Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write fanfic because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can promise that whatever you get from me won't cover even a tenth of your legal fees.

PS-I am putting this fic on hold for the time being because I literally don't have even a single page more written at the moment. Generally speaking I prefer to have four chapters (each chapter being 25 pages minimum in length) in the proverbial can before posting. Don't worry though I have other fics ready to post that should keep you happy until four new chapters of this fic have been written.

Sunnydale High School Library, A Little Past Midnight, Ayeka's POV

I hope Xander will be alright, she thought as she watched silently as the situation was being discussed by the adults.

When she'd entered the building that their target had popped out of, she'd been concerned that something might have happened to the man she'd decided she would marry. She knew that he was strong and, on the surface, if their enemy had been forced to flee, it would imply that the Uchiha had been more than the unknown person could handle. However there was another possibility in that the enemy ninja could've defeated Xander before fleeing and that thought had been enough to get her to move with all possible speed. Ignoring the door, she employed the tree climbing technique to scale the outside wall of the building in order to get to the roof quicker. Once there she leapt into the hole there before beginning her search for her teammate and friend, but no matter where she looked there was no sign of him, but there were a few people who looked like they'd been used as a punching bag. She assumed that it had been the unknown shinobi and so she began searching for Xander from the top of the building down, though she found nothing. It wasn't until later that she'd been contacted by Anko-sensei via her transceiver to head for the school library that she'd learned the first bit of what'd happened to him.

According to Hana, Uchiha Xander was once again possessed by the spirit of another and just like during the invasion, it was someone incredibly famous.

Well, at least he doesn't let just anyone into his body, she thought offhand as Anko-sensei finished explaining what had happened during the invasion of Konoha.

"I… I think I remember that…" Hashirama stated, sounding as though the memories were difficult to see.

"While the Third Hokage was able to drive off Orochimaru at the cost of his own life, something else happened that only a handful of people know about," Anko-sensei said with her eyes half shut. "While everyone else was fighting off Sound and Sand, Xander-kun had been singled out by a trio of Sound ninja to undergo a test."

"What sort of test?" Willow asked, sounding a bit overwhelmed by the story being told.

"Orochimaru had two objectives with the invasion. The first was to get revenge on his sensei for not choosing him to be the Fourth Hokage. The second was to abduct an Uchiha in order to use him in his in his immortality technique," Anko-sensei explained seriously and with a bit of hatred towards her former teacher. "Apparently he had originally targeted only Uchiha Sasuke but, when he learned of Xander, he suddenly had a choice of future bodies."

"Future bodies?" Buffy asked, sounding like she didn't understand and, given the blonde's attitude towards school, she probably didn't.

"Orochimaru's technique works by transferring his spirit into a new host body and presumably suppressing the soul of the original owner." Anko turned back to the main group, "Apparently he's a little obsessed with the Uchiha and their special eyes. The test was to help him choose between the two of them. Xander was in a tight spot at the end and that was when it happened, when black chakra began to pour out of him and he was possessed by the spirit of the Fourth Hokage."

"If you knew this was going to happen, why didn't you warn us?" Buffy asked, sounding angry that she hadn't been told such important information.

"We didn't tell you because we didn't know, you blonde brat!" Hana growled, not liking the accusation being thrown at them. "That was the only time he'd done it and since it hadn't happened again, we figured it was a one-time thing!"

"It would seem that it is not, as you put it, a one-time thing," Giles said looking like he was doing some heavy thinking. "Nevertheless, for nothing to occur until now would indicate that something must have occurred recently to trigger this possession. Does anyone recall anything odd occurring around Xander in the last few days?"

"Well, he was helping Mrs. Summers set up an exhibit at her gallery," she said, recalling her future husband's schedule for the last few days.

"And how would you know that?" Willow asked, sounding a little suspicious.

"I tried to get him to forget about showing that new transfer student around so we could have some fun but he said he'd have to help out at the gallery anyways," she replied truthfully, letting only a little of her annoyance at the lost opportunity show.

"Come to think of it, he did come home from that looking a little out of it," Anko-sensei said, thinking of the day in question.

"Then logic would dictate that the trigger must be one of the exhibit pieces." Giles said with a plan now forming in his mind based on his expression.

"I'll go by there and take a look for anything wiggins worthy." Buffy said getting up from her chair.

"I'll go with you," Anko-sensei said, following the blonde's lead. "If there's anything in the exhibit that's from Konoha, I'll be able to spot it."

"While you're doing that, I will attempt to discern a way to safely separate Mr. Senju and Xander from each other," Giles said, nodding in agreement with their choices. "The fact that the First Hokage's spirit has possessed him twice indicates that there's a connection between the two of them that keeps drawing him back."

Looking at the possessed form of Xander, she tried to see if Hashirama would put up any fight on the subject of separating him from the living body he now inhabited. From her point of view there was a good chance that the First Hokage might try to take the body for his own, even if he was hailed as an honorable shinobi. After all, there wasn't a person alive that didn't resist death with all their heart and not one of them wouldn't be tempted to live again if given a chance.

If the former Hokage chose to keep Xander's body, this would be bad for two reasons, both of which were very bad indeed. The first was the simple fact that in a fight between Team Anko and Hashirama, there was no doubt that the latter would win even if he couldn't use his wood element ninjutsu due to Xander's Uchiha body. The man was a legend among shinobi while they would be one jounin and two genin, so victory for them was very much impossible no matter how you looked at it. The second reason was that she knew from speaking with the medical-nin that being possessed caused damage to Xander's body and that the reason the Fourth's possession ending was because the Uchiha's body couldn't withstand the pressure any longer. With such a powerful spirit now in possession of the body, there would be only two possible outcomes: either the body would die or one of the spirits would get kicked out to make room for the one that remained.

As confident as she was in Xander's strength, she knew it couldn't compare to the power that the former leader of the Senju clan could bring to bear.

"Is there something bothering you Ayeka-san?" Hashirama asked her politely as he noticed her gaze.

"N-nothing, really," she replied, unprepared for being under the scrutiny of a legend.

"Forgive me if I presume too much, Ayeka-san, but with the life I've led, acquiring the skill of seeing beneath the fronts others put up is something I've gained naturally." The First Hokage's comment was politely and gently direct. "I can tell that you're troubled by what has happened to your teammate and that you're somewhat wary of me. Could you tell me why?"

For a moment she considered coming up with some kind of excuse but, through the white eyes Xander's body now possessed, she could somehow see he genuinely wanted to put her at ease. While there was still some wariness, she decided to take a chance and hope that it didn't wind up making things worse.

"Well, it's just that your body is dead and Xander's is alive, so…" she replied but dropped off at the end unable to say anything since it might come off as an accusation.

"You're concerned that I might refuse to leave Xander's body." Hashirama stated with understanding.

This, of course, grabbed the attention of everyone else in the room, with some blatantly looking at the possessing spirit while others merely paused in whatever they were doing to listen.

"I cannot say that a part of me is not tempted. While I have only learned a little of what has happened since my death, I am greatly concerned about the fate of my home," the First admitted with an open expression on Xander's face. "However, just as I was ready to entrust the future of Konoha to the next generation when I died, I still have faith that you and Xander will keep it safe. Therefore, when the time comes for me to leave this body, I will do so willingly and watch the future unfold from the other side."

Hearing this, everyone in the room seemed to relax a bit as the legendary shinobi's words sounded sincere and lacked any sort of deceit. She was no different and so she let her fears fall silent. Instead she would wait for Buffy and Anko-sensei to return with whatever caused this mess so that they could finally put an end to it.

She hoped that they would return soon.

Summer Wind Gallery, Twenty-Some Minutes Later, Buffy's POV

"I SO hope that Mom went cheap with the security!" she whispered after using the right key to unlock the side entrance to the gallery. "If she didn't, I'm gonna have a lot of explaining to do."

"We'll worry about that later," Anko said as they entered the building. "Right now we have to find whatever sparked Xander's possession."

They ventured to the front of the store where the new exhibit sat ready for viewing when the doors opened the next day. As they split up she began to look over each object on her side of the room, trying to find anything that stood out as odd. She might not know anything more about Cone-o-Ha beyond what she'd been able to observe of Xander's team since they'd come to Sunnydale. Calling from her memory the symbols she'd seen on their equipment, she tried to see if she could find something similar on any of the object laid out before her. Truth be told, a lot of the things she saw she couldn't comprehend, much less see as art, but then she didn't have the appreciation for the stuff that her mother did. To her a painting was a painting and a sculpture was a sculpture. What she saw in this place was not all that different from what she'd seen in furniture stores or places that sold things you could decorate a home with. Still, she remembered all too well the last time she'd made a bad comment about art and her mother had lectured her for half an hour about how great it could be.

"Found it!" Anko said, causing her to turn away from where she was looking to see what the woman was talking about.

As her eyes found the purple haired woman she saw that in the ninja's hands was one of those Japanese spears with the blade at the top. Looking at it closer, she could see carvings and etchings up and down the wooden shaft that made up the majority of the weapon. While some of it was indeed completely alien to her, she did spot the symbol that was on Xander's headband thing as well as a few things that looked like what was written on that explosive paper they had.

"Yep, this is definitely it," Anko said after finishing her examination of the weapon. "It's one of the First Hokage's weapons. Probably one of the last few he had made for himself before he died. How in the world did it get all the way here?"

"Maybe someone sold it to make a quick buck?" she asked uncertainly as she didn't know the answer any more than Anko did.

