After Shikamaru had been taken to the bed in his room, everyone made some space for Sakura to do her thing. Though she did not mind leaving the door of the room opened, she requested to have everyone wait outside. It took several minutes for Sakura to come out of the room with a deep frown. Shikamaru was not doing well. It seemed like he was reacting to a slow acting poison but this poison was unknown to her. She would need a sample of it to be able to make a counteracting remedy.

This left everyone confused. As far as they were concerned, Shikamaru had not left the hotel in the last few days and for him to react now to the poison, especially at the speed it was acting now, it had to have been consumed quite recently. The option that he could have gotten it from the hotel's kitchen was soon ridden out as no one else had been affected. It had to have come to an outside source.

The group stood in silence in the common room, racking their brain to figure out where it came out. It was only when Reena stood rigid with a pale face that they suddenly had a lead. Toward the beginning of the afternoon, she had went to eat on the roof where Shikamaru was relaxing. During their discussion, she had given him the riceball from the lunch kit she had bought in town since she did not want to bother the owner of the hotel at an odd time for food. At the end, the poison had been directed to her, not Shikamaru.

When she offered to go see the boy at the stand that she bought the food from, Ino interferred. If the poison had been meant for her, it was a bad idea for her to show up again. She then offered to go instead, deciding that her charms would do the trick to convince the boy to give her a sample of the poison. Though sceptical, no one in the group argued. There were not many choices present at the time. Doing anything out of the ordinary or rough that could scare the villagers would be bad seeing the already existing tension.

Impatiently they waited for about 10 minutes as Ino had headed out to the stand that Reena had indicated. When the blond girl reappeared in the room with her shoulders slumped down, they already knew the result of her 'flirting'. Turns out that being a shinobi had killed the charm right from the start, no matter how hard she had tried. At the end, she bought a lunch from the stand, hoping he had poisoned that one too but Sakura mentioned that it would take a lot longer that way to extract the poison and that is if there was poison in the food.

Sora saw all of them trying so hard to find a solution and part of her felt awful. She had that fear of them right from the start but seeing them now made her realize how normal they were. Like anyone else, they protected those who were dear to them. Filled with a new resolve, she left the room without letting anyone know. She did not stop her quick strides till she reached the stand, despite her leg still hurting a bit. Seeing her, the boy was all smile.

"Kyuu! It's been a while!"

She leaned on the counter of the stand and tried to look as friendly as possible. No one knew in this village that she was apparently a shinobi. This would greatly play in her favor.

"Hey, Koki. I was in the mood for one of your fabulous lunch but then realized on my way here that I forgot my wallet. I'd go back to the hotel but you know… there seems to be quite the commotion there with those shinobis at the moment."

She saw a smirk form on his lips and knew that she had him.

"Heh. Maybe with that, those damn shinobis will leave our village."

"Oh? Do you know what's going on?" she asked, faking ignorance.

"Sure do. Since no one here has the courage to make them leave, I decided to step up."

"No way! What did you do?"

She was now trying to look impressed and the boy, too proud of himself, did not seem to see through it.

"Added a bit of poison to a rice ball in their lunch. Not too much to make it obvious though I think they might have caught on seeing how one of them came here not too long ago. At least, I thought they knew but then the dumb shinobi bought one of my lunches. So who knows, really. At least now, they'll want to leave in order to get help for the one that's sick."

Sora thought about what the boy said. The shinobis could have left right away to seek help from their village to help Shikamaru, but they didn't. Was moving him too dangerous? No, they're staying for you, part of her whispered. Determined to help them, she decided to continue her act.

"Huh, that's so cool! Though, I got to admit that I'm surprised that you, of all people, have poison with you. You know, selling food and all."

The boy smiled.

"Actually, it was an odd coincidence. This scroll merchant came to town and stopped here to eat. From talking with him, I discovered that he hates shinobis just as much as we do. He's actually the one that gave me the idea and the poison to drive them out of here. Clever, really."

A cold chill ran through her. Scroll merchant. That sole thought made her cold. The fear that had been floating around in her and had gotten worse at any mention of shinobis now had spiked at the mention of this men. She was not just afraid. Her body wanted to run like hell and even without knowing where this man was. Somehow, she knew that this scroll merchant was a shinobi. It made sense to her now. She was not afraid of shinobis. She was afraid of that shinobi. Yet, she still felt like that wasn't the complete reason. There was still some elements missing.

"Hey, Kyuu. Are you okay? You're shaking all of a sudden."

