Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OCs.
Warning: There will be character death, gore, angst, basically all the stuff you find in the Naruto series. Possible trigger warnings for future chapters, read at your own risk.
Check out my WoW: Plus fic which involves side stories to this fic X'D
Also; yes, there will be a lot of unanswered questions and WTF moments but they will all be answered in the end. Feel free to review your theories, I would love to hear them.
Song: Impossible
By: Lacey Sturm
"The Shinigami is speaking. It says she is the child of prophecy! It says she paves the future-" the woman's voice was cut off as she was wracked with a coughing fit.
"Shh, Minori, speak no more." A wizened lady knelt above the panting woman as she lay in her blood-stained bed.
Several figures surrounded the two, whispering quietly amongst themselves or occupying themselves with cleaning the newborn child.
"It's too late. The Shinigami is here… please… show me my baby," the one named Minori rasped.
The newborn baby was placed tenderly in her arms, clean and wrapped in a white towel. A tiny baby, with soft white hair and tanned skin. Her eyes were closed in a seemingly peaceful slumber. Minori held her close, cradling her.
"I will take care of her, she will become one of us," the wizened lady whispered.
"You don't… understand… the Shinigami whispers that she... she is… seer and... whispers..."
Minori's head slowly drooped backwards, the light fading from her eyes.
The cries of Yūrei, a two month old child, rang out in the stillness of the night as Minori took her last breath.
The wizened lady carefully took the baby from her arms, a weary sigh escaping her lips.
"Maidens, prepare a burial, and put Yūrei to bed."
"What will you name the baby?" one of the young girls asked timidly.
"From now on, she will have no last name. She will simply be known as… Sasayaki."
Let me get something straight with you:
I wasn't a normal person in this world. I was different.
I was special.
Why, you ask?
I guess I'll tell you my secret;
I had a past life in another dimension, but that's not all of it. The world I was in, well, I knew the future, because once-upon-a-time this world was an anime. An anime that I loved and adored, but a simple anime none-the-less. And now, I was living it.
Although I soon found out it wasn't quite as exciting as it sounded.
It turned out I must have been a pretty bad person in my old life. How could I not have been considering I was born into the red-light district? In a prostitute house at that. An abandoned mistake.
Honestly, the gods must have hated me.
But on a positive note;
at least it was Konoha.
Let me tell you, being pushed out of a ladies, ahem, down south was not something I wanted to consciously experience again. Not that I really remembered it, all I remembered was some vague painful sensations.
But I really shouldn't have been thinking about that considering I was preoccupied with my hand down a man's pants pocket.
He didn't even notice as I breezed past him, his attention focussed on the blue-haired boy that tripped in front of him.
Nimble fingers slipped the coin pouch from its not-so-subtle location as the man roared with laughter at the spectacle of the fallen boy, the man beside him sneering disdainfully.
I had vanished into the throngs of people milling about long before he realised his coin pouch was missing. The wide street was busy with people of all varieties, out for their nightly activities. Ninja, drunk men and giggling women, curious teenagers, skinny children who eyed the masses hungrily.
The moon shone bright, illuminating the vague outline of the Hokage Mountain and the many sinful shops and clubs, bars and brothels lining the very street I navigated across.
It took me only moments to dart down a small alley that led to the back of a particular brothel. There, a hazel-eyed boy with matted brown hair awaited me.
"Sasayaki, you got somethin' ta show?" the six-year-old (or was he five?) asked enthusiastically, grinning. His voice was high pitched from youth, and he stumbled over his words for the same reason.
"Yea, but what 'bout you Yūrei? Your eye…" I trailed off. My voice imitated his lisp, for although my grasp on Japanese was mostly fluent from having learnt it to an extent in my past life (though my vocabulary was still very limited), it wouldn't do to garner attention. Therefore, I had to adopt the speech patterns of six-year-olds.
Ouch, that's one black eye he has…
He frowned and raised a hand to his swollen eye, grimacing.
"S'nothing. Just got clipped, s'all. I didn' get da necklace neither, but I got this."