"No. Senju Hashirama was revered by everyone in Konoha and many of the tools he used were more than they appeared to be," Anko replied, dismissing her theory without a moment's consideration. "Everything of his should be back in Konoha or hidden away someplace secret that only the elders of the village would have the clues to find."

"Whatever! Let's just get out of here before someone spots us and calls the police," she said as she began to make her way back to the door that they'd used to get in.

Opening the side door, she poked her head out and took a quick look around to see if anyone was around before stepping outside of the building. As soon as Anko was outside with her, she locked the side door and put the key back in the hiding place her mother had showed her for emergencies sake when she first opened the gallery. Once the brick was back in place, she nodded to the ninja woman and they began to make their way back to the high school where a possessed Xander was waiting for them.

She'd taken ten steps before her Slayer senses picked up something that instantly put her into battle mode.

"You're pretty sharp, Slayer," said a young African American man as he stepped out from behind a telephone pole. "Even staying back more than three blocks and staying stealthy wasn't enough to hide us. Still, all this means is me and my boys will get to have a little fun before we kill you."

"Yeah, yeah! If you're going to be all threateny and stuff, you should at least work on your dialogue more," she said, putting on the disappointed Slayer routine. "I mean, do you know how many times I've heard that line? I think this'll make it an even hundred."

"Well, sorry about that. The name's Deevak and, as you've probably heard, I'm looking to expand my business ventures to the Hellmouth with the help of some local talent," Deevak said casually before snapping his fingers. "But it seems they want some proof that I can deliver on my end of the deal. I figure bringing them your dead body oughta be proof enough."

"Yeah, I heard about the little boys club you're putting together," she said, sounding unimpressed. "I like your idea, though. I think it'll be your dead body that tells them that their plans' a bad idea. Let's see if who winds up bringing home the goods tonight."

Seeing the vampires step out from every available hiding place within two blocks, she worried that she may have very well bitten off a little more than she could chew. As the first group of vamps got within ten feet of her, she could tell that there were at least fifteen vampires out in the open and that was more than she'd had to fight ever. With Anko present the situation might be manageable but it'd still be a close thing.

"Buffy? Hold this for me, would you?" Anko said as she passed the weapon over. "This'll only take a minute."

"Wha-? But there's fifteen of them!" she exclaimed as she took the weapon.

"Twenty-five, including myself, actually. Some might see it as overkill but you've made something of a rep for yourself, Slayer," Deevak said with a malicious smile. "Killing the Master of Aurelius, Spike and his crazy women Drusilla. Quite impressive. Still, you're just one person and from what I've heard your helpers are pushovers, so this bitch might talk a good game but she'll be lucky if we let her last a minute."

"Not a bad assessment but there are two mistakes in your little pronouncement, demon," Anko said, sounding a bit miffed at being dismissed. "The first was thinking that it was the Slayer here who dusted Spike and Drusilla. The credit for that belongs to one Xander Harris. The second was thinking that I was one of her subordinates. We might work together but I don't work for her."

"So?" Deevak asked, sounding a little confused by the behavior of the woman before her.

"So you're about to find out that fighting Mitarashi Anko is the quickest way to become dust in the wind!" Anko declared before vanishing for a split second, reappearing with her foot slamming hard into the demon's jaw.

To say that Deevak caught some serious hang time from the kick would've been something of an understatement but it did have the effect of shocking every vampire present. Deciding that it'd be best to take advantage of it, she charged forward immediately began to use the weapon she'd been given to maximum effectiveness. It was clear after the first three decapitations that, while not quite dull, the blade wasn't as sharp as it could have been as regularly used weapon rather than a display piece. Nevertheless, the blade was made from quality metal so all she had to do was apply a little superhuman strength to slice through their necks.

Still, the vamps only stayed stunned up until her fifth decapitation before they began attacking but as they soon found out, taking on a Slayer and a ninja would either make their reps or end them.

Personally she figured it'd be the latter.

Giles' POV, Forty-Five Minutes Later, Sunnydale High School Library

"What the bloody hell happened?!" he exclaimed as he watched the pair of women enter the library.

While no stranger to the tendency of getting a tad dirty after a night of patrolling, both Ms. Anko and Buffy looked like they had been put through the wringer. The sight that caught his attention first was the fact that they were almost caked in ash that implied that they had done battle with quite a number of vampires in the recent past. Next came the numerous stains and unnatural liquids that blemished their formerly clean clothes that he would bet a month's worth of proper British tea were demonic in nature. Combined with the tarnished naginta his Slayer held and it made him wonder how a simple retrieval of a suspicious item from an art gallery.

"We ran into a little trouble outside of the gallery," Ms. Anko replied, sounding rather energetic. "A demon and a bunch of vamps that wanted to play for a bit. Too bad they didn't last very long, 'cause I really liked being able to cut loose back there, even if it was only a little bit."

"A little! You dusted seven of them in one shot!" Buffy exclaimed incredulously at the older woman's statement.

"Yes, a little! If I'd gone all out I could've taken out all of them in two or three moves," Anko said, sounding like a group of vampires were mere entrainment for her. "But that would've torn up the street pretty bad and given those old fossils more shit to throw my way, so I held back. Whatever the case, we got the thing that started the whole mess."

"Yes… well, we should be able to resolve this situation swiftly," he said as he decided to put off further inquiries for later.

"That's my naginta!" Hashirama declared as he got out of his chair and approached Buffy. "How did it find its way here? It should have been placed in the clan armory with the rest of my weapons."

"I'm not sure, Shodai-sama, but now that we've found it I will ensure that a full investigation is undertaken," Anko said with great respect and resolve. "I'm sure your granddaughter will be particularly angry that someone sold off one of your weapons."

"Yes, I imagine she will be," commented the First Hokage, with the eyes of remembering.

What the others most likely did not see, though, was the sadness that rose from the spirit like steam. No doubt this was caused by the fact that the man knew that he would not be able to see his granddaughter before returning to the spirit world. It was a feeling that every family had when they were parted from one another, even if it was only for a short time, but one took solace from the fact that they would one day see each other again. Death, however, was a parting that could not guarantee a reunion no matter what religion one subscribed to and so to come so close to seeing one's loved ones again only to know you'd be separated from them before being able to see them could not be easy. Nevertheless he could not condone risking Xander's continued good health even if it was to give a spirit peace of mind before returning to the afterlife.

Without speaking he took the naginta from Buffy and began to examine it with what senses he retained from his younger days. He could see the engravings on the wooden shaft and, while some seemed to be decorative, there were some that looked as though they served a more serious purpose. They weren't magical in nature, or at least they didn't look like anything from the magical tomes he was familiar with. However it was as he cast a quick spell to make arcane elements visible to his eyes that he learned the truth of what had happened and why Xander had been affected so.

"I should have foreseen this!" he hissed in self-recrimination at not predicting this turn of events.

"What is it, Giles?" Willow asked, worried by his outburst.

"If I am right then I know why this happened to Xander," he replied before ordering his thoughts. "Upon examining this naginta, I was able to detect a strong spiritual resonance within it. For most people it would only invoke feelings of there being something more going on about them. In Xander's case it was a great deal more. It was both bomb and detonator."

"What!?" exclaimed Buffy, Willow and Ayeka.

"I think you'd better elaborate on that, English," Anko said, sounding like she'd like to know more as well.

"I believe it began with his mother's death almost a year ago. When she perished, he attempted to revive her by pushing energy back into her body. Naturally this didn't work but it did cause him to suddenly lose consciousness," he explained as he laid out his theory. "It did not last long so I did not think more on it since there were no after effects either. Now I realize that in the process of attempting to save his mother, Xander must have established a link with the afterlife somehow."

"A link to the afterlife?" Buffy asked, sounding increasingly worried.

"Yes. People who live near places of high spiritual content develop this connection naturally and a few with an exceptionally strong link have been able to communicate with spirits directly. Usually those with the aptitude either join religious orders or become free agents for hire among the arcane community."

"You mean like spiritual mediums?" Willow asked, showing that she'd read some of his volumes on the subject.

"Very much like that, Willow. In Xander's case, though, I suspect the link was only partially formed the night his mother died. Stress and injury likely caused manifestation of this link in Konoha. However, when he came into direct contact with this naginta and its spiritual strength, the link snapped violently into its mature form. From there I can only presume that it formed as a method of summoning the spirit of the First Hokage from the afterlife."

"But it shouldn't have been possible to summon Shodai Hokage's spirit," Anko pointed out, sounding like she only partially believed his explanation. "Sandaime Hokage used the sealing technique Shiki Fūjin to defeat both him and his brother in order to defeat them when he battled Orochimaru. Souls involved in this technique are torn from their bodies and are then sealed within the shinigami's stomach, locked in battle for all eternity. It is believed that not even the kinjutsu Edo Tensei can call upon spirits sealed away by this technique."

"While I concede that my knowledge of your techniques is almost non-existent, it is the only theory that makes sense," he conceded with the necessary modesty. "If my theory is correct, though, separating the First Hokage from Xander will only be the first step. We will then have to place protective wards on him in order to ensure that no other spirits can possess him."

"You mean this could happen to him again?" Willow asked, sounding afraid of the possibility.

"People who have had their spiritual aptitude awakened cannot return to normal save in situations where their ability is burned out by overexertion. Considering that such overexertion carries a strong risk of killing the person possessing the powers, I think I can safely say that is not an option."

There was not a single person in the room that disagreed with him on that matter.

