Chapter Text
The sun has just set over the rainbow roofed wooden houses in Konohagakure.
The moon has not risen fully but the stars are out in all their glory. The sky is a dark blue purple-hue. It’s not night, it’s evening. A nice evening.
But cold as shit. Ugh.
You shiver. Damn. It’s getting colder.
“All the “normies” are getting off work now,” you think as you see some other obvious civilians like yourself going home.
Some are typical “housewife” style with one, maybe two kids – another exhausted looking man, practically stumbling his with briefcase. His tie is obviously hanging from his shirt in a ruffled way. Probably drunk. Who knows?
You huff and roll your eyes. “I wonder if he keeps ice cream in there”.
You pull the long partially rusted faux gold handle and a wooden door creaks open, you look up before entering.
Sometimes you see ninja occasionally hopping on the roof tiles. It’s a bit rude, but luckily not tonight. You didn’t have to tell anyone off today. Thank god for that.
You push with most of your body strength against the large door, opening it further.
The alleyway you enter is foreboding, long, dark – a bit damp. But, of all the rotten things, it is familiar. It leads out into a little alcove with a few cottages. All beautifully aligned and hidden from the high street view.
“Someday I’ll have a place of my own, maybe just as nice”, you think to yourself. It makes you sigh, but, you’re not sad, just...a bit down.
You turn down another path towards a few squished smaller buildings.
Here we are. Home.
You give your body a final push of energy. Man, It’s been a long day.
Stretching and clicking your shoulders, you lift (your stupidly heavy) bag, and finally, begin ascending the stairs to your apartment, unlocking the door.
Your humble abode. Well. Sorta.
It’s not yours, you rent the place. But it is what it is. It was an empty apartment with nothing but nails in the walls when you arrived. Now it’s got a bed! That’s somethin’ – well, that’s not true.
Actually it’s got a few things in it now. It’s not entirely empty anymore. A few kitchen appliances, a fold up table, some chairs. It’s a “right proper” home now, it is. You’re Konoha’s opposum and this is your dumpster. “Dont touch my garbage!”
As crap as it can be, at least it’s home. And it’s warm.
You sigh again, closing your eyes for just a moment. You drop your keys, bag, and coat. You use your back to shut the door, turning the handle up with a repetitive quick stroke of your arm, not really paying attention, but making sure mentally to lock it.
Another day done. Your eyelids, half open, blink with the clinging warmth of your half tired, half somewhat-emotional tears.
The wooden floorboards moan with every step, you finish up your usual routine of dropping your bags, changing into your night dress and climbing into bed, snuggling under the flush, too-big-for-your-bed clean duvet.
The night is young.
✨🌃✨🌃✨
A loud clatter on the roof awakes you in a daze.
It’s far darker now, maybe you’ve been asleep for a few hours? You rub your eyes and squint at the clock.
3am. Ugh, ew, no.
“Mmphmhmphh.” Mumbling out of annoyance and pure exhaustion, you roll over. These are the usual nightly noises in this dang ol’ forsaken ninja town – luckily tonight however, it doesn’t take long for you to fall asleep.
☁️⛅☀️🌥️☁️
Morning comes much too quickly, and you awake far too late. You’re up like a flash, throwing your blankets onto the ground, rushing to the what is probably the oldest, most basic bath room in Konoha to scrub your body clean.
You throw on clothes, a lovely long dress in a soft sage colour, and some bracelets to pretend you have some class.
On the topic of pretending, sometimes you dance in the mirror and pretend to yourself to see imaginary sparkles.
✨ SH-shaaa ✨
I look great. Damn. Good job me.
You stop by the toilet opposite of the hallway to pee and brush your teeth. A daily occurrence, you practice brushing your tongue a little too far, gag, cough, hack, spit, rinse, and finally, as you’re leaving, you joke to yourself some obscure fourth-wall-breaking reference about being late for your first day of anime school with a slice of jam toast in your mouth. (No worries, it’s a smooth jam with no seeds, you’re not a monster. And secondly, no bigger worries, you’re not a high school student, because this isn’t that kind of fanfiction. Get outta here with that. Pshaw.)
Back to a normal morning in the midst your chaos, you try and munch breakfast quickly before anyone sees you eating on the run. You zigzag through a few small streets, and like a hamster in one of those beautifully coloured cruel plastic tubes, you scurry quick to your shop front.
✨ Taadaaaa ✨ you sing to yourself quietly as you turn the dingy shop sign on the door from CLOSED to OPEN.
You glance around happily. Although late, nobody is around. You’re an excitable person for sure, but you’d never be caught dead being loud enough for someone to hear.
Back to your little worktop, you look at all things you need to accomplish today.
You pass by your photo on the wall and beam a grin.
Y/N L/N. Newly graduated tailor.
Can’t do the most basic of math but aspires to be the very best tailor you can be! Ah yes. Live your dream. Go big or go home, all that jazz.
Truth be told, you just opened your shop within the last month, and you’re sort-of-desperate to maybe pack up shop and go elsewhere.
When you were an apprentice, you thought Konoha would be a fantastic place to open a wee clothing shop because obviously there’s civilians all over town who would be in need of all sorts of clothes altered!
Ha!
You let out a melancholy coated, half hearted sigh.
You, this naïve, very obvious foreigner, spent all of your savings to rent a little place outside the town centre so you could make millions in your fancy-schmancy clothing shop. You’d make the money to buy a nicer place later.
