Never underestimate someone determined. Determination can do wonderful things and frightening things. Determination is probably the main reason why shinobi can endure. Didn't Hashirama once say that is what a shinobi is? Someone who endures but for a purpose? That kind of sounds like the textbook definition of determination.

For example, I am determined not to drop anything, even if that seems impossible, as I balance dozens of trinkets and broken items in my arms. With every step I take, things slide one way or another, and I am forced to wobble, not to let them fall. There is only a month until the Academy starts back up again and so I have a lot I need to do.

I still need to train. I still need to learn and grow. I REALLY need to figure out the situation with my eyes, and I need to start to get this business idea up and running. So I have scoured a the alleyways for broken items, and when my clunky bag ran out of space, my arms became my means of transporting them.

I ignore the curious looks from villagers as I make my way home. It's not hard, especially as just focusing on not falling is taking up the majority of my thoughts at the moment. Though I haven't been able to train my chakra control as much as I wanted, my summer certainly hasn't been wasted.

Sayori

Titles- Gentle Heart, Madogan User, Academy Student, Ghost Girl

Age 6

Stamina- 935/1000

Chakra- 998/1040

Yin-?

Yang-?

Chakra Control- -4.19% cost

——- (locked)

——- (locked)

VIT- 40

STR-24

AGI-57

DEX- 41

ACU- 47

INT- 66

CRE-44

WIS-31

CHA- 40

???- 1

???- 1

I'm getting stronger... If only I had a storage scroll, though! I walk shakily up the steps to our apartment, fiddling with the key while trying not to cause a small tsunami of broken items. I can sense Ami's chakra inside! The jerk is ignoring me! I feel childish for the thought, knowing that she is probably busy with her poisons, and I made her promise to stop leaving the residue around the apartment, so she has to wash her hands first but still!

The door opens, and I come clunking in, not taking off my muddy boots as I make my way to the corner of the room near the dining room table/work table, dropping my... finds.

"What's with the garbage googly-eyes?" Ami asks, and I feel my eyebrow twitch. She didn't even start to try and let me in! I resist the urge to pout, kami. It's practically impossible to act my age (my sort of age) around others my... (theoretical? Physical?) age.

"What's with the weeds?" I bite back with a smirk, but it seems to have the opposite effect as Ami smiles proudly. I thought her precious plants being called weeds (even though some of them are classified as such) would get her agitated, at LEAST, but apparently not?

"I didn't think you'd notice!" Ami declares proudly, and I blink. Ok... I didn't notice whatever it is, but now I have a clue. I scan the latest plants betting prepared to be dried. There are some I recognize from Ami's book (it really is a cool book, but why the sudden charity from our ANBU spy, I don't understand); however, many of them are unfamiliar.

"What... Are they?" I ask and feel a now familiar chill make its way up my spine. I try NOT to ask as a general rule for this very reason!

"Tea!" Ami announces, and I blink. Unexpected...

"Tea?..." I question because other than the daily cup of tea (with Ami's 'immunity' dose for the two of us,) we don't really drink tea.

"I got a job, Googly-eyes! A real job! I get a salary and everything!" Ami declares happily, and I take a moment to process. Ami got a job at the age of seven... I mean, I am starting a business, but that's different.

"How did you get a job?" I question it because I don't want her to be taken advantage of.

"Kikyou, the lady who runs the tea shop downstairs, I was buying tea from her and told her about how I was drying plants and herbs up here..." Ami begins to say, and I look at her questioningly. Plants and herbs? I'm guessing she didn't tell about the fact that those plants were highly poisonous. "She told me she was interested in getting some help making the mixes of tea leaves and drying them... I told her I could do it, and she hired me!" The purple-haired girl exclaims. Now I am sure that Ami didn't mention what it was she was making beyond them being plants. Civilians, from what I have seen, are generally squeamish enough that it would probably frighten her away from Ami. She looks at me, waiting expectantly for the reply I am yet to give.

