Blame It All on Me. Part 1

Chapter 18. One Step Forward

Filled with self-importance – he hadn't even graduated from the Academy yet, and he already had a mission! – Naruto eagerly led her around Konoha back then, trying to show everything and all at once, and finally dragged her to the noodle shop "Ichiraku", where they enjoyed their lunch. After that he escorted Arina to Hiruzen, remarking that she 'wasn't too bad for a girl', and taking her promise to see each other again soon. And so that was how her life in Konoha began.

No, she definitely didn't want to let herself fall into that state again.

☙ ❦ ❧

Having left the territory of the Hokage's premises, carefully choosing the route so as not to run into Kakashi and that girl, Arina stopped and stared thoughtfully at the monumental images on the Hokage Rock for some time, and then moved towards the stairs leading up. A while later, she was already standing at the top, catching her breath and surveying Konoha from a bird's-eye view.

The climb was challenging, but Arina regularly did it, choosing this activity as an alternative to the gym, especially before she gradually got into regular training with Iruka, and even noted with some pride that with every new attempt the way up felt easier.

She liked this place, usually here she somehow even forgot about her troubles for a while. It was as if she had just left home for some time and was now admiring the next city on her way. So what if she stayed here a little longer than planned – no big deal... Maybe she liked it here and decided to live here for a bit – she wasn't going to spend her whole life in her hometown, after all... Sometimes she even managed to convince herself in this pretend game. But not today.

She sank to the ground and wrapped her arms around her knees, tucked her chin into them.

In any trip, no matter how exotic the destination is, the connection with the close ones and friends is always preserved, one way or another. Through phone calls, social media, messengers... And here – there was no way to contact them... How were they doing there? She desperately wanted to see them again, even for a moment. Lately, she realized with growing concern that their appearance was gradually beginning to fade in her mind. What a pity she didn't know how to draw and couldn't capture them before she'd forgotten them completely. Although, on the other hand, what level of skill would have been required to reproduce a portrait from memory with photographic accuracy?..

Arina sighed. Why, why did it have to happen this way?.. Why to her?

She still didn't know exactly what preceded her entry into this world. Actually, this was that remaining gap in her memory – it seemed like a small piece of the puzzle was missing. As far as she could remember, before that it was quite an ordinary day, which ended in a very ordinary way – she and Maxim went to bed.

But there was something else. Blinding light and some kind of stunning, sharp sensation... This vision came to her when the interrogators were working with her, and she also often saw this episode in her dreams. Each time she woke up with a wildly beating heart, and often in tears and with a feeling of some incomprehensible anguish inside. But how this episode fit into the last moments of her life on Earth and whether it had anything to do with it at all, she could not understand.

Did she die in her sleep?.. And what did they all have to go through if that was the case? She felt sick just thinking about it. Or maybe that other girl was living in her world – in her body – right now? She hadn't even thought about it before, and suddenly she felt dismay and a small pang of jealousy. Although, what was she thinking at all – if the girl lived there now, of course, it would be immediately clear that something was wrong with her... How could she have been accepted there? Maybe they even put her in a mental hospital... That was much more likely.