* Too Much Familiarity Breeds Contempt*

by: WhiteGloves

(a/n: They blew me all away!)

CONTEMPT: THE EPILOGUE!

"Thank You." ~ Sensei

Enjoy Reading!

Sakata Gintoki had a massive headache when he returned to the land of the samurais two days later in mid noon after leaving the port where Sakamoto's ship had landed. He was not displeased by the delay, but he did bid farewell the Kaientai leader in the most remarkable manner—having packed the brown haired man inside one of the freight his ship was delivering in town.

"Watcha doin'— Kintoki!?"

"I'm saying 'arigatou' nahh!" and he slammed the box shut at Sakamoto's head.

Another most notable thing then was the fact that the Kaientai vice Captain was just standing by and watching the process of 'packing the captain' with an indifferent expression like it was the most natural scene to see.

"Ya leaving already?" Mutsu said more than asked when Gintoki had finished his task and had started walking away with Sakamoto's hysteric voice filling the air.

"You sound like you're disappointed?" the silver haired man stopped walking with a finger at his ear and blowing it from his finger, "isn't two days enough already? I could've left your ship a day earlier if not for you guys landing here and there which is nowhere near my town. Do you need janitors that badly?"

"We wouldn't have hired ya for the job if ya were not good at it."

"And that's a compliment? And why'd I have to work all the way here, huh?"

"Ya can't be a freeloader all yer life, Kintoki!" came the brown haired man's muffled voice.

"Shut up!" Gintoki turned with a closed fist and contracted eyebrows, "like I've never heard that one before! And you've said that same thing five times already this day! What's with you working people always looking down on us? Like you've never tried being freeloaders before!"

"Tried and have experienced." The Vice captain replied drily, "Just didn't work out as good as for ye as it did for us."

"Tsk. That's what you get for not trying hard. It takes years to master it—you gotta put your heart to it. In any case, you've got to put that captain's of yours in his right place one of these days! Having an empty head for a long time... well, ja na'... I'll be heading out now."

"W-wait! How about me?! Kintoki? Kintoki, Oi! M-Mutsu? MUTSUUUUU!"

Gintoki had exhausted all means necessary to get back home immediately after that. It wasn't just because of his headache after having conquered space but that he remembered something important. He hadn't thought of these things while he was on outer space having been preoccupied by Katsura's stupidities, but now that he was trudging his path home, it got to him— that he had left a sensitive, care seeker, hungry stricken, mood for food swinger little girl who needs an adult to take care of her back home. Did he remember large appetite?

Did he remember his strawberry milkshake supplies?

The Yorozuya leader grimaced as he stopped and looked up at the Otose Snackbar and Yorozuya-Gin-chan house. What are the chances of his milkshakes surviving?

The answer made his future dim.

It was lucky enough he had Shinpachi to rely on to work things out with the Yato girl. Still, he was hoping against all hope that she hasn't eaten the sofa bed or the futon out of hunger.

"I understand, I understand..." he muttered to himself, practicing already the part where Kagura and Shinpachi confess to him about his milkshakes while he take steps up towards the second floor landing where his house was located, "You drinking my milkshake can't be helped. I wasn't here to consume it anyways, but uh... you do realize you have to pay for those things right? Oh yeah, you don't have money? How about I deduct it from your salary?"

He stopped by his doorway with his shadow on the door.

"Wonder what's that thing that's stinking up the house?" he muttered to himself, looking up and down his lodge, "Don't tell me... Sadaharu...?" but then the silver haired man paused and then looked down his clothes. With a raised eyebrow, he raised his armpit and smelled himself. This made him grimace even more.

"Damn... I'm still wearing that janitor clothes Sakamoto threw at me...two days ago."

He scratched his head and reached a hand at the handle of his door.

