"And for a moment the whole world

revolved around one boy

and one girl."

-Collin Raye, 'One Boy, One Girl'

In a way, the life of Uchiha Memori first began on the day she met her best friend.

The day was balmy and warm, occasional currents of breeze running through the tightly packed streets of Senbaku, providing relief for the large crowds strolling through them. It did not matter what day in particular, because Memori was six and took no notice of the days in number. What she did remember was that it was summer, bright and hot and crowded, as summers in the Uchiha section of the Senbaku outpost always were. The butterflies had left just that morning, and most of the people who had gathered to watch them funnel up into the sky had chosen to stay out in the streets, which they could now walk along freely. The roads and bushes were no longer golden. The colors of the normal world had returned. She remembered that she had been one of many children ambling about on a market street, savoring the smells of comfort, of food and home. The stores on either side of the street had their doors flung wide open, inviting both the breeze and the passerby inside. The market vendors who had set up their canopies on the edge of the street had left the sidewalks clear so as to allow pedestrians to reach the stores. However, they did all that they could to draw the crowded passerby to their stalls instead, shouting and waving their merchandise over the heads of the crowd, shouting at no one in particular, unless someone happened to look their way. It seemed to Memori that they sold everything a person could possibly want. Short though she was, the small girl could spy her share of jewelry, trinkets, seafood, fruits, vegetables, breads, decorated boxes, articles of clothing, medicines, charms, incense, religious symbols, and everything else being waved above the crowd by disembodied hands. Their voices edged in and out of each other as the small girl made her way down the sidewalk, keeping close to the wall so as to be out of the bigger people's way. She was glad that the vendors were not shouting at her, for she was rather shy of strange, bigger people, and she did not know what she would have replied. But Memori was small and unnoticeable, just a dirty-skinned girl swathed in a pair of purple pants and tiny blue nin-sandals. She carried her shirt slung over her shoulder, but then, almost nobody was wearing a full shirt in the day's heat. Her hair, which was thick and deep black, was braided at the back of her head, waving through the air as she walked as if searching for something to be anchored to. Her eyes were dark and her face was small and thoughtful. The crest of the Uchiha clan, a red-topped fan, was emblazoned on the back of the shirt she was not wearing. She saw many people with the same symbol on their clothes as she slithered along the wall, and this made her happy. In time, Memori would learn to feel comfortable around all sorts of people, but at the moment she was only six, and the haven of the Uchiha clan was the only home she'd ever known.

In truth, the young girl did not have a particular place that she was heading to. She had previously been engaged in a game of kickball which a whole team of village children who tended to hang around the Otomiya family's vacant grassy lot; however, it had broken up after an hour due to the fact that it was simply too hot to play. Hence her dirtiness as she crossed the street, pausing for a moment to allow an old man and his donkey cart to clatter on through. She gained the curb again in a much less crowded area, for there were no market stalls on this street. Finally able to walk in the middle of the sidewalk, Memori glanced up cheerfully and was quite surprised when a pair of eyes, from a distance, met her own.

They belonged to a little boy standing a ways away under the clear blue sky, holding a large bag to his side. He was on the opposite side of the street a block away, where the sidewalk ran out. He stood on the bare and dirty ground without shoes, wearing a dark pair of shorts and a long-sleeve shirt, despite the weather. His hair was dark too, pitch-black and unruly, sticking up in tufts at the back of his head. It blew in the wind as he stared across the road at Memori, rippling like waves on an ocean. For some reason, Memori found herself entranced by his appearance- a red paper lantern was billowing from a wooden pole just above the boy's head. The sharp contrast between the blue of the sky, the utter redness of the lantern, and the complete darkness of this living creature underneath them both seemed to Memori a great work of art just waiting to be painted. She walked closer, enjoying the sight of him, who did not move. The way his black eyes stared at her, one might have thought the two had an arrangement to meet here. But Memori had never seen him before, though he looked to be about her age, and this intrigued her young mind all the more. Closer and closer the two children walked, until they were exactly parallel to each other, and only the street separated them. Then Memori stopped and tried to decide what to do. She could keep walking on from this boy who was obviously going in the opposite direction, or she could cross the street and maybe talk to him. The fact that he had not looked away yet encouraged her, and Memori tilted her head to the boy, as if to ask a question. His imitation of the movement clarified her answer.

Happily, Memori skipped across the dirt-packed street and planted herself in front of the dark-haired boy, looking him straight in the eyes, black on black. We are the same height, she thought.

Somewhere over both of their heads, a wind chime rang out as a gust of air flowed through the street.

Discrepancies= I know all about 'em. They're there for a reason. :)