However it was as he was about to outline the steps they would take to depossess Xander that he noticed something that warranted expediting the process as best they could. While it was only slight he could see Xander's arm spasming and, judging from the expression on his face, it didn't seem as though he was aware of it. He did not consider this a good sign especially in light of what Ms. Anko had said regarding the price that came with the young Uchiha hosting the spirit of another. With that in mind he immediately began to gather the items he'd need for an exorcism that would separate Hashirama from Xander's body. In the back of his mind he made a mental note to see if there'd be a way to prevent the man from being returned to the belly of the shinigami. While he understood the circumstances surrounding the sealing, it was his opinion that no living being deserved to be sentenced to such a fate.

After his experience with Eyghon, he was somewhat more protective when it came to the fate of souls.

Monday Morning, First Period, Sunnydale High School, Xander's POV

"If this keeps up, people're gonna think I'm some kind of Hells Angel wannabe," he muttered to himself as he peeked under his shirt at the black tattoo at the center of his chest.

It looked like a black sun with a pentagram within it and, according to Giles, it was supposed to keep random spirits from possessing his body. It had been something of a shock when he'd woken up to find out that, thanks to blind chance, he'd become some sort of medium. He didn't get all of it outside of the fact that he could somehow talk to dead people and that, if something happened to the tattoo, they'd be able to hijack his body but he figured that'd be enough for now. Still, when you combined it with Snake Face's Cursed Seal and the seal that the Third Hokage put around it to contain it, you had some noticeable body paint. For the moment, though, his biggest concern was when the time came for gym and his classmates saw the new piece of artwork. When they'd spotted the Cursed Seal and what bound it, they'd asked him about it but he's just brushed them off, saying it was just a fake tattoo that wouldn't come off. When they saw the new one, it was safe to say that he wouldn't be able to use the same excuse twice.

Why do I have a feeling that my school status is going to sink more?

Then again, maybe there was a way to counter that.

For a moment he was stunned that he was even considering it but, upon reflection, it was probably the smarter way to go then what he'd been doing since coming back from Konoha. Since the moment he'd gotten back he'd had to deal with three young women trying to snag him as their future husband. He'd been resisting since none of them were likely to agree to share him and all of them would likely try and kick his ass if they didn't get chosen. Even for an Uchiha with his level of training, that spelled some serious time in the hospital or at least bed confinement at Team Anko HQ. He was still against the idea of using Makoto as a way of getting them off his back but there was an option he hadn't considered that might at least minimize the trouble he'd get into.

He hoped.

The idea was simply to gather those girls that wanted to become his girlfriend and have them compete for the role. It'd be a fair competition with rules and penalties and all that would essentially take the choice out of his hands and place it in their hands. That way, no matter how it turned out, the blame wouldn't fall on him. True, there was a chance that it could backfire with them getting a little pissed at him having them compete rather than come to a decision on his own but he had a feeling their competitive natures would make them agree.

It was a risky move but, considering their determination to claim him, it'd be less stressful then having them spring their seduction scenarios on him without warning.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see Makoto walk into the classroom and the moment she set her eyes on him he could see them light up. Apparently he'd made a good impression on her when he'd shown her around Sunnydale and so he gave her a friendly smile to welcome her to class. She replied in kind but seemed unwilling to look him in the eye.

Maybe she was shy?

She didn't seem to be during the tour of the town but maybe being around other students when she knew they'd be looking at her made things harder for her. He remembered well how Willow used to react when a fair bit of attention was directed her way by people she didn't know all that well, if at all. His redheaded best friend had matured a bit since then thanks to Buffy's help but she still wasn't quite confident enough to wear clothes that Cordy would approve of or that'd upstage the socialite. At the rate the academic prodigy was growing up, he figured she'd be halfway through college before she'd be brave enough to wear what she did Halloween night as a regular part of her wardrobe. Makoto was a bit further along the curve, considering she was wearing tight jeans and a tank top, but that was pretty conservative considering some of the things the Cordettes wore sometimes.

Watching her sit a few seats ahead of him, he made a mental note to keep an eye out for her for the next few weeks just in case. He knew from watching Buffy's first few weeks how the various cliques tended to divvy up new students and how harsh they could be to those that didn't fit in with any of the factions. It could be a little brutal and he figured it was his duty as the transfer student's guide to shield her from unnecessary attacks, whether they were physical or verbal in nature. Once he was sure that she had gotten the hang of Sunnydale High and how things worked, he'd let her be to fly on her own.

Seeing the teacher enter, he prepared himself for the boring class to come.

It was not that Mr. Smith was boring per se, it was just that he tended to go into a bit more detail than needed. Some of the facts were also a bit advanced and, in his opinion, were college level but the teacher seemed to be of the opinion that they were perfectly suitable for high school students. Nevertheless he'd managed to pass the tests so far but he attributed that more to Willow putting him through study boot camp than his own academic skills. He wasn't stupid but he doubted that any college or university would give him a scholarship based on his grades.

Not that it matters all that much. I'm a ninja of Konoha and, as long as I train my hardest, I won't have to worry about a job, he thought as he began jotting down what he thought was important.

With that in mind he split his attention between note taking and devising his next training session.

Approaching the Harris House, Nine Days Later, Ayeka's POV

"You know, you can bail at any time," Xander said as they walked down the sidewalk. "This isn't going to be pretty no matter how you look at it."

"You said you had some things you'd like to take out to the HQ and wanted to get it over with ASAP," she said, walking by his side and enjoying this alone time with him. "Things'll go quicker with me helping and you won't have to risk using a shadow clone."

"Thanks, Ayeka." He said as they turned onto a specific house's walkway.

YES! Point scored! She thought before her eyes took in the place Xander used to live in. MAJOR point scored from the looks of it. You can definitely tell what kind of person lives in this dump.

Xander never really went into any great detail about his home life other than to say that it was bad and that he was glad that he wouldn't have to worry about it for much longer. She'd done some sneaky questioning of his friends Buffy and Willow but was only told that her future husband's step-father was an abusive drunk and that it was sometimes so bad that the Uchiha chose to sleep outside. With that kind of picture, the uncut lawn, the badly rusted car in the driveway and the trash bags piled by the door seemed all too appropriate. Xander still popped in and out of the place from time to time in order to keep up appearances with the law but never did the head of the Uchiha clan stay one second longer than was necessary. As such it was solely up to Anthony Harris to take care of the house both inside as well as out and, from what she could tell, the guy hadn't lifted a finger to make the place clean.

It made her cringe at the idea of actually meeting this Tony Harris but she took comfort in the fact that Xander had chosen to make this visit at a time when he 'hoped' his step-father would be at work. Her future husband had told her that this was a little iffy since Anthony's ability to hold down a job was pretty much the same as a member of the Akimichi clan's ability to turn down free food.

"Looks like he's home," she said, pointing to the car in the driveway.

"Then let's hope that he's passed out drunk in the living room. If he is then we should be able to sneak in, get what we need and get out without him even knowing that we were here," Xander said as he tested the doorknob to find out that it was unlocked. "Idiot forgot to lock the door."

"What's so bad about that? He still lives here so vamps can't get in," she said as the entered the house. "He's not stupid enough to invite any of them in, is he?"

"Depends how sober he is at the time," he replied as he cautiously proceeded to the stairs. "If he's on his fifth bottle of Jack Daniels then, yes, he would, be but if he's just sitting down to knock back a few he'd probably just tell anyone at the door to piss off."

She was just putting her first foot on the stairs when she decided on a whim to take a sniff and almost immediately she resumed breathing through her mouth and ONLY her mouth. If the outside of the place looked to be in disrepair, then the inside was that much worse and probably hadn't even seen a bucket of water in months. There were no individual smells that she could pick out, only one pervasive overwhelming stink that disgusted her more than she'd thought possible. As they reached the top of the stairs, she wondered briefly if this was how the place always smelled or if this was just since Tony Harris was forced to handle cleaning the place. She certainly hoped that it was a recent development because, if it was always like this, then she could only respect her future husband more for being able to endure it all without becoming an asshole like his step-dad.

It didn't take them too long to reach Xander's room and inside she found herself immersed in a unique glimpse into who the Uchiha used to be before learning of his heritage. The standard posters were on the walls, either of professional American athletes or girls in various revealing outfits and bathing suits, making it clear he was typical of most guys his age before travelling to Konoha. Comic books, the American version of manga, were stacked in the corner, looking well-read but not particularly protected, making her think he was a reader more than a collector. There were a few clothes on the floor but this was unsurprising to her. She'd heard stories of how, during his first few days staying with Anko-sensei and Kurenai-sensei, both ladies had told him in no uncertain terms that he was to keep his room clean.

Failure to comply would mean 'consequences'.

She never found out what those consequences were but, whatever they were, it swiftly changed Xander's habits.

It didn't take them long to find what they'd come for and, when her eyes fell upon the objects, she understood why her future husband wanted to remove them from this place of filth. It was a collection of mementoes of various sizes and, while they may look rather cheap to her eyes, they contained memories very precious to her teammate. There were books filled with pictures within them, fingers made of foam such as those she'd seen on televised sporting events and numerous other containers of memories. There was enough in the closet that for most people it'd require several trips to relocate it all but for the two of them, five or six medium sized sealing scrolls would be enough. The only reason why she got to come along, given her teammate's knowledge of how to seal objects, was because she'd said that it was a little different if you wanted a lot of things to go into a single scroll.

She might have stretched the truth a little but he'd never know.

With the two of them working together it took them a little over half an hour to gather everything Xander deemed valuable enough to require relocation to their HQ and seal the items into the scrolls. Once done they loaded them equally on each of their backs and proceeded down the stairs, beginning to breathe a sigh of relief that they'd managed to avoid encountering Anthony Harris.

"Wha' the hell do ya think yer doin', you little shit?!" came the voice of an obviously inebriated person from behind them and that person sounded angry.

