Hi, here's part one of my story Of Roses and Clouds. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its original characters or plot; all credit goes to its original creator.

Aya looked into her bedroom wall mirror once more making sure everything was in place. She checked her dark brown hair making sure that no strands stuck out from her low ponytail. She then made sure her long bangs were combed to the left side of her head, so that they completely covered her left pastel green eye. This made it nearly impossible for her to see out of that eye, but she had become used to relying solely on her right light brown eye. It had been difficult at first, but in the end it helped her blend in making it absolutely necessary.

"Looks good," mumbled Aya to herself after fixing her bangs. She then focused her attention on her left arm. She pushed up the sleeve of her button down white shirt and with her eye and her fingers carefully examined the bandages that were wrapped around her arm from her wrist to her shoulder. She made sure none were loose and that it did not peek through. After she was satisfied with that, she pushed the sleeve back down and grabbed her light pink zipper up sweatshirt from the back of her desk chair, slipping it on and zippering it half way up.

"And last but not least these." Aya picked up her tan knit fingerless gloves and slipped them onto each of her hands. She really only needed a glove for her left hand. It along with her left arm were affected by it and had to be covered up. In comparison, her right hand was perfectly normal, but Aya had found that wearing the pair of gloves was more approved of than wearing just a single glove; it looked more normal and that's what Aya was going for: Normal. She just wanted to blend in, just be another student in her class, just another face in the crowd. There were students that strived to stick out with their high grades or jokester antics, but as for Aya she strived to just blend. She glanced once more at her appearance.

Hair. Eye covered. Locket. Sweatshirt. Gloves. Nails!

Aya held up her right hand in front of her face checking the light green nail polish that covered her nails. She bit her lip. The polish on her index finger and middle finger was slightly chipped. That wouldn't do. Not when the nails on her left hand were always a perfect non-chipped light green. She had to fix it.

"Aya! Breakfast is ready!" Aya's older sister Midori's voice floated into her room just as she finished fixing up the polish on her two fingers. She looked over her nails once more, nodding with satisfaction.

Okay I'm good to go.

She opened up her desk drawer and stowed her polish back away.

At least I'm ready physically…mentally though I'm not too sure. After all today's the day that I meet my squad members and sensei. Aya nervously tugged at the string on her sweatshirt at this thought.

"Aya? Is everything okay?" Midori's voice again.

Aya pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and headed out of her bedroom. "I'm coming," she called as she shut her bedroom door behind her.

Aya walked down the hallway and into the kitchen where her sister Midori stood at the counter. Whereas Aya had dark brown hair that went slightly past her shoulders, Midori had waist length green hair, currently the same light green shade as Aya's eye, that was done up into a high ponytail adorned with a dark blue ribbon. Upon seeing Aya, Midori smiled. "Good Morning Aya." She then proceeded to load a tray with different dishes of food.

"Morning," Aya replied, frowning at the amount of food that Midori was putting on the tray as she took a seat at the table.

"Here you go." Midori placed the overloaded tray in front of Aya.

"Midori there's way too much food," voiced Aya.

Midori continued to smile. "I may have gone a little overboard. But I wanted you to have a good breakfast since today is the day you get assigned to your squad."

Aya's stomach fluttered with butterflies at the mention of being assigned a squad was brought to her attention again. "Don't remind me."

Midori placed a tray for herself that had a very small amount of food compared to the one that she gave to Aya and took a seat across from her sister. "I'm sure everyone will be nice."

"Yeah," Aya mumbled as she picked up her chopsticks. They would be nice as long as she kept her secrets to herself which of course she intended to do as always.

Midori immediately picked up on Aya's tone and so as usual she responded in a manner that reflected her positive outlook on life. "Aya, your squad will become like a family to you. You'll form bonds with them that will last for a lifetime."

Aya just nodded at Midori and continued to eat her breakfast. Maybe it worked that way for Midori, but it wouldn't be that way for Aya. Her and her sister were similar and they shared the same blood, but Aya was even different from her and because of those differences there was no way that she would ever be able to form those type of bonds with anyone. She would accept her new squad and act polite and friendly as she always did, but she wouldn't get too close. She would play it safe and keep her distance as always.

