Enjoy!

With the meal finished and the sun almost set, the quiet ending to the shared dinner was uneventful. The pair had each revealed as much as they could bring themselves to do in a single day, and the remaining conversation was sparse and simple. Sasuke had offered to pay the bill, but Hinata insisted otherwise after a short exchange—"I invited you," Sasuke had said. "It's my responsibility to pay."

Hinata pursed her lips and shook her head 'no'. "I won't let you spend a single ryo on me, Sasuke—not after what you've done already." She actually felt like she might have pried too much into his business; it had been too easy for her to ask questions and confess things to him, so she hadn't thought of stopping. Had she been pushing him too quickly? She hated to think that he might have been put off by her constant pestering, so she was certain to let him keep his money inside his pocket to make up for the discomfort she may have caused him.

Sasuke's upper lip creased slightly when he admitted it to himself, but he knew he couldn't win the struggle over who was going to pay the check. Truthfully, he could barely have afforded their modest meals, anyhow—it was something of a relief to find out that Hinata could so easily cover the charge, and that she was so determined to do it. "Thank you, Hinata," he said customarily. "Though, next time I invite you for a meal I'm going to insist on paying." He started to stand up from the table as the server returned and acknowledged that Hinata's account was quite valid for the small tab. No physical money changed hands, but the debit was added and taken care of behind the scenes.

Hinata blinked twice, then another time before she processed what Sasuke had said. "Next time?" she chirped, half-shocked and half-giddy.

Sasuke was standing beside the table when he replied. "Yes, next time," he repeated simply, as if misunderstanding why she was surprised. Behind his thin coating of coy skepticism, he knew all too well the reason for her shock. He still couldn't pin down his own reason for even promising a 'next time', much less outwardly address her excitement at the prospect, so he kept his response simple. He couldn't recall the last time he had been so enthralled by a single person's every detail; she was a mystery who wasn't trying to be one, and she somehow made Sasuke do things that he hadn't planned on doing. He even had trouble justifying some of those things to himself, after the fact. How many of his questions, how many of his answers had been too personal? He was talking without hesitation for most of the night; it was strange how the words seemed to force their way out of his mouth. He felt like a faucet whose knob had been gently turned by the girl whose spirits he was trying to lift. Who was lifting who, then? Sasuke wondered about that.

It was still tough for Hinata to comprehend that the dark-haired loner's attention was being given not out of pity, but out of want; what could she have possibly offered to a man like Sasuke Uchiha? He was powerful, resolute, self-sure, and a member of a famous family whose name rivaled her own. The only things that she had and he didn't were a larger savings account and a better reputation in the village, neither of which Sasuke seemed all that interested in. So what was it about her that drew him near the second time? And the 'next time'? She couldn't figure him out, even after their lengthy back and forth, and when the time came to depart the restaurant, she was still lost in her thoughts. Her best explanation was that they had both been 'stranded' by the same wedding, thus their companionship was born out of the need for a temporary refuge in one another's loneliness. And that was the assumption she carried home with her.

"I'll see you again," Sasuke had said before he turned to depart. Hinata lifted a hand to him and called his name, which urged him to stop and turn to face her. He didn't look annoyed that time by her pestering.

"T-tomorrow, maybe?" Hinata suggested quietly, unable to look him in the eyes for fear of losing her composure. It had been difficult enough already to avoid staring awkwardly at him all night long; while Sasuke had noticed her beauty, Hinata had also noticed his attractiveness in equal measure. She had never gotten a truly good look at him before they sat a few paces apart from one another. Even in the cemetery when she had been studying his outfit and supplies, she hadn't really focused on him. She had been startled too much by what she had seen in his pocket. "Tomorrow is going to be a nice day..." she added, trying to fill the void of silence that blew between them.

"Maybe," Sasuke answered. "It's possible that I'll have business with the Hokage tomorrow." He prepared her for disappointment, and he kept his speech even and practical. "Depending on what he has for me to do, I may not be able to find the time to visit you." He started to turn away from her, but he decided that it wasn't a good enough answer—not for her, nor for himself. He added a promising addendum:"If not tomorrow, then the day after...one way or another, I'll find the time to say hello."