"Shit," Xander grumbled before turning to face the angry person behind them. "I just came to grab a couple of things before you pawn them off for booze money. Just go back to your bottles and Lazy Boy recliner, Tony. This doesn't have to get nasty."

"Don't talk to me like that, you little puke!" Tony bellowed with a bottle of liquor in his left hand. "I put clothes on your back and food on the table for your entire LIFE! YOU OWE ME!"

She could practically see Xander vibrate with restraint as her guy tried his best to keep from responding to the slob's words.

"I owe mom for the food and clothes. You could never hold a job long enough to earn much and when you did it went right into booze." Xander bit out while glaring at his step-father. "I owe you nothing!"

"That ungrateful whore! Been nothing but trouble since she walked into my life," Tony snapped angry before taking a swig from the bottle. "She was such a needy bitch when we met… practically begged me to marry her… should've kicked her ass to the curb the second I saw her!"

That was a line that shouldn't have been crossed.

Before she could do anything Xander's hands moved with a blur and the bottle Tony Harris held shattered and a senbon needle appeared in the drunk's opposite shoulder, causing the arm to go limp. Whether it was from pain or fear, the slob sobered up quick and tried to step backward but ended up tripping over his own feet, falling on his ass.

"Let's get one thing straight you stinking, fat, drunken piece of SHIT!" Xander growled, eyes full of anger. "YOU are the failure! YOU are the person who'll never amount to anything! YOU are the one that owes me and my mother for putting up with your SHIT all these years! If you EVER… EVER talk that way about my mother again, that bottle will be your head and that needle will go someplace a helluva lot more painful! So just shut the hell up whenever I'm around and we'll all be happier! C'mon, Ayeka."

With that the two of them left but, even as she followed Xander, she was even more amazed than before that he'd managed to grow up into such a good person if he'd been living with THAT for most of his life. She'd been with the disgusting man for only a couple of minutes and, if Xander hadn't taken action, she would have and it'd probably have been worse.

For the next several minutes they walked in silence, not in any hurry to get back to their HQ but not chatting like they usually did either.

It wasn't until they neared the main street of the Sunnydale that the silence was broken.

"I'm sorry you had to see that, Ayeka," Xander said with regret as they waited for the 'okay to walk' light to switch on. "He's always been like that and I've always done my best to make sure none of my friends got within five feet of my house. It's not exactly good for the reputation for people to know you're the town drunk's kid."

"Don't worry about it, Xander." She placed comforting hand on his shoulder, "We know for a fact the two of you aren't related and you're a much better man than that pig could ever hope to be. Just put him out of your head. He no longer exists."

"Yeah… well, in another few months I'll be able to do exactly that." Xander said with a bit of hope. "I'll be of legal age and I won't have to set foot in that house ever again."

Even with these words of encouragement she could see that her future husband's interaction with his step-father still bothered him a great deal. In a moment of kindness she decided he needed time to truly get it out of his system so quickly she looked about the immediate area for something that could do that. It took a minute but she saw that the local theater was doing a matinee of a popular action movie that was getting pretty good reviews. It was just the sort of thing that Xander needed in order to get his mind off of things.

"Hey, look! They're having a matinee at the theater," she said, pointing to the sign above the building. "Let's catch a movie before we head back. It'll help get your mind off of things for a bit."

"Won't they notice these?" he asked indicating the medium scrolls they had with them.

"We'll just say we're part of a calligraphy class and wanted to catch a movie on the way home." She was not worried in the least. "I doubt they'll give us any trouble over it."

"Ummm, ah what the hell! I'm not due back for Faith's next lesson for another three hours." A small smile blossoming on his face, "Let's see if this is any good."

With that they changed the path they'd take and walked up to the ticket booth where an employee was waiting. It only took a few minutes for them to get inside before they split up with her getting the snacks while Xander found them good seats. There were a fair number of people at the concession stand already so there was a bit of a wait but that gave her time to think on what to buy among other things.

I feel sorry for Xander for growing up in that place. She peripherally kept an eye on the movement of the people in front of her. I mean, I've had my problems back home with my parents but I always knew they loved me with all their hearts. With Xander… he must've felt like they considered him more of a burden than a true son.

Indeed, the more she thought on it the more she wondered if there was anything more she could do for him to help him put his past behind him. She knew he'd already made some progress with that due to his pursuit of his ninja heritage but his past still lingered like a shadow hiding in the dark corners of his mind. She thought perhaps maybe if she tried to make a more serious move, something to make him focus more on the future than the past, then maybe he'd let the old fade away into nothingness. As she took a step forward in order to maintain her place in line, though, she found she could not conceive of the perfect move just yet.

"Penny for your thoughts?" asked a female voice to her left.

Turning her head, she found a teenage girl that looked to be roughly the same age as her with dark brown hair and eyes apparently in line with the next cash register. She felt it was a bit odd that a stranger would ask a question like that out of the blue but at the same time she had a thought that maybe a fresh perspective might help her find the answers she sought.

"Just wondering about how to help a friend. He had a bad meeting with his step-dad and it's totally put him in the dumps," she said, trying to keep things vague but concise. "I want to try and get him to think more about the future so he can put some distance between him and the past."

"Well, maybe getting him to think about someone else as his father would be better. I know I have someone I consider a father but we're not blood related," the girl suggested while keeping an eye on the line ahead of her. "Maybe get the two of them to do something a father and his son would do would get his mind going in the right direction."

That was certainly a thought but, when she thought on it, she couldn't really think of anyone who Xander saw as a surrogate father figure. Sure, there was Mr. Giles the Watcher but she really couldn't see the two of them playing catch in the yard like she'd seen on that television show. Giles' idea of a good activity would probably be discussing the finer points of 'Crime & Punishment' or something along those lines. Her future husband might be trying to improve himself so as to better handle the responsibilities that came with being the head of a ninja clan, but even he had limits.

"The trouble with that is that there really isn't anyone that he thinks of as a substitute father." She sighing a bit, "I mean, there's one that comes close but they're just too different to really get together and do something fun."

"Well, if you can't find a replacement dad for him then maybe you just need to find something else to catch his eye," the teenage girl said before taking her pendant off and placing it around her neck. "There. I've found that sometimes all it takes is one accessory to go from just another girl to someone he can't take his eyes off."

Looking down at the pendant that now hung around her neck, she had to admit it was very pretty, especially the emerald that was embedded in its center. She wasn't quite convinced that it'd do more than make Xander-sama take a second look at her.

"I guess… I just… I just wish that…" she said, trying to put to words the thoughts that swam through her head.

"Yes?" the girl asked sounding quite interested in what she had to say.

"I guess I just wish that Xander had his real dad to talk to," she said, finally putting her thoughts to words. "Even if he was a… bad person, he had to be better than the slob we saw a little while ago."

"Done," the teenage girl said before her face changed from normal to what it'd look like if every layer of skin had been peeled off.

She was about to leap back, about to get ready for a fight with the newly revealed demon, when all of reality began to swirl like a genjutsu designed to induce vertigo in its victim.

It sure as hell did with her.

Unknown Location

"That foolish little demon!" roared an angry voice from the mist that obscured all. "Her actions have changed EVERYTHING!"

"Calm yourself, my friend," a woman's voice said with composure easily evident in her tone. "Whether the Uchiha is in one place or another, the end result will be the same."

"You are not taking this matter seriously enough, 'my friend'," the angry voice said with a bit of contempt infused into the last two words. "All of our plans were made with the understanding that the Uchiha and those blasted eyes of theirs would only be used in Akatsuki's camp, with that brat Sasuke or Konoha. To put two sets of those eyes in the hands of Kumogakure for almost two decades disrupts our plans for the entire region."

"While I agree this… wrinkle… is something that needs our full and professional attention, it is not beyond our ability to handle," spoke an intellectual voice in measured tones. "All we need do is acquire the vengeance demon's power center and destroy it. This will undo the last wish she granted, putting things back in their proper place."

"You think too small, my intellectual 'partner'," laughed a male voice that indicated much cunning and trickery. "If we acquire the power center swiftly enough and make sure it's intact, then we could very well remove Uchiha Alexander from the game entirely."

"What do you mean? You know that the Creator monitors our actions closely," the composed woman said after considering the cunning one's words. "The only reason he allows the lesser beings to tamper with time and space is because their ability to do so is restricted by the miniscule amount of power they possess when compared to us. He would stop us if we tried what you speak of."

"Then we will not use our power," the cunning one said with no drop in his confidence. "So long as the power center remains intact, its ability to alter reality will also remain. All we need do is adjust D'Hoffryn's spells a little so that we can better control how it is used. By doing this it will not be our power that removes the Uchiha from existence but D'Hoffryn's."

This caused all present to fall silent as they considered their comrade's idea and looked for any flaws that could expose them to possible retribution from the Almighty. In the end the smiles that appeared on all their faces made it clear that they were in favor of the plan and would put it into motion.

"Tor, Kamal and Whistler will be armed with the appropriate equipment and sent after the vengeance demon. Their orders will be to capture both her and her power center intact and then teleport to us immediately," spoke the intellectual voice in a serious tone. "If they cannot return with both then the priority goes to the power center, with the demon being expendable."

"Agreed. So we have decided, so shall it be," the other three said at once before a blinding white and crimson light sprung forth reaching out to enact the plan.

Shinobi Region, Kumogakure, Uchiha Xander's POV

Uugghhh… talk about a creepy feeling, he thought as he paused in his walk down the moderately busy street to look about a bit. Nothing odd going on, though. Not to either of my eyes.

