Well, so begins the Challenge of making 100 one shots of the Ame Orphans Yahiko, Nagato, Konan, and well Pein is technically two of them, so he's included too.

And well, if you're reading this before Number 40: Rated (M) is out, sorry to have raised your hopes with the description of it in the story summary. I would have published it as a separate piece, but I love these three so I knew I was going to be writing a lot, found the 100 Challenge thing, and set to work.

So enjoy the entire ride! Hope to be seeing you along the way! Feel free to skip around and stuff, none of the stories have to be connected, unless you want to visualize it that way. I think once I'm at a certain point, I'm going to just insert an index of all the short stories with the mini captions as a kind of table of contents.

Aite, I've said enough, here goes nothing:

introduction

(you have a weird name…)

He was crumpled on the ground, knees up into his face, arms guarding the ball of himself to keep from the penetrating cold. His thin shirt had a few holes here and there, tattered, but he didn't notice because he was already chilled beyond numb in the frozen rain. Wind and rain created frigid bullets that sometimes ricocheted off the stone pavement and drenched him again.

He shivered as Chibi, the stray dog that had been following him around whimpered. He agreed with the emaciated dog, who barely had enough fur left on him to cover the scattered bald patches that stretched across his hide. Even the fleas couldn't linger anymore on the Chibi's rashes, wet and uncomfortable.

He wasn't sure what was colder: the outside of him out in the rain or the inside of him that twisted and squirmed in hunger. He wasn't sure about the last time he had eaten, though he remembered it was sunny when he had his last meal. All he had been doing thus far was sleeping from being so tired trying to concentrate on things besides food and water.

Once this rain stopped, once the dreaded rain stopped, he'd go out and fetch some food for himself and Chibi, move away from his neighborhood, who had well known his face—they had only seen it too many times, a small frail fair skinned boy with once bright but now dull red hair, knocking door after door begging for food, warmth…love.

A pair of feet strolled up to him, and his eyes widened in fright. Oh god, the last time he had thought someone was reaching out to him…

A hand dropped down to meet his eye level. Slowly and cautiously, he trailed up the arm to look at the face who owned the outstretched hand, and his eyes met soft grey eyes and a curve of a smile.

He made sure that he wasn't just seeing this kind façade, made sure that those eyes weren't bullying, fresh for fight, blood thirsty, like the previous ones that had gifted him the bruises on his arms and ribs and had stolen the food he had recently acquired from a generous family.

But there she was. An angel.

An angel amidst all the despair and darkness surrounding him. He forgot the rain, wind, cold, hunger, thrist; it melted under her warm benevolent gaze.

In her hand was a loaf of bread.

"Here, eat this," she said.

Weakly, he raised his head and watched her face for any trickery, but saw none.

"Are you sure?" he asked, the only thing he could come up with besides a thanks.

"Yeah…"

He took her other hand and allowed her to help him stand. She was about his height, a girl with blue hair, grey eyes, and she wore an origami light blue flower in her hair. She carried an umbrella, shielding her from the rain. She looked so happy, smile not fakely plastered but genuinely glad to see someone else of her age.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"…Nagato," he replied, looking down in embarrassment at his current worn down state.

She didn't seem to mind, and stepped down to pet Chibi. "Is this your dog?"

"I…guess," Nagato shrugged. "We began to walk together."

"What about your mom and dad?"

Nagato held back sudden choked tears. "They…they're gone."

"Oh…" she said, and gave Nagato a moment of silence. "Then…you're an orphan like me! We can be good friends! You should come with me!"

He looked up at her, eyes questioning her optimism.

"I…" Nagato couldn't believe her. She really was an angel.

"Okay then, come with me!" she exclaimed, repositioning her umbrella to offer him space under it, and continuing to walk through the rain. She turned to beckon him.

He followed after, braving the raindrops that he was just moments ago shying away from.

They walked a bit past the village and into a more rural area away from homes, where no one ever dared to go now in fright of being seen by war soldiers from afar.

They entered a cave, and Nagato was delighted to see candle light. Candle light! This was where someone lived! It's been so long since he had been in a place where someone else lived…

Nagato sat down by a wall, while Konan folded her umbrella and placed it by the entrance of the door. Nagato watched the rain…from inside! He was so happy…he usually had a much closer view of the rain, usually in the rain.

Nagato fingered the bread. An entire loaf!

He looked down at Chibi, who was panting up at him.

"Here…" Nagato broke the bread into two and lay one half down by the dog.

"Konan!" a boy of the same age exclaimed when she came in. He had short spiky orange hair and wildly light blue eyes, which welcomed Konan back but darkened the moment they spotted Nagato.

Nagato looked down.

"What'd you bring him for, Konan?" the boy demanded.

"He was dying…" Konan said.

Yahiko scowled. But his anger seemed slightly mollified.

Chibi whimpered in the back.

"You even brought his dog?" Yahiko groaned. "Geez…what's his name?"

"Chibi," I said.

Yahiko raised an eyebrow. "You have a weird name…"

"No, that's the dog."

"Well then…who are you?"

"…Nagato."

Yahiko crossed his arms and became rational. "Well, we earn our food, so we can't just keep giving it away to random strangers," he said, adopting a tough attitude again.

"Stop being so selfish," Konan reprimanded her friend. "We can't be hypocrites and not let others have food when we complain about the same thing every morning."

Yahiko bit his bottom lip, knowing what Konan said was true. He turned back to Nagato.

He flashed Nagato a cheeky smile in apology. "Uh, sorry about that." He stretched out a hand. "I'm Yahiko! Nice to meet you!"

Nagato tentatively shook his hand and introduced himself again. "I'm Nagato."

Yahiko interrupted him, "You told me, I know—"

"Yahiko's just very rude," Konan excused.

Nagato lip's curved into a smile, something he hadn't been able to do in a long while.

thirteenth