Notes: A strange-but-true story: There was a little boy playing in the park when I was walking home from work yesterday. He saw me as I came out of the gate in my flight suit and came running over to talk to me. At first I spoke to him like an adult who has no kids talks to a child (i.e. as if they were tiny, naive idiots). He frowned at me and said, "I'm not stupid." Surprised, all I could think to say was "Then what are you?" With great gravity, he drew himself up. "I," he announced, "am six."

So here's to six year olds, who are not stupid.

Is Six

Naruto is six, and it's first time he's ever been six, so he adds an extra swirly to the graffiti on the statue in celebration of the occasion. His belly rumbles a little because he ate the last of the cup ramen yesterday, but tomorrow someone will come and give him the small living allowance he gets every week, so it's no big deal. Naruto is six, but he's still small and scruffy and no one is looking at him yet but someday he will be tall, too, so tall they'll all have to turn up their faces to see him like they do when they look up at the big Hokage mountain.

Sasuke is six, and he smells blood everywhere. He can't help it, no matter how he scrubs and scrubs and scrubs and puts on his clean shirt (he only has a couple, now that he's an orphan and there's no money for extra stuff like different colored shirts or cool new ninja weapons), he still smells it. It's in his hair and his skin and his teeth and his eyes and not one of the dozen different kinds of soaps he's tried can wash away the smell. Sasuke is almost seven by the time he realizes the only way to wash off his family's blood is to pour on more.

Sakura is six, and when she laughs out loud with delight at this fact, her mother smiles and says hush, sweetheart, keep your voice down. When she yells at her father for hiding her birthday gift, he puts a stern hand on her head and says it's unbecoming to lose your temper in public, young lady. She's too young yet to understand the fine art of turning her face into a mask, but when she smiles with only her lips and says in a polite, indoor-voice words that mean nothing, she's well on her way.