Golden Child

Tales Of The Young

Chapter 4 

"Listen up, Ko-chan. I'm gonna impart some wise knowledge on ya, okay?" 

Kimiko didn't halt her movement as she followed quietly behind Kushina, staring up curiously at the older woman. The two walked the streets of Konoha, no longer the empty night like she viewed it with Minato, or the near silent backstreets she walked with Kushina a day prior — no this time it was different.

The streets were live with people, bustling about, rushing to get places and sometimes no places at all. Salesmen and women announced their various goods from stalls, people shoved their way through the packed crowd, pushing Kimiko around in the process.

There was a barely a foot of distance between each person and Kimiko found it no were near enough, so she walked a little faster to stay closer to Kushina, listening as the woman continued.

"This place is called Main Street, got it? It leads up to Town Square, not far ahead. Now what ya wanna know is..." 

They lined them up in the middle of town square, one by one they were shouted at questions that she couldn't understand — and then they started dropping one after the other.

She may have been young but she wasn't stupid, she knew what it meant. And not even Haruka's soothing words seemed to calm the raging guilt that burned deep inside her — this was her fault.

This was all her fault.

"Ko-chan!"

Kimiko felt her world shake before she was brought back into reality, two strong hands gripped her shoulders and shook her gently. Looking up she could make out the worried looking Kushina who took a sigh of relief when Kimiko blinked.

"You almost scared me half to death!" Kushina told her, placing her hands back beside her. "What's wrong, Ko-chan?"

Kimiko took one look around the busy street in which they stood, people paid them no mind, simply shoving pass like always. She just looked up to Kushina and reassured her. "It's nothing...I'm just a bit tired."

If Kushina knew it was a lie, which she most likely did, she didn't comment on it. Instead she placed a hand on Kimiko's shoulder and guided the child forward.

"Anyway, like I was saying." Kushina proceeded to launch right back into her speech.

The run down was this; the main streets were always packed, even at night, and it was best not to stop or accept anything they offer you — not unless you know what you're buying into.

Kimiko took those words to heart, knowing it would do the small town girl wonders. However when she thought about it, she was more than just a small town girl. Kimiko rarely entered the village that the orphanage was stationed near, due to a mixture of the stares that followed her and the restrictions placed upon them by the adults in charge.

Adults like Haruka.

"I'm gonna head off." Kimiko looked up, blue-green eyes blankly staring at the woman above her. Kushina continued. "I've got some stuff to do, grown-up stuff. I gotta leave you alone for a bit, kay?."

Kimiko just nodded.

"Good, now it closes early so I don't have time to guide ya 'round, but I trust someone as cute as Ko-chan will do just fine." Kushina grinned down at her and Kimiko failed to see how cuteness factored into a sense of direction.

But like always, she didn't comment on it.

"Ya just gotta look for a shop with a big sign on it, should say 'Jules' along the top. That'll be where ya get some new clothes, after all ya can't keep wearing Minato's old stuff, can ya?" Kushina smiled in amusement, gesturing to the attire Kimiko currently wore.