"I haven't worn my original clothes for like a week since Katsura blew me up. Damn it... destroying such precious item in a blink of an eye—that Katsura's gotta pay for that with money. Good thing I always keep a number of that favorite design of mine in my wardrobe otherwise I wouldn't be me. Tsk... I'm the only original one who can wear it like I do anyways! Original characters stick to being original characters. Copied characters should just remain getting copied since they can't handle being original. As for me—who'd be daring enough to copy me? I, Yorozuya's Gin-chan? The uncopiable?"

He pulled open the door with a smirk on his face.

"Oi... I'm..."

And saw a bunch of people inside the house—all wearing those original clothes of his.

Gintoki blinked, his face falling to it's usually sleep like expression.

"Uhhh...?" he muttered staring inside the Yorozuya household after what felt like a long time to find strange people in his dress, inside his house and all doing exactly as how he would do his hobbies—

For starters, there was a group of Sakata Gintoki's at the sofa and even at the floor—all reading JUMP of who knows what volume already. His dress aside, he recognized their heads to be of that people living at the park, spear headed by Hasegawa who was reigning at the sofa. Junks were found at the floor.

Next he recognized Kagura sleeping by the boss' table with her mouth open and saliva coming out of her mouth. People whom Gintoki realized to be from the pachinko house were beside her yawning, reading, even playing pachinko at what appeared to be an automated pachinko box behind them. Other people he could not recognize for there were some people not wearing his dress but were complaining at the ones with the dress saying they were customers of some sort.

"Why are there so many of you?" one customer asked irritably, "who's the real one?"

The different people in guise as the Yorozuya leader responded by putting a hand on their dirty white hair and shrugging their shoulders—although how white their hair was a question as well.

All of which confused the already confused real Yorozuya leader.

"What the hell...?" he stepped inside, his eyes going around from one person to another, "who the hell...?"

"Gin-san?"

The silver haired samurai turned his head on the right side and saw the young man wearing glasses, Shinpachi, who came out from the kitchen carrying a tray.

"Shinpachi?" Gintoki blinked as the megane boy's eyes suddenly became very teary.

"G-Gin-san... is that really you?" Shinpachi called, his voice cracking at how emotional he was becoming—and then all of a sudden, he ran toward the silver haired samurai with tears splashing from his eyes—"GIN-SAN!"

Everybody raised their heads up when they heard this and almost automatically, straightened themselves out as the megane boy went running to the Yorozuya leader with his arms wide open—

"Gin-san! I miss—"

Gintoki slammed his palm on the megane boy's face and kept him at bay with an arm length distance.

"Shinpachi," the silver haired man said with the side of his lips twitching, his eyes dead pan, and his atmosphere dark, "do you want to explain just what the heck is going on here? Why's everybody wearing my dress? And why are you serving them my strawberry milk shakes?"

"G-Gin-saan... you're... back..."

"Gin-san?" called another voice and Gintoki looked up to find Kagura standing in front of him with her lips trembling, her eyes also tearful, "it's you, right?"

But before the silver haired man could answer, Kagura had landed a kick at the man's middle without warning—her eyes fiery.

"Where the hell did you go, you irresponsible adult ! Leaving a fragile girl back at home all alone!? Don't you have any shame left in your head, damn bastaaaardddd!?"

"GAHHHH!" Gintoki flew back to the doorway and stayed on the floor for a second with his head spinning.

"If it isn't Gin-san in flesh," Hasegawa suddenly came forward with a smile on his lips, "it's really good you're back, Gin, this place is awfully lonely without you."

A vein pounded at the side of Gintoki's head, making him stand with vigor.

"Bastard—I'm sure it ain't at all that lonely! And what are you all doing here in my dress and as ME?"

Then out of the blue—the Yorozuya leader's voice rang across whole Kabuki.

"ALL OF YOU GET THE HELL OUTTA MY HOUSE! AND LEAVE THOSE JUMP MAGAZINES OR I'LL FOLLOW YOU TO THE AFTER LIFE! I'M THE YAKSHA DAMMIT!"

To which nobody believed and just left the things he said before they scrammed out of the house albeit slowly with yawns and stretches here and there as if really taking it to heart to be like him. It especially irritated the already temperamental samurai.

