They took me down to into the village. I had half expected Shikamaru to ditch us as soon as we left the Hokage's building - I half expected them all to leave me on my own - but he stuck out. I guess he would have been bored otherwise. The new girl in town was bound to cause a little excitement.

What really surprised me was how quickly the Hokage agreed to let me stay. Maybe people weren't big meanies like I originally thought they were, mind my euphemism.

Yeah, right. I can just bet that if they knew who I really was and what I was capable of, they would waste no time using me for their own personal gain. And if I wanted to stay in this village I would have to make sure they never find that out.

"You hungry?" Kiba asked me. I nodded my head without looking at him. His dog whimpered from his head.

"Yeah, yeah Akamaru. We'll go to Ichiraku's. A dog gotta eat too right?"

The guy was talking to his dog. He must be demented. I shook my head, not wanting to think on it too much. My grumbling stomach was the only thing on my mind.

"So Lea, you really don't remember anything at all?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Hm." He looked to be in thought. "Maybe it happen when you were attacked. Are you sure you don't have to go to the hospital?"

"I'm sure." The pain had disappeared a long time ago. My cuts and had long closed up too, and I was sure they hadn't noticed.

"You are going to love Ichiraku's," Kiba said grinning, his pointed teeth winking at me in the setting sun. "Although I much prefer beef. I know someone who's obsessed with it. Naruto, such a baka!"

"Naruto?"

"As I said, he's a baka. Everyone was surprised when he passed the test."

"What test?"

Kiba looked at me curiously and frowned. "Wow, you really don't know anything do you?"

I shrugged. Living back in village didn't give me much opportunity to learn anything. You would be surprised to find out how little I knew.

"We get our headbands after we passed the test," Hinata spoke up beside me. I resisted the urge to jump out of my skin. I forgot she was even there. "So we're full-fledged ninjas." She hung her head down while pointing at her headband. She was such a weirdo, but she was nice.

"Oh."

"He couldn't even make a shadow clone! The baka!" A vein popped up on Kiba's forehead as he raved on and on about this Naruto.

"D-don't be mean, K-Kiba," Hinata whispered.

"I'm not being mean and I'm just telling the truth. I can't let that baka beat me."

"We're here," Shikamaru said.

We stopped in front of an open building, separated by a piece of cloth. There was shouting going on inside.

"Itadakimasu!" came a high pitched annoying voice.

Hinata immediately turned tomato red and I frowned at her. She was acting weirder than usual. She fiddled with her fingers, keeping her head down as we entered.

A blond boy was slurping noisily from a bowl of ... ramen, I would suspect.

"Yo, Naruto," Shikamaru greeted. He took a seat beside him, followed by Kiba and Hinata.

"Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted in greeting. I winced. Did he have to be so loud? He patted a wide hand on Shikamaru's back.

"Hey baka!" Kiba said.

"Mutt boy, you survive your first mission!"

"Did you expect me to die or something?"

"Well, to be honest ..."

"Shut up baka!"

"Who're you calling baka, baka?!"

"You baka!"

An old man appeared from the back with two steaming bowls of ramen. Funny, I don't remember seeing him when I first entered. He placed one in front of Shikamaru and one in front of Kiba, cutting the two idiot's fighting short.

"H-hi Naruto," Hinata said timidly.

Naruto turned to face Hinata, as if he hadn't realize she was there. "Oh hi Hinata." Her face looked as if it was going to set on fire from how red it had become.

Kiba turned to me. "Don't just stand over there, Lea. Come take a seat."

Naruto looked at me curiously, with ramen hanging from his mouth, and I finally got a good look at him. His blond hair was pointy and short. He had the blue headband around his forehead. There were lines running across his cheeks and he had big blue eyes.

Kiba was right. He did look like an idiot. But a cute one.

"Who are you?" he asked, swallowing his food. I didn't answer.

"That's Lea," Shikamaru said. "She doesn't talk much."

Naruto jumped out of his seat and faced me, grinning. He really was cute.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki! And you're looking at the future Hokage!" He stuck out his hand. I looked down at it, frowning slightly, then after a moment, I took it.

"I know who you are," I said. He frowned. "How?"

I pointed to Kiba who was feeding Akamaru a piece of egg. "I don't think he likes you."

"What did you say about me mutt boy?" Naruto demanded. Kiba faced him and soon the shouting at each other. They were obviously two peas in a pod, and I had just arrived.