"That's great, Ami. Are you sure you'll be able to do it when the academy starts back up, though?" I asked, edging towards more realistic things that Ami wouldn't probably have thought about while trying not to burst her bubble completely.

"That's the best part! I get paid by the bag, see?" Am I saying showing me a piece of paper that actually had pretty good prices per bag? "It's more than it costs me to buy the supplies..." Ami began to say, and my mind instantly raised a red flag.

"Buy the supplies?" I reiterated my voice low and even.

"Yep, Kikyou-san, let me buy the leaves, and she'll repurchase the finished product for more!" Ami says, and I resist the urge to slam my head onto the table.

"How much does each bag of supplies cost?" I ask, and Ami pulls out a second piece of paper. A piece of paper with number just below the buyback price. "How much does Kikyou-san sell the tea for?"

"Oh, she sells them for about 800 Ryo," Ami says, nodding and that, that I hate. My eyes narrow dangerously, the blank face just barely holding in place. "What?" Ami asks, confused, feeling the shift in the atmosphere.

I hold back a snarl because even if the whole child labour thing was excused (which, in this case, it can be as an extra source of income would be great), then there is the not even cleverly hidden rip-off of prices. "Ami, how much do you make to sell the tea back to Kikyou-san?" I ask, holding back a snarl at the name.

"500 Ryo." Am I, replies, not seeing the issue. In fact, her eyes glow with accomplishment. 500 Ryo is about 10 dollars which I am guessing would probably be the proper amount to pay or close to it.

"How much money do you spend buying the supplies?" I then ask, if each tea bag is a ground-up a group of leaves that gets scooped into a strainer to use. They are not tiny.

"400 Ryo." Ami says, still confused, and I sigh. It looks like I will have to be straightforward.

"So what is your profit? The amount of Ryo you make that is on top of what you paid for the supplies?" I ask her gently, trying to hide how completely furious I am at the moment.

"Well, 500-400 is... I don't know know, but 5-4 is 1, and so... 100...Ryo..." Ami says, eyes wide, falling silent in disbelief. 100 ryo or about 2 dollars when Kikyou sells it for 800 Ryo or 16 dollars. She is making seven times more than what she is paying Ami, and worse, now that Ami has paid for the tea, she can't just return it. What is it with adults and taking advantage of children in this world? "I messed up, didn't I?" Ami whispers, looking at her shoes.

I don't have a response to that. Do I tell her it's not her fault? That she shouldn't be expected to think about things like that? She would probably be more upset by such a comment. I quickly think of some way to salvage the situation. Call me stubborn, but I don't want this... Kikyou woman to win. Then an idea comes to my mind, and my mood brightens as I grab Ami leading her out of the apartment with not a single explanation. I march her right into the Akimichi compound and to Yataka's stand.

"Chibi-chan, this is unexpected. Purple-chan, I haven't seen you in a while." Yataka jokes, but I take a moment to appreciate Ami's nickname. It may not be the most creative, but it certainly fits.

"What are we doing here??" Ami whines, and I slump over. I would think it would be obvious.

"Yataka-san, would you be interested in buying some tea?" I ask the Akimichi, who raises an eyebrow. He sells all sorts of things, and good quality hand-done local tea shouldn't be too out of place among the rare spices and fresh produce.

"Oh! Now I get it!" Ami exclaims, and I nod.

POV Yataka

Retirement was supposed to be boring, but I am fairly sure it will be anything but with the chibi around.

I never did have any kids of my own. It seemed cruel to bring an innocent life into a world cursed with so much death. Sometimes I wonder if my elder brother Choro wouldn't have chosen to do the same if he hadn't been required to as clan head. Not that he ever REGRETTED having Choza. No, he loved his son more than almost anything in the world. Even if he hadn't shown it as much as I would have liked him to, but that had always been the two of us, him the more serious brother and myself the more light-hearted one. However, if anyone really knew him, they would have known that Choro was actually a rather kind man. He was simply forced to make tough decisions for the sake of the clan.