Midori knowing Aya too well didn't push the subject anymore, instead, she tackled another topic. "Aya where is your headband?"

Aya stopped with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "Oh." She had been so focused on her usual morning routine that she had totally forgotten about the headband.

Aya quickly finished up her breakfast, eating it all despite her complaints.

"Do you want more?" Midori asked.

"No, I'm good," said Aya, getting up from her seat. She placed her dish in the sink and then hurried back to her room.

Once in her room Aya found her headband on her desk where she had placed it the night before. She picked it up and then walked over to her mirror. She knew it was supposed to go on her forehead, but she didn't really want to put it there, so instead, she settled for tying it around her neck.

That'll have to do for now.

Her eyes glanced at her clock on her desk, she'd had better get a move on, so she wouldn't be late.

Once back downstairs, Midori handed her a bag. "Here you go."

"What's this?" Aya questioned.

"Lunch," replied Midori.

"Lunch?" Aya peered into the bag. There was more than one bento box in there. Four to be exact. "Midori," said Aya shaking her head. She immediately knew what her sister was up to.

"There's enough for you and your new teammates," Midori said.

Aya who knew there was no point in arguing simply said, "Thanks for this and for breakfast."

"You're welcome," Midori returned, "Good luck today. I'm sure everything will work out."

"Yeah, hopefully," Aya replied, though she knew that her definition of everything working out and Midori's were different. Midori's encompassed everlasting bonds formed though sharing lunches whereas Aya's encompassed simply getting by which did not involve garnering more attention though handing out homemade bentos.

After stuffing the bag of lunches into her knapsack and with one last goodbye to Midori, Aya left and headed on her way to the Academy.

Aya briskly wove her way through the crowd of Konohagakure residents that filled the streets. She kept her gaze straight ahead avoiding the eye contact of others and focused on just making her way to the Academy. She could already see the big building in the distance; it wasn't too much farther away.

As she was walking, Aya flipped open the locket that she wore around her neck. She consulted the clock that was inside. She was worried about being late, but it was still a little early to head inside. She didn't want to be late, but she didn't want to be early either. She found that slipping into the classroom about five minutes before class seemed to work best; this way the class was mostly full and she could simply just slide into a seat without anyone giving her much notice.

With those thoughts, Aya snapped close her locket and tucked it back under her sweatshirt and readjusted her destination from the academy to a small bookstore that was nearby. A smile appeared on her lips as she approached the small store with its various flyers advertising upcoming and new releases. The store was one of her favorite places in the village because within its confines it hosted the possibility of endless worlds that she could escape to. She scanned the books and magazines that were in the outside display. Seeing a book that caught her attention, she reached out her hand to pick it up. However, she didn't notice that another hand was also reaching in the same direction until it was too late. Her hand collided with that other hand startling her and causing her to quickly pull her hand back and to look up. Her gaze immediately met that of fellow academy graduate Shikamaru Nara.

"Sorry," she quickly apologized while wondering what he was doing there; he was the last person that she expected to run into there.

"It's fine," he mumbled as he picked up the book he had been reaching for. It was a cookbook.

'Must be for his mother,' Aya concluded. That would explain why Shikamaru Nara was at a bookstore rather than dozing off on his desk at the Academy. Realizing she was staring, Aya quickly averted her gaze downwards back towards the table of books. Even though her attention was focused on the book in front of her, she couldn't help sneaking one final look at Shikamaru from the corner of her eye as he ventured off towards the register. Maybe he was a slacker most of the time, but she also knew that there was more to him. She had seen a glimpse of that other side of him; she had seen it in his acceptance of Choji Akamichi. And bearing witness to such a sight made her hope that just maybe he would accept her as well with all her strangeness intact.

'But that's just wishful thinking. I'm sure there's a limit to even his level of acceptance,' she thought as she picked up the book that had caught her eye earlier.

Such thinking is like this book…Just a fairy tale.

With those thoughts Aya opened the book that she held in her hands and escaped into another world if only for a little while.