He raised his arm to show me the three chicken skewers in his hand, still warm. Street food, straight from the stall I remembered to be a couple of streets away. It was owned by an old lady with fading eyesight, and made for an easy target if needed. Though I preferred not to steal from her; that woman was one of those stereotypical kind old women. The kind of one you'd expect to present you with a batch of steaming hot, fresh cookies.
It always left me with a lingering sense of guilt whenever we took from her stall.
Another boy of age six appeared beside us, panting. His blue hair was damp with sweat, though his soft green eyes brimmed with victory.
"Did ya see that, Sasayaki-chan? That man todally fell for it when I tripp'd! Ya got the pouch, right?"
"Yea I got it. Good goin' Takeshi!" I smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"Ok, let's split tha money up. A third for Takeshi, a half for us," Yūrei said, gesturing to the pouch in my hand.
"I think ya mean three-quarters for us," I corrected briskly, sitting on the hard ground to divide the coins into three piles. "Lady will be happy 'bout this," I added jovially.
Times were becoming rather hard, after all. Money was sparse, and the brothel simply wasn't enough to support Lady, the Maidens, Yūrei and myself. We all had to contribute our share. Even though Yūrei and I were only five/six years old.
"And I thin' we should share the skewers ourselves 'cause there isn't 'nuff ta share with all th'others," Yūrei added.
Maybe I was being a little selfish considering I immediately agreed, but damn was I starving. I'd missed dinner, which Lady and the Maidens would have filled up on, because I was out hunting with Yūrei and The Gang. We wouldn't tell them we'd eaten the skewers, of course, because Lady would go off on a strop. She was frankly scary when she found out we'd kept things from her, but I suppose it made sense.
She didn't have to know.
The Gang comprised of a bunch of kids from the red-light district who joined up to work together in order to steal. The three of us being Yūrei, Takeshi and I were part of it too. That's how we met Takeshi, who we found out often hangs around near us (hence he participated in our thieving activities).
He was a street kid, a 'gutter rat' who often bunked down with Kiyoshi, the second-in-command of The Gang. Kiyoshi, at least, had a roof over his head. A small one, being the home his parents left behind when they left Konoha, but a roof none-the-less.
But I would talk more about The Gang later.
I handed Takeshi a third of the earnings from the pouch, which consisted of a meagre 50 ryo.
Code #1 to observe as a member of The Gang; the earnings were always evenly split among all participating parties, no exceptions. Even if someone involved hadn't actively managed to steal anything to share.
Yūrei then handed him a skewer, at which Takeshi grinned and immediately chomped off a large bite.
"Thanks! See yous later!" Takeshi waved before spinning around, a streak of blue disappearing around the corner.
We'd probably see him tomorrow at the morning rendezvous with The Gang.
Or maybe I wouldn't, because I was planning on finally using my knowledge to begin the changes needed to save the world from certain doom (curtesy of Madara).
I knew I had try and integrate myself in the plotline soon, after all I had already wasted six or five-ish years of my life 'growing up' a bit and getting acclimatised to… this world.
Yūrei passed me a skewer, and I wasted no time in tearing into the delicious meat, the herbs and spices melting into my tongue. I let out an appreciative moan which Yūrei mirrored as he bit into his own.
The aching pain in my stomach that had since become an uncomfortable hollowness over the last few hours disappeared.
Yūrei and I exchanged mutual nods as we finished our 'meal', and I wiped the grease on my hands onto my old, worn pants that were a hand-me-down from one of the Maidens. I'm pretty sure it was a hand-me-down before that, and probably before then.
Yūrei and I ran the rest of the way down the quiet alley after tossing the finished skewers onto the side of the road. At the end, on the left, was a high fence. We climbed over and found ourselves in the garden of the prostitute house. We ran up and jumped through the window into the back room where we stayed, so as not to disturb the customers.
"Lady, we're home!" Yūrei stage-whispered as we made our way to the kitchen.
"Took you long enough!" Lady snapped as we presented our earnings, holding the ryo out to her over the rugged counter.
She eyed the ryo before taking it from us and promptly began counting it.
