I added more interactions with other people to show the world better.

Chapter 3

Two children were standing in a little storage room on the first floor. There was only one small window close to the ceiling that allowed them to see each other in the otherwise dark room.

"Come on, Aaaaankoooo." Kaito hugged her leg refusing to let go.

He looked up at her with moist pitiful eyes. "No one will catch us. Just this once, okay?" The purple haired girl was heavily breathing after her unsuccessful attempts to fling the menace off her.

"You know that today is a festival. They will all get drunk and play cards like they usually do. No one will even notice me," he said trying to persuade her.

"I promise we won't get caught." Anko was dragging her leg with nuisance on it across the room with resigned look on her face.

"I really can't ask anyone else. You're my most wonderful, caring, and helpful friend, the only one I can ask for help whenever I have a problem. Who else could I trust with such a delicate request if not you?" He was still hanging on her leg not stopping his shameless praises- from her honesty and bravery to quick reflexes and otherworldly beauty.

Not that flattery helped much. Especially not with Anko.

But at these comments she abruptly stopped and looked down at him. She could feel his desperation and got a bit curious. "What do you even need to do in the Village so much?" Anko asked.

For all Kaito's usual cheerfulness and easygoing attitude that would make you believe that he was an open book, he could be surprisingly secretive. His nonstop chatter about anything and everything that he constantly produced made one to not notice that in fact he did not share much about himself or anything that truly matters.

She could see that he would either deflect or not say anything at all to her question, so she gave up on hearing the answer. She was only a bit curious; his reason did not matter much.

"Alright. But you-" she looked him in the eyes, "-you so owe me." She huffed and crossed her arms.

"It will be fun to watch your ass getting beaten up," she said with savage grin and mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Kaito sniffed his false tears nowhere in sight. "Always so cruel to little old me." After carefully scanning her face for any trace of falsehood and finding none, he finally let go and smiled with satisfaction.

"I will come back in the evening before the headcount starts. You just need to throw the rope through the window. And if anyone asks for me, say that I did not feel good and already went to bed. I have put pillows and blanket on it to make it look like me, so it should not be a problem."

Among his friends Anko was the most courageous. Or reckless. He asked her for help because she was always down for the fun no matter how stupid the idea was. Also, she did not really fear the punishment much; it makes one wonder what kind of life she had before she came here.

He came to this place right after his mother's death. Naturally, he was sad and shocked, not understanding what happened and what death even meant. The one who brought at least a bit of fire back to him was Anko. So later with Kaito's own pranking nature and Anko's tendencies to get in trouble they got along like house on fire.

The Orphanage prohibited them from leaving its premises until they were old enough to go to the Academy or Civilian School. Caretakers were not kind enough to bring them to park or some other entertaining place for children.

Too much work. And trouble.

If someone got hurt or lost, they will be the ones who would get reprimanded if not fired. It would show that they were irresponsible and in front of other people to boot, they would not be able to deal with it quietly. No one was willing to take such a risk for a bunch of brats.

When children wanted to play, there was a backyard- a patch of grass with couple of trees- and a shabby almost barren room that considered to be a playroom inside of the Orphanage. There were some old wooden toys in all sorts of shapes -from cute animal forms to shuriken and kunai- but most of them had suspicious bite marks and could be found always coated in someone's saliva. They looked like they were made before Lord First founded the Village and were not changed even once since then.

Maybe, they really weren't.

When children started going to their respective choice of school, they would be considered semi adults and would have to navigate the Village by themselves, so whatever happened to them would be their own fault and would not affect caretakers much.

They would perform a headcount every evening though, because if the child sneaked out and it was found out by someone, they will take the brunt of it.

Initially they were pretty lax with it, Anko told him. Constantly keeping track of the exact number of children was taxing. Because of the war every single day there were new arrivals or someone who left: shipped to another Orphanage, taken by some relative or simply became of age. The same was with workers it was not lucrative job, so not that many stayed for long which would mean constant new faces who didn't know much themselves. It would not be exaggeration to say that the flow of people was the same as on busy market- someone was always coming and going.

It was like that before the accident.

Before Kaito came here -three month ago to be exact- one of the children sneaked out; just like many others always did, there was nothing special or unusual about it, he was just unlucky enough to get caught by a very upright member of Military Police Force. The caretakers who were supposed to keep a watch got fired and some others lost their paychecks for one month. Naturally, after that they were not too nice to the little kid, every day he would receive a punishment for one nonsensical thing or another. Letting out their anger on innocent child because of their own incompetence became a norm.

They made him an example for others to see.

To make them fear.

To make them obedient.

Sigh.

Anko looked at him with a doubt and bit her lip worriedly. They were friends sort of, otherwise she would not have been helping Kaito; for all her grumbling she didn't really want him to get hurt.

Kaito opened up the window and looked down through it. He pulled hard on the rope to make sure it would remain in one place. It may be only the first floor, but falling down from a such height for someone small like him would hurt immensely.

