Taking his time, he picked at the plate before him, grilled vegetables and meat still steaming. After his meal he'd retreat back to his apartment near the outskirts of town. He'd taken residence in a small loft above a tiny craft shop run by a raggedy old woman. After his return he'd most likely start and finish reading another book. Maybe even go for a run into the woods at the far end of town. As he pondered his options the sound of a glass shattering piqued his curiosity.

Glancing toward the bar at the front of the restaurant where he'd gotten his drink, he watched a tiny form pick itself up of the ground, broken glass lay around the child.

"Damnit!" The bartender swore, leaning over the bar and taking note of the child.

As the child stood up, wiping it's hands of the blackened, dirty shirt, it looked up at the bartender with wide, dark eyes. "Look at that fuckin' mess!"

The bartender mumbled to himself some more as he turned back around and searched for something. A mop maybe? Or maybe someone who would get a mop and clean up the mess for him.

The child's long hair fell before her face as she leaned down and began picking up shards of glass with tiny, shaking hands. Looking around, not knowing where to put the pieces, she placed them on a nearby table, a tinkling noise following as the glass hit the table lightly.

"Get outta here!" the bartender yelled, as he showed up around the other side of the counter with a broom in hand. Holding up the broom he nudged it toward the child, trying to usher it out of his restaurant, "No kids allowed."

The child, scared at the man's sudden appearance, dropped the rest of the glass she'd held in her hands and grabbed hold of the straps of a small knapsack she had strapped to her small back.

"Out!" The man yelled, pushing the child roughly, with the straw bristles of the broom, "I'm sick of you nasty street kids bringing your filth around here! Out!"

With a terrified look, the child turned and ran on short legs out towards the exit, slipping and stumbling slightly before running through the front door and out into the hot summer day.

Sasuke then returned his attention towards his meal, now that the tiny disruption in his day had passed. Although the ending of the war had brought peace and civility to most countries, it also produced much more than that.

Thousands of orphaned children for instance. The more populated, wealthier villages did not have as much of a problem with the street-dwelling kids as the smaller, lesser-known towns. There were no government-funded orphanages or foster systems in these smaller villages. Instead, the unfortunate children wandered the streets, desperate for shelter or locating their next meal.

Many died within the first few months of homelessness, but some of the stronger, smarter, and slightly older ones-through some twist of fate-lasted for years.

It wasn't pleasant walking down the street and seeing tiny forms huddled together in corners and alleyways, not knowing whether or not they were sleeping or simply dead. But it was the reality of it all in a post-war world.

Not everyone was better off. Only the more fortunate ones.

Finishing his meal, Sasuke decided to spend the rest of his day somewhere else, where he wouldn't be burdened by the sight of scraggly orphaned children.

Midday finally passing, the sun had begun it's decent down toward the west, edging toward the tops of the trees, shade threatening to spills it's darkness over the entirely of the small town.

Walking back to his apartment took only 15 minutes.

"Ahh there you are!" an old, shaky voice called from a window. Looking up, Sasuke took note of the old woman grinning down at him from the second-story. "Stay right there, I have something for you."

Halting his steps, he silently waited for the woman to make her way to him. After a full minute, she'd finally made the trek down a single flight of stairs, opening the door to her tiny shop. "Come here, come here!" she beckoned, waving her hand toward him.

He turned toward her and slowly approached the doorway, not being shocked when she grabbed him roughly by the sleeve and pulled him after her. Her steps were short and uneven, but she walked quickly, pulling him past the few aisles of various knick-knacks and trinkets.

He was used to this. This old woman calling for him and talking at him and giving him things and meals and all sorts of things. It had been weird at first, and had even made him uncomfortable at times, but he soon grew accustomed to the woman.

Kato Nori was a woman who'd lived through more wars than most people who were still alive. Sasuke was unsure of her exact age, but he knew she was at least 90 years old.

When he'd first arrived in the tiny village almost two years ago, within 24 hours of his arrival he'd already been approached by the woman. She'd been sitting in a chair outside her shop, watching the passersby, as if looking for something. Sasuke had paused and taken a knee, not far from her front door, to rearrange something in his pack. After standing back up he was almost surprised to see the woman wobbling over towards him. His initial reaction was to ignore her and continue on his way, but once he'd begun to walk away, she'd yelled out to him.

"Now wait just one second!"

Hesitating, Sasuke stopped, waiting for the woman to reach him. As she halted before him, looking up at his face-her head hardly came up to his chest-she stared at him for a long moment, as if looking for something in his features.