It was only after she'd stashed it that her face softened concerning Yūrei's swollen eye. "Here, I'll find something to cover that." She invaded the small crate of supplies in the corner of the room, producing a makeshift eye-patch,
"Ummm, Lady, d'ya think I can go and explore for a few weeks?" I asked as she helped Yūrei tie it around his head
She hummed thoughtfully, before pinning me with a suspicious glare.
"What for?"
"Well, you see, I ain't been far round here and wanna scout some better hiding places for the future."
Lady's eyes narrowed further, and I had the distinct impression she didn't believe me.
"You may leave tomorrow morning, as long as you get your own food and water and get back here in the next couple of weeks. Otherwise I won't be able to help you if you get lost or hurt. And be careful of the kidnappers and ninja."
Yūrei opened his mouth to say something, but Lady cut him off.
"No, don't you dare think of going with her. I can't have both of you lost on the other side of the leaf village. Now both of you, off to bed. It's late!"
She ushered us out of the kitchen, Yūrei grumbling in annoyance and fingering his new eye-patch.
You might find it surprising that someone would let their (unofficially adopted) child run around town for weeks on their own, but in the red-light district it wasn't that strange, especially if a kid got chased to a new part of town and couldn't find their way back, or they stalked a particularly rich target over several days.
I got lost once, fairly recently actually considering my age. Probably only three weeks ago (we didn't keep track of time- calendars were a waste of money). Most street kids got lost in their time.
Needless to say, it scared the life out of me being that I was stranded in a village full of assassins.
But I had learned by then how to survive, and in four days I found my way home. Though I would rather not relive the experience; sleeping in gutters isn't exactly what you'd call an ideal vacation.
It wasn't uncommon for kids to end up finding a new home, either temporary or permanent if they got lost, either in a prostitute house or recruited by the local kids.
Or sometimes, they simply disappeared from the face of the earth.
I made my way to the dining room before bed to see if any of the maidens were finished with their respective clients to say goodbye since I planned to slip out immediately tomorrow so as not to get caught up- but they weren't done.
The dining room was just a small room with seven cushions arranged neatly in a rectangle on the floor around a low table.
The maidens wouldn't be finished until later tonight or even tomorrow, so I made my way to the small room shared by Yūrei and myself. Yūrei was already there, and he watched me as I entered. I made myself comfortable on the tatami mat with a couple of old blankets, not even bothering to get dressed. If I had anything else to dress into, I might have.
I shut my eyes.
"Lemme go with you," Yūrei said only a couple of minutes later. "What if ya never come back? Like that time you got lost, and y'almost never returned! Or what if something, anythin' happens?"
I sighed inwardly.
I knew this was coming.
"Trust me, nothing will happen. I know what I'm doin', kay?"
Yūrei rolled onto his side, so he was facing away from me, and petulant silence ensued.
I fell asleep to the sound of light wind rattling the window, and a faint sense of guilt pooling in me.
But still, I slept.
I jumped out the window, stumbled a little, climbed back over the rusty fence and made my way down the alley once more. The street opened up before me, and I began navigating it aimlessly. I was searching for an orphanage because I figured that was a good place to start.
If you haven't realised yet, Yūrei and I helped support Lady and the maidens by stealing, trickery and conning. When I reached twelve I would become a maiden myself and earn money to support Lady, Yūrei and the other four maidens, according to Lady.
Well, I had a very different future planned for myself that did not include becoming a prostitute.
I was going to stop the shit hole that was Naruto's life, and change the universe.
It couldn't be that hard, right? Just make a few changes here and there, and then the ripple effect would do the rest. At least, that was the idea.
It took me a while to adjust to this life so different to my old one, getting over the idea that ninjas exist and learning motor skills, and not to mention living almost dirt poor with no showers. Ever.
Honestly, I had to cut my long brown hair close to my head so it didn't mat. Lady said that when I turned 12 I could start showering, but at the moment we didn't have the money to spare water for a five-year-old. Yūrei was in the same position. We must have stunk from at least two meters away.
Anyway, I had a mission to accomplish. There was no way in hell I was letting the plot stay the same, and I was going to start by finding Naruto's orphanage. So I began my long trek of tricking information out of drunkards in bars and running silently along in the shadows to find the orphanages.
