Hinata flinched back as she glanced into the window. She checked behind her. There was no one there. She looked back at her reflection, just her. She let out a few heavy breaths as she stared back at herself. There was…

She was going insane.

There was a dark figure to her right, she swore she saw it there, but now it wasn't. Was it the ghost of her past finally trying to haunt her directly? Was lamp-post-man torturing her for dreaming him up? "Have your fun." She whispered. "I deserve it."

Hinata frowned at herself in the window and continued on her way. Maybe she needed more sleep.

Behind her, just out of the corner of her eye, lamp-post-man stood with his eyebrow knit together as he watched her walk away. She had looked right at him. She shouldn't be able to do that.

Itachi looked at the reflection in the window. Even he couldn't see himself. How did she? He stepped forward before catching himself. It was probably nothing. Humans thought they saw things they didn't all the time. Itachi turned his head in the other direction as the girl tucked her nose into her scarf, checking the street before crossing. Don't get involved.

Getting involved never leads to anything good.

Kisame chewed a rice ball with his mouth open, legs dangling over the side of a tall building, watching the human scuttle around like ants below.

Itachi appeared behind him, his long hair whipping around his face with the high-altitude winds. "Why are you eating again?"

Kisame shoved the last of his bite in his mouth, side-eyeing him. "You wear a coat."

Itachi shrugged, moving his hand in his coat pockets out. "It's a nice coat."

"It's nice food." Kisame countered, offering him the container.

Despite his complaint, Itachi took one and took a bite. Food must feel different for humans. Sure, he could taste it, but he didn't know what it felt like to eat something because he was hungry or eat until he was full. Humans put a lot of emotion into their food. They gathered for food. Celebrated it, celebrated with it. Left it to their dead.

Like that girl… who leaves unripe bananas but a ripe watermelon?

Below, a loud horn echoed, joined by several more and a few panicked yells before a smash of metal. "Ready?" Kisame pointed down.

Itachi inclined his head, and Kisame slipped off the edge disappearing and reappearing next to Itachi on the street next to the carnage caused by the crash. "What do you think happened?"

"Fate," Itachi commented, crouching down in the car.

Kisame face twisted in annoyance, but what else did he want? "Ah." He kneeled to the kid in the back seat. "This one is young. You got a lollipop or something?"

Itachi ignored him as he pulled the driver's soul out. The man looked around, frantically trying to dig into the car for his daughter.

Kisame pulled her soul out and held her in his arms, rounding the car to give her to her father. The man held onto her desperately, checking her for wounds. Humans rarely put together that they were dead right away. The man kissed his daughter's head and smiled at them. "Thank you."

No. This one knew.

The hum of the sewing machine overtook the radio in the back room as Hinata pushed through the rough fabric, back stitching at the end, pulling it out with a smooth movement. She ran her fingers down to ensure the stitching was correct before snipping the threads, putting it up on a hanger, and seeing what was wrong with the next garment.

A lot of donation items ended up in the trash because shops didn't want to spend the time or resources to fix them.

Machines that still worked were discarded because no one opened them up to find out what was wrong. Sometimes, it was just a good clean or a bit of oil. Heavy wood furniture was replaced because of a scratch or a tear in the upholstery, missing glass, or hardware.

That's what they sold. Second chances. All the scrap just needed a little attention to be useful again. Just like them.

Hinata met Kiba and Shino in university. All of them became dropouts before the end of that year. Another failure under her belt, she couldn't go home this time. The shop was born of a silly idea that slipped out of her mouth, but they ran out. Hinata and Shino were handy, willing to learn small skills to fix what they found, and Kiba was friendly and good at finding treasures in the trash. Kiba saw potential in everything. Shino was more practical.

Hinata was just happy that she was useful for a few hours a day.

Once word got around, they started getting more business doing repairs for customers than they did sales. They slowly stopped digging through trash to fix as more people offered them their old broken treasures.

Hinata always wondered what the items people found forgotten in the back of their closets and drawers meant to those who lost them.

Hinata turned off the machine to bring her stack to the floor to put them up on the rack. Shino hissed, hunched over a watch. He flicked down a different magnification for his watchmaker's glasses. Something he fixed himself. He switched tools to make his tiny adjustments. He could do surgery on a beetle with those.

After a few more small movements, Shino set down the tools. Hinata leaned on the counter to hear the tiny rhythmic clicks. "Another one back to life."

"Not that it wanted to be." Shino replaced the face.

"I'm sure someone will put it to good use." Hinata brushed a speck of counter.

Shino glanced up with his head still down in his work. "You done?"

"I'm not starting another stack today." Hinata laid her head down on the counter to watch his fingers move. They became unfocused as she looked past him out the window, and her head shot up.

"Hmm?" Shino asked as Hinata ran to the door to peek out it. "What?"

Hinata looked down the street, but there was no one there. Maybe it would have been rude of her to rush to see him if he was real. "I thought I saw… a big blue man…" With lamp-post-man, was her imaginary man gaining friends? Hinata shook her head, turning back to Shino. "Never mind."

Shino shrugged it off, closed the watch, and put it in the case.

Itachi glanced back at her, widely looking up and down the street, when she found nothing. She blinked and made a face as she came up empty-handed. She saw them pass by the window but couldn't see them now.

Kisame looked back to see what he was interested in. "Hm?"

"She can see us," Itachi commented.

"She's not screaming. I doubt it." Kisame watched her go back inside, confused. "See?"

"It's like she can only see us when she isn't looking." That didn't explain it. That sounded like a riddle in his own head.

Kisame shrugged.