My hands shook as I walked up the steps to my room. When I got there, I shut the door and collapsed onto my bed. There was no way that it was real. There was no way he could be here. He was just a figment of my imagination. Just a dream. I shuddered at the thought of him being real.

What would he do to my friends? He had been willing to make me kill them and then torture them. What would he be able to do? If he had managed to hospitalize Sam, then he has to be decently strong at least.

I got up from my bed and walked into my bathroom, crying all the way. I had never taken a bath here before. Always showers. But right now, I felt that I needed a bath to calm myself some.

After a few minutes of searching through various cupboards, I found some bubble bath stuff. I messed with the knob for a few seconds before I got the water to turn on, then poured some of the bubble bath soap in. I waited a few moments for it to fill, then got in and turned off the water.

I quickly realized that I hadn't used hot water. Why on earth would I fill the bathtub with cold water? Idiot. I weighed my options and then decided to heat it by using fire ninjutsu. I was about to do hand signs when I realized that I didn't have to. I wished my powers back to me and heated it. I'll wish them away again after my bath, but for now, I'm too exhausted to get rid of them.

I slumped down in the bathtub so that only my head was above the water. I thought about the third exam which was coming up in two days. Everyone was going to expect so much from me and Adrienne. It's gotten boring. I wish everyone could just forget about our accomplishments and just think of us as those dreadful ninjas who got through purely on luck.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. "What if that actually worked and everyone thinks that we're terrible now." I panicked for a few seconds before deciding that that would be really nice. I would be able to go train over the two year break and come back using my full ability and no one would question me.

I fantasized for a while over all the things I could do if everyone thought that I was dreadful. Somewhere in my fantasies I ended up making people think that the rest of my friends were dreadful too, also making everyone but Kakashi, Jiraiya, and Hiruzen forget about the whole prophecy thing.

It was around midnight when I finally got out of the bath. I dried and braided my hair then had just put on some pajamas to sleep when Emily knocked on the door. I jumped. "Yes?" I asked.

"Can I come in?" she responded. "I just got home thirty minutes ago and Adrienne told me about how you had stormed out of the room earlier."

I sighed. "Sure, but only for a little bit. I'm going to be sleeping soon." I plopped myself down on my bed as she opened the door.

"I just got home and Maria and Adrienne told me about what happened earlier." As began. "Are you okay? I heard you ran out of the room."

"I'm fine now." I smiled at her. "Thanks for checking on me though."

"Any time." She gave me a hug and walked to the door.

After she was gone, I lay down in my bed and went to sleep. My dreams that night were a blur of bowler hat dude and random character deaths. Nothing to drastic. Until my final dream.

I saw Sam lying on a hospital bed with a huge wound on his stomach. He wasn't moving, just lying there. He looked so helpless. I woke up after that and went for a walk.

After five minutes of walking, I summoned Methias and crawled up onto his head. We started flying.

"Why are you up so late?" He asked me. "Shouldn't you be asleep right now? even our nightly training sessions never went this late."

"I couldn't sleep." I responded bluntly. "Bad dreams."

He searched my head for a few moments to find out what I had dreamt of. "Who was that boy on the bed?" he asked.

"My friend Sam." I responded, a pain in my gut forming at the thought of him.

"Do you like him?" Methias asked. "You seem to care about him a lot."

"I don't really know." I responded. "Somedays I think that I like him. Other days he's like a brother to me"

We spent the rest of our time flying silently. After a while, I had calmed down so I decided to go back to sleep.

~•~

When I woke up the next day, the sun was high in the sky. I lazily threw my hair up into two pigtails with my bangs framing my face. Instead of putting on my training clothes, I put on a red kimono since I was planning on taking a day off from training. I went down stairs to find my friends, but when I got there, I found that they were all gone.

I wandered around konoha attempting to find them. I had no luck for the first fifteen minutes, but eventually when I was searching through a park, I noticed Kara's scent.

"I know you're here." I proclaimed. Nothing. "Seriously. I'm not stupid." I stood there for a few minutes. I was about to leave when they all jumped out of no where.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" They screamed at me. Even Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Ino were there.

I looked around in confusion for a few moments before realizing that it was, indeed, my birthday. "Oh yeah, right." I smiled. "Thanks."

"We made you spaghetti!" Adrienne smiled excitedly. "Do you like it?" She shoved a plate of pasta in front of my face and I hate the whole thing in seconds.

"IT'S SO GOOD!" I exclaimed as I downed the last bit of pasta. "Where'd you get it?"

"We made it our selves." Naruto said proudly. "I'd never heard of it before, but Maria told me that you would really like it." He's so adorable when he's little.

"Thanks!" I smiled brightly at him.

"You're welcome." He smiled back. "I figured that you deserved a day of relaxation before the third task. I'm sure you're really nervous about it. Good job on making it this far."

It took me a few moments to process what he said before I realized that I had altered everyone's memory to think that I was terrible. "Thanks." My friends looked at me very strangely. I used my omnipotence that I still had yet to wish away again to convey to them what I had decided to do. They nodded their heads understandingly.

The next few hours were spent talking to various people and eating food. At 2:00, Sakura had come up to me and started talking.

