Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, a number of original characters and obscure canon characters to flesh out family trees, random chosen last names to give a number of characters surnames, and who knows what else.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter Forty-Two: The Angst

November 05, 0295 AtD, 11:57 PM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

The feel of something being pulled up over him and a body pressing up against his back at the same time jolted Kojimaru out of sleep and in the blink of an eye, the teen had his would-be attacker pinned to the floor beneath him. The startled squeak of surprise and distinct lack of a struggle from his prisoner soon helped Kojimaru finish waking up and it only took him a few seconds to realize that the person who he'd mistaken as an attacker in his sleep was actually his little stray come to snuggle up with him.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Kojimaru rolled off of the girl and sat up before he peeled the blanket she had draped over him off of him so he could give it back to her. He then climbed to his feet and made his way over to the screened off section of Tenzou's room that held the bathroom so he could empty his bladder. Once he'd finished taking care of that and had washed his hands, he returned to the spare futons that he and Tenzou had pulled out to sleep on after Yuri had fallen asleep up in Tenzou's bed.

He was slightly surprised to find the girl still sitting where he'd left her; he'd expected her to slink off in embarrassment over being caught sneaking into bed with him. She'd always been rather embarrassed about it in the past at least. Then again, her prior embarrassment hadn't exactly curbed that little habit in the least because he inevitably woke up to find her snuggled up against him whenever they slept in the same room. Kojimaru wasn't really all that bothered by it because his godson often did the same thing when he stayed with the Nara.

The only reason he found it uncomfortable was because Yuri kept bundling him up under whatever covers she brought with her each time she joined him in bed and the heat was unbearable for him. It wasn't until Yuri automatically offered him part of her blanket when he dropped down beside her that Kojimaru finally recalled that he'd never gotten around to telling her not to give him covers. To be fair, there'd been far more things to worry about during the journey from Kumo to Konoha and once they'd gotten back to Konoha, Yuri had begun sleeping in a different room than him.

"Keep it, youjiyo; I hardly ever sleep with blankets," Kojimaru murmured as he tucked the blanket back up around the girl so she wouldn't get cold.

"But you're always so cold!" Yuri protested as she tried again to give him part of the blanket.

"That's because I'm a walking popsicle," Kojimaru quipped as he rebuffed her efforts yet again. "My body temperature runs several degrees below normal and sleeping with a blanket could make me sick because I'd quickly get overheated. I meant to say something about that sooner but it slipped my mind, youjiyo."

Yuri slapped him on the arm when she finally realized he'd been calling her a little girl again as she hissed, "Stop calling me that, Tora-baka. I know you know my name now because you were the one that gave it to me."

"Sorry, habit."

Yuri huffed at him before she kicked him in the shin with her foot and Kojimaru couldn't help but snicker in response to her reaction. She growled at him the moment she realized he was laughing at her but he quickly distracted her from her anger by asking her a question.

"So, was there something you needed or did a nightmare wake you up and send you looking for comfort?"

"The Nibi woke me up and asked me to keep you warm again," Yuri quietly admitted and Kojimaru thought she might be blushing in response to that admission but it was kind of hard to tell in the dark.

"Ah, you mean he wanted you to snuggle up next to me because he still likes being close to me."

"Yeah. Do you not want me to do that anymore? Is that why you always sleep in here with Kuma now? Because I make you too hot?"

"Chigau, I don't mind; just don't cover me with a blanket. And the reason why I've been sleeping in here is because I figured that you'd like the privacy of having a room to yourself. Well, that and it's not really proper for me to sleep alone with you because I'm both a boy and older than you."

"Oh."

Kojimaru waited to see if she was going to say anything else and after a couple of minutes, he gave her a light push to knock her over before he quietly instructed, "Go back to sleep, Yuri-chan; you'll need the rest if you want to survive another day of Yagi-teichou's training-torture."

Yuri let out another quiet huff but didn't try to sit back up. She also didn't make any attempts to head back to Kojimaru's room or Tenzou's bed. Once it became clear that she wasn't going to go anywhere, Kojimaru mentally shrugged his shoulders and made himself comfortable between Tenzou and Yuri so he too could get some more sleep. The second he stopped moving, Yuri snuggled up against his side once more; though this time she thankfully refrained from covering him with the blanket.

Kojimaru was right on the verge of drifting back to sleep when he was brought back to full wakefulness when he heard Yuri's voice from about chest level as she asked, "Ne, Tora; do you really have the Mokuton?"

