Chapter I: Crashing Down
It was Friday. You didn’t normally mind Fridays, save for this one. You had an English test 2nd period, and 1st period have drawn to a close only moments before. You grudgingly made your way to the English classroom, scowling slightly the whole way. You usually didn’t mind English tests either, except for the fact that you’d neglected to study for this one. You clenched your teeth as you began to descend a stairway, trying to remember the social web that had been woven in Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night.’
‘Does Olivia end up with Sebastian or the Duke?’ you thought frantically, reaching into your bag for your copy of the play. You hadn’t actually finished reading the play the night before…reading fanfiction online had piqued your interest just a little bit more… As soon as your fingertips brushed against the smooth cover of the book, you felt the wrong part of your foot come into contact with the edge of a stair. You looked up from your bag just in time to see the stairway sort of…jump at you. You shut your eyes instinctively, and in a burst of pain, you felt your body tumble down the rest of the flight of stairs. When you reached the landing, you didn’t dare open your eyes. After all, you’d just fallen down a flight of stairs, at school! What would people think?! You lay still for a moment, your head throbbing, waiting for someone to come help you up. But after a few more seconds, you blacked out from the pain.
After what felt like seconds and hours at the same time of floating through unconsciousness, you returned to your senses a bit. You kept your eyes shut, though, as you reveled in the softness beneath you…such a nice feeling for your aching body. Suddenly, as if they’d just entered the room, you heard voices murmuring to each other.
“You say you found her in the woods?” a man’s voice asked.
“Hai, Kakashi-sensei,” a girl’s voice replied. “When we found her, she was bleeding really badly, so I bandaged her up a bit…” The girl’s voice trailed off proudly.
“And I can see that you’ve done a very good job, Sakura,” the man said.
“Kakashi-sensei’s right, Sakura-chan!” came a boy’s voice rather loudly. “She’ll be better in no time!”
“Urusai, Naruto!” the girl hissed.
“Ahh…gomen, gomen,” the boy sighed.
“Oi, Kakashi-sensei,” another boy’s voice said sternly. His voice was deeper than the first boy’s…more mature-sounding. “Should we really be taking care of this girl?”
“…Sasuke-kun…” the girl gasped, sounding confused and nervous at the same time.
“She could be a foreign shinobi, using genjutsu to pretend to be injured just so she could enter the village unnoticed, and then attack when we’re least expecting it.” You could hear the girl gasp at this.
‘What? ‘Shinobi?’ ‘Genjutsu?’ Huh?’ Unable to feign unconsciousness any longer, you slowly opened your eyes. You wanted to see your rescuers.
“Omigosh, she’s waking up!” the girl squealed, rushing over to the side of the bed. For a moment, all you saw was a blur of pink beside you. But as your eyes came into focus, you saw a pink-haired girl kneeling next you, staring at you with her bright green eyes. Wait…pink hair? What?
You sat up with a grunt, your whole body aching. You looked around the room at the others. Behind the girl stood three males, one obviously about twice the age of the others. All present wore identical headbands; the oldest covered his left eye.
“Wh-Where am I?” you asked numbly. The man was the first to speak up.
“You’re in my house,” he said, running a hand over his wild silver mane. You looked at him, confused. “--Which is located in Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.”
“Oh,” you said, blinking. Wherever that was, you did not know. “But who are you?”
“My name is Hatake Kakashi,” said the man. “And these three are my students.” He motioned to the others.
“I’m Haruno Sakura,” said the girl. “I found you out in the woods when my teammates and I were training. You were really hurt, so I fixed you up. Was I gentle enough, ‘nee-chan?” But before you could answer, one of the two younger boys --the blonde-- hopped onto the bed, jostling you and making you cringe from the pain.
“And I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” he piped happily, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m the one who carried you here after Sakura-chan found you!” He paused momentarily to flex his muscles showily, still grinning. “I know, I know, it’s no big deal,” he continued. “Saving babes like you is what I do best, after all!”
‘Babes like…me?’ You momentarily blocked out Naruto’s babbling to put a bruised hand to your cheek as you blushed.
“Y’know, you’re kinda cute when you blush,” said Naruto happily. You smiled softly as you locked eyes with the blonde. But the moment was quickly cut short when Sakura brought her fist down on Naruto’s head.
“Stop bothering her!” Sakura yelled, yanking the poor boy off the bed. “Can’t you see she’s really hurt?! She’ll never get better if all she sees is your stupid face!” As Naruto pouted quietly behind Kakashi, Sakura scolding him even more, you glanced across the room. There, leaning against the wall, was a somber-looking boy; dark hair, raven eyes, smooth skin…he was practically the pinnacle of male beauty. He stared at you intently, as if he was trying to carve the image of you into his mind. After a few moments, you caught his eyes, but he looked away almost immediately, his cheeks tinged with the tiniest bit of pink.
“Hey,” you said delicately to the boy. “You didn’t tell me your name yet.” He glared at you.
“Uchiha Sasuke,” he said gravely, then turned and quickly left the room. You stared after him, wondering why he’d left so suddenly. On the other side of the room, Kakashi cleared his throat.
“Customarily,” said the man. “Introductions have two parts.” Oh, he wanted you to introduce yourself
“I’m--” you cut yourself off, wracking your brain for the answer to such a simple request. “I’m…I’m…” You stared at your hands in your lap, unable to find the right word for the situation.
‘Oh no!’ your mind screamed. ‘I can’t remember my name!’ All at once, your confusion seemed to multiply ten fold, and tears streaked down your face.
‘I…I can’t remember my name,” you said quietly, sniffling here and there. Silence reigned supreme for a moment, as the others in the room let the information slowly sink in.
“Oh, you poor thing, ‘nee-chan,” said Sakura after a while, clasping her hands over her chest. By then, you’d hidden your face in your palms, and had begun sobbing quietly into them. When you thought about it, you couldn’t remember a single thing about yourself…not where you were from, who your parents were, or even how old you were.
“That must be one big bump on the head,” said Naruto, rubbing the lump Sakura had recently given him. Kakashi sighed.
“Since you don’t even know your own name, I don’t suppose you could tell us know you got into the condition,” Kakashi prodded. You hiccupped, then shook your head, allowing the tears to fall freely. It was quite a mystery to all of you how you had gotten so hurt when you were all alone out in the woods.
End Chapter I.
A/N: Yeah. Um. It needs work. And possibly a second chapter.