"Come with me," she instructed plainly, turning to walk back towards her shop. As she walked, she immediately noticed his lack of movement. "Are you hard of hearing?" she asked, frowning at him, "Come here boy."

He still did not move.

Making a disapproving clicking noise with her tongue, she walked up to him and grabbed his sleeve, "Now don't be dumb now. You can speak can't you?" He scowled in response. "You're new here. Now don't try telling me you have a place to stay. There aren't no inns in this here town. Follow me." Tugging his sleeve, not even waiting for a response, she all but pulled him after her, towards her shop.

Sasuke figured she must have been delusional to pick a stranger up off the street and pull them into her home, but she did just that. Months later, he finally asked why she'd trusted him to live in the vacant floor above hers, without knowing a single thing about him, she'd laughed in his face.

"When you've been around for as long as I have," she said knowingly, "you know how to tell if someone has good intentions or bad."

She never did exaggerate on that, but he never asked her to, so it was a moot point. He just accepted her words and moved on.

As she pulled him up the stairs and towards the door to her floor, she looked up over her shoulder and gave him a big toothless grin. "I found something I thought you'd like!"

Finally releasing his sleeve she walked into her apartment and grabbed something on the table by the door. Handing him the black cloth bag, she waited for him to open it.

Raising an eyebrow at her and then at the bag, he opened it and pulled out a thin, short knife, sheathed in an intricate black and gold casing.

"I saw it at Tsuko's shop this morning and I thought you'd like it."

Unsheathing it, he examined the blade, noting the design etched right into the sharpened metal.

"You can add it to your little collection you got," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "All those ninja toys and such."

Sheathing the knife, he placed it back in the bag and pulled the drawstring closed. "Thank you," he said finally.

Grinning widely, she let out a cackling laugh, "I knew you'd like it! Oh! And before I forget," she turned and walked toward her kitchen, and out of his sight, before returning with a covered container. Handing it to him, Sasuke took note of its warmth. "It's a three-day weekend for me starting tomorrow. So I'm leaving in the morning and I'll be back by noon or so on Tuesday."

Sasuke could smell the fresh food beneath his hands and nodded toward her. He'd tried to refuse her food once before, and only once.

He didn't want to have to hear her ranting and raving about 'ungrateful young brats' ever again.

"There's more where that came from in the freezer downstairs. All you need to do is heat it up and you're good to go! Don't forget to feed the cats. Once in the morning and once at night." She stretched her short body, wrinkled hands high above her head, "Now out you go; I have to catch some sleep so I can be up before the sun."

And with no more left to the conversation, she ushered him out the door and closed it behind him. Sasuke took a moment to look at the container and the bag he now held in his hands.

He hardly ever spoke to the woman. He may have said a total of 200 words to her in the entire two years he'd lived on the floor above her. But she was always extremely hospitable and always giving him things. In return they had this unspoken agreement that he would help keep her ridiculous amount of cats alive during her weekend absences when she traveled to nearby cities, looking for treasures and toys to bring back for her shop.

He figured it was the least he could do to show his gratitude for her hospitality.

Turning toward the stairs he made his trek up to his floor. Opening the door he set his meal down in the tiny kitchen area and the knife down on the counter.

The apartment was quite tiny, but Sasuke did not mind. He didn't require a lot of space anyway. There was a small kitchen and living area, separated by a single counter. A single couch, side table, and bookshelf were all that was in the space opposite to the kitchen, and across from the couch was a door that led to a small bedroom. Next to that door was another that led to a small bathroom.

The place was small, but Sasuke was more than content with the surroundings.

Looking out the only window in the apartment, he looked out at the street and at the setting sun in the distance. Taking note of the dark incoming clouds, he decided to spend the rest of his day indoors. And as the distant sound of thunder reached his ears, he decided that reading a book would be a better idea than going out for a late-night run.

As he sat down on the couch with a book he'd read twice before, he decided that when it came to birthdays, this had been a halfway decent one.

No complaints here.

The sound of a crash outside the front door of the shop is what riled Sasuke out of his sleep the following morning. Throwing off the covers and rolling out of bed with a yawn and a stretch, Sasuke grabbed a shirt before walking out into the living area. Approaching the window and looking down toward the street, he took note of the overturned trashcan, spilling damp garbage across the front step.

Rain steadily fell, the sky overcast and gray. Sasuke was tempted to leave the trash where it lay, but he knew that with the rain, it would just make a disgusting mess even worse. And smellier.

Throwing on his shirt he slowly made his way downstairs. Walking through the shop and approaching the front door, he saw something flash by the window.