"I'm sorry we couldn't get Sasuke to come." She sighed apologetically. "I went over to his house and asked him if he wanted to come to your party, but he just looked offended and walking away."

I let out a small yelp of exasperation. How had I forgotten Sasuke? It's his birthday too. "I've got to go for a little. I'll be back in a few minutes." I started slowly jogging towards the Uchiha compound.

"Are you okay?" Sakura called after me.

"I'm fine!" I yelled back without turning around.

~•~

I searched for Sasuke for a few minutes upon arriving in the Ichiha compound before I finally found him hidden away in his bed room. I entered without knocking.

"Happy birthday." I said upon entering.

He grunted at me. How rude. I'm only trying to be nice to the little shit.

"Do you want to come join the party?" I asked him while rocking back and forth on my heels.

"Isn't it supposed to be for you?" he asked rather rudely.

"It can be yours, too. " I smiled. I hate being nice to him. You know that feeling when you really want to slap someone but you have to be nice?

"Why would I want to celebrate my birthday with a weakling like you." He glared at me. "Even Naruto is stronger than you."

Weakling my ass. I thought. I could kill you without batting an eyelash. Naruto is strong though. Not stronger than me. But strong. "Whatever." Great comebacks Lily. "I'll see you tomorrow."

I walked back to the party.

"Who wants to have a race?" I called upon arrival. "The winner gets to cut the cake." Everyone looked at me like I was insane. They probably thought that I had no chance of winning.

"Sure." Naruto responded. "I hope you're ready for me to cut the cake." Sakura nodded her head in agreement with Naruto.

"Okay, so what we're going to do is run around the outer edge of Konoha, and then come back here. First one back will cut the cake."

Everyone else except for Maria, Adrienne, and Emily decided to participate in the race.

We all lined up on the starting line and prepared to go. When Maria finally said go, everyone started sprinting off to the edge of the city. Everyone besides myself, that is. I ran at a light jog until I couldn't see anyone anymore, at which point I turned around and sprinted back to the party grounds in under ten seconds.

"You're back quickly." Adrienne commented.

"It's easier this way." I smiled. "Now, we should eat the cake before the rest of them get back."

I pulled four plates out from under the table and cut the cake for us. "Enjoy." I dug into my portion of the cake. "This cake is soooo good"

"I made it myself." Adrienne smiled. "I like making cakes."

"You're very good at making cakes." I smiled at her. "You should do it more often." I continued shoving cake in my mouth.

Adrienne was about to respond when Naruto showed up in the distance.

"He's finally finished." I laughed. "Took them long enough."

"How did you finish so fast?" He asked me. "You never passed me."

"Magic." I smirked.

"Where'd the cake go?" He asked confused. "I thought there was a cake."

"There was a cake. I ate it all."

Naruto stared at me for a minute and then started complaining as everyone else finished. I just laughed and ignored him.

At the end of the night, Sam showed up with his wounds slightly healed. I healed his wounds the rest of the way and gave him a hug. We all went home at 7:00 so that we would be well rested for the next day.

I had just gotten settled in my bed and was ready to go to sleep when I heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" I called without even bothering to ask who it was.

Sam pushed open the door and sat at my feet. "Lily?" he asked nervously.

"What is it?" I asked him kindly.

"Do you remember that time when you had a nightmare and woke up screaming?" He asked.

Of course I do. I thought, not being able to will my self to say it out loud. How could I not? I felt tears start forming in my eyes.

"When you woke up, you told me that there was a bowler hat guy and that he tortured me and Maria." He continued out loud. "Last night, the man me and Maria fought was wearing a bowler hat. Do you think it could be-"

"Yes." I responded quickly. "Maria told me about him. Unless someone else bought a bowler hat..."

"He almost killed Maria last night." I could see the sorrow in his eyes. "If I hadn't been there to save her she could have died."

"You could have died." I spoke angrily. Not quite shouting, but angry. "Don't you ever do that again."

"But Maria..." I didn't let him finish his sentence.

"Think, Sam, THINK!" I yelled. "You could've died last night. You should've just grabbed her and run."

"What's it to you if I die?" he asked coldly. "You have your friends that love you."

"I care about you though. I don't care if I have other friends. I love you." I instantly regretted saying it. I didn't even love him like that. How was he to know that I thought of him as a brother? I scrutinized my fingernail for a few moments.

"You what?" he stared at me. "I don't know that. We hardly spoke before coming here."

"Not like that." I said quickly. "I think of you as a brother. I always liked you, but not like that. I thought you would make a good friend."

"So I'm equal to Sasuke? A brother?"

"No. I don't like Sasuke in the same way. I suppose I must still love him in a way since it hurts me when he leaves, but I don't like him as much because I know that he's going to hurt me." I sighed. "If he leaves, I can't stop him."

"He does come back." Sam said.

"Yeah, after like twenty years." I held back my tears.

"It's not that long."

"It feels like that long."

We sat staring at each other for a few moments before I finally broke the silence.

"I should go to sleep." I yawned. "Good night."

"Good night." He smiled at me and walked out of my room.