somehow had not seen her on his way in. Perhaps, she had just arrived?

Noticing someone standing there, she looked up and smiled at the sight of Shikamaru.

"How is it going?"

He nodded a few times, as if to convince himself before answering.

"Good, good. I'm not spooking her apparently which is already a good start. She would also like for me to look at her recent drawings to help her. Maybe it could help."

She nodded thoughtfully, failing to noticed his hesitant demeanor.

"Good. Be sure to look for any signs of migraine or change of moods. If those happens, make sure to give her her space. Insisting could just make matters worse which we obviously want to avoid."

He nodded to realize that she hadn't notice as she was too focused on what she was doing.

"Did we get any feedback from our senseis' team?"

Sakura shook her head.

"I don't know. Reena has the radio. I can check with her if she tried again after making this remedy. I'll come by Sora's room to bring it when it's done."

"Sounds good," he simply said as he left.

He quickly got back to the door of Sora's room and knocked on it, wondering if she perhaps changed her mind. When she finally opened her door, he was not so surprised to see that she had put on a new pair of pants but had kept her humid top. In normal circumstances, he would have bullied her into getting fully changed like last time but since he didn't know if that was on the growing list of taboo things to do, he decided to drop it unwillingly.

"Come in, make yourself comfortable on my bed. I'll show you the drawings I got."

Sitting on the bed, he couldn't help but look at her. He noticed that even her hair was still dripping. He unconsciously let out a sigh which he was thankful that she didn't seem to notice as she sat down beside him with a pile of papers. Though she gave them to him to look through, she looked at them closely as if they would suddenly change into something she would suddenly remember. He flipped through a few of them and soon realized how much he loved the girl's art. It was in a way simple and light, filled with details without being overwhelming. He first stopped at one drawing.

"Huh, that's Konoha, our village. And from what I can see…" he held up the image higher in front of him to get a new perspective, "...it looks a lot like the view we get from your favorite spot." Seeing her confused look, he decided to elaborate. "It's up a hill, on the outskirts of the village. It's very calm and relaxing there. You go there very often."

He then went through a few more drawings that were about Konoha, all while describing them. They were from various places like the ramen shop they sometime went to, the BBQ restaurant the team often went to, the academy, the view of the top of the academy, the five Hokages in the stone wall, her house, and it kept going. He suddenly stopped at a drawing of a construction site.

"That's not so far your house. It's a school that's being built."

She nodded.

"Isn't it built by him?" she said as she brought out another drawing of whom he recognized to be Daichi.

"Yeah…"

At the sight of the drawing, he frowned a bit as anger built inside of him. He couldn't forget what had happened with him or what he did to her.

"He's part of the small glimpse I get. I think I went out with him but I don't remember what happened or if we're still together."

The boy laughed dryly without thinking.

"You're not and to be honest, I don't think the reason why you broke up is something you want to put your effort into remembering at the moment."

She looked at him, as if she wanted to insist, but the dark look he was giving the drawing convinced her otherwise. She decided instead to flip the drawing of Daichi to show another one under.

"What about him? I can clearly remember what he looks like but I don't know who he is. I think he's important…"

Shikamaru's eyebrows rose at the sight of it. It was surprisingly quite detailed, as if to confirm the girl's previous statement.

"That's Asuma-sensei. He's, well obviously, our sensei but I also discovered recently that he's your godfather and legal guardian. He wanted to take you in when your parents died but you decided that living alone was for the best. I think there hasn't been any real issues about it, really."

"Really? So he's a… shinobi?" she asked, hesitating on the last word.

He nodded.

"Yeah, in fact, he's part of the third team that's out at the moment. You'll be seeing him when he comes back soon. We're waiting on news to see when they are coming back. I'm sure you'd like to have a proper discussion with him. He'll be able to go into some details that I don't know myself, I'm sure."

He noticed that she looked worried suddenly.

"What's up?"

"There's more of you guys…?"

The boy was surprised.

"Well… we were three teams sent out for you. Actually two, but that's a long story and beside the point. You'll see. We won't hurt you. We're actually here to protect you."

The girl looked down.

"I just still have a hard time believing that I'm a shinobi…"

He could see her hands shaking and wondered for a bit if it was still the aftereffect of the drugs or fear. Deciding to move on, he continued looking through the drawings. Some things he didn't recognize such as a stone monument in a clearing that looked to be used for rituals. As he was looking through the drawing, the girl commented:

"You know, sometimes I wish we could draw emotions. Maybe like that I could explain better how I feel to you and the others…"

Shikamaru looked at her with a sadden look.

