Disclaimer: I own nothing. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and I am making no profit off of this.

I looked over at the order that the customer had sent once again, comparing it to the bouquet that I had prepared.

Yeah…

Probably good enough?

I would say that I had a pretty good knowledge of flower arranging and whatnot. I worked sometimes at the flower shop, both as a way to earn some pocket cash when I wasn't training, and to stop myself from burning myself out on the fields.

Not to say that I wasn't training while working in the shop. I usually carried a small rock or whatever to practise chakra control on. By moving around a spot of chakra, you could get the rock to roll around over your skin, which may or may not be useful later for sleight of hand tricks in battle.

Anyways, I worked sometimes at the flower shop, and I can safely say that I have a newfound respect for retail jobs.

Dear god, some of these customers were annoying as fuck.

I suppose it was good practice. In the future, when I would be taking missions, I would have to interact with clients, many of whom I will rather dislike. It was best that I learn to deal with annoying customers now than later.

"Chisei-nii!"

Speaking of annoyances…

"Chisei-nii! Chisei-nii! I know you can hear me! Come on!"

Yamanaka Ino.

Are all children this annoying?

"Look, look! Don't these hyacinths look- hey! You're not looooking!"

Honestly, how do parents put up with this shit on a regular basis?

I gave her a strained smile, "Ino, I'm working right now."

Somehow, this blonde devil became attached to me. I have absolutely no idea how that happened. I have no direct familial relation to her, I've hardly paid her much mind, and have only spoken a little.

Children are weird.

Ino pouted at me.

Joint clan gathering again. I ate and then found a spot to settle down and sleep through the rest of it at.

"Hey, you're not dead yet, yeah?"

This kid again. I haven't seen the Akimichi kid that I talked to for a while now.

But here he was again, disrupting my sleep.

He grinned at what was undoubtedly a disgruntled expression on my face.

"I thought about what you said. You know, the stuff about being strong and training and dying and stuff."

I laid my head back onto my arms, making an attempt to block out the uncomfortable loudness of the place.

"The thing is, I don't think that's true."

Oh? I gave the child a bit of my attention, turning my head to face him. I wasn't expecting actual thought from a child of his age.

I waited for whatever he was going to say.

Perhaps there was more that I wasn't seeing. Perhaps this child, with his untainted mind, had seen something that I hadn't.

I had given another path much thought. After collapsing, absolutely exhausted one too many times on the training fields, I had thought that maybe, just maybe, I didn't need to push myself so hard. Maybe I could take a day of rest.

Maybe I could relax, just once.

But then, I thought of the monsters that roamed this world. The monsters that hid in human shells. The monsters that stood above the rest of us. Nagato, Orochimaru, Obito, hell, even the Hokage.

I thought of them, and any thoughts of taking it easy were wiped from my mind.

But perhaps this child, had seen something. Maybe he had had some insight as to how the world worked.

"There're like, civilians and stuff, right? They're weak, and they're not dead, right? So even if you don't train, you won't die." The Akimichi boy seemed very proud of his logic.

…

I suppose it was my fault for expecting something profound out of a child.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that the civilians were only lambs, only easy targets for the strong. They had no power in this world of violence. People like Nagato could wipe out hundreds, thousands of them without even getting up off their ass.

It was only a matter of time.

I stared impassively at the dead squirrel. It laid, pinned there on the ground by a kunai, coating the grass in blood.

I had heard the squirrel rustling around in the forest as I was training. I had acted on reflex upon hearing the sudden noise, throwing my kunai in the general direction of the sounds.

Bullseye

And the small animal's life ended.

Just like that.

Despite the unfortunate death, a wry smile found its way onto my face.

It was a beautiful kunai throw. It displayed the things that I had worked towards and the things that I would be working for in the future.

Perhaps this was a taste of what I would have to go through later. My future career involved much death.

Still, the event left a bitter taste in my mouth. It seemed… wasteful somehow. The squirrel's death was needless.

I picked up the dead animal gingerly by the tail.

I saw a vulture the other day.

It would probably find something worthwhile in the dead animal.