Two weeks. That was how long it took to find the right orphanage. Honestly, why did there have to be so many orphanages? Oh wait, it wasn't like it was a ninja village. Parents died all the time.
I stared at the entrance of the run down, two storey building. Children were laughing and playing out the front in a patch of green grass, a stark contrast to the gloomy building and the barbed wire fence surrounding it. I checked the sun.
About midday.
I watched as the 'guardian' snored in his place with his back against a tree, oblivious to the shrieking children around him.
Oh well, worked for me.
I sneaked around the back, excitement racing through my veins. This had to be the right orphanage, considering one of the people I had innocently walked up to with wide eyes and had asked "I got lost from home, please help me. I live at the orphanage with the demon in it," had known exactly where the 'demon' lived.
It was slightly concerning.
The man had told me where to go, and here I was.
The back of the establishment had many windows where I presumed the rooms were. I looked at them and hoped that Naruto would open his window to look outside.
No luck.
Honestly, I didn't even know what I was going to do when I saw him. My whole plan to combat the future at the moment went something like this:
1: Make friends with Naruto and Sasuke in case I couldn't stop the Uchiha massacre so we could be friends before Sasuke turned all angst-y, and Naruto and I could support him.
2: Get Sasuke away from the Uchiha district when the massacre happened so he would not be so traumatised (if massacre happened).
3: Stay friends for life, become awesome ninja and kick Orochimaru's, Obito's and Madara's asses.
See, I had it all planned out. If the massacre happened, Naruto and I would help Sasuke, and if it didn't, Sasuke would never leave. Easy as pie.
Anyway, that still didn't help my Naruto problem. I glared up the crumbly brick wall, wondering if I should rock-climb it and look into all the rooms when something happened.
One of the windows opened with a groan, and a rope was thrown out. I glanced around and quickly dove behind a tree as a blond-haired little boy leant out, looked left and right, then lifted himself onto the sill and started abseiling down. I stared, dumbfounded.
No way had Naruto just happened to have appeared. I supposed it was about time Lady Luck came round after leaving me to survive in the red-light district.
He reached the bottom and dropped down, leaving the rope hanging as he ran away. I followed him silently through the trees, and I realised where he was going; to the centre of the village, where most restaurants and stalls could be found.
We reached a main road and Naruto ran through the crowds.
I grimaced as I realised I would have to give up hiding if I wanted to be able to follow him.
Great. Here's hoping no one notices a 'gutter rat' in their midst…
I forced back my anxiety. This would be my first time properly entering a civilised part of town where the poverty was little to none. It was strange, considering my whole other life I'd grown up in similar circumstances, but now that I was actually the poor kid entering I felt out of place…
But there was really no choice.
I tore from the shadows as he disappeared into the bustling streets, and pushed my way through, hot on his trail.
"Sorry!" I shouted when I accidentally bumped a women. She shrieked and toppled over. I might have laughed if I hadn't been so distracted.
Continuing on, I caught a glance of disappearing orange behind a group of women. I panted, heart racing in excitement as I looked around, trying to see where he had gone between all the adult bodies.
God he's fast. I almost gave up, though my saving grace came in the form of a loud voice;
"Ichiraku ramen, here I come!"
I saw a few people cast various glances towards the voice. Disgust, sneers, grimaces etc. I sighed and walked towards the Ichiraku stand.
I pushed past the entrance flap and the whiff of noodles and beef hit me. I breathed in deeply at the mouth-watering scents.
I haven't smelled anything this good since my other life.
I glanced at the row of stools next to the counter, remarking how few people there were.
Maybe the fear of the kyuubi vessel is influencing the market? I wondered absently.
I made my way unassumingly to the stool next to the blond who was talking animatedly with Teuchi.
Teuchi broke off the conversation with Naruto momentarily to look me over curiously. I pulled out the few coins I had and placed them on the counter.
Naruto turned around in surprise, unsure why Teuchi had stopped talking.
It was sad, considering he gaped when he saw someone who dared sit next to him.
"A… water please, sir," I muttered uncomfortably. Did you have to pay for water here? I couldn't remember, but there was nothing else I could possibly pay for with the few coins I had bothered picking up before coming here.