"Hurry up already—what are you old men? Hasegawa—what are you staying there for?"

"Sup', Gin?"

"Don't 'sup sup' me bastard! Damn these people..." he sighed as he threw himself at the sofa as Kagura and Shinpachi watched his every moves, "I disappear for a few days and then this happens. Just because the owner's gone everybody thinks what's left behind is all theirs!"

"Don't blame them, Gin-san," Shinpachi said as he stood beside the Yorozuya leader, "they were all just trying to help out... uh.. somehow..."

"Who needs em' when I'm here?" Kagura said with Gintoki's dress somewhat loose for her size. "I can handle the Yorozuya's jobs if you're ever going to be away, Gin-chan. But what's the matter with you, Gin-chan, leaving without notice? Where'd you go off to? Didn't your father tell you to always return home early, yes?"

"And didn't your father tell you not to let in strangers in the house, huh?" Gintoki took hold of the sleeves she was wearing, "and why the heck are you all wearing my dress? And why didn't those people remove my dress when they left the house!? That's called robbery! Oi!"

"Uh, Gin-san.." Shinpachi sighed and pointed down the balcony—

Gintoki frowned and looked down—only to find his land owner outside her shop with a table on with a dozen of that white blue kimono and dark undershirts selling it in the market. The Yorozuya leader's face darkened.

"Oi! What the hell's the meaning of that!?"

"Otose-san collected the five months' rent when you weren't here, Gin-san," the megane boy explained with an apologetic look, "then she found lots of people here wearing your dress so she thought the design of your dress must be popular to the market so..."

"Geez! That baba!" the Yorozuya leader gritted his teeth and then went on shouting, "Oi! Those designs have trademarks! I'll sue you if you guys don't gimme half of your earnings!"

"Gin-san..." Shinpachi called as the silver haired samurai turned and marched inside his house looking pissed, "what happened to you? You did follow Katsura-san, right? How is he?"

Gintoki went straight to his refrigerator only to find it empty. Hasegawa was now on the boss' chair, drinking his milk shake. An angry pound appeared at Gintoki's face.

"He's fine," he said after throwing a JUMP book at Hasegawa's head and marching toward his bedroom, "He's supposed to have returned before me here with Elizabeth. He's got a little issue about his brain damaged but seriously, what's new? He blew up Takasugi's ship, mind you."

Both Kagura and Shinpachi stared at the news.

"He what...?" the boy mouthed while Kagura closed her fists.

"Woah... as expected of Zura! Did he blow himself up too, yes?" Kagura removed the Gin dress and had sat on the floor where, surprisingly, she found the supposed to be missing Sadaharu. It appeared that he was covered on by the number of people in the house.

"He blew us all up—heck I knew I was gonna get blown up having been tangled on his hair!" Gintoki put a hand at the handle of his door, "You know that idiot can't just die without blowing other people up. Damn, I'm feeling tired just thinking all about it! Lemme sleep awhile, geez. Even I can get ship sick and ship lag! Now I understand Sakamoto's brutal motion sickness! Then to find the house filled with people I don't even know..."

And he opened his room door—and then stopped dead as he stared inside.

His eyes found their usual expression.

And the Yorozuya leader's house darkened once more.

It was because there on his bed, lay a ninja from the Oniwabanshuu by training, Sarutobi Ayame—the ninja assassin—wearing Gintoki's pajamas with legs currently curled on his favorite hotdog pillow covered in his white dress.

"What's the matter, Gin—" Shinpachi and Kagura stepped behind him and saw her too.

Dark backgrounds appeared around the three Yorozuya members.

And there goes Gintoki's voice again—

"GET OUTTA MY ROOM!"

Peace and calm didn't appear to the Yorozuya leader for a whole week after his return.

For starters—there goes all the customers he supposedly accepted during his absence. Aside from the fact that all of them weren't actually entertained by him, there was this problem that required him to work on all of them at once. Gintoki had to run here and there for a whole day just so he could finish the jobs given at the Yorozuya team. Not that he had any choice—they had to establish the good name of the Yorozuyas again after the fake Gin-san's neglect.