He sat on stacked boxes near the window that reached just the right height for him to get through it. He grinned widely and made some sort of imitation of shinobi salute. "I will be going then." He looked back at her. "Ya-nee, Anko. Hahahaha."

The idiot jumped from the window and slowly scaled down the wall firmly holding the rope.

Anko looked down at his retreating back as she cleaned up the proof of what just happened here.

Sigh.

"He could have promised me at least a dango for all this trouble," she quietly muttered when she knew perfectly well that no one in the Orphanage except some seniors had a single ryō on them herself included.

"Tsk. Damn pauper," she tsked and exited the storage room.

Kaito only vaguely recalled from his memories the place where he needed to go. When he was younger his mother brought him only once there.

First, he needed to find Hokage Tower-highest building in the Village. After that he will be able to figure out at least the direction of where he needed to go. Hopefully.

Because he had no idea in what part of the Konoha he was as it was quite enormous- the biggest one among all other Hidden Villages.

Kaito could see the Hokage Tower which was ridiculously far away and tried not to despair. He started marching straight to it because he really did not have another plan. Kaito tried to memorize the way, so he knew how to return back, but every building looked similarly depressing- chipped grey paint, small windows, and creaky doors.

The Orphanage was situated in rather unpleasant area, he thought silently. His previous neighborhood was also not the most luxurious one; not like those fancy Clan Compounds but at least it had some color to it.

"Hey!" Kaito looked at the dense foliage from where the voice came from wondering whether it was directed at him.

Living in Hidden Village one must achieve an absolute Zen or life will be difficult.

It was something that every citizen of Konoha knew.

Usually, people just ignore all noise that comes from literally anywhere above their heads. While older shinobi could move through the roofs and trees silently young genin and Academy students weren't nearly as impressive.

Two teens were sitting on treetops and one right in front of the base of the tree trunk. Three hitae-ate on their foreheads.

"Don't shake the tree so much! It is cheating!" female voice angrily berated the other annoyance thick in every word she gritted out.

"Shinobi cheating-shinobi breathing. Mine will definitely be higher." From the side Kaito could see Aburame boy rolling his eyes in exasperation and continuing tying tanzaku on a branch of a tree.

"Why am I wasting my precious festival with these idiots," the one on the ground whined. "If not for Sensei I would have spent it with my lovely Nezuko-chan at home." He was squatting and drawing doodles with the piece of wood in the soil. His crouching form was exuding the air of sadness and dejection.

Oh, he must really miss his girlfriend.

"Stop giving your stupid names to your stupid pillows." The only girl of the group threw acorn at his head.

He realized that they weren't talking to him and continued on his way, not a single muscle twitched on his face.

Living in Hidden Village one must achieve an absolute Zen or life will be difficult.

Ten no ki* also known as the 'Heavenly Tree Festival' was usually held in the middle of September when the weather still didn't turn cold but without the unrelenting smoldering heat that accompanies the summer.

People usually celebrate it by writing their wishes on small pieces of paper called tanzaku and hanging them on the branches of Hashirama trees with hopes they will reach the heaven and come true.

It was also the death anniversary of Lord First who was deeply loved and respected by everyone; he was considered almost God-like existence to many; someone who brought them from darkness and constant bloodshed to the light and peacefully life.

According to history books he was extremely cheerful and playful person full of infinite kindness for everyone and anyone. His hobby was watching younger generation playing around in the Village enjoying their carefree childhood; to see them having something no one from his generation was able to have themselves.

Everyone deeply mourned him for years, if not decades, when he passed away right after the First Shinobi World War. Initially people wrote their goodbyes to their respective leader and tied them to Hashirama trees believing that their heartfelt words would reach him through something he created himself with his Mokuton. For any sensor those trees differed greatly in their nature from the ordinary ones, and they didn't change even after his death. So maybe there was some truth to that statement and not just wishful thinking.

"The idiot would have wanted to make it celebration of life rather than mourning of death," his wife- esteemed Uzumaki Mito-sama said.

So, with the time people started writing dreams and good things that happened to them instead of anything remotely sad.

That was how Ten no ki came to be.

Konoha was teeming with life- chattering people milling about, cheerful music feeling up the streets, and- Wow…was that a gong?!

The liveliness of the festival was evident in the very air he breathed in. Kaito looked around; eyes sparkling in wonder taking in sights that were so rare in the usually somber Village.

Hawkers have already put up their stands for the festival. He could see people buying all kinds of food and drinks, playing silly games to gain a prize or having contest of who can eat more. Colorful pieces of paper were tied to the trees all around the Village. Buildings and stalls were adorned with lanterns and lamps of all shapes and sizes. As soon as sun sets, they will be shining brilliantly.

If he were lucky enough, he would be able to see them in all their beauty.

Or unlucky enough, he mused silently, because it would mean that he would have to spend the night on the streets.

Kaito blended in with the crowd eyes searching- trying to find a way between the towering forms of people around him.

