Living in the Grey

hairo ni ikiyo

Chapter 1 Kindness

Naruto trotted back home in the gathering dusk. He had lost track of time while training, so he was heading home later than usual. His stomach rumbled again. Naruto sighed. If only he were home...he could eat cup ramen to his heart's content, or rather his stomach's.

Well, just thinking about it wouldn't make him full. He decided to take a shortcut that used the narrow alleys to cut through the thick mess of houses and stores rather than run through the main streets.

He had just turned down a particularly dark alley when he tripped over something. He sat up rubbing his nose. When he looked back at what he had tripped over, he barely saw the outline of a cloth-covered lump. Then the lump moved to face him and he saw a pair of shining gold eyes-

"GYHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" yelled a voice.

"GYHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" yelled Naruto.

They stopped and blinked at each other. Then, Naruto noticed that this person was covered in bruises and cuts. One more look-over told him that said person was a kid who could be no more than six years old. The kid had obviously been beaten up and hidden from sight. Naruto sighed.

"Wanna come to my house? I have some Great Healing Cream."

The kid blinked again. "B-but you don't know who I am! H-how can you trust me enough to let me into your home?"

Naruto stared. Then his face widened into his trademark grin. "Don't worry! C'mon! Let's get you patched up!"

Naruto stood up and offered his hand to the kid. "C'mon!"

The kid looked at him for one more minute before smiling and taking his hand. The kid bundled up some things before looking up at him again with wide, worried eyes.

"I-I'm taking care of this kitten... W-would it be alright if I bring him with?"

Naruto smiled and said, "Sure! No prob!"

When the kid was all ready to go, Naruto pointed into the darkness, saying, "This way to home!"

...and walked right into the wall.

The kid giggled while Naruto rubbed his nose.

"Uh... I meant this way" Naruto said, and led the way. Correctly.

They had been walking in silence for a few minutes before Naruto piped up.

"Oh yeah! I haven't introduced myself yet! I am Uzumaki Naruto, the future Hokage!"

"Neat! I'm Rie, and I'm 9 years old!"

"WHAAAT!!!"

Naruto stared at the little kid. Rie giggled.

"Y-you're NINE!?!?"

"Yeah"

"...oh. Are you sure?"

Rie giggled again. "Yes, I am sure. Shall we keep going?"

Naruto nodded blankly and started walking. After a bit, he shook his head clear and concentrated on not getting lost in the blackness. A few more turns brought them to the only main street they had to cross. It was brightly lit in preparation for the weeklong festival that would start tomorrow morning.

Naruto felt for the arm of little Rie. Even though it was late, this road was still crowded enough to make crossing it dangerous. If Rie got separated from him... He felt a slight tug on the sleeve of his coat and realized that Rie had already thought of that. They stepped out into the light.

After crossing The Road, as it would forever be called in Rie's mind, they headed into a slightly wider alleyway before reaching a dead end. Naruto looked down at Rie and said, "After we jump over this building, we'll be at my home. Can you jump that high?" Rie looked at the building again before replying.

"Yeah. I can manage."

Rie surprised Naruto by jumping up quite easily. They trotted across the roof and jumped down on the other side.

"That's my apartment building!" Naruto said while pointing toward an oval-shaped building. "C'mon!"

When they reached the door, Naruto pulled out his keys and un- Wait. The door was already unlocked...

"ARRRRGGGGGG!!!! I forgot to lock the door this morning!!!" Naruto was the very picture of worry as he slowly and carefully opened the door. Rie looked at Naruto. He was acting quite... um... bizarre. He was peering around the room with the air of someone worrying about Evil Things attacking.

"Is something wrong? Your home looks safe enough to me..."

Naruto frowned and said, "Well... the last time I left my door unlocked all day, I came back to a home filled with traps."

Rie brightened and said, "Oh, then, don't worry! I have the amazing ability to sense traps, and I definitely don't sense any in here."

Naruto relaxed at her words and turned on the lights. He led Rie into a kitchen/living room type place before trotting around the corner to get the 'Great Healing Cream'. Rie jumped up onto the table and set down the little lump of fur she held. It was the kitten who had been most injured before she had saved their family from The Evil Chuunins.

Rie concentrated for a moment and her right hand glowed slightly. She gently stroked the kitten, letting the healing chakra flow in. Slowly the kitten's eyes opened before he suddenly jolted awake by a particularly loud thump. Or rather, THUMP! CrAsH! Boom. poing-oing-oing-oing...

The odd sounds abruptly stopped, and Rie let the chakra flow subside. A battered Naruto tottered around the corner holding a little tin.

"H-here..."

One moment he was all battered and bruised, and the next he was practically bouncing off the walls. Naruto had remembered that he was going to have cup ramen for dinner.

"Just a sec! I'm gonna start some water boiling for cup ramen! What flavor do you want? I assume you DO want to have some, right? After all, ramen is the BEST food in the world. I have miso ramen, beef ramen, chicken ramen, scallion ramen..." Naruto rambled on pulling various cups out of the cupboard and filling the teapot with water to boil.

"Thank-you." That little phrase was enough to make Naruto stop and turn around. He gave one of his grins and a thumbs up.

"You're welcome!" Suddenly his face was a mask of distress.

"Ahh! I gave you the cream, but I forgot bandages!! Ahh!" Rie giggled as he tripped over one of the things lying on the floor from his earlier 'excavation'.

"Don't trouble yourself. I have plenty of bandages already."

Naruto sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, okay. Well, go ahead! I'm making ramen. Would miso flavor be okay?"

Rie nodded and set about rubbing healing cream on her wounds, mixing a little bit of chakra in to make it heal faster. Pretty soon, the timer rang and Naruto brought two steaming cups of ramen to the table. Rie slid off the table holding the kitten before Naruto deposited their food onto the table. Naruto managed to find a spare sit-on-able thing and pulled it up to the table.

Rie settled the kitten in her lap and searched around in her bundle for her chopsticks. Naruto grinned at her, and they said, "Itadakimasu!"

Rie swirled the strange soup and watched how all the noodles bounced and curled. Then, she looked at Naruto, who was already halfway through his bowl and progressing quickly. He looked so funny with the noodles 'pouring up' into his mouth that Rie could not suppress her grin. She looked down at her soup again and started eating.

When Rie finished, Naruto was already on his tenth or eleventh bowl. He had the decency to stop after his next bowl and not make Rie watch him eat. Rie stacked the bowls and looked around for a trash can while Naruto searched for a spare blanket for her.

Rie had insisted on being the one to sleep on the floor, and it took all of Naruto's effort just to get her to let him lend her a blanket. Rie had even specifically said that she was more comfortable sleeping sitting up than lying down.

For a long time after Naruto was snoring away in his bed, and the lights were off, Rie sat under the blanket Naruto had lent her and stared at the moon thinking about the kindness he had shown her. He had accepted her into his home before he even knew her name and was completely comfortable with it.

If anyone had looked in the window, they might have seen the glowing golden eyes, so much like a cat's. But, no one did...