Once or twice, the three of them worked separately on different jobs but most of the time the three of them worked together. It was around this time that Shinpachi went and asked this question again. They have just returned home from a work that involved chasing a hare all over town when the megane boy came up to him.

"Gin-san?"

"Uh?" the Yorozuya leader was found relaxing his back on his favorite boss chair wearing his original dress.

"It's been awfully quiet lately," he commented as he sat at the sofa chair with Kagura sleeping on the other chair.

"You think? I've never had a decent sleep ever since I returned."

"No, that's not what I mean.. I mean—it's been awfully quiet on Katsura-san's side. It's been a week already and he still hasn't contacted you. Are you sure he's fine?"

"Lemme see," Gintoki sat straight on his chair and eyed the megane boy, "He blew up a friend, blew up a friend's sister, blew up a ship, blew up a head, and friggn blew up the freaking Shogun! What else in the world would make him noisy, eh?"

"You're being sarcastic, Gin-san," Shinpachi's eyebrows contracted, "I know I should be mad at him for what he did to my sister, but we both know he didn't mean that. I know Katsura-san would never try and hurt anyone even if they are on his way. He's not that kind of person."

"Have you met anyone with his kind of brain then?"

"Why are you not defending him, Gin-san?"

"Can't," Gintoki put both hands at the back of his head as he leaned backwards and looked up the ceiling, "the fact is—he did those things knowing the results. It doesn't change the fact that he hurt people. Zura's a complicated person you know... and very stubborn. He's smart enough to know the consequences of his actions... so you cannot blame him for not easily forgiving himself and showing himself at that doorstep."

He pulled his eyes back and looked at the megane boy quite seriously.

"Idiot as he is, he's always one of those people whose Bushido is stronger as his head."

"..." Shinpachi stared at the Yorozuya leader with a deep thoughtful look. Gintoki returned his gaze.

"It's not Zura..." the sleeping Yato girl said in her dreams with drool on the chair, "it's bakka-Zura..."

"But don't worry about it," the silver haired samurai stood up and stretched his arms, "it's also not like Zura to brood over these things. Luckily, he's got an air head whenever he wakes up from a long sleep and kind of forgets his mortal problems. He'll be back at the door before you know it—"

Ding~ Dong~

Gintoki paused and went to the door to answer it.

"Another job?" he was saying as he walked toward the door, "this may sound a little weird for you, but we're close for now. Do you realize how many work I had to do this week? I ain't living all my life just so I could work for other people like a slave, dammit."

He opened the door and found himself face to face with the humongous white face of the Amanto Renho—

"Elizabeth?"

The Renho just stared—and stared. Gintoki gave him the same intensity of a look.

"..." then came the sign board from its back.

I'm looking for Yorozuya Gintoki Sakata.

The silver haired man stared at the sign, then at the amanto.

"What do you think am I? An apparition?"

Elizabeth changed the sign.

The REAL Yorozuya Gintoki Sakata.

"What kind of proof are you looking for, huh?"

I've been calling at this house for days but always there were many faces greeting me saying they were Sakata Gintoki. I need the REAL one.

"Well, it depends on what kind of real you're looking for," Gintoki put a finger up the hole of his nose, "I mean—doing these simple things doesn't make me the original, but I still feel I'm the original so you just gotta go with your guts to believe if it's me or not."

And he stuck and wiped the dirty finger from his nose on the Renho's white costume.

Katsura Kotarou was walking along the street of Kabuki in his usual attire of blue kimono and white haori. He was absentmindedly looking at something on his hand as he walk, strangely oblivious—or not—to the shadows following his every move.

And the long haired samurai stared at the object on his hand, which then appeared to be a metal scrape. It was dark and burnt already, but the samurai held it with such a care.

It was then that he stopped walking and found himself standing outside the shop of Edo's greatest engineer—Gengai-san.

The door was open but there seemed to be no one at the front door at the moment. Katsura hesitated, and then looked down at the piece of metal on his hand again.

