Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, the names would be even weirder, the characters more racially diverse, and the plot a bit more complicated. For example, Naruto would be a singing, guitar playing ninja.

Unfortunately, we can't all have our way, now, can we?

I also don't own the copyrights to the song that gave me the inspiration to write this story, 'Ringa, Ringa' by A.R Rahman from the movie Slumdog Millionaire.

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Chapter 1: The Golden Age

I've never known my parents. In fact, I didn't know much about myself at all. All that I knew was my name, Sakura, and that I was thirteen years old. But I was not alone; I was lucky enough to have Hinata.

Hinata and I have known each other since I could remember, or, at least, from what I could remember. She and I have been roaming the world hand in hand for years, learning to steal and deceive, to beg and to con. I don't remember how I know her or how long we've been together, but that doesn't matter right now. Hinata was the only one I trusted, and I was her only confidant as well. We called each other sisters, but we looked nothing alike. I had pinkhair (though, at times, my hair was a shade of light red) and had bright, green eyes while Hinata had violet eyes and black hair. I was a bit small and thin for my age, but Hinata was curvy and attractive. Our looks on the outside did not matter, though, as Hinata had told me many times before. We held many things in common. For example, both of us did not know who we were, nor where we came from or who our families were. And, above all, we had both only one goal in life: to survive.

To live.

Life was cruel and unforgiving to the both of us, and many of my memories weren't pleasant. People who were also poor but had more than we often thought of us as worms and spat at us. Rarely was anyone kind. But, when I was around six, Hinata and I did encounter a man who was, in his own way, good: Hinata and I were living in another city, begging for money, and hiding underneath the shelter of boxes or small, wooden shacks at night or during the rain. She and I were approached by a man one, whose name I will never know, and were given two thick wads of cash, telling us to use it wisely. Being the naïve babies we were, Hinata and I had spent it all the next day on useless items that we soon lost. Constantly, we would look for the man to ask for more money, but we never found him. Another kind person was when I was ten. Hinata and I found ourselves roaming dirt roads. The pain of hunger and fatigue still lingered in me when I recalled the wall that went on for miles and miles. Hinata had asked me what it was that we saw, and upon closer inspection, I found that we were at the Great Wall of China. That day, some tourists took pity on us and gave us food and money. Weeks later, we were on a train that passed by another world wonder, the Taj Mahal. Hinata asked me who lived there. I told her that it was a museum, but it used to be occupied by Muslims. But those were the only kind people we've met so far, and I've no doubt that their hospitality will never be forgotten.

Currently, we lived in the country of Nadis, in the slums of a city called Thades. Our 'neighborhood' was overrun by gangs and the mentally unstable homeless men and women; drugs littered the streets and there was not a night that went by without the sounds of gunshots or someone being beaten to death. Prostitutes walked around, trying to seduce and to bribe. There was even black market here, but one would have to look very hard to find it. Obviously, this was the place that is always on the receiving end of charities, the place that outcasts and runaways go to when they have nothing.

This is the place where children do not belong.

Still, here we are, walking around, chewing on apples as we walked past the smelly old beggars and decaying road kill. The stench of the hot, dry summer air was a mix of the sewer and death and the ground was no doubt dirties with feces and urine. Hinata and I were lucky to have bought some cheap sandals, or who knows what could have happened to our already damaged feet? Apartment buildings and cheap stores lined the streets, cramped and suffocated, though after five or so buildings, there would be an alleyway for trash. These streets were almost never-ending (and they would go onto infinity if there were more people), and there was no beauty here. Not a single plant or tree. In the distance, there were tall, rundown buildings and skyscrapers from the industrial part of the city, a forbidden place for the likes of Hinata and me. The sun was setting behind those tall buildings, taunting everyone in this side of town as it deliberately sank down into the ends of the earth.

"Sakura! Look! Look at the sun! Isn't it gorgeous at this hour?" Hinata tugged at my shirt, pointing at that same spot. We stood in the middle of the road as we stared at the golden orange sun. I could not help but agree. People bumped into us as we stood in the middle of the road, telling us to move aside. Not wanting any trouble, we obeyed. "Do you still have those encyclopedias?" I looked at Hinata.