Opening the door to the front step, he was met by a small body with a mess of long, dark hair. The child was hunched over the over-turned trash can, picking around its wet contents, assumedly looking for food.

It appeared as though the child hadn't taken note of his presence, but when he sighed and took a step towards the overturned can, the child let out a quiet yelp as it stumbled and fell on its backside in the mud.

As it looked up at him with dark eyes, he recognized the terrified stare as the little girl from the bar the day before. She scooted back slightly, dragging her backside in the mud, her small hands sinking into the soft ground as she moved herself away from him.

Ignoring the child as best as he could, he grimaced as he picked up the larger pieces of garbage and threw them back into the bin, which he had turned right-side-up. When he looked back down at the little girl, she panicked at his gaze and scrambled to her feet as she sprinted across the road and into an alley across from the entrance to Nori's shop.

There weren't many street children in this town anymore. Most of them had died in the streets, due to exposure or starvation, or even a mixture of the two. So seeing another orphan wandering in the rain wasn't a common sight anymore, and it wasn't welcome either.

Sighing he turned back into the shop, dragging the can with him. He'd place it by the door until the rain stopped, and bring it back out the following morning. Maybe the child would leave to some other part of town by then and dig in someone else's trash.

The rest of the day was spent with Sasuke feeding the cats when the appropriate times came, and finishing the book he'd started the night before. Upon nightfall when the rain began to subside, he decided he'd pay the forest a visit the following morning, when the ground was dry and the sky was clear again. He needed to get out and stretch his legs.

And maybe even test out the knife Nori had given him.

When daybreak finally arrived, and when the first signs of the sun were beginning to shine through the trees, Sasuke pulled on a few pieces of gear, including a couple kunai knives and some shuriken, and made his way toward the door.

Upon opening the door, he pulled the trash with him, setting the can on the now-dry dirt in front of the door, and as the door closed shut, he immediately took off toward the woods, moving too fast for anyone who was currently awake to follow.

Another thing he liked about this village was the abundance of free space. And that free space came in the form of an extensive forest, miles long in almost every direction.

Pushing his legs harder and carrying his weight faster, he traveled through the treetops with incredible speed, allowing the cool morning air to awaken his senses and rejuvenate his mind.

He spent the morning with some simple target practice and even practicing a couple of jutsu.

Sasuke didn't train to improve his skills or to get stronger anymore. His past need for power and strength had dissipated with the ending of the war. Now, being out in the forest with his weapons and gear was something that was almost therapeutic to him. It was something he knew, something he was familiar with, and something he was good at.

Something Nori had told him once as he woke to travel around in the forest at daybreak, "Once a ninja, always a ninja." She'd winked and opened the door for him, and he was gone in the blink of an eye.

They'd never once discussed Sasuke's past and he had never even insinuated that he'd been a ninja, but the old woman was sharp and never missed a beat. He could have asked her how she'd known, but again, he was never one to initiate conversation.

So he never found out how.

Throwing a kunai knife and watching it embed itself into a low-hanging branch of a tree, he was shocked when he heard a shrill scream and saw a small body fall from the tree to the ground.

In a split second he was at the base of the tree, reaching up to yank the knife out of the bark while simultaneously peering around the trunk of the tree, to locate the source of the noise.

And yet again, a dark, timid set of eyes stared back at him in terror. The mouth of the small street child—the one he'd encountered twice before—was hung open in a shocked 'o' as the child looked up at him, cradling her bloody, scraped elbow with her hand.

Sasuke had taken half a step toward the child when she screamed at him.

"STAY BACK!"

He was almost taken aback by the sheer power and force the small child exerted with her shout. Watching curiously, he witnessed her reach around to her backpack and quickly retrieve a kunai knife, much like his own, only slightly smaller in size. She held the weapon up in front of her, with shaky arms.

"P-please don't k-kill me," she pleaded in a quiet voice. And as if a trigger had been pulled, the child immediately began to sob.

There were few things in the world that Uchiha Sasuke was not equipped to deal with, and crying children was one of them.

Placing his kunai back in his pack, he showed her his empty hands, trying to see if that would stop the insufferable screeching from bellowing out of the little girl's body.

The crying did quiet, but it did not cease. Her short arms did not lower her kunai. And she never took her eyes off of Sasuke's face.

"Please don't," she whispered, "I'll answer any questions you ask me just," she chocked back a sob, "please don't hurt me."

Confused and slightly dumbfounded, Sasuke raised an eyebrow as well as his hands before him.

"I'm not going to kill you," he said plainly.