Teuchi gave me a warm smile and disappeared without taking the coins. And without a sound, for that matter.
I frowned, debating whether to leave them on the counter. Evidently, I wasn't as cultured as I would have liked yet.
Maybe water is free?
My thoughts were disrupted as a shy voice interrupted.
"Hi my name's Naruto." Whiskered cheeks crinkled into a hesitant smile.
Naruto, shy? No way! Who is this kid, and where's the anime Naruto?
Had I landed in an alternative Naruto universe?
I took a moment to observe his large light blue eyes, chubby whiskered cheeks and messy blond hair.
He's sooo cute!
"I'm Sasayaki!" I beamed back. He returned my smile full force in one of those close-eyed smiles, ironically only effective in anime. Still, he pulled it off in a cute way I supposed.
And I'd let it slide; it was possibly the first time someone hadn't run away screaming when he spoke to them.
I blinked in confusion when the smile melted from his face, only to be replaced by a slight frown.
"Sasayaki, huh? That's a weird name," he muttered confusedly.
Well, nice to meet you too.
Ok, so maybe my name was a little weird because it wasn't actually a name, per se, but a word.
It wasn't like I chose it.
"Do you come to the ramen stand often?" he then asked timidly, obviously deciding not to question the strange conundrum that my name presented.
"No, it's my first time. I live on the street, so this is my first time to a restaurant."
He stared at me, wide-eyed.
"So that's why you stink and are all dirty!" and just like that, all the timidness washed away.
I glared at him.
"You're not meant to say that to people! It's socially unacceptable!" I exclaimed defensively. He just stared at me, uncomprehending.
I began explaining how you're meant to treat others. I was surprised at how articulate he was for a six year old. I had been pretending to be inarticulate like Yūrei so as not to raise suspicion, but Naruto has already progressed very well even without parents, so I dropped the act. He listened in awe throughout as I went into dress codes, table manners, cleanliness etc.
He interrupted occasionally to ask questions like: "Wow, I never knew that! Do you really put scented stuff under your arms so you don't smell?" and "I can't believe bright colours like orange are not acceptable for formal wear!"
After my two minute rant on social graces, our conversation somehow turned to our lives.
"So, why do you live mostly in the street?" he demanded brusquely, with the bluntness representative of his age.
"I was born there. Do you know about the red light district?" He shook his head in a negative.
"Well, it's like the dark side of the town, where prostitutes and dirty business goes on. Lots of abandoned or orphaned kids live there, either working or thieving."
"What's a pro-sti-tute?" he asked innocently.
"Umm… well, you'll find out when you're older," I evaded. Curiosity gleamed in his eyes, but he shrugged it off.
"So what about you?"
"I live in a prostitute house, but I won't be a prostitute until I'm twelve. I want to go to the ninja academy instead though," I replied, staring off into the distance.
Naruto gasped.
"I'm at the academy! I can ask the hokage for you to join my class! We can go together," he exclaimed excitedly. I looked at him thoughtfully.
That was actually my perfect opportunity. I'd forgotten that Naruto had started at the academy early. I was about to say yes when Teuchi reappeared with two steaming bowls of ramen. Naruto dug in instantly, and I was surprised when he put the other one in front of me. I was about to protest when he winked.
"Don't worry, this one's on the house. You could use a good hot meal." He turned to another customer who had just arrived before I could get a word in.
Then I thought a second.
Why was I protesting? It's not like another opportunity like free food would come along any time soon (at least, without thieving), and it's not like Teuchi would suffer from losing one meal.
So I started on my meal, eating as slowly as possible in order to savour the flavour. It was harder than it sounded, considering I hadn't had a decent meal for days.
Naruto and I ended up staying much longer than I'd anticipated, talking. Occasionally Teuchi or Ayame would join in but they seemed happy Naruto was making a new friend.
Finally, after Naruto's eighth bowl, I knew I had to leave. It was dark and the stall was packing up.
"Naruto, I have to go now, but do you want to meet up sometime? Maybe lunchtime in three weeks, back here?" That would give me time to run back to Lady and Yūrei, and time to find an excuse to not make it seem suspicious when I run off again.