"The ones I found?" I asked, biting into my apple. Hinata nodded. "They're back home. I've finished reading them, so we could see them in the market." Hinata grabbed my hand and squeezed. "What is it, Hinata?"

"No! You can't do that. Sakura, I want you to be smart. I want you to learn as much as you can. Read them again, Sakura, and keep them." Hinata smiled at me. "We can just get a job if it's money you're worried about; after all, we are in our 'golden age'." Hinata winked as she bit into her apple. I rolled my eyes.

The 'golden age' was a term she had learned from a man—a gangster, obviously, from the image that I remembered of him—who had let us live in his apartment a few weeks ago, right before Hinata and I turned thirteen (we shared the same birthday because we didn't know the actual date of our births). He said that being thirteen was the age in which Hinata and I were 'ripe', and though Hinata didn't know what he meant, I could see from the greedy glint in his eye that he had something in mind. One could say I was paranoid, but I ran away from the man with Hinata, afraid for our lives. I did not like the feeling that came from him, nor did I like the friends he brought home and introduced to us. Every night while we lived in his apartment, I heard their conversations and plots. I knew that they've killed many people and that most of the crimes in this city were committed by his gang. Hinata asked me over and over again why I dragged her away from the only 'house' she's ever been in, but I knew that no matter what explanation I'd give her, she would never understand. Instead, I would tell her that it was better we ran away, as we would no longer be burdens to him.

"You think that anyone would want to hire us?" I licked my thumb and wiped away some dirt off her face.

"Of course! That's why we need to start looking. Maybe then, we can get an apartment as nice as Mr. Gold's." 'Mr. Gold'. That's what she called him. The man with the flaming red hair and the golden eyes and the piercings all over his face. Mr. Gold was Hinata's knight in shining armor, but he was my nightmare. Not a night went by that I would watch the entrance to our shack, expecting to see Mr. Gold's 'friends' waiting for us with guns. I knew it was paranoia, but being cautious is never wrong.

"Why do you honestly keep talking about that man?" I asked. "If he's such a saint, then why hasn't he come to get us, yet?" Hinata pouted.

"He will. He's just busy." Oh, how stupid can you be, Hinata?

"Hinata, you can't be so trustful of that man." I mumbled, though she did not seem to hear me, for she heard music from a guitar. Two old men, both beggars, sat on the side of the streets, one singing, and the other strumming on the strings of his instrument. The beat was fast and jolly, so Hinata took my hand and dragged me over to them to watch them. There was a bowl of coins and paper money next to the guitarist, which was emptier than it was full.

"I run fast/On my feet/My heart races/My mind spins/They cannot touch me/I am lightning," Hinata asks me if I have some money, but I reply that we are currently broke. I was tempted to steal the money these old men have earned, but I knew that they were probably needier than Hinata and I. Hinata frowns, but when the song ends, she claps loudly.

"Again! Again!" She demands.

"Very well—another song for two pretty ladies, then." The old men laughed with each other, as if there was some sort of inside joke between them. Hinata's eyes grew wide as the guitarist began to play again, though this time, it was a graceful song. The singer sang with a foreign tongue, his eyes closed as he held his hands out. Soon, the song grew fast and upbeat, and Hinata and I found ourselves clapping loudly, giggling as we took each other's hands and began to spin around and around. Before I knew it, Hinata began to dance and I followed suit.

When we had the chance, Hinata and I would look through the windows of one of the houses and watch a dance show that the owner of the house would always have on called 'Step by Step'. The show itself was a show that taught various dance moves, some more complicated than others, and some that were strange looking and gave me goose bumps to watch, as they required body language that I've seen whores use. Hinata and I would try to learn those dance steps, and we didn't have any reason to aside from wanting to have fun.