The child kept her knife pointed at him. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Sasuke did not feel like dealing with this today. Slightly annoyed, he crossed his arms and watched as the child wiped at her face with a dirty palm, smearing mud across her face.

"How do I know that you're not just lying!" She shocked him by snapping at him. Her fear dissipating as she yelled.

Trying to keep his patience, he reached into his pack and pulled out the knife Nori had given him. For the first time, the child took her eyes off his face, but only to stare with terrified eyes at the knife.

Slowly, trying not to startle the noisy child any further, he held the knife, sheath and all, toward her, handle first. The child stared at it for a full minute before taking a cautious hand and reaching out for it. The moment her hand touched the handle she yanked the knife from its sheath, scooted back a little bit and pointed it at him.

She studied him for a long moment before finally relaxing slightly. She did not lower either of the weapons she bore, but she did straighten her posture and calm her crying.

"So you're not going to hurt me?"

"What makes you think I'd do that?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

"'Cause lots of people try to," she said matter-of-factly.

He raised an eyebrow, "And why's that?"

She quickly closed her mouth and winced slightly. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he observed the child once more. She had a dark shirt on, matched with shorts of the same color. Her sandals were worn and covered thickly with mud. The main thing that stood out to him was the bag she was carrying around. Not many street children actually had belongings they carried with them.

The realization hit him in an instant.

She child wasn't an orphaned street kid. She was a refugee. Running from something. Or someone, who was trying to hurt-or even kill-her.

The girl placed her kunai in her bag with a shaky arm and offered Sasuke his knife back. Brushing her long, tangled hair out of her face she stood up and waited for him to take it.

Sheathing the knife, Sasuke continued to study the child. Travelling alone at such a young age?

"Where are your parents?"

No reply.

He frowned. "Where are you from?"

She pursed her lips and looked up to him almost guiltily. He let out a tired breath. He really really didn't feel like dealing with this today.

Placing his knife back in his pack, he turned and began walking towards the village. He didn't want to busy himself with a child's problems-or even with a child in general.

After a few minutes of traveling, he noted that the child was following him. Trying to ignore her, he figured that she'd stop following him once they reached the village. But as the minutes passed and the closer they got to the village, the closer the child shuffled towards him. Even as they crossed into the clearing at the end of the village, the child stayed close behind him, following his every step. He was only a block from his apartment when he turned to face her.

She stopped just as suddenly as he had and looked up at him nervously, her hands grasping at the hem of her shirt. Neither said a word for a long moment, remaining focused on one another while people walked through the roads, not paying either of them any attention.

When the child said nothing, he turned to walk to the front steps of the shop when she scurried up behind him once more.

"I'm 7."

Glancing over his shoulder at the tiny girl behind him, he raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Hm?"

"I'm 7 years old," she mumbled quietly. "I think I'm allowed to tell you that."

"Why are you telling me at all?"

She seemed embarrassed and looked at her feet as she picked at her shirt's hem further. "You don't know who I am." Sasuke gave her a blank look that basically said 'So?'. "So that's means I can trust you."

If he were the type of person who was inclined to enjoy ironic jokes, he would've laughed at the statement. This child had a very misguided sense of who to trust and who not to trust.

"How do you know I won't kill you?" he asked bluntly, waiting for a reaction.

She flinched slightly at the statement, but recovered surprisingly quickly. "But you said you won't so I can trust you."

"What do you want?"

"Uh, I…" she mumbled quietly to herself. So quiet that Sasuke couldn't make out her words. So instead of asking her to repeat herself, she waited for her to do it on her own. "I'm a little hungry."

Taking note of her sunken cheekbones, and scraggly arms and legs, he realized that she probably wasn't too many days away from starvation.

He wanted more than anything to be able to walk away and close the door in this child's face, forgetting about the screeching tears and the idiotic declarations of trust. But as he glanced down at her face, he almost saw himself in the child. Alone, scared, and without any sort of family.

When he turned and walked toward the door, he could almost feel the child's face falling into a frown, but as he opened the door and turned toward the child, her face lit up with surprise quickly followed by a bright grin.

As the child scrambled towards him, she stepped through the door and immediately removed her muddy shoes. Looking around to find a place to put them, she looked up at him for help. Without answering her unspoken question he began to walk into the shop and toward the stairs behind the counter. After they passed Nori's floor, he glanced over his shoulder quickly to watch the girl tip-toe behind him up the stairs, her shoes in her hands. A small trail of dirt falling behind her.

He sighed as they reached his floor.

He knew he was going to regret this.