With his long pause, he then noticed a shadow appearing on his right side. The long haired samurai immediately looked up and found himself staring at the face of the Yorozuya leader.

"Oi, you looking gloomy," Sakata Gintoki greeted and Katsura noticed that familiar white board sign sticking behind the man's head as if it got stuck there, "so Elizabeth was right in saying you were out of yourself. What's wrong with you spacing out in this place? Don't you know your face is terrorizing the citizens? Have you forgotten how infamous you've become lately, you idiot?"

"Gintoki..." Katsura whispered, his eyes transfixed at the man, "you..."

The silver haired samurai scratched the back of his head and stepped toward the long haired samurai.

"What are you doing here outside Gengai's shop? And what's that on your hand, huh?"

The long haired samurai gave a short pause, and then handed something to the Yorozuya leader before walking away.

"Oi...?" Gintoki blinked and then looked down at his hand. It was different than what he saw on the Jouishishi leader's hand. It was— boom!

A small explosion made the citizens of Edo stare around at the source of such a noise and found the silver haired samurai, who's hair was burned and darkened, smoking where he stood with his hand and front dress all black.

Gintoki gritted his teeth and smirked.

"What the hell is this... ZURA!?"

And he chased the terrorist down an alley where he saw him walking deeper into the darkness while still shouting—

"What the hell's with you giving out bombs!? Are you Santa Clause or something? Do you intend to give these gifts to fellow terrorists on Christmas?"

"Leave me alone. I've no time to waste on simpletons like you who cannot distinguish the word 'friend' from a 'tomato'" came the sour reply of the samurai that made Gintoki grit his teeth even more.

"What the hell's with the tomato? And what's with that attitude? Have you forgotten whose ass it was that saved you couple of times in that ship and got his ass nearly whipped because of your idiocy? Oi!"

Katsura stopped walking and so did Gintoki and the two stared at each other from a distance. The long haired samurai's face was full of question that reflected that of the Yorozuya leader.

"What do you mean in that ship?" came the Jouishishi leader's voice as he fully faced the silver haired samurai, "What ship are you talking about?" his frown deepened.

"Don't give me that crap—you know what I'm talking about back there at Takasugi's..." Gintoki stared, and then blinked several times as it hit him, "Oi... don't tell me you really forgot what happened after you blew me up in an alley?"

"So you are aware of my memory's disappearance?"

"What do you mean 'disappearance'? Don't say it like losing bread you keep hiding from others!"

"Shut up," the Jouishishi leader cut him off, "I do remember attacking you several times, but you should have seen all of those coming. From a childhood friend like you whom I've cherished like a real brother to say we are not at all that, I've already been insulted enough. You and Takasugi do say the same things a lot."

"Don't compare to that maniac who's still running around like a maniac," Gintoki's eyebrows contorted, "Man... you forgetting about me in that ship... kinda means we're back to square one. You're Anti-Gin-san again, aren't you?"

Katsura didn't speak. Gintoki sighed.

"You're really an idiot, Zura."

"It's not Zura and you know it. It's Katsura."

"Go bang your head in the wall, you freak but that's not for regaining your memory. It's because you're a real nut!"

"I said shut up. There's no way I'd listen to someone like you anymore. Why did you even bother to come and talk? Are you trying to appease yourself for what you've done?"

"I've done many things! You're the one forgetting so do some work and knock your head out!"

"That's not how you make peace with a friend!"

"You ain't my friend!"

"There you go again—bastard!"

"Piss off and look for your dang friend if you find one!"

But as Gintoki turned to leave fuming, he noticed that Katsura had gone quiet behind him. Looking back, he saw the long haired man hiding in the shadow of the dark alley, half his face unseen. This made the Yorozuya leader pause.

"Oi... you're much scarier when you're silent bastard," he said, "it's like your plotting for the end of the world. What? Suddenly remembered Captain Thanos and Nebula? Have you realized your life's ambition? To be a numbskull?"