I circled them, taking the seat Naruto had just vacated. "Do you have ramen to go?" I asked the guy on the other side of the counter. He squinted at me with tiny eyes and nodded.

"Can I owe you until I get the money?" I asked.

"You don't have to," Hinata said, fumbling with her pouch. "I can pay for you."

"That's fine," I said curtly. "I can handle it." The old man disappeared again and soon appeared with a bag of instant ramen.

"You owe me," he said. I nodded.

"Bye," I said to Shikamaru and Hinata. They bid me farewell.

Kiba and Naruto were still shouting. "Bye," I shouted over the bickering. They both stopped and blinked at me.

"Huh?" Naruto said. "Aren't you going to eat?"

I held up my bag of instant ramen.

"You're missing out! Ichiraku's has the best ramen in town!"

I shrugged, not really caring. All I wanted to do was sleep. I was beat. I could barely stand up on my own two feet.

"You sure?" Kiba asked. Akamaru barked at me, as if asking the same thing. I backed up, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. I had completely forgot he was there. "You want me to walk you home?"

"No, no." I backed up when he stepped forward. "I can take care of it myself."

I left before he could answer.

//

I felt like I didn't sleep a wink. Last night, instead of accepting Kiba's help I had wandered around until I found an empty apartment, and then, not being able to go on any longer collapsed in the bed.

I sat up, feeling groggy. I wasn't a morning person and the sun seemed to be taunting me with its brightness. I finally got a good look at the place. It was small, but livable. The bed was in the corner, opposite the kitchen area. A door led off to the right and I'm guessing that was the bathroom.

The furniture was sparse. A living table in the middle of the room, a chair and a dresser near the bed, with a separate mirror hanging above it. I stood up, running my hand through my hair.

I stood in front of the mirror, staring at myself, hating the person who I was seeing. I had white hair that hung long and think and curled around my face. I had red eyes, very red eyes. My body was small and slim, a testimony to the lack of physical training I had.

I yawned wanting to go back to sleep. In fact, I was just about to do so when a figure appeared in front of my window.

"Yo." I jumped out my skin. It was Shikamaru. He was crouching in my window frame, looking fresh and awake so early in the morning.

"How the hell did you know I was here?" I asked, annoyed. Yep, I was definitely not a morning person.

He shrugged. "Good day to you too."

I frowned. "This is the second story."

He stepped into the room, which only heightened my annoyance. "You really should be more observant. I was here the whole time. You didn't even close the door."

"Why are you here?"

"The Hokage told me to give you this." He handed me a slip of paper. It was a map of the village.

"Why?"

"We can't have persons escorting you everywhere until you're used to the place right?"

I frowned, even more confused. "Used to the place?" Did that mean I could stay as long as I wanted?

"Yeah, that would be such a drag."

I looked back down at the map. There was a green section circled and an x in the centre of the village. I'm guessing the x is where I am. How did they know where I was?

"Okay," I said, needing to find something to say to get him to leave.

"Well, see you." He lifted two hands and left, out the door.

//

It took me a while to find the clearing but I knew I did when I saw Naruto's bright hair shining in the sun. There were three others with him. Two that looked to be my age and one that looked much older. The older one was speaking while the others listened closely.

I approached, none too quiet.

The older man turned and my heart skipped a beat. He was gorgeous. He had silver that went straight up into the air. He had a mask on that covered almost all his face, showing one eye. He sent me a close eyed smile and held his hand up, the other tucked into his pocket. "Yo."

I blinked at him.

"Lea!" Naruto shouted, waving his hand at me. He was grinning, sitting cross legged on the ground.

"So you're Lea," the gorgeous sliver god said. "I'm Kakashi sensei, leader of our little group."

I knew my expression didn't change, I just kept staring at him. He motioned to the pink haired girl who was hitting Naruto over the head and telling him to shut up. "That's Sakura." She smiled warmly at me.

"Hi," she said waving.

Kakashi gestured to the last one, a brooding blue hair boy standing a little far off, and hands in his pocket. "And that's Sasuke."

Sasuke looked at me. His eyes were black and they bore into me. I looked at him evenly. We stared at each other before he broke contact and looked away.

"That's all of us," Kakashi said and I turned back to him. "So Lea. Welcome to Team Seven."