"Maybe you can't but we're open to talking with you. Perhaps discussing it will get us to understand better? If you ever want to talk about something, anything really, feel free to come see me. I'll gladly lend an ear."

She quietly nodded. Drawing emotions… thought Shikamaru as he looked down towards the drawings. If only there was such a thing. Then he would be able to understand this different Sora which he's so desperately trying to reach out to. He finally stopped on another drawing and smiled.

"You drew a shōgi board?"

"Oh! Is that what it's called? I think I remember how to play it and knew what it looked like but couldn't remember how it was called for the life of me so I didn't want to ask the nice owner if she had it here. I've kinda been wanting to play it."

"Well, we can always ask later. Both sensei and me can play it quite well."

The girl frowned a bit.

"I suddenly have a bad feeling about playing against you…"

Before he could respond, a knock could be heard on the door. Quickly, he got up before the girl had the reflex to and opened it to find Sakura on the other side. She smiled at both of them and walked up to Sora.

"How has it been going? Still have a migraine?"

Sora shook her head.

"Not as bad as this morning."

"Good! Here take this," the girl offered a bottle. "I'll tell you now, it won't taste wonderful but do try to take it once in the morning and once in the evening. Hopefully, you'll start feeling the effects starting tomorrow."

Sora made the effort to smile.

"I really hope so to be honest. I'm not doubting your skills, I just can't wait to get rid of these shakes," she said as she raised a shaking hand to add some emphasis.

"Well, let me know. I'm here for you. If there's anything, even any symptoms that we haven't spoke about, let me know." Seeing the girl nod, Sakura then turned to Shikamaru. "Hey, I can't find Reena… Have you seen Naruto? I want to see if he's seen her."

"No but…" he stopped to thinking. He finally added with a shrug, "Oh right, he said he was actually going to talk to Reena despite our warning to respect her privacy."

Sakura looked really worried.

"No no no, I gotta go before Naruto does something stupid… if it's not too late already."

She then left in a hurry without saying goodbye. Sora gave a confused look at Shikamaru.

"What was that about?"

Shikamaru scratched his head, trying to find the best way to explain it.

"Well… you might not remember this but both Naruto and Reena are... special. Surprisingly enough, depending on the situation, Reena has sometime more control over it then Naruto. However, in other cases, she can easily slip. She's aware of it so at least she tries hard to avoid it."

Satisfied with his vague but accurate description, he nodded once for himself.

"Is it because of them being shinobis?"

Shikamaru smiled softly as he sat back down beside her on the bed.

"No. I know this is going to be easier said than done but you should try to stop being so afraid of absolutely everything related to shinobis. I'm not saying it's all 100% good but it's not the opposite either."

She looked down.

"Sorry, it's just that every time I think about shinobis this fear…" she grabbed the shirt over her chest, "...just gets much worse. It's suffocating. I really don't know why."

Shikamaru started thinking. It wasn't the villagers' attitude that influenced her then. If it had been, she would have had some kind of snarky comment to say similar to the ones he's been hearing while walking around town.

"I think maybe it's due with what happened with…" he then stop and thought furiously. Was bringing up the incident with the merciless brothers a good idea? What if it sent her back into shock and made her close up again?

As he was struggling to find what to say, Sora's head suddenly turned toward the window door that led to her balcony.

"What's that?" she asked as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

Shikamaru didn't understand at first what she meant but he then felt it. There was a sudden huge amount of chakra flowing somewhere behind the hotel. As he got up, he heard shouting coming from outside. He rushed to the door and walked out from the balcony, closely followed by Sora.

"Naruto! Drop it! We don't need that here!"

Confused, he looked around to analyse the situation. On the lower and larger balcony, below where they were, he could see Sakura, Sai, Ino, and Choji standing there, staring at the back field. The back field was wide and clear, surrounded by large bushes that allowed the hotel's guest to relax without worrying about their surroundings. However, there seemed to have little relaxing being done at that moment as he noticed Naruto facing Reena who was now slightly crouched over, looking like a predator about to pounce. Chakra was clearly coming out of her.

Shikamaru looked backed at the now worried Sora.

"Stay here, I'll be back. Maybe even go back inside. I don't think that's something you should see."