Not that he'd really been expecting anything considering he was in the heart of his own village but covert infiltration was part of the skill set of a shinobi so one never could be absolutely certain about their home village being safe. Still, he'd been drilled hard enough coming up through the academy that he doubted he'd missed anything looking about.

"What the hell are you doin', Xander?"

Turning to face Karui, who'd been walking with him to get their next mission assignment, he realized he must've looked pretty odd just stopping out of the blue like that.

"Just had an odd feeling a second ago. It's nothing. We don't want to keep Mabui waiting."

Karui hmphed once then they resumed making their way to the meeting room they'd been told to go to in order to receive the mission details. They hadn't been told all that many details about it but they had been told that it was a little out of the ordinary and that was why they'd be doing it outside of their usual teams. He brought the ninjutsu and genjutsu to the fight whereas Karui brought the kenjutsu and he guessed that they'd be assigned a jounin as team leader before they left. He didn't know who it'd be but, as long as it wasn't HIM, it'd be something he could deal with. Of all the jounin in the village, HE was the one that was best experienced in small doses if a ninja wanted to keep their sanity. If he'd said this out loud, his dad would reprimand him for saying such things about family but then would give him a look that made it clear that he thought the same.

"So what do you think the mission is?" he asked offhand as they continued to make their way down the most direct street to the building the meeting room was located in.

"Dunno," Karui replied, only partially paying attention. "Probably some other village's rogue-nin snuck past those lard asses on boarder duty and they want us to clean up the mess."

Made sense and it would explain why Mabui wanted ninja with different specialties on the mission. The more options you had available, the better the odds that the rogue ninjas would be taken down by something they weren't prepared for.

"Pisses me off that the other villages don't clean up their own messes," Karui growled, making her position clear. "Why can't they have their shit together like we do?"

"Dunno. Still, you can't be too hard on them," he said with his usual lopsided smile. "After all, we Kumo-ninjas pretty much set the standard for how to do things, so all of them probably can't help coming in second."

"Yeah, I guess it can't be helped if we're the best ninja village on Earth," Karui said with a cocky grin that let everyone know she thought there was no village that could beat their village. "What do you think it is?"

That caused him to pause for a couple of minutes and think.

If it was something out of the ordinary and needed a diverse skill set, then it couldn't be something just any team of shinobi could handle. Both he and Karui had pretty solid reps as ninja, whether it was due to who their senseis were or in his case the special powers he had. For them to be handpicked for the mission, it must mean that Mabui and the high and mighty village council wanted operatives that they could rely on. It also made him think that they might not know the nature of the issue very well, otherwise they wouldn't be keeping things secret and they wouldn't be sending a chuunin-chuunin-jounin team. In the end there was only one possibility that made sense to him.

"I think one of the eggheads out in one of the R&D compounds let their little project get out of hand and now we gotta lock it down before the other villages find out."

"Yeah, I can see those idiots screwing things up," she commented, sounding like she agreed that his idea was a possibility.

Right up until they entered the meeting room they debated other possibilities as well and Karui almost always chose possibilities that allowed her to take potshots at the other nations while he focused more on the bizarre possibilities. It was only when his eyes set on Mabui herself that he shoved speculation aside and straightened his uniform before taking an informal at attention stance. Naturally Karui was a little more laid back but not by much. Thanks to who her teacher was, the redhead had experience being in the same room as Raikage-sama, so she knew that being too laid back or informal would get her yelled at.

"Chuunins Xander and Karui reporting as ordered."

"Thank you for being so prompt. Time is a factor with this mission," Mabui said from her position, sitting down behind a table on which there was a thick folder. "Two days ago we began to receive reports of a series of battles taking place in other nations wherein almost a full kilometer of land was devastated each time. This by itself is enough to warrant our attention but there is also the fact that none of our spies in the other nations have been able to find out who caused the damage or what sort of jutsu was used."

"Isn't that impossible? I mean, sure, they wouldn't be able to put a specific name to the technique but they should be able to tell just by looking around what element was used," he said, genuinely surprised that his runaway R&D project might have come close to the mark.

"According to the reports they found signs of liquid burns throughout each area, as well as point precise freezing of certain objects," Mabui said opening the folder in front of her. "Whatever the techniques used, our intelligence division has been able to determine a pattern to the disturbances and we believe another incident will occur within our borders within the next ten hours. Your team's mission will be to proceed to the estimated event sight and observe the area for at least eight hours. If something happens you are not to get involved. Just observe and then report back."

"WHAT!? You mean we're just gonna sit on our asses and take notes!?" Karui asked incredulously, obviously not liking the lack of action.

"That would be ideal but, given the what we know so far, the likelihood that you might be forced to defend yourselves is rather strong," Mabui replied, not losing her composure. "For that reason it is essential that the team possess both the power and experience to adapt to any situation quickly."

This was enough to get Karui to settle down but he could tell by the look in her eye that she was hoping for a fight. Just like her red hair, the kunoichi was hot blooded and so fighting was more in keeping with her nature than silently observing. Personally he'd be fine either way as far as the mission was concerned but he was definitely leaning more towards silent observation duty. If there was so little reliable intel on these destructive incidents, that meant they'd be planning on the fly if things got nasty and that wasn't the kind of fight he wanted. He preferred to have all the info on potential threats right up front, or at least enough intel that he could pick out the best equipment combo for the mission.

Going in pretty much blind was a good way to wind up dead.

"So who's our jounin-in-charge going to be?" he asked, not seeing anyone else in the room.

The answer came in the form of a brief change in the air behind him but that was more than enough for him to take action. Dropping to the floor, he could feel the weapon that had been about to hit him pass though thin air but he was already moving to sweep the legs out from underneath his attacker. When he failed he didn't pause, but rather pushed forward in order to gain some distance from his enemy and while he was in mid-air he pulled out a kunai just in case. As he turned to face the unknown person, his eyes caught the sight of sharp steel heading his way so instantly he brought up his own weapon to block it. Then remembering a specific nerve bundle near the wrist, he clamped down on his attackers arm putting all the pressure he could on that bundle, forcing his enemy to drop the weapon. As soon as he saw the weapon begin its descent to the floor, he pushed forward with his own kunai aiming for the throat of his foe.

"Nice try, loser, but this round goes to me…" he said with a smile on his face as he stopped his thrust just before it would've broken skin. "…Dad."

"You sure about that, kid? Look down," his father said, sounding quite unconcerned at the moment.

Puzzled, he carefully looked down and found that, while he had been going for the kill, so had his father and, if this had been a real fight, then they'd both be dead on the floor. Positioned in the perfect place to deliver death within seconds if it had continued on its path was his Dad's kunai and he groaned as he realized that he'd forgotten one important fact: humans had two arms, not one.

"Damn," he said before putting his kunai back into his equipment pouch.

"Must you do this every time, Norio?" Mabui asked with a slight roll of her eyes.

"Yep. Gotta keep my boy on his toes," Dad replied with a confident grin. "If Dad finds out he's been slacking off, you know what'll happen."

A sigh of acceptance from the bronze skinned woman told all that she knew all too well what'd happen.

"I presume you overheard everything?" Mabui asked, looking like she'd repeat everything if she had to.

"Of course. We'll gather some supplies and then head out for the target area as soon as possible."

Mabui just nodded to this before closing the folder, walking over to Dad to give it to him and then left the room.

"As emotional as a pet rock," he muttered, never quite able to understand how someone could be that rock solid all the time.

"Don't judge a book by its cover, Xander," Dad admonished before they left the room and made their way outside. "Karui? Get your stealth oriented gear plus one box of trap gear. We'll meet you at the front gates in thirty minutes."

"Gotcha, Norio-taichou!" Karui nodded before leaping for the nearest rooftop.

"Let's get a move on too, son," Dad said, turning to face him partially. "We'll tell your mother where we're going if she's home and maybe she'll pack us each a special meal for the trip."

"Bet I can beat you there!" he said before leaping onto the nearest rooftop, pushing himself to his top speed.

He couldn't help but smile as another contest between him and his dad began but unlike the others, he'd make sure he won this time. For as long as he could remember his father had been pushing him to become the very best he could be in whatever he got involved in, whether it be ninjutsu or something simple like cooking. However unlike some of the hard ass fathers in the village, his dad would take part in the challenge as well to either show that the goal was indeed reachable or to make him feel better when they both failed. His dad usually won but when the jounin failed, he usually did as well but it'd been a close thing for him each time. Those few times would've been victories for him if he'd only pushed that little bit harder or been a little quicker at figuring out the solution to the challenge his father had set before him.

With this race though he had the advantage because with the jutsus he'd learned and the routes he'd mapped out, he would get there a full thirty seconds sooner than normal.

The village went by blurred at the edges as he used rooftops, walls, cables and outcroppings of rock to speed him along the mental path in his mind focusing all his thoughts to getting to that one task. A part of him worried that his father might already know every possible path and route in the village but he dismissed that since he had on numerous occasions managed to surprise his dad. Holding onto the hope that he'd make it home first, he kept his body going, not letting a single obstacle slow him down whether it be person, animal or object. When his home came into sight, his smile grew because as far as he could tell his dad was nowhere to be found.

"YES!" he crowed as his feet touched down at the front door of the house. "Hope you like defeat, Dad, because you're going to be eating it real soon!"

Wanting to tell his mother that he'd finally defeated his father, he opened the front door, stepped inside and when he looked into the living room, he saw something that soured his mood immediately.

Sitting on the couch next to his mother, eating from a bowl of popcorn, was none other than his father, looking not even a little winded.

"How did you—" he got out in disbelief at what his eyes were telling him.