Hinata's heart skipped a delighted beat and she locked her fingers together joyously in front of her well-shaped chest. "I'll look forward to it then, Sasuke!" she sang with chipper honesty, a louder exclamation than she had thought and a broader wave of goodbye than was normal. She realized a moment later that she was drawing attention to herself, receiving startled glances from the crowd walking the village streets. Hinata instinctively shrunk down and held her breath for a brief pause, just long enough to fade back out of focus. Sasuke was smiling when he turned away from her during the silence, and then he was gone. He disappeared in the crowd, and Hinata was left standing there clutching the envelope he had personally delivered to her. Her fingers were tense and her lower jaw was shaken by her adrenaline.

Hinata didn't know the real truth about Itachi's actions, but she still admired the kindness that had to exist in the heart of a person who could offer forgiveness for such a terrible thing as what he had done. Sasuke's apparent devotion to righteousness reminded her a lot of Naruto, but there was a difference...a darkness, an intensity. Sasuke was far more focused and subdued than Naruto had ever been, and the way the Uchiha had been looking at the Hyuuga girl throughout the dinner was enough to make her shudder with apprehension and anticipation. Her own inherited eyes were treasures to be coveted, but she knew that Sasuke could do so very much more with his gifted vision...She wondered if the feared, reviled, and respected Sharingan had any limits at all.

Sasuke calmly put one foot in front of the other and kept his shoulders stable while he walked away. Once he got out of Hinata's vision radius, though, he immediately found an alley to tuck himself away in, heading down the line with an abrupt turn. Once the noise of the streets had become dull and the streetlights were just a flicker at the end of a concrete passage, he pressed his back to the brick wall and drearily flopped down to sit on his backside. He brought the back of his hand up to wipe the growing layer of sweat away from his forehead, then patted it dry with his handkerchief. He was starting to pant heavily as he allowed his muscles to finally relax, his body going almost entirely slack in the darkness. The stoicism had finally been thawed and he was allowing two hours' worth of pent-up nerves to have a private moment to express themselves. During the meal, he felt like he had done more right than wrong, but still...Hinata Hyuuga was a person who had managed to make him genuinely worry about doing the simple things right. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her off or prove himself too savage to be in her company.

Hinata seemed so marvelously accepting on the surface, but Sasuke couldn't know for sure that her inner reactions were the same as the outer. He could read her face; he knew the little twitches that meant she was amused, or even offended, but he couldn't see into her heart. Likewise, he could only imagine the purity of her spirit; he decided that her essence must have been like a clear, just-melted stream running through a high mountain, untouched by the ugliness of the world beneath and beholden to all things bright and hopeful. There was no bloodlust in her, no desire for vengeance or spite. She was a creature of utter goodness, and such a thing was a rarity in their world, even during the recent days of growing peace. No, he could not see directly into her heart, but he could still inexorably feel what she was like. Sasuke felt viciously tainted by comparison.

After several long minutes of catching his breath and trying to get the image of Hinata's smile out of his thoughts, Sasuke did finally remember that he had taken a lengthy break from his 'important' mission. The sun had gone down, but the day was still active enough to support a few last-minute deliveries. Sasuke intended to have his mission completed by the next morning, even if it meant he would have to hurry along to reach his last two noteworthy deliveries. The symbols upon the envelopes belonged to the Aburame and Inuzuka Clans. He chose the Aburame Clan first, though it was a longer walk to their primary compound than it would have been to visit the Inuzuka Clan. He wasn't in any hurry to see Kiba again.

While Sasuke thought about what to do next, he heard a faint whimper—he briefly thought that it could have been a hallucination, a memory from the previous night, but it sounded like a young boy when it echoed a second time. Sasuke opened his eyes and moved to stand, looking down the length of the alley. He heard other voices, too; faint, probably around a few corners and deeper between the network of three and four story buildings. If he had to guess, Sasuke would have figured somebody was being given a hard time. He sighed through his nose and began to walk through the alley toward the source of the disturbance, his thumb tapping on the hilt of his sword to the beat of each step.

