Chapter 3

Beta'd by Black Sparrow

Years later Shiori still wondered what kind of luck gods had smiled down on her during her journey through Fire country.

With the exception of a merchant caravan and a ninja team that was sprinting in the other direction Shiori didn't encounter anyone. On the first day she barely stopped walking, she even ate while still moving one foot before the other. In the evening her feet hurt and she was dead tired, to be honest she was lucky that she didn't have any blisters. For the night Shiori had climbed up into a tree and had curled up against a thick branch.
On the next day she had finished up her bento boxes as breakfast and paced herself a bit more, she stopped around midday to go through her provisions and ate some dried rice and an apple before continuing her journey. Shortly before the sun went down again Shiori recognized the lights shining in front of her as the ones of a village. Hesitant to approach the unknown place and wanting to save her money, Shiori slept once again in a tree.

On the morning of her third day Shiori walked through the village that was nearly twice as large as Kawa and there received a more detailed description for her way to Konoha as well as some more advice to be wary of strangers. The black haired girl left the village behind before the better part of it woke up.

The following days were spent much the same like the second day, the only highlights were the caravan with its many carts and people and the ninja team that she saw while she was taking a short rest on an upturned tree. Shiori kept away from the villages and towns that had become bigger and louder the further she went. She was intimidated by the size and she also wanted to avoid any kind of trouble and so made some detours to avoid them if possible. In the evening of the eighth day Shiori was out of food and resigned herself to the fact that she would have to buy additional food in the next village.

This thought turned out to be incorrect because on the next morning she was awoken by a light shake of her shoulder and a ninja in her face.

Shiori took one look at her unexpected waker, squealed and promptly fell out of the tree. Luckily the ninja had dropped down at the same time and had caught her before she landed painfully on the ground. Shiori shook for a second and tears started to build up in her eyes, only the 'oh shit' expression on the brown haired man prevented Shiori from completely breaking out into tears. She gulped a few times before she shakily greeted the man holding her. Said ninja smiled relieved that he didn't have to deal with tears and helped her stand up before his eyes turned serious and he asked her what she was doing so close to Konoha.

Shiori looked confused for a moment at the shinobi before her face turned slowly hopeful. "Konoha is near? Oh thank god I was beginning to think that I had taken the wrong path."

"Yes, the gate is just twenty minutes away, come on I will show you," the ninja confirmed while he nodded in the direction of the path.

"Thank you shinobi-san. My name is Shiori," the black haired girl said politely.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Bekkou. So why were you sleeping out there?" the ninja asked curiously.

Shiori blushed. "I have never been to Konoha and I wasn't sure how far away it was, so I climbed a tree every time it became dark."

Bekkou just nodded. "Sensible, so what do you want to do in Konoha?"

Shiori said determined while her gaze swept over the tall trees, "Work, build a life."

Bekkou glanced down at the young girl beside him. "You ran away didn't you? How old are you fourteen, fifteen?"

"Twelve and yes I did," Shiori corrected while she checked over her duffel bag before slinging it over her shoulder.

Bekkou did a double take. "Tw-twelve? Shi- I mean damn, that's young, is there a particular reason?"

Shiori looked stubbornly up at him. "I didn't want to marry Fuji-san."

Bekkou raised an eyebrow. "Yeah understandable, twelve is kind of young to marry."

"He is forty five and fat," Shiori continued.

"And that's another good reason." Bekkou snorted. "Well come on kid, I will show you to the immigration office."

Shiori sighed in relief. "Thank you."

Bekkou inwardly shook his head, another runaway that had found her way to Konoha went through his head while he distractedly checked her chakra signature for anomalies. It happened a lot more often than most thought; Konoha was after all known as the nice ninja village that took care of its civilians but most of the time the people who wanted to start over in Konoha never reached their destination. Even though the Hokage regularly sent out Chunin squads to deal with the rising bandit problem, they couldn't decimate all of them. So Bekkou wondered while he subtly interrogated the young girl how the hell she had missed every single one of the bandit groups or gotten unscathed, because even if he wasn't interested in young girls he could admit she was pretty and would grow up to be quite the beauty.

"So, do you know what you want to do after gaining citizenship?" Bekkou asked curiously.

The girl seemed pretty mature to him but most civilian twelve year olds didn't think further than maybe a week in advance.

Shiori shrugged her shoulders shyly, before she said reluctantly, "I'm not sure yet, but I know that I will need a job that will pay my rent first and foremost."

Bekkou just nodded, before he continued, "What are your strengths?"

Shiori, wasn't sure what to do, normally she wouldn't open up to a stranger like that but this was a Konoha shinobi and he probably was either genuinely interested in helping her or trying to find gaps in her story and checking if she was a spy.

So she bit her lip and answered him honestly, "I can read, write and count and I'm pretty good at cooking and cleaning, back at home I also worked in my family's fields and the vegetable garden…"

Bekkou nodded. "Being literate is good, you already have an advantage over most of the new arrivals from the country. Most of the villages don't have schools."

Shiori nodded. "It was the same in our village, we didn't have a school or even a doctor. The village had barely a hundred inhabitants. I was lucky that my grandmother could read, write and count and that my father allowed me to learn with her after finishing my chores. She would always make me write and recite the poems of her youth."

The black haired girl smiled while she thought back at the many hours she had kneeled beside her grandmother and they had written in the dirt beside the house.

"Poems?" now Bekkou was curious, farmers normally didn't know poems, even the literate ones.