"Tell Shinpachi-dono how sorry I am for getting his sister caught up in my plot," came the Jouishishi leader's soft voice. "Elizabeth told me what happened after my escape... it disturbed me a lot."

"It better," the silver haired samurai snorted without turning, "and you had better not plan to show yourself anywhere near her these days... she'll pummel you."

Katsura's eyes softened in the dark and there was a little smile that escaped his lips.

"Gintoki..." he then continued, "tomorrow I'll... surrender myself to the Bakufu."

If this announcement had surprised the Yorozuya leader, he only showed it with a slight side glance at the man from where he was standing. He could see Katsura facing the opposite side—their backs to each other.

"Reforming a country... reforming a friend... includes trudging on innocent people." He continued in the middle of silence, "Like Takasugi, I'm also someone who questions what I see... even questions why I still do things that I do... to whose purpose I am trying to reform this country? To whose satisfaction am I trying to reform a friend? And why... must other people be involved?" he looked at the scrape of metal on his hand, "All those things have been in my head for quite some time now... then at the end of the day I would realize I am still at the same footing as when I started. I didn't progress at all."

"What's that got to do with surrendering?" asked the Yorozuya leader from his back.

"If I surrender then maybe... I would understand another perspective. A perspective that sensei understood back then."

"That's a huge 'maybe' you're betting your life on." Gintoki's back remained firm, "Sensei didn't surrender because of those thoughts. He never surrendered even when he was inside their prison. Listen—if you think going over there and handing yourself to the Bakufu would answer your questions then I won't stop you. Go follow your Bushido code according to what you believe in. Because I know in return—you won't listen to someone who's not even your friend, right?"

Katsura didn't say anything for awhile, but then he gave a short chuckle.

"You're right. You are not anyone's friend but your own."

"You bet. Oh, and by the way, before you get your head off, here—."

The long haired samurai turned just in time as his face got glued on what appeared to be a toilet clog pump, smacking him and getting him square in the face.

"Umfff?!"

"Bastard, an air head like you who kept on forgetting things like this should really get their heads taken off for some surgery!" Gintoki pressed the pump at the long haired samurai's face before letting it go and turning around to leave. "I'll say it again Katsura—sensei didn't surrender for the Bakufu's sake let alone die for this stupid country. Embed that on your head again if you've also forgotten."

And Katsura was left to deal with the sticky pump which came out of nowhere and to which he has no idea if clean or not—except upon close inspection.

It was only when he was able to move it that he found the Yorozuya leader out of his sight. He was alone again. Looking at the toilet clog on his hand, the long haired samurai remained silent for a long time.

"Shinsuke-sama?" called Matako as she stood outside the doorway with him in the Kiheitai's ship. It was another large ship made solely for the Kiheitai group in case of emergencies. No one could really determine the power of this terrorist group. Right at that moment, we find the two inside a dark room where the one eyed man was standing and leaning on the window with his half loose purple kimono on his waist, exposing his injured body covered in bandaged, his hand on his kiseru. Other than that, Takasugi Shinsuke looked unharmed.

When the gunslinger girl called, the leader did not even turn. But he did let out a simmer of smoke from his lips.

"Shinsuke-sama, it was confirmed that the Kaientai ship helped those samurais after the explosion."

"Tsk. Sakamoto, huh? What devil's luck. What's Bansai's report?"

"He said the leaders of the Harusame ain't at all happy with what happened to their man and wouldn't be sending a new ship yet, but they did promise to help us retaliate with those samurais in Edo."

"Tsk. They've been saying the same thing over and over." the Kiheitai leader muttered, "Katsura won't be stupid enough to infiltrate Kiheitai again and Gintoki wouldn't fancy going after me. They've lost their chance of taking them."

"We could always go after them ourselves, Shinsuke-sama!" the girl said sounding sure of herself. "To let them live after what they did to our ship... I'll kill them myself!"

Takasugi suddenly gave a chuckle that startled the blonde girl. It was the one eyed man's sinister laughter that got her blinking.