He didn't wait for an answer as he jumped down to the other balcony to join the others. He already knew that no matter what he would say, Sora would stay out and watch what was happening, even if he desperately wished the opposite. She was just too curious and damn stubborn. Yet, when he reached the others and saw their worried face, his thoughts completely went to a different place.

"What's going on?"

"Naruto decided to go and provoke Reena into a fight regardless of what we said," explained Ino.

"She was staying away from us because she didn't want this to happen. Now, I don't know how to stop this!" added Sakura in panic.

The group watched the two in the back with worried faces. Reena charged quickly towards Naruto. Despite the speed she was going at, Naruto seemed to be able to keep blocking or avoiding her hits. Perhaps her lack of precision and control in this situation was giving him slightly the upper hand. However, her hits were done with brutal strength alone and it was clear that Naruto was already having a hard time keeping up. She was hitting and hitting hard. Every hit was packed with pure condensed chakra. When she turned around at one point, they briefly saw her face and what they saw was terrifying. Her pupils in her eyes were the usual slits that they became when she would call on the Houkou's chakra in a fight. However, what was terrifying was the slow transformation. She now had fangs and her face had just this bestial look to it.

However, it was when she started to crouch down on all four that the group snapped out of their daze.

"We need to go and try to stop this!" shouted Sakura as she jumped over the railing and ran towards the two fighting.

No one argued as they followed her, trying to decide what to do. Seeing them approach, Naruto shouted for them to stay out of it but no one listened to him. Reena took advantage of Naruto's distraction to come right at him. As he saw her suddenly in front of him, ready to strike, he knew it was too late for him to block. Yet, Sakura was not too late as she packed a punch and set Reena flying a few steps back.

"Reena, listen to me. You need to calm down!" shouted Sakura at her.

However, he voice didn't seem to reach her as Reena was already starting to get up and was glaring at her while growling.

"Naruto will stop, I promise!" attempted the pink hair girl again.

Naruto shouted "No, I wo-" but was interrupted by Sai who had the good sense to cover his mouth while getting him in a grapple.

"Ino, can't you use your mind transfer jutsu on her, at least to reach out and calm her down?" asked Shikamaru.

The girl's face turned white.

"No… no. I'm not doing that again. I'm never performing that jutsu again on her!"

"I could use my human boulder on her?" offered Choji.

Shikamaru shook his head.

"We want to try to avoid violence at this point. We're just going to piss her off more. We need to stop her long enough to get her to calm down."

With a sudden though, he performed a few handsign.

"Shadow possession jutsu."

They saw his shadow stretch out and link to her's. However, as the group watched, they soon realized that he never finished what he said with his usual "success". It soon became apparent that he was struggling as Reena fidgeted around. She was hard to hold down.

When his jutsu was about to break, they saw a shape run fast past them and soon Reena was pinned down to the ground. Soon enough, they saw the earth stretch out from under her and wrap around her. Above her, Kakashi was holding her face with one hand and staring at her with his Sharingan.

"Listen to me Reena. Listen to my voice. You can calm down, just listen to me," he kept repeating softly as they saw her calm down.

"What the hell happened here?" exclaimed a voice behind them.

Turning around, they saw Asuma followed by Kurenai and Gai. They all looked at each other, trying to figure out where to start. Finally, Sakura spoke up.

"It's a very long story. I think we should sit down for this discussion," she said as she started heading inside.

Soon enough, everyone started following them with the exception of Kakashi and Reena. Walking in the back, Shikamaru looked up at Sora's balcony to find the girl frozen there with a frightful look on her face. Realizing that she was being watched, she hurried inside and closed the door behind her.

"I need to check on something, I'll be right back," said Shikamaru as soon as they walked in the building.

The senseis didn't understand but he left without giving them an explanation. He didn't want to be the one to drop the bomb on them. Quickly running upstairs, he reached Sora's door and knocked softly on it. However, the only response he got from behind the door was:

"I want to be left alone, at least for today…"

He leaned against the door, discouraged of the outcome. Things had seemed to go well until this happened. Remembering what Sakura had told him about giving her space, he slowly backed away from the door. It was time to get everyone caught up with the current circumstances.

So I'm curious... Are any of my previous readers still following this? If so, please just enter a quick review to say you are following. It's really just for curiosity's sake. I won't stop writing or anything like that.

Thanks guys :)