Morning. Sasuke woke up a little after dawn, the sky painted with various colors of reds and oranges with some leftover blues and purples from the prior night's sky. It was beautiful, really; sitting in a lovely oak, relaxing, watching the sun rise and see the beautiful palette of colors appear in the never ending sky.
He wished that his whole life could have been like this. He wished his family was like the classic, perfect TV personas from the old show Leave It to Beaver, his life of never ending happiness. The perfect mother that stayed home to clean and cook; the perfect father that worked everyday and came home to play football with his son; the perfect brothers and sisters that were favored by the mother and were quite annoying. Instead of shooing brothers and sisters out of the room when trying to get an intimate moment with a girlfriend, Sasuke protected his kin from the horrible woman they called mom. Instead of his siblings being annoying and a down right pain-in-the-ass, they were scared to even drink water, fearing it might be the same liquid that changed their mother from an angel to a dragon. Instead of going to the park as a child to play with his family, Sasuke watched his whole life fall apart in front of his own eyes.
No one should have a childhood like mine, trying to take care of their siblings, trying to keep them alive to see another day. No one should have to go through the pain of watching their mother fall into a mental state so bad, that they knew she would never return to normal.
But Sasuke had to stay focused, had to remember why he was near Konoha in the first place. His thoughts of home and family had engulfed his mind. It hadn't even occurred to Sasuke that his stomach was growling endlessly, but it was probably because he was very accustomed to this feeling. He looked at the city of Konoha then back to the colorful blanket of stars and sky above; his face was emotionless.
Sasuke jumped from the tree that he had spent the night in and landed on the balls of his feet, crouching. His clothes were somewhat tattered and torn, little spots of mud or dust here and there. He started to walk down the road that lead to the city, somewhat gingerly as he entered Kohona's city limits. He brushed off the front of his shirt trying to look half way decent.
A sign suddenly appeared in front of it. He hadn't been paying enough attention to notice it. On it were red bubble letters that said Welcome to Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village. Around the greeting were little objects, possibly knives of some sort. There were some that were small, had four prongs, and looked sort of like a star. The other looked like an arrow, perhaps? In the middle of the weapon, it started to get wide fast, and then reseeded into a sharp point. On the other side was a circular hole. They looked alien to Sasuke; he had never seen anything of that sort before. He looked under the first greeting, and read Home to the Hidden Leaf Ninja.
Ninja? I thought those were just myths. It sounds pretty dumb that grown men would run around in black tights, with a belt tied around their heads, playing with nunchucks all day. Sasuke smirked to himself.
As he was treading along, Sasuke wanted to look as normal as possible, nodding his head as people walked by. A small smile even crept up to the corners of his dry lips.
Maybe I really can pull this off.
Food stands seemed to never end on the cobble stone streets of the busy city. Meats, breads, noodles, vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, eggs, candies, and other things that he had never seen before… they were all so plentiful, so delicious, so delectable... Sasuke's eyes grew wide with desire, a little stream of drool starting to pool at the edge of his mouth. His stomach growled louder, now. It was like it was calling to him, saying feed me… feed me…
Without thinking, Sasuke picked up a Nashi from a near by fruit stand and bit into it. He could feel the juice excrete from the fleshy inside of the round fruit. He cooed with delight.
"Are you going to pay for that?" asked a raspy voice from behind the stand. Her long-ago grayed hair was tied back into a tight, short pony with a dirty blue scarf on top, folded in half and tied in the back for a make-shift headband. Her thick hands' knuckles were resting on her stocky hips. She must have been the person running the booth.
Sasuke stared blankly at her. He wasn't sure what came over him, he usually had good self control when it came to food. He knew he couldn't pay for it; he didn't even have a single yen.
"I asked you a question, boy!" The old woman was flaming, now. She didn't like it when people stole from her cart.
"I can't," was all that Sasuke said.
"Well, how do you think you're going to pay me for it then?" She started to get suspicious. She had a huge, round, brown mole on the side of her hairy chin; worst of all, it had two gray hairs coming right out from the center. Her brow was furrowed. The eyebrows were so long and bushy, that a barber would have no problem turning the cut brow hairs into a wig, figuratively speaking, of course. For the first time, Sasuke noticed she had a deep accent. He thought she was probably European. "Well, then, boy. I guess you'll just have to work for me to pay it off." She snickered; it was bloodcurdling.
Sasuke cringed. Then something came to him…
A job! This might be my only chance… who else would give a filthy guy like me a job, besides this crazy elder?
"Will I get paid?" He asked.
The woman sighed; mucus was thick in her throat. "I suppose so. You will get 532 yen (equal to about $4) per hour, got that? I guess that makes… 3724 yen (equal to about $28) per week. Are you a strong boy?"
Sasuke shrugged.
