Naruto once again walked back down the slightly less busy streets, the people beginning to retire to their homes as the sun dipped beyond the horizon. A frown marred his face as he thought about his predicament. Tomorrow he was supposed to start at the Shinobi academy; it was a year earlier than most did but the Hokage had assured him he would do fine. The only problem was that all the stores refused to sell him and Shuriken or Kunai.
The small blonde was so lost in his thoughts he wasn't able to react in time when a tall man suddenly appeared in his path. The result was Naruto bouncing back like he had just walked into a wall while the tall dark-haired man just sneered derisively. Naruto looked up, expecting to be reprimanded for being so careless however all he saw was the tell-tale logo of the Konoha police-force and a flash of red eyes before the man walked on, ignoring the blonde like he had never even been there.
Naruto picked himself up off the dusty ground, mumbling to himself about unobservant people before the figurative light bulb once again clicked over his head. A grin snaked its way across his face as he took off on small legs in the direction of the Uchiha compound. 'Those people with the funny red eyes always have kunai pouches! I'm sure if I 'borrow' a few, nobody would notice.' With that in mind and with a small chuckle to himself, Naruto quickly found himself winding through the streets towards the western districts of Konoha.
A good half an hour later and the whiskered child was staring up at the rather imposing stone wall that separated the Uchiha compound from Konoha-proper. He never really thought about the Uchiha all that much but he found them having a wall around their compound sort of strange. With a small dismissive shrug he quickly began to scale the wall, using handholds and cracks that would normally be too small for any other hand to grip.
Finally with a slightly comical wiggling of his legs he flipped himself over and dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall. He rubbed his head sheepishly as he looked down at the small flower-bed he had crushed from his impromptu landing but quickly pushed it from his mind. It was darker now, the sun having fully set beyond the horizon, and it provided Naruto with great cover as he stealthily, at least to him anyway, made his way through the back garden of whoever's home he had landed in.
Strangely none of the lights in the house were on; it wasn't that late at night; in fact Naruto would usually be preparing himself a cup ramen for dinner about now. To satiate his curiosity he peered in through a low window but sure enough the house seemed deserted. However instead of trying to think why the blonde just grinned, this would make it all the easier to grab some kunai or shuriken. He tried to lift the window but it wouldn't budge an inch; with a small grunt of annoyance Naruto abandoned it and quickly hurried back through the garden, out onto an empty street.
Once again the blonde found it curious that nobody was out; he had never seen a street in Konoha so quiet before midnight. Feeling slightly less sure of himself but staying strong regardless Naruto scampered across the street, ducking into another alley between two homes. Stopping to think for a moment he remembered that all the clan compounds in Konoha were somewhat self-sustaining, that meant there had to be stores to buy things and he hoped that would include ninja supplies.
Ducking his head back out into the moon-lit street he nearly squealed with delight as he spotted exactly what he was looking for. The store was across the street from him, a large sign hanging out front that Naruto couldn't quite make out but the various weapons in the window were visible clear as day, as was the large fan symbol emblazoned across the door. With as much speed as his small body could muster he dashed across to the door, giving it an experimental push only to find it locked.
Frowning he looked around, noting the small flap at the bottom of the door, obviously made for whatever animal the shop-owner kept. He was about to go around to the side alley to find another way in when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps echo through the silent streets. His eyes widened in surprise and fear of being caught Naruto immediately ducked down, pushing himself through the small animal-flap that was obviously never designed for human use. He quickly found himself stuck, his hips just a little too big to get through.
However as the footsteps came closer he found a new burst of energy, scrabbling with all he could and finally managing to push his lithe body into the store. He sat there, leaning against the door, just panting as he calmed himself down. He was beginning to regret coming here, generally people left him alone in Konoha but sometimes the people would be slightly less forgiving; he noticed the people with red-eyes tended to be among that group.
"Check around some more, I was sure I heard something." Naruto's heart nearly stopped beating in his chest as he heard the obviously male voice call out from the street.
"Yeah yeah, I don't see anything; I'm sure you were just hearing things. I swear, you've been too jumpy lately, gotta calm down." Another voice joined the first, sounding much closer that his companion making Naruto break out in a cold sweat.
"Shut up, you know Fugaku-sama's orders; while the meetings are taking place the streets have to be cleared. We don't want anybody to find out what's going on; if there's a spy out here from the Hokage we have to flush them out and deal with them." Even in his fear Naruto managed to be confused by the conversation taking place now painfully close to him. Why would the Hokage need to spy on his own Shinobi? That didn't make sense at all. To satisfy his burning curiosity he ever so slowly poked his head up and looked out the window, only to immediately duck back down as he caught a glimpse of burning red eyes.
"Hey what was that?" The voice sounded suspicious and footsteps began to draw near to the shop he was hiding in.
"What?" The voice sounded somewhat bored, as if he was just eager to go home and relax instead of trudging around outside for threats he was certain wouldn't be there.
"There was something in the shop, I'm sure of it." Naruto gulped in a way he hoped wasn't too loud, even though it seemed deafening in his own ears. He quickly scurried further into the shop, hoping to use the shadows to hide himself. On the way his hand closed over the hilt of a kunai from one of the counters and he instinctively clutched it to his chest as if it would protect him from anything. He pressed himself as close to the wall as he could beneath a counter as he heard the doorknob rattle a few times before the sound of a key clicking in a lock was heard.