"Just a little technique I learned from your grandfather," Dad replied with a smug smile on his face.

"A little technique?" he asked rhetorically before rolling his eyes. "Nothing is little when it comes to gramps."

"Point," Dad nodded in agreement with the statement.

Five Miles Southwest of Kumogakure, An Hour and a Half Later, Norio's POV

She's thinking about them again, he thought as he led his son and his friend through the mountain ranges that made up virtually all of the country of Cloud. I'll have to think of some way to cheer her up when we get back.

He'd seen it the second that he'd entered the house after beating Alexander in the race back to their home but he'd chosen to pretend that he didn't notice it. For all his carefree ways of looking at the world around him, his son was remarkably perceptive and often saw more than others did. It was one of the reasons why the young man had done so well as a ninja and managed to reach the rank of chuunin before anyone else in his age group. He'd mentally held his breath the entire time they were preparing but now that over an hour had passed without any sign that his child suspected something he assumed he'd been successful in withholding the truth.

That didn't make him feel as good as he'd wanted.

He never felt good when he saw the sadness in Jun'ko's eyes when she thought of the clan and the village she'd left behind to be with him.

He remembered that night well.

It had all begun over thirty years ago when he'd managed to distinguish himself enough amongst his peers to warrant the attention of the village council. He remembered being a mix of proud and nervous when he'd stood before the four most powerful people in the village listening as they explained the mission he'd been selected for. The mission required great sacrifice, leaving his family and everything he knew behind, but in return he would help them all greatly with the information he would be providing. He would take on a false personality portraying a war orphan and would be deposited in a destroyed village soon before a Konoha team was expected to reach it. It had been done during wars past so it was unlikely that it would fail and it did not as the team acted as expected. This team had been specifically targeted because other sources had learned that one if the leaf ninjas had lost a child months earlier. It was their intention to take advantage of this tragic loss to manipulate the shinobi into taking him back with her and adopting him.

It had worked all too well.

As the years passed and he stuck close to the identity that he'd been told he must adhere to all the while keeping his keen eyes open for any information Kumogakure could use. This information would be carried back home whenever he visited a tea and snack shop that existed a short distance away from the village hidden in the leaves. He'd used whatever childish excuses he had been able to conceive of to convince his adoptive mother to take him there at least once a week. The trusting woman hadn't suspected a thing and then the day came for him to gain better access to the kind of information that could aid his true village.

He formally entered into the ninja academy of Konoha.

He hadn't aced the classes even though he'd already mastered what was being taught because he'd known that an untrained child easily becoming proficient would arouse suspicion. He kept his knowledge on a random gradual upswing that was perfectly in keeping with what most adults would expect from an average but competent student. It hadn't been until he'd chosen to use the 'ask for help from classmates' tactic in order to fit in that he'd met the one person that would make him view his mission in a new way.

He'd asked Uchiha Jun'ko of the Uchiha clan to help him with some shuriken techniques.

People had been a bit surprised that a relative unknown had asked a girl from the famous Uchiha clan for help but they'd been downright shocked when the girl had readily agreed. It had been the start of a mutually beneficial relationship wherein they both helped each other whenever they got stuck on a particular lesson. Despite knowing that his mission was paramount, the friendship, the bond that formed between him and Jun'ko proved to be one that he genuinely treasured. He soon began to actively think of ways he could keep her safe from the consequences of his actions because he didn't want to lose a good friend.

This desire only got stronger once puberty hit and he began to see girls less as someone who looked different from him and more as someone that stirred something wonderful within him. Things both great and small where she was concerned began to fascinate him like nothing he could remember while activities where she was present were much more enjoyable then when she was absent. It hadn't been long before he worked up the courage to officially ask her out and his joy had skyrocketed when she'd agreed to what would be their first date, but not their last. Those had been good days that he would not have minded if they'd lasted for the rest of his life.

That had all ended at the age of sixteen when the Third Great Ninja War had erupted.

It had all built up gradually over the course of many months and the intel he'd managed to gather had hinted that the proverbial pot would boil over in the near future. This had been the reason why the village council back in Kumogakure had told him to begin positioning himself in the best possible place to gain the maximum amount of valuable information. This had meant distinguishing himself as a ninja and making the Konoha elders believe that his loyalty to them and 'his village' was beyond reproach. It hadn't been easy at all, especially when it brought him up against Kumo ninjas, but the message from the council of Kumogakure had been clear that the information took priority. It hadn't been until roughly halfway through the war that he was of sufficient standing among the ninja of Konoha that he could access their important reports. This had pleased the council back home and it'd only gotten better with every victory Kumo ninja achieved when Konoha was involved, but it had been hard on him every time he saw the painful consequences in the form of grieving friends and families. He'd done a masterful job pretending his reactions were due to him blaming himself for not killing more Kumo ninjas or not bringing the war to an end sooner but his success was mostly due to others seeing what they wanted to see.

Then one day he received new orders that made him feel better than he'd ever felt before and worse than he'd felt since the mission had begun.

The council of elders had ordered him to use his relationship with Uchiha Jun'ko to smuggle out classified and sensitive documents out of Konoha. Whether it was scrolls containing Konoha specific jutsu details, papers detailing future strategic plans or specific information on ninjas whose skill and power was known throughout the region, he'd been expected to acquire them covertly. For the entire mission he'd wracked his brain trying to figure out a way he could get the information without involving Jun'ko. With every month the war dragged on, security measures increased specifically to ensure the info he'd been ordered to acquire didn't leave the village. In the end, as he walked through the gates of Konoha, he was forced to accept the fact that, without Jun'ko's aid, he would not only fail his new orders but also likely get caught.

Thus had he constructed a believable scenario to manipulate the woman he'd seen as his future wife into helping him sneak the information out of the village while replacing the missing scrolls with perfectly written copies. It had been his plan to first place the scrolls in a location outside of the village and then, when the opportunities presented themselves, move them to a pick up location where a Kumo ninja would be waiting for him. While it had been nerve wracking at times, everything had gone smoothly, with Jun'ko managing to provide him assistance with not only her Sharingan but also her position as document courier to slip past all obstacles.

It had been shortly after they'd successfully removed the first batch of scrolls that scheduling conflicts caused both him and Jun'ko to have considerably less time together. Rare was the time when both of them were in the village for a long enough period of time to truly enjoy each other's company but this did help him remove scrolls from the hiding place without her knowledge. It was when the effects of this transferred information began to show up that his position in Konoha began to be threatened. The higher ups in Konoha weren't stupid and, when things took a drastic downward swing in the field, they'd begun a full out investigation for a spy. The elders of Kumogakure had waited a full two months before ordering him to return home and abandon his position as a ninja of Konoha. It should've been one of his happiest and proudest moments to return home a hero whose hard work had brought his people some valuable victories. However all he could think about was Jun'ko given that there had been no mention in his new orders concerning the woman he loved coming with him.

His mind had raced as he'd prepared to leave enemy territory for home, debating whether or not try to take his lover with him or leave her behind. One side of him had argued to leave Jun'ko behind since she'd likely be completely against betraying her village and trying to force her would only increase the chances of him being caught. That side even went further thinking that, if he left, there was a chance that no one would even suspect Jun'ko had anything to do with the lost documents. After all it'd be stupid to think she'd come forward and admit to her role in the treasonous action since it would cost her everything. The other side of him, though, feared the worst case scenario where she'd be found out, put on trial and then either imprisoned for the remainder of her life or executed.

In the end he'd found himself unable to leave her behind.

Keeping his act going, he'd ignored his orders and waited for Jun'ko to return from her mission before leaving a note in their room containing instructions to meet him outside the village at the worst location for ANBU or other ninja to attack them should she be followed. He'd found out later that she'd misinterpreted his note as an invitation for a romantic evening in a forest clearing but the reality was much more serious. He'd had a full script worked out for how he was going to explain everything, explain it in such a way so as to keep her from hating him, but one look into her eyes had been all that was needed for the unfiltered truth to come out. He hadn't spared her any details and made honesty the most important thing of his tale but by the end he could tell that his attempt to cushion the blow had proved useless. Indeed, just as she had been torn apart emotionally by the truth, he had been tormented by the reactions that accompanied those feelings through her body language. At the end he'd explained how he'd been ordered by the council of elders back in Kumogakure to return home and told her that he wanted her to come with him. He'd told her that the only thing that awaited her if she remained was a lifetime in prison or execution, but if she ran away with him she'd have a new family as well as a new life. He'd done his best to convince her to come with him and in the end she agreed but he'd been able to tell that it wasn't so much that she was looking forward to life in Kumogakure, but more that it was less unpleasant of two possibilities.

Without any further preparation they'd left their past behind and ran as fast as they could for the extraction point where his orders had given him. Never once during that entire time had his hand left hers for it'd appeared to him to be the most potent means of reassuring her that he'd always be there for her and that she was making the right decision.

In hindsight though it'd probably been just as much to reassure him that he wouldn't lose her somewhere along the way, both figuratively as well as literally as it'd been to reassure her.

When he'd arrived at the extraction point he'd had to do some fast talking to keep the Kumo ninja there from killing Jun'ko, regardless of his protests. In the end he'd had to bluff like no one had ever bluffed before to get them to agree to escort the two of them across the border and into Kumogakure. Once inside the village, though, his bluff had fallen apart and the two of them had been taken to the local village police department before being put in separate cells. His fellow Kumo ninjas had let them stew for several hours before confronting them both and he'd done his best to convey his reasons for deviating from his orders. He'd emphasized that Jun'ko had come of her own free will, that she had nothing connecting her to Konoha anymore and that he wished for her to be accepted as a citizen of Kumogakure.