"You really think you can take those two out?"

"Shinsuke—"

"Don't even try getting near them," he suddenly eyed her with a glint on his eye, "those two need to live... those lives are not theirs... nor is mine. In the end, we will only be the ones who can judge ourselves if we die or rot in hell... with sensei."

Silence fell between the two. Takasugi's eyes flickered again.

"Then again I wouldn't put it pass those two to die in a whim... I forgot how incredibly stupid they both are."

And to that day the land of the samurai was peaceful. Until the next day when we see a long haired samurai walking quietly on the street around what appeared to be a long line of wall that belonged to the Bakufu's head quarters. The samurai stopped in front of the gate and then stared.

"You're not anyone's friend but your own." Katsura repeated quietly wearing that favorite disguise of his—his monk attire complete with his kasa hat. Like what he had decided on the previous night, he was there and ready for action; but then he had to deal with a tiny problem as he continued, "If so then... what are you doing here... Gintoki?"

For there, standing like a prison warden, leaning on one of the pillars brick gate of the Bakufu with arms and legs crossed was none other than the Yorozuya leader. The two had met again.

"You..." the Yorozuya leader looked up with eyes dead but his expression was livid, "you really plan to surrender your head here, Zura?

"It's not Zura. It's Katsura. And what's with that look?" the long haired man asked looking unfazed, "for someone who claimed he won't interfere with my decision...are you trying to tell me not to take a step forward? That you would take me down the moment that I do?"

"Now what would make you say that?" Gintoki grinned from ear to ear, still standing by the wall with arms crossed, "I wouldn't dare try and threaten you like that now, would I, Zura?"

Katsura didn't avert his eyes from the silver haired man, until he closed them.

"We have nothing to talk about. Get lost, Gintoki."

"Look—I ain't the one who's so brainless he would offer his head to be chopped off."

"Bastard, you're in my way again. Why do you feel like bothering when I don't want you too? Even when I don't ask for help you just pop around and mess things for me just like what you're doing right now."

"Isn't that the same thing for me?" the silver haired samurai raised his eyebrows, straightening up, "When I don't offer any help you just go your way and assume I'm already helping! Seriously, ticks me off. And you wouldn't have bothered telling me that if you don't want me stopping you, idiot."

"Which makes you listen to me only when you want to."

"Which makes you never listen to me and never want to!"

"You're being absurd, Gintoki, now get out of my way."

"You're saying it like I'm some love rival who's on your way to your romance!"

"I'm saying it like you're an old mother who keeps on nagging her son not to get married!"

"Forget it, you ain't getting married."

"If you get out of the way, we'll find out."

"This place ain't a church, idiot!"

"Hey, what are you guys doing over here?" a large deep voice made the two old Jouishishi patriots look at the man from inside the gate who was wearing a Bakufu uniform with a grouchy look on his face. "You're both looking suspicious."

"Uh, huh," Gintoki glanced back at Katsura who opened his mouth.

"Excuse me, I want to—" and just like that—another toilet clog pump smacked straight on his face, making him unable to speak for awhile. It was Gintoki who slammed it to him.

"Never mind the monk, officer," he said with a sheepish grin at the man in uniform, "this old monk's been looking for a toilet for days. Can't you smell him? He's been reeking around and I just decided to show him the right place. Let's go—damn idiot!"

"MFFffffp!?"

"Where the hell do you get this?!" Katsura asked moments later as the two is seen standing by the river side with the long haired samurai clinging on the toilet pump.

"I'm Doraemon. Try me." Gintoki answered with a shook of his head, "and what's with you and these suicide missions, Katsura? Oi—want me to clog your brain for you and flush it down the loo?"

"I'm saying—why do you bother me?"

"I ain't the one doing the Kamakaze missions! Bastard—I thought you'd change your mind like you always do but this time you really wanna try the jail, huh? You think they'd let you out alive just after you announced tag teams with Takasugi! If you can't use your brain, use your common sense, you suicidal maniac!"

"What are you talking about?" the long haired samurai frowned, "I never said anything about suicide."