Hinata was hurrying home for the night, her pace augmented by an occasional skip of glee. She was in a good mood that night because she finally had something to look forward to again. Next time. Two short words had suddenly opened up an entire future in front of her. Hinata had truly been wondering if her time had come to a complete stop; every day seemed the same—dismal, empty, depressing—but tomorrow felt promising again, and it was all thanks to Sasuke's casual implication. Next time, she thought to herself as she entered the larger Hyuuga residence and found her place within.

She peeled back a sliding door lined with paper and plaster and gave a deep exhale, finally breathing easily as she brought the precious cargo in her hand through the door of its intended address. The letters inside told of a tournament with no set date, or time, and apparently no reward other than satisfaction. The contest seemed like some sort of game; what purpose did it really serve? Hinata stepped out of her shoes by the door and thumped her way down the wood-floored halls with quick heel-toe movements. She was trying to pace herself, trying to contain all the excitement that she hadn't been able to release at the dinner table. She had almost forgotten about Naruto for a moment while she was with Sasuke, and that in itself was a marvel.

The high was slowly beginning to wear down, though, and she was losing a thin shave of her spiritedness by the time she reached Hanabi's door and gave a knock. It was late, but not quite bedtime, so Hinata suspected that her sister would still be awake. A moment after the knock and following a muffled 'one second,' Hanabi pulled open her door and regarded Hinata with a toothbrush busily sliding back and forth in her mouth. "What'th up, thith?" She inquired, lisping for the sake of keeping her routine intact. It would have been so difficult to stop brushing to speak and then start again from where she left off.

Even though she was winding down from the excitement, Hinata was still smiling and still a little restless. She leaned down to put her eyes even with Hanabi's, then cupped the side of her own mouth and whispered something to her younger sibling. "He's still got it," Hinata revealed, to which Hanabi quirked her brow and sought to quickly finish her brushing motions.

Holding off on giving a response, Hanabi waved a hand to beckon her sister into the bedroom while she moved off into her private bathing space. Following the sound of spitting into a sink, rushing water, and gargling, Hanabi came back out with an empty mouth and a dozen questions. She was sweeping her hair for the night with a fancy white brush; its handle was gaudy and distracting. Hanabi was already in pajamas, but she seemed fairly energetic otherwise. Prepared to talk, the younger sibling had a puzzled look in her eyes. "Who's still got what?"

Hinata blinked as she sat down on the springy corner of Hanabi's bed and realized that she had been getting ahead of herself. "Oh, uh...nothing," she blushed, her usual way of going back on a misstep. "Nevermind."

"Nuh-uh, no, now you've gotta tell me," Hanabi said with a nosy tilt of her face, scampering up into Hinata's personal space and forcing eye contact with her hands on her sister's kneecaps. "Did you meet with somebody after I left?" Though the nearness was jarring to Hinata, Hanabi's breath smelled minty, at least.

Hinata slanted her shoulder and looked down and to her left, putting her focus on the floor to escape the pointed vision of the one person who was most like her—genetically, at least. Hinata sometimes felt as if they were complete opposites, but for a few particular vices. Cake was one of them. "S-somebody did come to see me," Hinata began, leaning back somewhat from Hanabi and putting a hand on her sister's shoulder to nudge her away slightly. Just enough for some breathing room. "It was Sasuke. He caught me crying, just like the night before..."

Hanabi's curiosity turned into a snarky little grin. She was just then learning about the meeting of the previous night. "Oooh, is that why you didn't want him to see you earlier? C'mon, Hinata, you can tell me—what did he say to you?"

"N-nothing, really..." Hinata said it, and it was true. When she honestly thought about it, their talk wasn't about anything in particular, or anything gossip-worthy. They had just talked, eaten, and then parted ways. Then again, he had said one thing that especially affected her. "I guess he did say 'next time'."

Hanabi scratched her cheek, her lips pushed forward to show how underwhelmed she was. "Next time what? And you still haven't told me! What is it that he's still 'got'?"

