T H E L O S T Y U N A

Prologue

"Who is she?"

"She can't be any older than four."

"Where did she come from?"

"We're not sure..."

What are those voices?

I scrunched my face up as I started to wake. As I opened my eyes, I was greeted with bright lights and many questioning faces staring at me. My eyes grew wide as I cowered towards the frame of the bed I was laying in. Pulling the blanket up to my chin, I looked up at the four people around me. There were two people with fabric over their faces towards the back of the room. I recognized them as ninjas because of their headbands, but I didn't know the symbol on them. There was a man wearing all black to the left of the foot of the bed, staring down at me with a mean look on his face, and there was a women crouched by the bed to my right. She was wearing all white, with a red cross on her left chest pocket.

A nurse?

"Do you know where you are?" The woman asked me. She had a kind face, and smiled at me after she spoke.

I shook my head, unaware of where I was.

"You're in the hospital, in the Village Hidden in the Sand. Have you ever heard of Sunagakure?"

I shook my head again. She frowned and glanced up at the man wearing all black before returning her attention to me.

"Do you know where you are from?"

Once again, I shook my head.

"Okay, let's start with something easier then. What's your name?"

I opened my mouth, but hesitated. My mother always taught me not to talk to strangers, and I definitely didn't know these people. She said you could never tell if someone was a good person, or a bad person, simply by looking at them, and so it was best to just remain quiet.

"It's okay, you don't have to be afraid," the nurse said with a smile. "We're trying to help you."

Well, she sounds nice enough.

"A-amarante," I stuttered after a moment.

"Amarante, what a pretty name."

"Alright, let's wrap this up," the man in black interrupted as the nurse stood and let out an audible sigh.

"I haven't had time to properly evaluate her yet," she addressed him.

"All I need to know is whether she's a danger to the village."

"No, I don't think--"

"--Good, then we're through here. I'll send someone to escort her to her new home shortly. Can you watch over here until then?"

The nurse hesitated before looking down at me again. She gave me a small smile. "Of course, I can watch her in the mean time."

With that, the man in black and the two ninja left the room, leaving me alone with the nurse. I looked around the room and noticed a window at the far side. It seemed like a pleasant day, with the sun shining extra bright. These kinds of days were always mom's favorite, she smiled a lot more when the sun was as high as it could be in the sky.

"Where is my mom?" I asked while still looking at the window.

Unbeknownst to me, the nurse shifted uncomfortably and frowned as she sat on the foot on the bed.

"Amarante," she addressed me and I looked back over at her, taking my attention from the window. "What is the last thing that you remember?"

I thought about it for a moment, and then smiled widely at the nurse. "Mommy and I were traveling!" I exclaimed. "We got to this pretty Inn and she let me have the master bedroom! It was so big!"