"Right—and you'll just take a vacation inside the prison, huh?"

"Hmm? It's not like I'll get killed once I surrender."

"Wanna bet?" the silver haired samurai scratched his head and put the toilet pump on his shoulder, "geez, you're making me old! Be ridiculous again and I'll have you drink in one of those toilet seats."

Katsura blinked at the Yoruzuya leader and then it hit him.

With a smile on his lips, he removed his kasa hat and closed his eyes.

"I get it."

"What do you get?"

"That's you're a hopeless idiot, Sakata Gintoki."

"Huh?"

"Like I told you, I don't plan on getting myself killed. Thank you for coming."

Gintoki gazed at him from his dried and dead eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about? Babbling things on your own again. Anyways, I really came to give you this."

He shifted a little, and then put a hand inside his chest kimono where he rummaged and took something from it. He then tossed it up toward the long haired samurai whose eyes widened upon seeing what was thrown to him.

It was a red box.

"This..." Katsura muttered with a sound of disbelief on his face as he touched the UNO card box that was thrown to him, "just how...? but this is...?"

Gintoki scratched his head, "Got it from Sadaharu, alright? Figured you really need this for any other tournament you're holding. Is this really that lucky?"

Katsura stared at his lucky red box and couldn't help being moved to tears.

"It's not just about the lucky hand, it's about the times we've spent together using this deck that made it all important for us Jouishishi." He said with eyes shining, nearly throwing Gintoki off his balance.

"Well, I don't really get it..."

"Gintoki, I knew you'd do better to serve the Jouishishi team next year. You're a natural talent."

"I just returned the damn cards, how'd you know I got talent?! And how the hell can a simple game really lead you in that infiltration plan against the Kiheitai! You're really something—no, you're missing brain is something!"

"But I didn't join the Kiheitai," Katsura explained as he put the card on his cheeks as if to feel it, "it so happens that Henpeita-dono was their member and I could not let him slip by without defeating him."

"Uh?" the Yorozuya leader blinked, "you mean to say... you jumped aboard the Kiheitai just to defeat that guy?"

"That's one of the main reasons," the long haired samurai nodded, "although... I didn't expect things to go as they did. Defeating Takasugi also came as a chance... But I was able to defeat Henpeita-dono at the last second and then sent him sleeping before I went on with the plan."

Gintoki gaped at the long haired samurai and made a face.

"So in the end, it's all about UNO..."

"Why else would I be persistent in joining their group? I was really touched when Takasugi allowed me to stay in his ship. That guy, he hasn't forgotten the things we went through as a kid."

"The guy tried to kill you."

"That's Takasugi for you. And as for you."

"Huh?" Gintoki was surprised, when all of a sudden the long haired samurai grabbed the toilet pump and point it at him as if it was a sword, "Oi..."

Katsura gave him a look.

"I owe you this one. Friend."

The Yorozuya leader was silent for awhile, and then took the pump away from Katsura's hand.

"Like I said... who'd be stupid enough to be your friend?"

The two former Jouishishi compatriots stood there by the river bank with silence enveloping them. The sun was already set.

"By the way, Gintoki," came Katsura's serious voice as they started walking towards the street again, "this box... it smells funny. I hope you didn't feed Sadaharu-dono anything to make him throw it up."

"I fed him alright," Gintoki called as he walked ahead in that rocky way as Katsura stopped, "but it's against him and Kagura to throw up things that enters their mouth."

"Hmm?"

"Uh... yeah," Gintoki Sakata looked back with his dead fish like eyes and little finger sucked inside one of his nostrils, "you've got it all wrong if you think he threw up."

Katsura stared at the Yorozuya leader with his own eyes leveled and straight.

And Gintoki called out—

"It's the wrong end."

~THE END~

(The feels... the revelations... the end... the MANGA!)

These deranged characters thank all of you for sticking with us and their stupidities!

Thank you for being with us till the end!

Sakata Gintoki and the folks will come back!

Thank you for reading!