A civilian might interject and ask why it wasn't for Konoha's sake, but they do not understand. As clan head, no matter the clan, you are responsible for your clan members. As Choro used to say, 'let the Hokage worry of the village, let the jonin fret about his squad, let the shinobi worry about his kunai.' we all have something to worry about and protect. For a clan head, it is their clan.

They must put it above all else.

In part, I must do that too.

However, since I don't need to worry too much about the clan, I can worry about other things. Ahh, the luxury!

For example, I could worry about a strange set of ripple eyes that had once stared at me, promising death. They had been green then, nearly yellow, but they had been the same eyes, at least I think so. Had it not been for Madara-sama, I would have died. I had been a young, newly appointed chunin at the time, among the first this village had produced. The enemy was fierce, taking down at least a dozen of our men, if not more... It had been an ambush gone wrong. We hadn't expected our target to have such an ally that he had been travelling with. Though if I remember the look on the Taki ninja Kakuzu's face right be hadn't expected it either.

Though, to be fair, 'ally' was a stretch. The strange ninja had run Kakuzu through when he attempted to take hostages from the caravan. Had it been Hashirama-sama instead of Madara-Sama and Tobirama-sama (those two were quite the terrifying team together when they weren't trying to aggravate the other into a deathmatch), it would have potentially worked. Still, the caravan weren't citizens of Konoha, nor the land of fire. So they were deemed acceptable casualties to kill or capture the man who had attempted to assassinate the Hokage. (did he really think he could just run away from such a thing?)

I felt woefully out of place, surrounded by far superior ninjas of both rank and experience. However, every clan needed to put a ninja forward for this mission, a prominent one to show our loyalty, and as the second son, I was the more disposable child. It was all going smoothly right up until Tobirama-Sama fired off a water dragon to rip through both the young woman held captive and the enemy shinobi.

That is when the man attacked. He stole a sword off one of our ninjas and cut through the dragon with a beam of bright energy. He then spun on his feet, cutting off the arm holding the hostage that was quickly reattached through his kinjutsu at that time. The man stabbed Kakuzu through the chest, but he rose from the attack like it was nothing at all. The man had no mercy, nor did he care whether it was the Konoha or Taki he was attacking. He fought hard and strong with techniques I had never before witnessed before or since. At one point, he appeared in front of me, sword ready to land a killing blow had it not been for Madara-sama's Amaterasu attack engulfing the strange man. But I had seen it, I had seen his eyes, and they terrified me.

They weren't the eyes of a heartless killer, the eyes showed fear but not fear for himself. There was resignation in his eyes, resignation he would die but would try and potentially succeed to being the rest of us with him.

When all that was left was the ash-covered earth and chard bone of the man, many things were noticed. Kakuzu had used the confusion to escape, and the caravan people were all gone. I was among the only ones to get close to him and so was privy to much more information than the others. One thing that terrified me is what Tobirama-sama had said after berating Madara-sama for using an attack that would leave nothing for autopsy… that… well, that HE hadn't sensed the man's chakra signature fluctuate the entire fight...

So when a strange little girl looking intuitively at the food of my stand turned to face me with those same eyes, I wasn't quite sure what to do. So I went on autopilot, some shinobi may not see the use in a friendly nature, but many failed to realize ninjas are not as they once were. We no longer hide among the trees and stones, but more often, the bricks and people. Some light probing later, and I learnt much about the slightly shy girl, she is an orphan, and she is in the ninja academy.

The orphan part left me disappointed, it meant I could not find out more about her family. Still, I could empathize with her. I had seen so many orphans... I probably MADE many as well in the wars.

Now though, we were at peace, and so I could be kind. So I gave her some food for a reduced price and was a little surprised when she came back again, and again. I kept being nice and slowly got attached to her, even the purple kid, to some degree. It was clear she is a well of potential, potential that many would be happy to exploit.

Something tells me they are already trying to do so. The problem is that I have a feeling that I won't like who is doing so. After all, no matter how much someone can care, their duty comes first.