"Mayumi," a stressed call echoed through the run down orphanage. "Where are you?" Cracked wooden doors were thrown open and shut as a woman rushed through the old house.
"Mayumi!" she called again. "This house is creepy, how do you even like it?" Stress was written all over her face, her dark orange eyes round as the moon. She wore a hooker red pencil skirt and a white skin hugging shirt, heavy make up caked all over her face. Her legs where encased in long black stockings and pretty pale selittoes with no heels. Her hair was naturally bright light grey that almost looked like white that attracted many men.
"Yori," an annoyed voice called behind a dark and ominous door. It's elegant door handle stood out from the other's adding to it's spookiness. Yori, slowly took steps to the door. "If you don't like being in here, why come? I'm fine on my own."
"Mayumi!" Yori gasped, shocked. "I am your mother! I have the right to worry about you. Now, get out of that room." She tapped her foot, crossing her arms. While she had an angry mother figure, a trickle of sweat formed above her eye brow. A sigh. Then another younger girl strolled out of the horror door Yori was obliviously afraid of. Mayumi supposedly looked like her father with Yori's hair. White - sorry, bright, light grey - hair combined with the fact that she had ruby eyes did give her a bit of a ghost image to Mayumi. Currently she was wearing a white dress (no wonder people thought the house was haunted).
"Fine, let's go home." Mayumi grumbled. Yori smirked a little. Mayumi had a soft side to mothers and fathers. Once outside the run down house, they began to walk home.
"Why do you like the haunted house so much?" Yori demanded, however she knew the answer that was coming.
"It's not haunted," Mayumi bit back, twirling a curl of hair with one finger. "and besides, it's the only place the other kids will leave me alone." Yori's head whipped around to Mayumi.
"What!" she hissed, reading between the lines. "How dare they-"
"It's expected mother." Mayumi interrupted. Yori waited for the reason, but she knew what she meant.
"I'm sorry for being a prostitute," Yori sighed, worry and guilt pressing on her shoulders. "but it's the only source of income I have. And anyway, I met your father on my job!" Yori beamed at her daughter, waiting for agreement. Mayumi certainly did not agree in anyway, and made it a world wide fact by scowling at her mother.
Mayumi really didn't like not knowing her father. She used to be known as Myth, a King's Ranger in her previous life. As Myth, she had no orphans. Even growing up with no parents or only knowing one, it was a big scandal for Mayumi/Myth. Another thing was while she was in the apparently haunted room she was attempting to carve her old practice bow.
Yori was silent, strong guilt etched into her face, as it always was when this topic came up. They carried home in heavy silence.
The next day Mayumi was staring at the Kitamura Woodsmith's windows. A new addition was added to the front display; a bow.
And not just any bow.
It was the exact same practice bow Mayumi used when she was Myth. A small, pale hand brushed the glass that was protecting it. Her eyes lowered to the price.
100,000 ryo. Mayumi did not know how worth ryo was to her old currency, but what she did know was that 100,000 ryo was a load of money.
Mayumi shuddered at the thought of a real bow's price.
"Mother," Mayumi seriously said that night at dinner. "How can I earn money?" Yori paused.
"Um, I think there are several people who pay for anyone to do their odd jobs somewhere. Maybe check the old homes?" Yori paused, and then nodded.
"Thank you." Mayumi sighed inwardly. What did this village want? For children to grow up thinking they can do nothing and earn everything? She debated filing a complaint to the Hokage in her mother's signature. Myth had been a good forger, however, she couldn't copy someone's words when they were chicken scratch. Luckily, mother's writing was neat and could be easily copied with practice.
All around Mayumi was her mother's hand writing. Yori was a decent writer, however she never got around to it, since the bringing of her current job. Luckily she did not mind Mayumi reading them.
Once dinner was finished, Yori left for her job. Once again Mayumi was left in the locked house, only one light was on.
"She Who Conceals," Mayumi murmured the title. Beside a blank page was the original story, a pencil and a rubber.
Yori's writing took two hours to get to a point where a person who had seen Mayumi's mother's writing before to see through it. However, if the two hard copies where side to side, you could see the difference.
Mayumi was confident that the Hokage had not seen Yori's writing before. She was just another money seeking prostitute down in the Red Light district.
And besides, if she was caught, who would believe a 6 year old had done it?
The Hokage, quite different to popular belief, wasn't always swamped with paperwork. He still didn't like it, but he was mostly occupied with actual ninja duties.
Today he was drawn back to his office by a complaint. His complaint box wasn't used much, which always pleased the Third Hokage. The only complaint there was caught his attention.
Dear Lord Hokage,
My daughter is trying to earn some money for the family and a bow for whatever reason, but my job cannot support this (other than for the family). She has asked me where she could work for money. Alas I could not point her to a direct direction - could you maybe set up something?
If you can't, I understand.
Thank you,
Niro Yori.
The Hokage blinked. Niro Yori? The famous prostitute? She had enough spare money to buy a two story house and still have some left over. The Hokage smirked. It looked like her daughter was smarter than she looked like.
Maybe she could be shinobi later.
"To make a system so normal children could earn money..." Sarutobi pondered, tapping his chin. "Ah... How about Tora?"
Mayumi fumed. She had been busted, yet the Hokage just smiled and sent her on her way to her first mission. Apparently the new system was so that children could see what ninjas did by doing D-ranks. However, their pay was cut to just 100 ryo, with the rest going to Konoha's funds, and one could only go on a D-rank once per week. Konoha seemed cool with it, and every Monday Mayumi was lined up for a D-rank. By the second month, ninjas had grown accustomed to the white haired 6 year old in the mission room.
This week's mission was to capture a cat Tora. At the word cat, Mayumi used up some of her money to buy a few cat nips and cat food.
She tried not to feel foolish with a cat nip threaded into her two piggy tails as she walked around Konoha. Already was a group of cats following her.
"Pink bow, pink bow..." Mayumi muttered as she waddled though the crowd. "A-HA!" Mayumi held the cat up in the air like the movie she had seen not long ago, The Lion King, where the monkey held up the little pup.
The demon cat to many ninjas was curled up in Mayumi's arms playing around with a bit of cat nip when she arrived back at the mission room. Standing in line for the completed missions behind a tall (in her standards) jonin, Mayumi was ignored by his brats. They were playing around and was constantly being told by their sensei to quiet down. Mayumi was relived when they left.
"Citizen D-rank capture Tora completed." Mayumi kicked over a box she could stand on so she could see above the table.
"In half-an-hour!" the left ninja chocked, shocked. Mayumi nodded, holding out the sleeping Tora.
"You beat the record! A citizen!" the right one was looking at a piece of paper that was frayed like an old book.
"HEY! A new record for the Tora mission!" the left yelled out. All movement halted, turning to the white haired girl. Mayumi's cheeks burned red.
"How long?" a voice called out, face covered by other ninjas.
"30 minutes!"
It seemed like Mayumi was the new hero in the mission room now.