Shiori nodded eagerly and started one of her favorites,
"With every passing day
the autumn wind
is blowing colder,
the voices of the crickets
become ever fewer."

Bekkou faltered this was one of the poems that belonged to the education of the lower noble families, he was sure. The shinobi had become familiar with quite a few after the more or less regular guarding missions he had run for such nobles. Without showing his inner turmoil he encouraged Shiori to continue. The closer they came to Konoha the surer Bekkou was that the little girl beside him was a descendant from some noble family that had lived in the north of Fire Country, not that it would help her in some way in Konoha. Mentally shrugging his shoulders he took a closer look at her appearance. Hell, even her bone structure was that of a noble; normal farmer daughters were a lot more compact physically better build for the hard work, Shiori on the other hand had a fine and nearly delicate bone structure.

Her physical appearance along with her story would have normally made him suspicious but when he noticed the calluses on her hands he was convinced for good of her truthfulness. The tan line in her face and on her hands as well as her slightly emaciated form for her age talked of a life full of hardship and hunger, not one of ninja training or that of a noble. Content with his verdict, Bekkou gave a subtle sign to the Jounin that was concealed above the gates before he led Shiori to Izumo and Kotetsu to receive temporary access to the village.

The two Chunins at the entrance took one look at the pretty girl and blushed. Kotetsu's grin became bigger and he opened his mouth to say something suave and cool, or at least what he thought was suave and cool.

Bekkou who had seen how Shiori's eyes had become bigger and how she subtly moved behind him, cleared his throat and said, "Shiori-chan here needs a temporary visa, she wants to become a citizen."

Izumo just nodded friendly, his blush had rescinded and he was all business now with an efficient move he grabbed the needed pieces of paper from under his desk. Kotetsu on the other hand was still eyeing Shiori, who was now biting her lip and shyly wringing her hands.

"So your name is Shiori-chan?" Kotetsu said but before he could continue he was interrupted by an annoyed Bekkou.

"And she is twelve and ran away from an arranged marriage, so don't even think about it," the brunette chunin stated annoyed.

He didn't like the fact that Kotetsu didn't seem to be able to take a hint, he was a Chunin working at the gate for god's sake he should have already picked up on her body language and reacted suitably.

Said chunin eyes widened before he blushed once more, this time in embarrassment and quickly turned his eyes to the paperwork Izumo was filling out and handing over.

"Thanks," Bekkou said when Izumo finished and handed the sheets over.

"Thank you," Shiori also stated which was followed by a quick but graceful bow before she followed the older chunin into the village.

Bekkou led her through a maze of streets, alleys and gaps before they walked into a light blue painted building with a waiting room and a reception desk. The chunin that had been a great help to Shiori handed over her paperwork before he wished her good look and said goodbye to the young girl. Said girl thanked him profusely for his help and wished him a nice day before she sat down on one of the chairs to wait until she was called into a side room.

It took less than ten minutes until her name was called and she followed a strict looking older woman into a small room. There she was questioned about her parentage, village, reason for running away as well as her abilities. It took about two hours and Shiori had answered more than once the same question over and over again. She was already pretty tired and hungry when the black haired girl was finally granted partial citizenship; she was told that she would be watched by Chunins for the first year in Konoha before she was granted full citizenship.

The documents she received marked her as a Konoha resident and with that came a working permit and paying taxes. The taxes had to be paid each quarter after the first year of residency and were calculated from her income level each year. Shiori also received a sheet with mandatory classes that she would have to visit. Those included introduction courses about the laws for civilians and shinobi as well as the daily dealings with ninja. Thanks to her literacy she didn't have to sign up for remedial classes that would cost an additional fee.

Elated and still a bit overwhelmed Shiori made her way back into the entrance hall. She had seen a black board with cheap flats to rent as well as another board that contained job offers. The black haired twelve year old wrote down some of the addresses on the back side of an advertisement sheet that was lying on one of the side tables in the entrance hall before she finally gave into her stomach's demands and started to search for a cheap meal.

Since the start of her journey Shiori hadn't needed to cut into her savings yet and she winced inwardly when she saw the prices for a hot meal in Konoha. With that amount of money she could have easily bought two or even three meals in the neighbor village of Kawa. Resigning herself to the higher prices Shiori bought some yakitori at a street stand. While she finished her food on a nearby bench Shiori contemplated where she should start to search for a flat and how she should even find the different addresses. After throwing away the trash, Shiori asked the nearest vendor about the addresses she had written down. The kind older man gave her some instructions and then after some prodding on his side concerning her need of an own residency he also told her how much a cheap flat should approximately cost in the ninja village. Feeling relieved now that she had an idea what she could expect, Shiori made her way to the first address.

Three hours later Shiori had finished her search for a flat and had decided to rent the third of the five properties she had seen. It was a tiny place in comparison to the other flats she had inspected. The room had a small kitchenette and would probably fit a table and some chairs and her futon in the night, but not much else. Shiori didn't mind, she was used to cramped places thanks to her former living conditions and she knew that she would need to stretch the money for as long as possible. Beside the bath the flat had also a small wall closet where she could store a futon as well as her changes of clothing. To be able to move in directly Shiori had to pay the first two rents in advance. When Shiori calculated how long her savings would last with this additional strain she grimaced unhappily, the flat alone would deplete her savings in two years and that without calculating in the needed groceries, clothes, pots, pans and what else Shiori would need for daily life.

She needed work and that fast!