Hinata was already regretting the first words out of her mouth, but she had been on the tail end of an adrenaline rush and she hadn't been able to curb her wild lips long enough to hold it back. "He kept the name card..."

Hanabi did recall something to that effect, but it had been weeks since it was last brought up. "Oh...you mean the one you brought to Lord Hokage a while back?"

Hinata nodded. She thought back to the moment in question:

"Could you please keep this until the wedding party, Lord Hokage?" Hinata pleaded with Kakashi as he was working at his desk. He looked up to her patiently, regarding what she was holding with a neutral slant of both eyes. "I-in case he shows up, and he doesn't feel welcome...I know you'll be very busy, but please keep this with you so you can give him a seat all to himself. It will let him know that somebody wants him there, even if nobody else does..."

Kakashi accepted the offering, a finely-created nametag that was designed with a crease; it was meant to be placed over the back of a chair. The thing was small, but easily visible thanks to the bold red on the Uchiha emblem. Kakashi nodded and answered her request agreeably."That's a good thought, Hinata; I actually have a feeling I'll be needing this, thank you." He tucked the custom-made reservation marker into one of the myriad drawers of his workstation, then gave a confirming nod. "It will let him know that he's been missed."

Hinata stood silent for a moment, but she added one last condition: "Just d-don't tell him I made it. Let him think it was Naruto, or Sakura, or you, if he wants..."

Kakashi didn't bother to ask about why it was a secret, and accepted things as they were. "It's a promise."

Hinata wondered if he had kept his promise, but assumed that he had—even before he became Hokage, Kakashi Hatake was a trustworthy person. If he ever made a promise, Hinata knew that he would do everything he could to keep it. "Yes, that one," she said to Hanabi after returning her thoughts to the present. "Sasuke had it in his pocket tonight."

Hanabi had taken a seat on her own bed, climbing further up and resting her elbows against the pillows at the top. She was sprawled out, stretching and wriggling to get comfortable on her back with her head propped up to keep her attention on her joy-stricken sister. "Do you think he knows where it came from?" Hanabi pondered.

Hinata shook her head. "I don't think so. The Hokage promised not to tell him, and Sasuke didn't mention it to me while we were eating..."

"Eating? Wait, were you two on a date or something? When you said you saw him, I thought you meant that he just crossed your path for a minute..." There was the gossip note; the one thing from that conversation that Hanabi was sure to remember for the rest of her life. She was already thinking about how best to go about telling everyone about the steamy date between her sister and the notorious Sasuke Uchiha. Even at his darkest, most hated point in the past, Sasuke was the secret fantasy of plenty of the girls she knew. Naruto was the angel, Sasuke was the devil, and it was so tough for a teenaged girl to pick one or the other and stick with it. Good boy or bad boy? Hanabi snickered as it seemed that Hinata had chosen the bad one.

"It wasn't a date, Hanabi...don't be a brat..." Hinata was unusually defensive; she almost sounded like she hadn't even finished convincing herself of whether it really was a date or not. It was probably just an incidental meal, a happenstance meeting that meant nothing. But Sasuke had talked about there being a next time. Could it be that he was just looking for a new friend? On second thought, why am I getting so carried away? I hardly know anything about him. Hinata tried to keep herself in check, but the itch on her cheek was starting to come back again. She ran her finger down the path, and then she remembered. That spot on her cheek was where Sasuke had wiped a tear away with his cloth. The warm, tingling sensation had lingered that long? Okay...maybe I'm in trouble... Hinata admitted. She certainly couldn't let Hanabi see the way she trembled from top to bottom and forcefully swallowed nothing.

"It kinda sounds like a date to me, sis," Hanabi deadpanned, keeping her jealousy restrained. Despite how Hinata always seemed so unassuming on the surface, Hanabi had to silently admire her sister's lofty ambitions: First Naruto Uzumaki, now Sasuke Uchiha? She aims high, that's for sure... The real kicker was that it seemed to Hanabi that, however slight it was, Hinata actually had a chance with Sasuke. Though, Hanabi's assumptions were the machinations of a hormonal teenaged mind, so there may have been some crucial steps missing from the equation she used to prove the romance in her own head.

