Exploring Konoha (Prologue 2)

"Damn, Konoha is really big." Kanata had been walking for about 10 minutes and saw a lot of things. First, he picked up ryō(Shinobi World Currency, 1 ryō=10 yen=~1 US cent) that people left on the street, getting about 60 ryō. enough to buy him a small meal, or at least he hoped.

Kanata also saw the depressed atmosphere of the village after the Kyuubi attack. From what he heard from passerby(they weren't being all too quiet when drinking), apparently a lot of good ninja from the village were lost recently from various reasons. Konoha was in its most vulnerable time.

'I should really try and remember the layout of Konoha and where important structures are. Might be helpful in the future.'

"Excuse me, would you be interested in our goods?" A little girl around the same age as Kanata came up to him. From a simple glance, Kanata could tell that her family wasn't doing that good. The girl wore baggy and a bit ragged clothing, and had black hair and eyes. Her hair was a short bob cut.

"Sure, I am hungry." The girl led Kanata by hand towards a stand with kebabs. There was a woman running the stand and a man cooking more kebabs to serve customers.

"Oh, it looks like Yue found a friend to play with." The woman smiled kindly. They all had black hair and eyes, and they were all a bit pale. It was quite easy to assume that these people are a family. They also wore very worn clothes, very common for people after the Kyuubi attack to wear because of how poor it made them.

"No, he came here to buy!" Yue shouted, a determined glare on her face. As determined as a 4 year old could get.

The expression of Yue's mother turned into a frown, and she began scolding her daughter. "Yue, how many times do I have to tell you? You don't need to pull people to my stand! Now, go ahead and play with your friends."

During all of this, Kanata had a dumbfounded expression. He had a little jealousy in his heart because she had a family, but he quickly dismissed it. Why should he be jealous of a little girl?

Kanata was snapped out of his thoughts when a he both felt and heard grumbling from his stomach. The family in front of him turned their heads to him and began giggling.

"Here, have some free food." Kanata had to admit, the food look pretty good. There was multiple different meat and fruit on the kebab, and he was definitely drooling at the sight. Yue's mother held out two of them towards him.

"A... Are you sure? I don't want to impede." Kanata attempted to be polite, but the mother shook her head in disappointment.

"Come on, you really think we're that unfortunate that we can't spare a little food?" Yue's mother began lightly scolding Kanata, who surprisingly felt like a legitimate child. He took a glance at the other two, both having a deadpan expression on their face.

Yue's father snuck up behind his wife, gently wrapping his arms around her and halting her rant. "Izana, I don't believe he meant anything ill by it." Izana exhaled at her husband's rationality and just shoved the two kebabs in Kanata's hands.

"Just go introduce him to your friends." Kanata began gobbling down his first meal in the Shinobi World, and was amazed by its taste. He and Yue began to walk at a slower place towards a more remote location.

Just as they left, Izana grimaced downwards, scaring most of the people around their stand. "Damn those elders. All they care about is someone from the clan being Hokage, and not about any of us."

"Its okay, Izana. We'll manage. How about we have a little bit of fun before Yue comes back?" Izana's face turned into a twisted grin as her husband began to regret his decision.

...

"Okay, my name is Yue Uchiha, this is Hama Uchiha, Kusa Nara, and Amaterasu Senko." Yue pointed to each respective person.

Hama Uchiha is a boy who looks similar to Yue in the sense that he is of the same clan. He has the protagonist-esque spiky haircut and a protagonist 1000-watt smile on his face. Hah, if only he knew he was not the protagonist.

Kusa Nara is a boy with a constant glare on his face, making him look unapproachable. He looks very masculine for his age, including having the Nara ponytail and spiky hairline. He has black hair and deep brown eyes.

Amaterasu Senko is a young girl with black hair put into a bob-cut. She has intense green eyes and has an amused smile constantly on her face. (don't ask how a 4-year old looks like that okay)

Kanata felt a little cornered, all four of the other children had black hair and he had grey hair.

"Oi, oi, oi. Yue, who is this kid?" The Nara child pointed at Kanata although he was only a few feet away.

"I believe he is a new friend that she made earlier today." Amaterasu put both of her hands behind her back and intensely gazed at Kanata. If he were a normal 4-year old, he would be intimidated.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Amaterasu's "imposing" gaze snapped towards Yue and they began staring each other down.

Hama Uchiha sweat dropped and tried defusing the situation. "Hey, hey, hey. There's no need to fight over this"

"Shut up, blockhead!" Both of them yelled at him, yet their gaze never wavered from eachother.

Kusa exhaled, "How troublesome. Can you both shut the hell up!" The two girls felt shivers go down their spine and inched their squeamish look towards Kusa.

Kanata, once again, felt like a background character. He tried to insert himself into the conversation, "Um, lets start over. My name is Kanata Kagura." Kanata attempted at a smile.

There was a long, awkward pause in between the greeting and what came next. "Pfft, 'Kanata Kagura'? Like spelled with the characters 'Far-Away Dance'?" Amaterasu mocked the newcomer.

'You said what?! I'll stomp you out!!!' "Haha, yeah, it is." Kanata masked his rage pretty well with a nervous smile and neck scratch, but only Kusa caught that the edge of his mouth was twitching in anger.

"Well, everyone calls me Rasu since Amaterasu is too hard to pronounce for them. I guess you can call me that too." Kanata was beginning to get annoyed at her haughty attitude.

"Well, I'm Hama Uchiha! Everyone calls me Hama-Chan, or at least the girls do." Kanata could see the clear makings of a dense harem protagonist.

'Damn, what am I doing, analyzing children like they might be enemies? I guess old habits die hard.'