When it'd looked like failure was imminent, he played his final hand: he'd focused on the value of breeding a wielder of the Sharingan into a clan of the village.

He'd known all too well how coveted kekkai genkais were by ninja villages and few had more value than the infamous copy wheel eye of the Uchiha clan. After another two hours of solitude they'd returned and agreed that Uchiha Jun'ko would be accepted as Kumogakure's newest citizen but that she'd be his responsibility, that if there were any signs of treachery, both of them would pay the ultimate price for their betrayal.

It hadn't been until days later that Jun'ko had told him what had probably been the deciding factor for the village elders and the Raikage: she was pregnant.

Over the months that'd followed, Kumo's ANBU kept close watch on them at all times and, for every one that either of them saw, they'd both known there were three that they were completely unaware of. He'd done his best to make her feel like she'd eventually see her new village as home but it wasn't until Alexander had been born that the look of loss had left her eyes. With the new life in their lives, they'd come together as a real family and the marriage ceremony had taken place a year after their arrival in the village.

Now, eighteen years later, he could safely say that they were all one big happy family… for the most part.

However, every once in a while, something would remind his wife of what she'd lost. Sometimes it'd only manifest in the eyes but other times, when Alexander wasn't around, crying episodes would manifest. It only got worse after news had reached Kumogakure six years ago of all but one of the Uchiha clan had been slain by one of their own: Uchiha Itachi. Jun'ko had been pushed to the point of breaking mentally as she found herself to be one of only three survivors of her clan. The trauma of the news had caused her to become almost apathetic for a full week but at the end of the week the simplest yet also kindest of gestures.

A plate of Uchiha Jun'ko's favorite food personally prepared without any help by Alexander.

This had caused tears of happiness to trickle down her cheeks before she'd grabbed her son up in a passionate hug that she did not release him from for until more than an hour had passed. After that she was still feeling the cloud of grief over her head but the promise of seeing her son grow up and continue her clan's bloodline through him. This had led to a few overprotective moments but, on the whole, he wouldn't trade this life for anything.

"You okay, Dad?" Xander asked him, pulling from his memories.

"Just fine, kid!" he replied with his 'devil may care' smile. "You excited about seeing who's causing all the destruction?"

"Of course!" Xander replied with his usual lopsided smile. "I might even borrow a few of their moves."

Rolling his eyes he could only say one thing to that. "Just make sure you don't destroy half the village when you try them out."

The Middle of Yu no Kuni, Anyanka's POV

"D'Hoffryn… I promise if you get me out of this, the next wish I grant will provide you amusement for TWO centuries!" she whispered from her hiding place behind a boulder, her pendant pressed between her palms.

Nothing.

This is the LAST time I do Zelda a favor and do one of her wishes! she thought with a mix of anger and fear as she peeked over the top of the boulder. Should've known better than to stray outside my area of expertise, even if the woman covered for me at the last company meeting.

Indeed that had been how the whole mess had started when she'd expressed her distaste for the large meetings D'Hoffryn held every decade or so to review past achievements and work on areas in need of improvement. More often than not it was just a rehashing of the same old flaws with the same old pieces of advice, so she really hadn't seen the point to going to one after the twentieth time. Her lord, on the other hand, was quite insistent on them certain that the only way that they would keep up the good work was by analyzing past wishes for imperfections. After three centuries she'd had enough and come to a decision: she would attend eight out of the ten meetings had each century and a friend would cover for her the two times she chose to stay at home. Most of the time her friends only asked her to cover for them when they chose to ditch the meeting, but every few centuries, ladies like Zelda insisted that she handle a wish case for them. Things usually went smoothly, which was why she hadn't told Zelda no when she'd made her request but now, assuming she survived this mess, she would never do another vengeance demon's wish EVER again.

It had started out simply enough when Zelda, patron demon of mistreated teenagers, had given her the details of the case. The young man she'd be granting the wish for had been treated poorly by his step-father and this had continued on past puberty until the final year before becoming an adult by most cultures. Her 'friend' had stated that the only reason she hadn't moved in on the young man sooner was due to the fact that he was living on a hellmouth. Unlike her, Zelda didn't like visiting hellmouths since the odds of stepping on someone's toes on one of them was dangerously high. She personally didn't have any environments she preferred to avoid so she'd taken the name of the young man and teleported to Sunnydale.

Once she arrived, she'd changed herself into a more human form before going about the town gathering information on her target. Unlike what most people thought, a vengeance demon didn't just show up next to the subject, get the wish done and then leave. It was important to understand the subject, get a feel for what his or her buttons were and then approach the subject when the likelihood of the keywords being spoken was highest. What she'd learned had only made her increasingly reluctant to do Alexander Harris any favors. According to what people had told her, the guy had at least three young ladies dancing to his tune, with another one clearly hoping to get his romantic attention. With hundreds of years of experience she knew it was only a matter of time before one of the ladies would require her services. She'd decided in the end to approach the gigolo's blonde date instead and get her to wish for something instead to nail two birds with one stone.

I just wish that Xander had his real dad to talk to.

It had been that phrasing that had prompted her to alter the past just enough to not only grant a wish that both the young man and the woman no doubt wanted (what step-son doesn't want to meet his real dad?!) and make sure that none of the poor girls ever met him. She reached back in time and made it so that Harris' real father never abandoned him and his mother, forcing Jessica Harris to flee to the United States.

It was only after she'd said 'done' and watched reality reorient itself to accommodate the changes that she began to suspect that something was amiss.

The first change she'd noticed was that she was no longer in Sunnydale, but rather in the middle of a forest with neither Harris nor his blonde date in sight. After she'd tapped into the navigation aspect of her teleportation ability, she'd been surprised to find herself in the ninja region of the world because nothing she'd learned about Harris had implied a connection to the dangerous inhabitants of the region. Still, she didn't think it was any concern of hers anymore and had been just about to teleport back to Zelda to give her report on the wish she'd been struck from behind by a painful arcane blast. As soon as she'd regained her senses, she'd tried to teleport back to Arashmaharr but instead had only found herself a few hundred miles from where she'd been. Before she'd even considered trying again, a flash of light out of the corner of her eye warned her of another sneak attack and so she'd leapt out of the way, catching only the edge of the enemy meant to hit her dead center.

It had been that point that those responsible had revealed themselves and fear blossomed in her heart immediately afterwards:

Tor, Kamal and Whistler, known agents of the entities known as the Powers That Be but they didn't quite match the images she'd seen in the past.

For one thing none of them had previously been shown with glowing eyes that could double as flashlights and she was pretty sure that Whistler had never had a body quite that chiseled.

When she'd asked them why they were attacking her, they'd only said, in eerie unison, that they'd been ordered by their bosses to capture her and take her to them. Right then she'd known that if she went with them, she'd be lucky if all they did was kill her, so instead she'd gone on the offensive using short range teleports to maneuver around them while punching and kicking.

This proved to be a mistake.

Even though she was physically capable of matching most of the more respectable warrior demon species, they were powerful enough to reduce her defiance to long odds rather than suicide. However, each time she'd thought that she might be able to take one of them down, they brought out a new trick that had forced her to put some serious distance between herself and her foes. Elemental attacks, light based weaponry capable of destroying anything they hit and all of them had been clad in living armor that prevented her from landing even a sure thing blow. After her arm had been seriously injured she'd decided to change her strategy from attack to trick and then escape. She was going to lure her enemies into the territory of one of the major shinobi nations and hope that the border guards or armies killed the three operatives. Even if the trio were only delayed long enough for whatever they'd hit her with to wear off, it'd be worth it since she figured she'd be safe in Arashmaharr.

The dangerous part was what she was doing at that precise moment which was putting up enough of a fight to keep her pursuers interested but also one step ahead of the terrible three.

Where are they? she wondered, given that both her eyes and her other senses weren't picking them up. They usually show up within two minutes of me materializing.

"Don't bother, doll," a distorted voice whispered in her ear before something powerful wrapped around her neck. "You ain't seeing us unless we want to be seen."

She was thrown through the air, through a couple of trees and then landed on the ground in a great deal of pain. Normally her demonic healing would take away the pain within a minute or two but, much to her displeasure, whatever had been done to hinder her ability to teleport was also hindering her recuperative powers. With her injuries, all she could do was watch as her pursuers approached her and, with every step they took, her doom came that much closer. Looking about frantically for some way to turn things to her advantage, she'd almost given up when her eyes fell upon a single thread of hope.

I hope this works, she thought as she closed her eyes and focused her mind on her option of last resort.

"Looks like the fight's gone out of her," Whistler said, or at least she thought it was Whistler. "Bind her and prep her for transport to the bosses."

The remaining two spoke in their gutteral languages before moving to follow the wannabe pimp's orders and that was when she acted. Calling on all the power she could, she reached out with her telekinetic abilities and yanked on the downed trees, directing them at her foes. Whether it was because the wood wasn't considered a threat or the three had let their guard down, the masses of wood did their job and did it well. All of them were sent flying over her and moments later she felt the tremor letting her know they'd landed on the ground.

Getting to her feet as her healing finally allowed her to do that without passing out, she imagined the next destination in her mind and, with almost three times the focus it had taken before, she teleported to the next stop in plan.

I just hope these cloud ninja are really as territorial as I've heard.

A Mountain Encircled Lake, Five Miles North West of Unraikyō, Xander's POV

"Nothing out of the ordinary from this angle," he said while his fingers pressed the transmit buttons on his throat mike.

"Got jack shit here," Karui said through his earpieces.