"Well it wasn't...I should have known better, but I just felt like I had to tell somebody that he still had it...I'm trying not to think too much of it." Hinata was kind of lying about that; she was obsessively thinking about what it meant for the card to still be in Sasuke's possession. It wasn't thrown into his bag with the rest of his belongings, either. Sasuke had tucked it into a pocket of his cloak, a slot that was close to his heart whether he thought about it that way or not. Hinata definitely saw it that way.

Hanabi scrunched her face, regretting her next sentence before it was even spoken. "I promise not to tell anybody it was a date if you don't want me to," she said reluctantly. Once it was a promise, she had to keep it. On one hand, the gossip would have been spectacular, but on the other...her big sister was having a rough time already, and Hanabi didn't want to make things even harder for her. "But don't you think a lot of people saw the two of you together already?"

Hinata shrugged. Her mind wasn't working the same was as her sister's. "Yes, plenty of people...is that bad?"

Hanabi wagged her pointer finger and smirked. "Nah, it's not bad at all...as long as you're alright with people thinking you two are an item." She curled her finger and looped it around the same finger on her opposite hand, twisting them around nonsensically. "You should've brought me along. It would have been a lot less obvious that it was a date, if you had."

"That would have been...Oh, I'm sorry I didn't eat with you, Hanabi. I just didn't have an appetite...I swear that I tried." Hinata rubbed her stomach thoughtfully. Despite her difficulty early on, she was satisfied with what she had finally eaten; she hadn't felt so full in a long time.

"No big deal. I got to eat, at least. So, with this Sasuke business, are you already over Naruto?" Hanabi teased, turning to lay herself on her stomach and prop her head in her hands with her elbows on the mattress. As she flopped, the springs squeaked and Hinata wobbled gently up and down where she sat.

"Over Naruto...? I love Naruto, and that won't ever change." Hinata was quick to reinforce her long-standing feelings, but even so, she felt lighter after that night. She had been shown that there was a world that could exist without her expectation of being with Naruto—but was it a better world, or just a new one? Was Sasuke the center of that world, or was he just the doorman who had invited her in? Would he always be there to guide her, or was he merely a stepping stone? She moved to stand up from Hanabi's bed, and the envelope in her hand reminded her of its existence by crinkling with the motion she made. "Oh...where's father? I need to give this to him."

Hanabi looked at the envelope, officially sanctioned and still sealed—not that being sealed meant much to a Hyuuga's penetrating eyes, but the sentiment was nice anyway. "He's in the dojo doing his nightly exercise." Hanabi pointed her thumb in the general direction. "You remember where it's at, right?" The younger one teased the older. "I know you haven't kept up with your training lately..."

Hinata nodded, deciding not to take the jab personally. "Yes, I remember. Thank you, Hanabi. Have a good night." She bowed respectfully as she left her sister behind and closed the door to the bedroom. In the hallway, she was alone again. Did the people who saw us really think we were on a date? Hinata hadn't even considered it at the time, but Hanabi planted a seed of curiosity that was starting to grow. Did Sasuke think it was a date? Do I want to think of it as one? Hinata came to a conclusion in her head, nodding to herself in the empty hall outside of Hanabi's room. It was just a friendly dinner, this time.

Satisfied by her own conclusion, Hinata took off toward the training wing of the manor to find her father and at last deliver the message she had been clutching.

A person who looked like a man but acted like a teenager was flanked by what seemed to be a pair of younger flunkies. The central one had his hand on the collar of a young boy's shirt and was holding him off the ground, pressing the weakling against the brick of a wall; the victim was no older than seven or eight. "What'll you do? Gonna tell your parents!?" the middle one, the apparent boss of the small mob, was basking in the intoxication control. The kid being terrorized had tears streaming down his cheeks, and his short legs were kicking impotently at the air to try to release himself from his harasser's strong grip.

"L-let me go!" the youth called desperately, but his plea was muffled by one of the henchmen's hands going over his lips. He struggled while the would-be muggers began to search his pockets—they found a wallet and started to dig through it, pulling out a small cluster of money. A week's worth of allowance, no more.