Welp.
Little did you know, that joke of a Hokage Lady Tsunade herself had other plans for you.
You lean over the shop counter and look out the window as you start to disassemble the previous week’s display.
You don’t hate her actually, she did you a big favour basically saving your shop for you. Who knew Konoha civilians wouldn’t trust an outsider? That they had their own family tailors?
If Lady Tsunade hadn’t stepped in (well, Shizune, more likely), you’d have lost your shop, your apartment and be living on the street.
You’re incredibly grateful, but on the other hand, incredibly—
~ ~ DING DING ~ ~
The door to your shop opens, with it the little bell on the frame rings. You quickly stir from your mind ramblings.
A girl with flowery pink hair smiles at you, to which you reply with a light upper bodied bow.
“Good morning, how can I help today?”
“Hello Ma’am, are you able to fix my kunai holster?” She blushes and raises it to you.
You laugh, taking it. “Easily!”
You give it a quick once over, looking for damage. You notice the bottom of the holster has a rough hole, not too large but the seams are definitely ripping. You note the strap is also a bit loose.
“How much will it cost?” the pinkette asks.
You look up, sort of forgetting you’re in conversation. You laugh.
“Ah this will be free. I’ll repair it for you today. Can you stop by later?”
“Uh—wow! Yes, of course!” she is a bit shocked but smiles. “Are you sure? Thank you!”
A small blush crosses your cheeks, it’s not often you have a customer, let alone a kind one. You nod, swatting away her money.
“I’ll just take down your name—”
“Haruno, Sakura.”
“All right Miss Haruno, I’ll have it ready before three.” You wave as she exits.
Score. You squeeze the holster tight and laugh. Honestly this is work that will take moments to repair, cost literally nothing, but will maybe win you a customer for life. Even if it is a child. You have no shame, it’s whatever. A customer is a customer.
You chuck the holster on the side of the upper work cabinet and continue with your display changing.
A melon themed handbag on the windowsill, a few scarves hanging from hangers, showcasing to all that can see.
A few hours pass and you work your incredibly quiet afternoon at the sewing machine, mostly making black garments.
As much as you love colour, and texture, and all sorts of fun things, you unfortunately work for ninja.
Everyone wants black and navy. Yawn.
As you finish cutting a few finishing top stitched strings on a sweatshirt, you hear the door ding again.
You glance over your shoulder and see a masked man with silver hair walking in. Placing the garments to one side of the desk, you wander over. You flick a hand as a joke, “Howdy”.
He stares, hands in pockets.
You cough awkwardly and straighten up, bowing slightly.
“How can I help you, sir?” You speak, probably a bit too loudly.
In the corner of your eye you see the clock and note the time is nearly three and you’ve not yet finished the holster for the girl earlier.
The man follows your eyes and glances behind, looking at the clock with you.
He returns, not saying a word, and gives a closed eye smile. Reaching a hand up, he points to the window.
It’s a scarf. Wow. What.
This scary, gnarly looking dude, towering over you with his spooky scary ninja mask, wants ...a scarf? Is he gonna go on a date?
What if he’s secretly a fashionista? You joke in your head. You honestly shouldn’t make fun of your potential customers.
You nod, noting this nin in particular is a man of few words, and grab the hand sewn pale umber scarf from the window, bringing it to the till. Whatever you need, Coolio.
He gives you a few coins, and with a quiet exchange, you wrap it up with a lemon coloured tissue paper, handing it to him. He bows slightly again, turning to leave.
Before he can get to the door, the girl from earlier walks in to your dismay and smiles.
“Kakashi-sensei!” she runs up and hugs him. He lets out a surprised laugh.
Your eye twitches as you watch, you didn’t know this guy even had a voice in him.
They exchange a few words in the doorway and he waves goodbye to her, or dare you question, maybe both of you?
“I’m sorry Sakura, I completely forgot about your holster. Please, give me a quick moment, I’ll go fix it right now.”
“Oh that’s okay Mx—uh”
“Y/N”
“Y/N-san! Perfect.” She waits patiently, looking at the items on display as you quickly stitch up the hole.
When you come back you bring the holster and ask “May I?”
She nods and you attempt to hold it to her leg. (Let’s just assume it attaches with some super strong gorilla velcro).
You don’t know how these things work generally, but you’ve seen just about every ninja in town have them, so you can take a guess. She points to her right leg and you hold it up, looking at the length of the strap.
“I noticed the strap is a bit loose, I’d like to shorten it for you if that’s okay? And I can reinforce the stitches.”
“Wow, that would be great.” Sakura nods.
A few moments pass as you measure and get a quick idea, then run back to your machine. You snip, sew, and reinforce the strap, adding a bit more velcro onto it.
“All done.” It took maybe about ten minutes in total. You guys chat about anything, everything, what she’s doing this evening, etc.
Sakura shrugs. “No dates for me.” Waving her hands, before giving a sheepish grin, all while taking her holster. “How about yourself, Y/N-san?”
You snort.
“Pfff. Yeah right. I just moved here girly, I don’t know anybody in this crunchy old leaf town.”
Sakura laughs again and smirks at you, then puts her finger to her nose, giving you a wink.
You raise an eyebrow.
“I’ll find you someone!” the little pink flower says as she runs out the door.
“WHAT, NO—” You grasp your hand up in a futile attempt to grab her, but it’s too late. She’s gone.
Well. Let’s hope that doesn’t turn into anything.