"Same here," Dad said, sounding like he was still looking for anything out of the ordinary.

"You sure the shit is supposed to hit the fan here, Norio-taichou?" Karui asked with a little impatience in her voice.

"I know the person who wrote up the pattern report in Mabui's folder," Dad replied, completely confident. "He knows his stuff. If he says that the destructive event is going to pop up here within the next few minutes, then I believe him."

"If you say so," Karui said, sounding like she was getting into a comfortable waiting position. "Doesn't matter to me if something happens or not."

He just grinned because he knew enough about Karui to know that, even if she sounded like she wasn't going to keep a sharp eye out and take things seriously, the opposite was actually the case. The redhead wouldn't have made it to the rank of chuunin if she couldn't be trusted to do her job on a mission. From his hiding position, he had a pretty wide field of viewing but in order for other people to find him, they'd literally have to be right above him on the boulder behind him looking down. It wouldn't prevent him from evading an incoming attack because, thanks to his eyes, he had at least two earth element techniques that would save him. Being able to copy any technique he saw was one of the reasons why he'd done so well as a ninja. Sure, he rarely encountered an enemy shinobi of a higher level than his own, but when he did he managed to snag some pretty impressive techniques from them.

Half an hour passed before in the blink of an eye what looked to be a young woman appeared out of nowhere and almost immediately a dizzy spell seemed to hit her before steadying somewhat. Activating his Sharingan to gain more information, he was surprised to see that the energy running through the woman's body was similar to what he expected but… darker. What his eyes did tell him, though, was that the woman was seriously weak and would be lucky if she managed to get more than fifteen feet. He considered approaching her but decided to wait until his father gave the order to move in and that'd be a good move given the power hinted at in the files Mabui had provided.

His decision proved to be perfect when three… things appeared above the water of the lake and his sharingan told him they had plenty more energy in them than the woman.

"What the fuck!?" Karui squawked through his radio's earpiece. "What the hell is going on here!?"

"Keep quiet and focus!" Dad said sharply, showing that he was all business at the moment.

Watching the scene unfold before him, it was obvious that the trio was trying to capture the woman and had worn her down almost to the point where she could no longer stand never mind get away. That didn't mean that the woman wouldn't try and, when rocks seemed to obey the movements of her hands to fly at the trio, he was at a loss to understand what he'd just seen. There were techniques that could allow a ninja to manipulate objects like that but there was always a chakra connection involved. Sometimes it was strong enough that everyone could see the energy while other times it was so light that only very sharp eyes or eyes like his sharingan to perceive it. All he saw was an energy field surrounding the rocks and a light field centered on the young woman's head but this did indicate she was responsible for it. Too bad the rocks weren't doing anything more than annoying the three monster people that kinda reminded him of the pictures he'd seen of the S-class criminal Orochimaru's test subjects.

It was when the largest of the group delivered a devastating backhand that sent the woman to the ground that he knew the time to be a spectator had come to an end.

Leaping through his 'window', he landed on the water and stayed on the surface as he charged the enemy's location, throwing kunai at their backs to get their attention. Discouragingly the blades bounced off the armor the three aggressors but the kunai did their job of making the trio look in his direction, so it wasn't a total loss. Still, he'd need to somehow make himself into a genuine threat if he was to claim enough of their attention to allow either his dad or Karui to get the woman clear.

Tiger, Ox, Monkey, Rabbit, Ram, Boar, Ox, Horse, Monkey, Tiger, Dog, Tiger, Snake, Tiger, Ox, Monkey, Rabbit and Bird! "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!"

The water beneath his feet shot up from the lake, spun rapidly into a circle and then shot towards the three aggressors, hitting them with all the speed of a landslide. He was smiling on the inside as he saw the impact point in the stream of water move quickly in the direction of one of the mountains that ringed the lake but then, out of nowhere, it stopped.

Then it began to move around its intended targets.

Guess I gotta up the ante even more. Rabbit, Dog, Boar, Ram and Rat! "Raiton: Kangekiha!"

Just like Darui-senpai showed him, a discharge of lightning shot down the tunnel-sized blast of water, slamming into the mysterious force redirecting the water. There was a waiver for all of three seconds before the diverting force collapsed, allowing both water and lightning techniques to send the trio into the mountain like three normal cannon balls. Keeping it going for a few more seconds, he then cancelled both techniques to see the results of his attack, hoping that all he'd see was dead or severely battered bodies.

All he got was a mound of shattered rock drenched in water.

How'd they escape? he thought as he looked about immediately in order to reacquire his targets. Was it during the time they diverted my water jutsu?

"DOWN, XANDER!" Karui screamed at him before something tackled him into the water, submerging them both since neither had enough chakra control to keep them above water.

When they both resurfaced, his eyes confirmed what he'd suspected in that it'd been his teammate who'd tackled him into the water. When he looked about to see what the threat had been, he found an ink black spike sticking out of a boulder with a steaming liquid substance the color of green slime dripping off of the entire length. It didn't take a genius to theorize that the green substance was not something you wanted in your body or even on it especially since it was actually eating into the boulder.

Not wanting to provide a stationary target, both he and Karui used the water walking technique to get above the surface of the lake before evading two follow up spikes that missed by dangerously small margins. It was a good thing that his father chose to intervene at that time with a volley of three explosive kunai at the shooter of the spikes because the freaky guy was really getting scarily close to hitting the mark. As the smoke from the explosions cleared, he was disappointed to see that, while some of the in waiting spikes had been shattered, they 'healed' in a matter of seconds, making them look alive.

Deciding that it'd be best to provide a united front, he zipped over to his father's side and saw that, while he and Karui had been holding the attention of the enemy, his dad had successfully recovered the unknown woman. Watching as Karui pulled out her katana, he chose to focus his efforts on his birthright, hoping to spot the precise origin point and time when the enemy chose to attack so that he could counter attack.

It was that focus that blocked the next attack to head their way.

Tiger, Hare, Boar, Dog! He formed the hand seals and, when he felt the build up in his mouth, he spewed the dark substance from his mouth into the shallow water beneath his feet. Doton: Doryūheki!

Watching as the wall shot up from line he'd spewed in front of his team, he prayed that he hadn't exceeded his grasp since this was about one technique level beyond what he'd reliably done before. C, D and E techniques he had no trouble doing with the earth element but his affinity was not strong with it, making the odds of him managing to consistently at a B or higher statistically low. Fortunately his luck held out and, before the spray of oddly colored water could land, his earthen wall successfully shot up to block it. Grinning with satisfaction both because of the blocked attack as well as the fact that he'd provided his team with decent cover, he almost didn't feel the chakra drain in his body.

"Whoa… Remind me not to… do that again," he muttered as a wave of weakness swept briefly over him.

"Are you alright?" Dad asked, looking at him with concern.

"Yeah, but I think it's safe to say that earth release techniques definitely won't be something I'll be known for in the future," he replied as his strength returned to him. "Who are these guys, Dad? I've never seen moves like those before."

"I don't know but I do know that a lack of knowledge can kill you," Dad replied with a concerned look on his face. "Pick up the woman and get ready to run for it. I'm going to give our playmates a shocking distraction to cover our retreat."

For a moment he considered insisting on staying behind as back up but one no nonsense glare from his father was enough to keep him from voicing his wish. Nodding once, he bent down to pick up the strange brunette girl, with Karui stepping forward to cover his flank just in case one of the three enemies got past his father. With preparations complete, his father leapt to the top of the wall he'd created forming the seals for his technique as he went.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! Daburu Kuropansa!"

As he leapt away he smiled as he imagined a black lightning field surrounding his father before two cat-shaped forms darted out of the field heading towards their foes. He remembered well the story his father had told him of how he'd earned the honor of wielding the black lightning for his years acting as a spy in Konoha. Out of the entire village's history, only the Third Raikage, the Fourth Raikage and Darui had been able to use this unique raiton technique, making it a great honor for his father to be added to the list of users. He hoped one day that he'd pull off a victory that'd earn him the chance to learn how to wield black lightning just like his Dad because that'd be SO cool.

It didn't take long for him and Karui to put some distance between the attackers and them but then they needed to decide on a destination because running all day would get old real quick.

"Got any ideas on where we can hide out until we get a handle on things?" he asked Karui as he pushed off a blunt spike of stone.

"Hmmm…maybe…" she replied before an idea blossomed in her mind. "This way! Killer B-sensei showed us a cave not far from here that should be perfect!"

With that they changed course and he fell in behind the redhead, letting her lead the way.

As time passed, though, he began to worry about his father because, even though he knew that the jounin was covering their escape, in his mind that meant that the man would catch up with them as soon as possible. Had something happened? Had one of the three used some weird technique that had caught his father by surprise? Had his father—

His concerns evaporated when he heard the sound of feet on rock behind him and saw his father quickly catching up to them. Out of habit more than anything else he used his sharingan to make sure it really was his dad and not someone using the transformation technique for deception. He smiled as his eyes confirmed that it really was his father and a huge weight disappeared from his heart.

"You're slowing down, old man!" he joked as his father fell into step beside him.

"Nope, I just wanted to give you time to confess to Karui!" Dad said in a way that made it impossible to tell if he was joking. "I've seen how you look at her when you think no one's watching you!"

"DAD!" he exclaimed at the very thought of what his father was implying.

"Norio-taichou!" Karui exclaimed but… was that a bit of blushing he saw?

Ridiculous! For Karui, romance might as well not exist. He'd never EVER seen her look at a guy in any other way than 'fuck off' or 'I will kick your sorry ass'.

He was definitely misreading things.

Definitely.