She blinked a few times before realizing that she was clenching her fists so tight that her arms were shaking. Fear had suddenly let a new emotion come into play: anger. She gave him a hard look.

"It's Sora now and you, Koki, are such a fool." She watched the boy's eyes widen in surprise at her low yet ice cold tone. "You, along with everyone here, hate shinobis fervently because of the violence and misery they can breed. And what do you do? You take that one element that make them so bad and use it against them. You took poison from a shinobi just to hurt, even possibly kill, a shinobi. What makes you any better than them now, hm?"

The boy had taken a few steps back from the once innocent looking girl. Not once had she raised her voice but it had sounded so dangerous that Koki now wanted to run.

"I-I didn't think of that."

"No, you didn't think at all," she added, leaning more on the counter.

"I-I don't want to kill anyone. I-I don't want to be a murderer!"

She stretched out on hand.

"Then give me what's left of the poison so I can bring it to them and they can cure it. You shouldn't have poison with you anyways."

"But… what if they know it's me?"

"I won't be the one to tell them," she answered firmly while she finished her sentence in her head: since they already know.

The boy clearly felt guilty as he quickly looked through his things. He finally pulled out a tiny packet and gave it to her. Without adding another word, she took it and left. She rushed back to the hotel and ran upstairs. There she found the group looking like they were at lost for solutions. From their surprised looks, it was clear that they didn't notice her absence. Though they were even more surprised when she opened her hand and showed the packet containing the poison.

Sakura rushed up to her, grabbed it and with one glimpse at it, she knew that it was what she needed. She didn't so much say a word as she rushed to her own room to grab what she would need and, without wasting a moment, started preparing the remedy. As Sora sat down, feeling suddenly exhausted from what had happened at the stand, Ino walked up to her.

"How did you do it? How did you convince him?"

Sora looked up sadly at the blonde girl.

"He wouldn't have helped a shinobi, no matter how much charm you would have used on him. His hate was too strong but I don't think it will ever be the same now."

Ino nodded in understanding. Sora had went as a regular girl, not as a shinobi. Though it made her a bit sad to think so, the girl was still happy that it had worked out in their favor. She was even more happy that Sora cared enough to do it, despite being afraid of shinobis. Little did she know how that was now changed.

Then left to her own thoughts, Sora covered her face with her hands and tried to piece together the little bit that she had. Those cuts and bruises that she had on her must of come from that scroll merchant. They still hurt, even burned a lot, but she had not shown them to Sakura the first time around, afraid that she would mark her as an enemy. But the scroll merchant… wasn't alone. She knew without knowing. Perhaps, if she was a shinobi, she could have taken on one man. There had to be more. She took a deep breath and tried as hard as she could to grab hold of this new memory and remember.

She was in pain. It was burning. Even breathing was difficult. She wasn't tied up anymore. She could move her arms. Could she really? No way to tell. Everything was distorted around her. She wasn't standing. She couldn't stand. She could move but where to? She couldn't tell up from down. She wanted to die.

Shouting came from a distance. An argument. Not all the words were clear. It was about her. She didn't have what they wanted. What to do with her now?

She could hear it. The sound of water. Rushing. Fast. Calling. Calling to her. Slowly but surely she moved. Couldn't get up. Hurt too much. Even crawling hurt.

Shouting burst behind her. Meant for her. She couldn't touch anything. It was like floating. Or was it… falling? The sound of rushing water was growing near. Fast.

Can't breath. Can't move. Was she dying?

A pressure on her arm pulled her harshly back to reality. She barely heard Asuma in front of her as he said:

"Shikamaru will be okay. We all have you to thanks."

She jumped and looked at him wide eyes. Doing her best to catch her breath, she tried to calm down but the images were still vivid in her memory. Seeing her, Asuma grew worried. He looked around to see if anyone was listening and kneeled down in front of her to be at eye level. He then took the risk to reach out and cup her face in his hands.

"Are you okay, Sora? What's happening? Talk to me."

She opened her mouth to speak but her throat was dry. She felt like a fish out of water as she tried to gasp for air. The air was too heavy. Or was it too thin? She couldn't tell. Blinking to clear her now blurry vision, she did her best to focus on Asuma's face. She could still feel it. The feeling of drowning was crystal clear. It was like reliving it all over again.

There were noises around her, possibly shouting, but she could barely hear it. Her mouth was wide open, trying to breath the best she could. She gripped Asuma's arm as hard as she could, clinging the best she could to reality, as if it would save her from drowning. There was a blur of pink in front of her and then everything went dark.