"This ain't enough, kid; now we're gonna have to charge extra for our troubles." The henchman on the left reeled his fist back like he was about to punch the kid right across the nose, but as his arm was coming forth, it was abruptly veered off course by something snagging his sleeve and pulling his momentum toward the nearby wall. His knuckles slammed into brick and he cried out in shock as he realized that his shirt sleeve was pinned into the solid surface by a shuriken. "What the...?"

"Let the boy go, and do it quick," a calm voice from the darkness instructed. It was a pointed command; it didn't even echo, so sharp was the delivery. "I don't have time to play nice with you."

The shock wore off the henchman and was replaced by frightened, irrational arrogance. The pinned thug spewed common rhetoric: "Heh...don't act so tough! You just caught me off guard, that's all..." The one with his arm pinned to the wall yanked himself away, finding that the shuriken was buried too deep into the brick to be pulled out. His shirt sleeve was ripped raggedly in order for him to free himself. He reached into a pouch at his hip, then his compatriot did the same, producing sharpened weaponry made of cold, dark gray metal. "You're not the only ninja in this village. How 'bout you empty your pockets now?"

Sasuke stepped out of the shadows of the alley and shook his head in the modest starlight. "Peace or no peace, I suppose that punks will always be punks..."

The one who had been holding the young boy's collar suddenly released him and let him fall to the ground with a thud, turning to draw a sword from his back and point it at Sasuke. A nerve had been struck. "Punk...? I'm a chunin! You'd better watch what you're saying about me!"

Sasuke took a moment to unbutton the neckline of his travel cloak, revealing that his left arm was missing while he folded the cloth up with one hand and set it on top of a nearby crate. The alley seemed to be used for some type of storage, and it felt like an abandoned maze in every direction. "So, what's your game?" Sasuke wondered aloud. The kid on the concrete ground was terrified, trembling; Sasuke never let the victim slip from awareness, even as he himself looked away. If any of the bullies had made a move for the kid in a panic, the attempt would have been quickly dealt with. "Do the shinobi of this village always rob children for their lunch money? Or is it only something that the weak ones do?"

"Yeah, well, who are you to say anything? You're a cripple who hasn't even got a headband!" The proud chunin in the center smirked and pointed his thumb to his forehead. He was wearing his head protector without shame, the symbol of the Leaf glistening on the silvery metal, even in the dimly lit alley. His partners had theirs on, too, now that Sasuke had gotten a look at them. Genin, maybe?

Sasuke brushed his hair down over his left eye nonchalantly; no sense giving away his power and identity too early, after all. "Now that you mention it, my old forehead protector is damaged. In fact, I could use a new one, and you don't seem to deserve yours anymore." Beneath the layer of his hair, Sasuke fed chakra to his left eye to activate the circular rings of his Rinnegan. It was concealed well enough to go unnoticed. Sasuke held his hand up, then used the unique power of his eye to abruptly transport the headband off of the ringleader, putting it firmly betwixt two of his fingers. There was no wind, no sound; the metal plate set into a black cloth simply repositioned instantaneously in response to Sasuke's will. "Maybe I'll just take it off your hands, how about that?"

The shock on all three faces couldn't have been more satisfying. The chunin must have noticed the sudden lightness of his forehead, because his hand smacked to the bare skin above his brow to rub hesitantly. His companions noticed, too: "H-hey, uh...boss? Leader-man?" The one on the left with the ripped shirt was stuttering a little. "Your head-" Gulp. "uh...where'd your headband go?" Sweat was starting to pour liberally.

Sasuke was tossing the protector up and down as he took a step closer. "Now, I don't know if I can hold back enough to avoid killing ants like the three of you...So if you run now, maybe we won't have to find out."