"Yea! It'll be awesome! Maybe you can show me where to get deodorant and stuff, and the red-light district!" he yelled enthusiastically. I frowned. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea, but I nodded anyway.
"Bye, don't forget!" I called and then pushed back outside onto the dimly lit street. I wandered about for a minute, trying to recall which direction to go. I was pretty far from home, after all.
I made my way into an alley, brick walls looming beside me. A black cat meowed and darted out from behind a bin, brushing past my leg as it escaped. The shadows enshrouded me and I walked carefully towards the end. I glanced around, uneasy, and decided to trust my instincts and get the hell outta there. This was a ninja village after all, there were murderers everywhere.
Before I had time to back out again I was suddenly thrown against a brick wall, a knife at my throat before I could even scream. Cold bricks dug into my back as I was forced against the alley wall, short legs dangling.
I was staring at a blank white mask.
"What do you want with the demon boy?" a voice demanded, strangely toneless.
I gulped as the kunai pushed uncomfortably into my skin, not quite drawing blood.
"I… I don't know what you mean," I rasped. There was a moment of tense silence as the man's eyes stared at me blankly through the eye holes in his mask.
Then he punched me in the stomach. It was almost laughable, how easily I was knocked out. I was unconscious before I even hit the ground.
Adventures of the Gang
Pt. 1: Introducing the Gang
By: Shinda-Shikai
Edited by: Dragondancer81
(Great thanks to Dragondancer for being such an awesome person and deciding to help me by editing and writing me omakes! We can expect some omakes written by her in the future, and of course her awesome help editing mine. Check out her profile, she has some awesome stories~)
"Ok, Gang! Let's pray together for the Instigator of the Gang, and then we can get down to business! Sasayaki isn't here today, but we'll see her sometime in the next couple of weeks, right Yurei?"
The boy in question nodded seated with five others, before the teenager addressing them.
Junko, her name was, founder of the Gang. She'd created the Gang some six years ago, but despite this she was only fifteen years old. To this day she always made sure they prayed to the man who had inspired her to make the group before every meeting.
It wasn't anything special. Just a few quick words of thanks, they were street kids, they had business they needed to attend to.
None of the others in the Gang knew who the mysterious man was, and Junko had not seen him since. But she'd told them he was a very kind man and had done her what seemed a small kindness but to all street kids, they know the importance of such kindness.
After all, people may refer to the as 'small kindnesses', and yet Yurei himself had never experienced one of these from any stranger in his whole six years of existence. People aren't as kind as they'd like to think, in Yurei's experience.
Yurei was pretty sure that whoever he was, the man who had inspired Junko had forgotten all about her or he was dead.
Junko would say he was being pessimistic, it wasn't pessimism- it was logic. After all they were the eyes and ears of the shadier Konoha. If that man was still alive Junko surely would have seen him around. Yurei supposed he could have moved away but that was unlikely. Hardly anyone moves away from Konaha, it's not like the other hidden villages would be any better
Junko bowed her head in the shade of the single tree in the middle of the courtyard, the other kids following suit.
The courtyard was simply a small area of unused land that no one had bothered to build on. It had been left alone for quite some time- that was probably due to the fact it could only be entered through a small alley, and behind the courtyard was a shady bar whose customers often threw their cigarettes, rubbish and bottles over the wall.
It wasn't exactly the nicest place, but it was perfect for the Gang. No one ever came down here, few knew it existed in fact, and it was a good place to meet up and make plans. You just had to watch where you stood of course. Cuts meant infections and infections weren't good for street kids who avoided the hospital like the plague.
"Ok, let's begin! Since Sasayaki is the best pickpocket Takeshi and Yurei won't be doing the Cute and Cut tactic today. So that leaves the option that you two can either plan some swiping or advertise for odd jobs."
Yurei grimaced. Odd jobs were always a pain, and he didn't feel like swiping today, general thieving hadn't been going well for him lately. After all, the last time he'd swiped from a local market he'd been caught because his regular targets were beginning to recognise him… and putting together that whenever he was around, their stuff went missing.
Which meant he'd have to begin to test the waters in some new places, and that wasn't always fun.
