It wasn't often that Sasuke had cause to take his business outside the cluster of Uchiha-run shops that radiated out from the central hub around his home, but there were times when it was just a little grating to know that every busybody second-aunt or uncle-thrice-removed knew his every movement and purchase. Bad enough his mission pay was still getting shucked into savings (for what, he didn't even really want to know), with an allowance granted him per week.

So it was that he ended up further out in the village than he normally would when he found that he'd finally blunted down too many of his kunai to keep using them effectively. The name of the forge he finally stopped in was familiar to him, and there was a slight frown on his face as he opened the door, trying to place the name --

And the voice.

Ah.

"Adela," he recalled, eyeing her scowl with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you graduated the Academy?"