Despite the opportunity presented, there was no talking sense into the rowdy gang—"Get him!" The oblivious leader ordered his comrades to charge with him, and they all three started by throwing a small volley of shuriken. Sasuke didn't even need to move his feet, such was the speed at which he intercepted each and every scattered metal blade mid-flight. He easily slipped a finger through the hole in the center of each hissing projectile, and by the time his blurred movement had settled, eight shuriken were still spinning as they looped around his single upheld digit. He had the pilfered headband clutched into his palm by his pinky and thumb, as well.

"I guess we'll find out after all..." Sasuke murmured as he dropped the twirling blades off of his finger to have them clang uselessly against the muck-ridden floor of the neglected alley. Could these be some of the restless people that Kakashi was so worried about? Sasuke hadn't known that the consequences of peace were getting to be so bad. On the surface, the village looked remarkably calm. As he thought to himself, Sasuke took another step toward the thugs, and then panicked shouts echoed through the alleyway as he went to work...

...

...

The victim of the harassment was covering his ears with his palms and choking on his own fear and tears. His eyes were closed and his knees were shaking as he sat forward on them. He had thought about running once he fell, but he knew he wouldn't have been able to escape from a ninja if he were to be chased. He had always thought that shinobi were heroes, not crooks, but he was clearly wrong about that. He had immediately begun to cower when he was dropped, and his hands drowned out the noise of the brief scuffle that followed. He hadn't processed that the initial shuriken had been thrown to protect him. When he finally opened his eyes again after a short silence, he saw that his wallet was being held out in front of his bleary vision, presented to him carefully. "I think you dropped this..." the boy heard, and he looked up to the man who offered it to him.

"T-thanks," the kid blubbered, in awe of his sudden rescue. He hadn't even dreamed of actually being pulled out of the predicament, even though he had been ceaselessly pleading for help in his head. "W-who are you?" he asked timidly as he took his wallet back. The miniscule amount of money had been returned, and he couldn't see the three robbers anywhere in the alley. He didn't feel like his eyes had been closed for very long, so he was disoriented by how quickly it had all happened. Had he passed out?

"It doesn't matter," Sasuke replied, patting the kid once on the head after the wallet was given back. "You should get home quickly; it's probably close to your bedtime, right?"

The kid nodded in a daze, and a strong hand pulled him up onto his feet by the shoulder and gave him a pat on the back to get him moving. "R-right..." the kid mumbled as he began to walk, then after a few steps he ran. "Thanks again!" he called over his shoulder. The relief and jubilation in the young boy's voice echoed all up and down the alley.

After tying his travel cloak back around his neck and shoulders, Sasuke leaped up to the roof of the building nearest to him. He followed behind the rescued kid from overhead until he had clearly found the way out of the alley. Satisfied that the situation had been fully resolved, Sasuke decided to return to his delivery mission. Aburame first, he reminded himself, then he hurried along. If he made good time, he could still have been finished by a reasonable hour.

Back on the ground level of the alley, there was a conspicuously shifted crate, its lid tilted just slightly ajar to allow for the flow of air inside. Three young men were bundled within, all unconscious—but all breathing steadily—with their backs pressed to one another and their arms tied fast by transparent wire string. Their mouths were gagged as well by material ripped from their own sleeves, but their legs would be free to kick and struggle for help when they came to. Beside the crate, written by a precise hand, there was a note pinned to a wrapped bundle. Enclosed in the cloth package were three forehead protectors, pristine and glistening, spared from the dusty, bruised condition of their previous wearers.

The note read thusly: "It is in my humble opinion that these three young men should be sent back to the Academy. They are not yet ready to be shinobi. -Sasuke U."

Wow! Over 100 reviews after just 18 days and 9 chapters? That's incredible! (That number doesn't count the dozen or so trolling guest reviews I've had to delete, either). Seriously, I've never even come close to these kinds of numbers before. Thank you all very much for the support—and a very special thanks goes to the frequent reviewers who have something to say with almost every new chapter! I'm glad that you all take time out of your days to let me know that you care about what I'm writing. It means a lot to me! Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions, too—if I see a question in a review there's a high chance I'll send a PM to answer it. Try not to ask for big spoilers, though—I don't want to give away the upcoming plot prematurely!

I hope you liked the chapter. Anyway, until next time!