"Wait, I think those two should come with us for the next couple of days," Eri (or was it Emi?) said, flicking her black fringe out of her eyes.
"Yea, I think if we had two kids watching us do our tricks it would attract others," Emi responded confidently, linking an arm with her identical twin. They were even wearing the same clothes, a black miniskirt and grey hoodie each. They were twelve years old, and very pretty.
Pretty enough that had they not become a part of their little family they probably would have already ended up in less-than legal jobs. Yurei shuddered. Whilst child prostitution was frowned upon, that didn't mean it didn't exist. After all weren't there rumours going around a while back about some sort of ninja-snake man, a missing-nin from Konoha? Yurei was pretty sure he heard some of the adults joking about how that man "liked them young".
Or maybe they weren't joking, after all…
Two sets of electric-blue eyes fell on him and Takeshi.
Eri and Emi, 'the magicians' they liked to call themselves. Although most of their repertoire consisted of card tricks used to extort money from others, they were professional con artists. They also liked to perform tricks in front of a crowd, hopefully being rewarded a few coins for their efforts. (The extra attention was just a bonus of course).
And of course, being an identical twin could add quite a lot to their performances if used right… add more money that is.
Yurei and Takeshi nodded, and Yurei couldn't quite hide his excitement.
Watching Eri and Emi work was always lots of fun. Takeshi traded a grin with him, obviously sharing similar thoughts.
They'd scored a fun job today.
"Kiyoshi, what do you have in mind for today?" Junko then asked, turning to the second oldest member of the group.
Kiyoshi, fourteen and quite the sweet-talker. He was very good at tricking money from even the more suspicious adults. He had a knack for selling random and useless things he scavenged from anywhere and everywhere to people, and of course convincing people to give money to the fake charity Junko and Akemi were in charge of.
Though he didn't always sweet-talk in order to manage that…
"I was planning on talking to a contact of mine who said he might have some wares he'll let me sell… of course, I'll get to keep any extra money I can get from customers that exceeds the price he wants for each packet."
"Ok, Kiyoshi. I was hoping to have you go through The Bully routine at the charity stand with Akemi and myself, but we can do that another day."
The Bully routine consisted of Kiyoshi approaching the makeshift stand Akemi and Junko ran, and pretending to pick on Akemi for being a mute, therefore gaining the sympathy of any passers-by. They were more likely to donate to the fake charity like that.
Akemi actually was a mute. He was nine years old, and very timid. But with Junko's help, the charity he and she had managed to unofficially create with the help of Takeshi and himself stealing them supplies and even a table was running very well, and had been for a while.
They even had some regular donators, who didn't know that the money was going straight to the Gang rather than the 'Good-Cause Society of Mute Children' (GCSMC). The stand was a simple affair with a jar for money and posters spewing lies about what the charity is all about and all the kids it has helped.
Well, one could make an argument that the Gang was being helped, and was a very good cause to donate to, after all the 8 of them really did need the money for one reason or another.
Kiyoshi had managed to land them a bank account through an exchange of favours with one of his contacts. Yurei didn't know what that exchange had been, but it wasn't really his business anyway. In the end, the bank account dedicated to the (GCSMC) was managed by a man who would cash in the money every week, take a 10% cut for himself and pass on the rest to them. Kiyoshi was also responsible for restocking the documents to make the charity appear official and updated.
"Which reminds me, I have to run. My meetings in a few minutes. Will you be staying with me tonight, Takeshi?"
Takeshi shook his head in a negative, blue hair swishing with each movement.
"Nah, the Sisters at the southern brothel said they'd lemme stay t'night."
Kiyoshi nodded, hastily ran his fingers through his dark brown hair to make it appear less messy, and then he waved and ran off.
"Remember we're meeting this evening!" Junko called, to which Kiyoshi yelled an affirmative over his shoulder.
"Ok, so Akemi and I will be at the charity stand again today. We've moved to the far corner of the main strip, near the Diva shop so if you have any questions, find me there. All clear?"
The twins, Takeshi and Yurei nodded.
"Ok, good. Meeting adjourned. Get those arses moving!"
Song: Impossible
By: Lacey Sturm
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