A silver scroll. She could see it, almost touch it. It was floating in front of her.

"Where is the scroll?" a voice shouted.

Three men now stood there. They wanted a silver scroll. What was so important with this scroll? She couldn't remember. They were furious. One of them took out an odd shaped knife. It was almost like a kunai knife but it was slightly curved. There were ways to make someone talk. There were worst things to fear than death. She would know soon.

With a loud gasp, she sat up. Looking quickly around her, she saw that a bed had been set up in one corner of the common room for her. Soon enough, Sakura ran up to her.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay, you need to lay down now."

Feeling gently pushed back down, Sora didn't resist. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air and enjoying the feeling of breathing again. She then pulled her hands to her face and rubbed it vigorously.

"W-what happened?"

"You had a panic attack. You hyperventilated so much that you ended up passing out. Thankfully, you were sitting down at the time."

Sora noticed that the lights around her were not coming from the sun but from the lights in the room. The sun had come down while she was out.

"How is she?" asked a worried voice coming from beside her.

Turning her head to the side, she saw that beside Sakura, there was only Asuma left in the room.

"Better from what I can see," quickly answered Sakura as she started checking her pulse.

"Almost gave me a heart attack there."

"Sorry," apologized Sora in a small tone.

"Don't," said Sakura firmly. Then looking closer at her face, she asked in all seriousness: "Do you know what could have caused you to slip in a panic attack?"

Sora squeezed her eyes shot for a minute. She then reopened them slowly.

"I-I think I remembered what happened to me, but I don't remember anything else. I don't even remember absolutely everything that happened. Why can't I remember everything? Am I too scared?" she asked frantically.

Sakura squeezed her shoulder softly.

"There's no specific theory behind temporary memory loss, Sora. Sometimes it comes back all at once. Sometimes it comes back in pieces. Other times, it becomes permanent due to a shock that was too great, damage to the brain, or even lack of oxygen."

"Does that mean I'll never remember anything else?" Sora asked, suddenly worried. There had to be better memories to remember than those. She felt that she would go crazy if she was to never remember anything else.

"Only time will tell us," answered the pink hair girl softly. "Now, why don't you tell us what you remember?"

"Three men. I remember three men. One disguised as a scroll merchant. They wanted something… a scroll. They wanted a scroll. They drugged me and tortured me. When they realized that I didn't have any answers, they continued out of anger. I jumped down in the river, at least that's what I tried to do. I was too drugged to know what was really happening. I had to do it, I couldn't take it anymore."

She hadn't realized that she was crying until Asuma had kneeled down beside the bed and wiped away a tear from her face.

"Why did I have to remember that? Why can't I just remember who you guys are or even who I am?"

Sakura shook her head.

"It could be because there was a trigger or those were your last memory. It was a traumatic experience after all. It could be what was blocking your memories and what still is blocking on the rest. Your body could be trying to survive by only giving you the information it deems that you need to do it."

Sora took another deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. It was like being told to act a role with a script without knowing what character you were actually playing. She needed to remember more than this.

"Give yourself a chance, Sora. You've been through a lot. We'll take this one step at a time," added Asuma encouragingly. "Why don't you rest for the moment? You seem exhausted."

Sakura nodded in agreement as they both got up.

"We'll get you to sleep here for at least tonight to keep you close to us. We didn't want to move your room without you agreeing to it."

"Sa… Sakura," Sora struggled to remember her name. "There's something I need to talk to you about but, um, in private."

She then gave an unsure look to Asuma. Though she wanted him to stay, she couldn't do what she wanted with him there. Sakura turned towards the man and nodded. With that, he left.

"Everyone is eating downstairs and Shikamaru is still sleeping, so there's no worry about being interrupted. What did you have to say?"

"Well… It's actually more what I need to show you," Sora said hesitantly.

With that, she slowly pulled her shirt up the best she could to expose her belly. Sakura's eyes widened.

"Is that what they…?" she said, kneeling back down beside her to inspect the cuts and bruises.

"Part of it. I have some on my back and one of my shoulder is hurting too."

"Sora! Why didn't you show me that earlier?"

"I… didn't trust anyone before now. Things have changed."

Without blaming her any further, she went out and got some ointment and bandages. She slowly took the time to check every single one of them carefully as Sora pointed them out. Slowly, they made their way through them and the girl felt herself slowly drift off to sleep. Satisfied, Sakura got up and quietly left, letting the girl catch up on her sleep.