As we danced to the song, I closed my eyes as I moved, trying to remember the host of the show as she gave instructions of how to move gracefully and freely. I needed to relax and straighten my position, as well as make my feet light and my limbs flexible. Soon, I began to feel like I was in a dream—a good dream, and that money was flying all around me as I danced in circles, dressed in silk and decorated with golden jewelry. When I opened my eyes, my ears began to hear the sounds of people marveling at Hinata and I as we kept on dancing and their clapping with the beats of the song. Hinata was grinning brightly, her eyes twinkling. I let out a small laugh as someone threw a flower at me.

The song ended with cheers and coins and paper bills falling at our feet. Quickly, Hinata and I scrambled to get as much money as we could in between bows and thank yous, leaving half of the money for the old men as we scurried away with pocketfuls of money. At least we did not have to steal, this time.

"You know, I think we should be dancers," Hinata said that night as we sat around our makeshift table, eating cheap, greasy food. I had counted the money we earned today and found that we had made nearly one hundred rupees, which made me happy. This money, if spent wisely, could last us for a month!

"Why not?" I asked. "But where would we dance? Those women on TV are professionals."

"Well, we're learning from them, so doesn't that make us professionals, too?" I laughed at Hinata's answer. If only things were truly that simple.

"Sure. If you believe that."

"Maybe we could find those men again and have them play for us." Hinata said. I shook my head.

"They won't be there." I said.

"How do you know?" Hinata asked dreamily. "Are you a fortune teller? Can you see the future?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just know that they won't."

The next day, we found out that I was right, to both of our horrors. Yes, the old men were no longer 'there' anymore… but neither were they anywhere else. In fact, we found them both, dead, in an alleyway, shot multiple times, lying in pools of their own blood. Hinata vomited the moment she saw them both. She looked away when I searched them grudgingly, whimpering when she would take a peek from behind her fingers. Their money was gone, and their shriveled bodies, which were being eaten away by flies, held no other valuables. There was, however, a guitar was neatly leaning against the wall next to the bodies, as if someone had placed it there.

"They were mugged." A woman said from behind us when we searched their bodies. I turned around and saw a beautiful, tall woman with a bottle in her hand, her brown eyes sharp. Her blonde hair was braided neatly, and there was a red dot on her forehead. "I heard it all last night. Another beggar wanted part of their money, and they refused. So he shot them both, six times each." The woman took a swig from her bottle, sighing and clicking her tongue. "Shame that it happens so frequently."

"Who are you?" I asked her. "What do you want?"

"I saw your performance yesterday," the woman said. "Were these men your partners?"

" 'Partners'?" I repeated questioningly.

"Did you work with them in any way?" I shook my head. "Then why were you dancing to their music?"

"Because their music was beautiful." Hinata replied. The woman let out a snort, taking one last drink before throwing the bottle to the side and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Cute girl. You both just might be the perfect addition to my group." The woman walked over to us, crouching before me. I could smell the alcohol on her breath. "You know, you both look like you need some money, since you're looting dead bodies."

"We weren't—

"And you know what else? I'd rather not have little kids like you two goin' around these streets, anyhow." The woman put on a smile. "Tell you what: do you girls need a job? Because I sure do need some help." My heart skipped a beat, though I wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was because this was such a grand opportunity. Immediately, my mind filled with thoughts of living in a house with lots and lots of food and a TV and maids serving us. Or, maybe it was because I had a bad that there was a catch. There always is.

"Who are you?"

"The name's Tsunade," The woman answered. "What do you say? Do you want a job?"

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

"Oh, you know. A little of this… some of that. Mostly dancing. Maybe you might run a few errands."

"And how much…"

"We'll think about it." Hinata interrupted softly. I looked at Hinata. Tsunade raised her brow, looking at Hinata with a hint of surprise. "Right, Sakura?"

I nodded stupidly.

"Okay, then. I want an answer by tomorrow. I'll be in front of the Jeweler's tomorrow, waiting for you. Be there when you're ready." Tsunade got up and cleared her throat. "There's big money waiting for you." Hinata and I looked at each other as the older woman walked away.

Big money, huh?