"Good. You will be carrying my fruit baskets from my fruit farm back to here." She smiled a toothless grin and raised a caterpillar brow. "My name is Metilda Gertrude Atkinson, but you can call me Gerdie. What's your name, boy?"
The name suits you. "Sasuke," he paused. "Stop calling me boy.'
(A Few Days Later)
Gerdie watched Sasuke working hour after hour, carrying a woven basket full of pears and apples, back and forth, back and forth. Every night at the end of the day, she watched him, trying to figure out where he went after his hard work at the fruit stand. He'd go a hundred yards or so, and turn at the corner where the banana stand is. Beyond that, she didn't know where he went.
Tonight, Gerdie wanted to see where her young employee lived. So, without him knowing, the old woman followed him with her wooden cane in hand. She followed him discreetly down the cobble stone road, barely making any noise except for the quiet shuffling of her old feet.
Gerdie watched Sasuke walking for a while. He just walked, and walked, and walked, until he stopped and disappeared into a shady oak right outside of the city limits.
She thought to herself, Maybe he doesn't have a place to stay. I'll ask him tomorrow if he would like to stay at my place for a while.
(Next Morning)
Sasuke yawned as he was on his way to work for the day. His back was aching horribly, as was his neck. Carrying fruit on wasn't doing anything for him.
When he got to the Gerdie's fruit stand, she spoke up.
"Boy, I know you don't have a place to go after the day's work. Now, I'm only going to offer this to you once and only once: if you need a place to stay at night, you're welcome in my home." She smiled, her mole moved when her wrinkled cheeks crinkled into it.
"Don't call me boy, Miss Gerdie," grunted Sasuke. "And thanks, I do need a place to stay."
This couldn't get any better. I have six days of pay, plus I get to stay at Gerdie's for free. I'll have enough money to get my sibs out of that house in no time.
(That Night, Gerdie's)
Gerdie's was nothing special. She lived in a run down apartment building. The floors creaked with complaint when someone would walk on the, the doors' hinges protested when someone tried to open one. She had a little wood-burning stove, which was very rare because no one had those kinds of stoves anymore. She had an old-time icebox in the kitchen by the stove. Cabinets were full of ingredients for cooking dinners and desserts. An old table, with even older chairs, was placed between the kitchen and living room. A tattered couch sat in the middle of the living room. A little side table with the Holy Bible sat next to the sofa. An oil lamp was set next to the old book. There was no electricity, no TVs, no video games, no radios, no computers, no heating, no air conditioning. There were two other rooms left, both of which had a steel-framed, twin sized mattress with the same side table and oil lamp on them. Sasuke looked around.
"Miss Gerdie, where's the toilet?"
"Well, out there, of course!" She smiled. Gerdie looked out the window. Outside was a little hut-looking thing, a crescent moon was carved out of the door.
'No way, you're joking… right?" Sasuke was stunned and disgusted at the same time. Even though his family didn't have much, they did have a toilet inside their house.
"Ha, you should have seen me in the winter of '44. Back in the old country, we didn't even have an outhouse. We had to squat in the bushes when there was a blizzard outside! Consider yourself lucky, young man." She smiled and started to talk more about the 'old country' and when she was younger.
On the outside, Gerdie looked like a cave man, and acted like one too; but in the inside, Sasuke soon found out, she's just like him… lonely, poor, and no one to love.
"Miss Gerdie, I'll be right back. I'm going to use the… bathroom… real quick."
Sasuke walked down the rickety stairs and outside to the back yard. He reached for the termite-eaten door, but someone opened it before he could.
The young woman shrieked. Her green eyes widened with the scary surprise. Sasuke only jumped a little bit.
"What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?" her eyes narrowed. "I think you're stalking me! Why were you outside the bathroom!" she demanded.
"Chill. Nature called and I have to answer." His face didn't change expression.
"Well, next time, knock, okay?" The young woman didn't get out of the way.
"Excuse me," said Sasuke, agitated.
"Oh, sorry." She blushed a little bit. "I'm Haruno Sakura. I live in 3C."
"Sasuke. 2B."
"You live with ol' lady Gertrude?" she asked.
"Yeah, so?"
Sakura didn't say anything. She reached out her hand to shake his.
"I'm good, thanks."
She forgot where she was and that she just came from the bathroom.
"Oh, sorry. Heh heh." Her cheeks turned a bright pink, similar to the color of her silky hair.
She stepped out of the outhouse and waved. "Bye, Sasuke."
"See ya," he answered back sarcastically.
What a loser.
Author's Note
That was a pretty quick chapter, guys. Sorry it isn't longer. I hope you like the story so far. Please don't forget to comment, I really appreciate it! Also, sorry for any grammatical errors or misspelled words. I'm not the best in English. '
Mj
