Three days had passed since Konan and Yahiko met Narumi, and since then, the trio had been sneaking around the Hidden Rain Village market. Today, they managed to steal a sack of fruits—thanks to Narumi and his incredible acting skills.
The three wore raincoats as they walked toward their hideout, carrying the stolen sack. Their spirits were high, laughter bubbling between them as they praised Narumi's contribution.
"Narumi, I didn't know you were such a great actor! Hahaha! Right, Konan?" Yahiko teased, nudging Narumi playfully.
"Mmm," Konan hummed in agreement.
"Come on, that wasn't acting! It was an accident—I tripped and stumbled into their stall. Hmph!" Narumi crossed his arms, scowling.
"Well, thanks to that, you distracted them while Konan and I stole this," Yahiko replied, barely suppressing his laughter as he dragged the sack.
"At the cost of me getting beaten up and thrown in the garbage?! You think this is funny?" Narumi snapped.
"Pffft…" Yahiko's shoulders shook as he fought back giggles.
"Dang it, stop laughing!!!" Narumi yelled.
"Narumi, Yahiko—look. Someone's passed out over there," Konan interrupted, pointing toward a small figure slumped in the dirt. A puppy whimpered beside the child, pawing at the kid helplessly.
Konan immediately sprinted forward. "Wait, Konan! Be careful!" Yahiko called, rushing after her.
"Well… this looks awfully familiar," Narumi muttered, grimacing as he recalled his own collapse from starvation. He hurried after them.
---
Back in their hideout, Yahiko and Narumi sat on a wooden crate watching Konan give bread to a kid. The red-haired boy had a pair of purple eyes with ripple patterns that were barely visible beneath his bangs.
"He has weird eyes that give me a bad feeling," Narumi said as he watched the kid share half his bread with a puppy.
"Coming from you? You've got weird-looking eyes too. What's more? They're not even the same," Yahiko retorted.
"Ugh. That's true. Anyway, let's talk to him and ask how he ended up lying out there," Narumi replied. "Right," Yahiko agreed, and both got up to approach the boy.
"Hey, what's your name? And what's with this dog following you?" Yahiko asked while the kid was eating.
"Chibi," the kid said.
"That's a weird name," Yahiko remarked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, Chibi's the dog. My name is Nagato," the boy replied timidly.
"Ehh, Nagato huh? Nice to meet you. I'm Narumi," Narumi interjected, offering his right hand for a handshake. Nagato slowly reached out and shook it.
"This rude guy here is Yahiko, and the cute girl over there is Konan," Narumi said with a smile as he introduced his friends. "They're good people who helped me when I was starving three days ago."
"Rude? I'm not rude! Why does Konan get a nicer introduction than me?" Yahiko protested, gently pressing his arm against Narumi's shoulder.
"Nice to meet you, Nagato," Konan said, ignoring the two.
"Yeah, and thanks for the bread," Nagato replied.
"Just ignore them when they start bickering," Konan whispered before walking over to play with Chibi using origami paper. Nagato began looking around their hideout. "Woah!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up with surprise.
"There's so much food here," he added, continuing to examine their supplies.
"By the way, Nagato, are you an orphan too?" Yahiko asked, having stopped arguing with Narumi.
"Uhh, yes. I recently lost my parents because of the war," Nagato answered, recalling how his parents had died at the hands of Konoha ninja. A look of sadness immediately crossed his face.
"Don't be sad. We lost our parents too—well, except for Narumi here. He doesn't remember anything except his name from when we found him. His parents might still be alive somewhere," Yahiko said, trying to cheer him up. Narumi waved at Nagato and smiled.
"Do you want to join us?" Narumi offered.
"Yeah, if you join, you'll have to help us gather provisions too," Yahiko added.
"Provisions? How?" Nagato asked.
"By stealing," Yahiko replied.
"But isn't ste—" Nagato started to say before Yahiko cut him off.
"Stealing is the only way for orphans like us to survive in this chaos."
"Uhh... Alright, I'll help," Nagato said hesitantly before making up his mind. Having already experienced the pain and cruelty of the world, he knew he had to do whatever it took to survive.
And so, the group of three became four.
---
A month had passed since they met Nagato. They were now quite well-known in the market for stealing goods from every seller. This made it harder for them to steal, but their well-coordinated teamwork made it look easy.
"Quite a haul today, right Nagato?" Narumi said as the four of them - plus the dog - walked back to their hideout.
"Yeah, we'll be eating well tonight," Nagato replied with a delighted expression.
"Say, Nagato and Narumi, do you guys have any dreams?" Yahiko asked suddenly.
"Dreams?" both Nagato and Narumi replied, startled by Yahiko's out of the blue question.
"I'm not going to live in this dump forever. I've got dreams too," Yahiko said passionately.
"And what is this dream of yours?" Narumi asked.
"World domination!" Yahiko declared with determination.
"World domination?" Nagato asked with a worried expression.
"Exactly! Once I rule the world, we won't ever have to suffer again!"
"Yikes, don't tell me you actually want to be a villain?" Narumi said with a disinterested look.
"Why are you looking at me like that, Narumi?" Yahiko raised an eyebrow.
"If we rule the world, we can do whatever we want," Yahiko added.
"We'd be like gods! Think we could get rid of war too?" Nagato replied with a smile, while Konan simply smiled at their conversation.
"We're far too weak to become gods," Narumi said, killing their excitement. Suddenly, a kunai with explosive tags flew near them.
*BOOM!*
The kunai exploded right beside them, throwing them all to the ground.