He was man on a mission, after all, it wasn't time to sightsee.

The sweet scent of fried pancakes wafted right to Kaito's nose making him stop in his tracks. His stomach grumbled painfully.

He might eat just enough to not starve himself at the Orphanage, but the food there wasn't sufficient enough to sate his hunger and certainly not the best in taste or in quality or literally in anything. Even though he had been brought there less than three months ago he had already forgotten what normal food tasted like; it became just a distant memory to him- something he could only reminiscent about.

Middle aged man with unkempt beard and beady eyes was heavily leaning into personal space of a woman in front of him. In one hand he was holding the giant jar of beer, he was crazily waving it in the air, the liquor almost spilling over the rim as he was arrogantly saying something to his poor victim. His big belly was moving in tandem with the waves of the liquid in the jar. For anyone passing by it will look absolutely hilarious. The woman could not relate to such sentiment, she certainly didn't find this situation funny; she wished to cry rather than laugh.

The woman looked uncomfortable polite smile on her face, but eyes were darting around trying to find a way to escape. Hitae-ate on his shoulder was pressuring her even more.

Dealing with some drunk was not how the girl envisioned her evening to play out.

Shinobi drunk was even worse.

He was pressing her to the corner into secluded area behind one of the booths that had already closed. The music and chatter on the street were loud and people were too far away from her. From the side they might even look like couple or friends. Who would intrude on something like that? She internally groaned but did not show the displeasure on her face, smile ever present least this stupid drunk will get aggressive. She just needed to wait for the chance.

"…I am naturally in the thick of things. White Fang on my right, Tsunade on my left." The fake smile on her face cracked when she heard how disrespectfully he addressed one of the legendary Sannin and beloved Hero of the Village. "I am naturally at the center. Because without me they could never-"

He was telling with great relish about his own greatness. The fact that his listener had the expression 'Stop spouting bullshit with your eyes wide open' practically written on her face did not seem to faze him at all.

In her periphery she could see little kid with blue hair stumbling and practically flying towards them. Her chance has come.

Thank fuck.

Kaito wandered around the street eyes fascinated by everything. Konoha rarely could be so lively, the pressure of war on everyone's life was ever present. Even behind the protective walls of the Village its threat was weighting heavily on people's hearts like a guillotine ready to strike any second. At least it was what his neighbor, granny Nana, said. When he was born the war was already ongoing, so he was not quite sure how it used to be before.

She also talked how mesmerizing fireworks were like blooming flowers in the sky that can take your breath away; how all kinds of festivals were happening every season even during the winter; how merchants filled markets with exotic products from all around the world; how travelling entertainers would perform on the streets and how she had danced to their songs with her husband.

He wanted to know more but she had such wistful and pained look on her face that he could not bring himself to ask.

"Mommy, I want tandy apple." Little girl tugged the sleeve of her mother.

"It is candy apple sweetie." She laughed and patted her head taking her to the stand.

Kaito stood in a daze. He also used to tug at his mother's sleeve like that. His own memories were overlapping with mother and her daughter in front of him.

"Sometimes even sweet memories can hurt you," his mother told him.

"Why?" he asked not understanding how something good could possibly be harmful.

Especially memories.

It is not like they have hands and feet to punch and kick you.

"Because these good moments will stay only there, only in your memories. So they become bittersweet." Faraway look in her eyes reminded him of granny's expression.

He didn't understand it back then.

Now-

Now he understands.

How could he not? He smiled bitterly.

When every time he thinks about his mother it feels like he is drinking sweet honey with nails in it. It soothes his soul and scratches his insides at the same time.

Suddenly someone bumped into Kaito. In a such dense throng of people, it was extremely easy not to notice a small child. He tried to find his footing because he did not want to faceplate on the ground but by side- stepping he crushed into someone's side instead. At least he redirected himself where there were not a lot of people. To be accidentally stomped to death did not seem that appealing to him.

A stranger holding a giant jar splashed everything in it on himself the sharp glare fixed on his face.

"You damn brat!" The man became red in the face from the anger or maybe embarrassment.

Someone behind him deftly ran and disappeared in a sea of people. Kaito slowly blinked trying to understand what just had happened and then ran away like his feet were on fire. With the advantage of his small stature that inebriated man with his big belly was not able to catch him before he dived in the flow of the people.

His mother told him to apologize to someone and compensate them if he ever inconveniences or hurt anyone. But his mother was also the one who helped him ran away from Hamuro-san when he came with a broom to have a civil talk about his latest prank on him. More like beat living daylights out of troublemaker in the name of discipline.

"Anyway, people who say 'you can't run away from your problems' are just slow runners," he thought as he speeded up.

Author's Note

*Tanabata also known as the Star Festival (星祭り, Hoshimatsuri), is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival.

I had found about this festival and wanted to include it but I changed the name.
I don't know Japanese, so Ten no ki could be 'buy wood cheap' and I wouldn't know any better. Hope it isn't though.