"Aa, you'd seen me use it a number of times back when you used to watch me while I trained before you were assigned to work with Yagi-teichou."

"Oh. Are you really Kuma's brother?"

"Aa, we're brothers in all but name."

"Does that mean that you're both Senju?"

"Chigau; we're not Senju."

"The Nibi told me that he doesn't like Kuma because Kuma smells like a Senju and because he has the Mokuton. You don't smell like that to the Nibi though. So, how can you both have the Mokuton and be brothers if you aren't Senju?"

"Mendoukusei," Kojimaru groused as he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose in attempt to keep from losing his temper over Yuri's innocent prying. He wasn't nearly as successful as he'd hoped to be as he could feel the temperature around him steadily dropping.

"Don't be angry with her, Tora; no one's ever told her not to ask us questions and she couldn't have possibly known that asking us about that would upset you," Tenzou murmured sleepily as he reached out to wrap his hand around Kojimaru's wrist in order to snap Kojimaru out of his downward spiral.

"I know," Kojimaru rasped as he felt his mind clear. "I was trying not to get angry."

"Gomen," Yuri contritely offered in a small voice. "I wasn't trying to make you mad and I know Yagi-teichou said it wasn't really any of my business but… but the Nibi was rather insistent when he asked me to ask you because he doesn't like what he smells in Kuma's scent."

"The blood of Senju Hashirama runs through both mine and Tora's veins but we were not born Senju. We're both just no-name orphans who caught the attention of the wrong man," Tenzou stated after the heavy silence that had sprung up in the wake of Yuri's reply had hung over the room for several minutes. "We didn't ask for that man to do what he did to us but we were too young to stop him at the time and there's nothing we can do now to undo what was done."

"Is that man also the reason why the Nibi told me that you should be dead, Tora?" Yuri asked in a confused tone.

Kojimaru sucked in a sharp breath in response to the blunt question and he felt the room spin around him for a brief moment. It wasn't until his vision cleared that he realized that Tenzou had grabbed him and rolled him over to place himself between Kojimaru and Yuri in order to prevent him from accidentally hurting her with his Kekkei Genkai as he'd unknowingly lost control of both in the brief moment of panic that her question had thrown him into. Pressing a shaking hand over his eyes, Kojimaru attempted to calm himself down as he listened to Tenzou question Yuri.

"Why would the Nibi believe that Tora should be dead?"

"He told me that Tora smelled like death to him; that the scent meant that Tora had been touched by the shinigami."

"Is that the only thing the Nibi told you about Tora?"

"No… not exactly… he told… he told me that Tora wasn't really human. He called him… Kogami and said he wasn't mortal because a mere human couldn't defy death without tainting their soul and Tora's soul isn't tainted."

Kojimaru couldn't help but burst out laughing at the idea that the bijuu thought he was a baby god. The idea was just too ludicrous for him to take it seriously. And if there was a slightly hysterical edge to his laughter, well, he'd be the last one to admit that he was scared shitless over the idea that he wasn't even supposed to be alive. His laughter soon cut off with a single pained sob as the Nibi's claim reminded him far too much of the Hokage's jab about him only being on this earth to make him miserable. And just the mere possibility that he didn't really belong here, in this world, killed.

The green-eyed teen found himself pinned to the floor beneath Tenzou two seconds later as his brother tightly whispered in his ear, "Kojimaru, calm down! It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks; this is where you belong. So, don't you dare believe otherwise! You're my brother and nothing is ever going to change that. Not the Hokage. Not the Nibi. And not some stupid supposed godhood."

"Ahou, you and I both know I'm no god; just ask Shikaku or Inoichi and they'll both tell you that I'm nothing more than a troublesome gaki," Kojimaru choked out around a wet laugh as he clung tightly to Tenzou in order to keep his fears at bay.

"Pfft, not according to Kasai and Ibiki; they both claim you're a big headache."

"Technically, they said both of us were the headache."

"True," Tenzou snorted as he finally relaxed his hold on Kojimaru. "Are you going to be okay now?"

"Yeah… maybe… well, no… maybe not. I really don't know at this point."

"Well, just as long as you're sure."

"Baka," Kojimaru huffed in response to Tenzou's smart-mouthed rejoinder.

"Takes one to know one."

"Are you mad at me now?" Yuri timidly inquired before Kojimaru could respond to Tenzou's taunt.

"No, I'm not mad at you. I was just caught off guard by how you said the Nibi sees me and, well, I've been out of sorts for a while now; so, it's not your fault I reacted poorly. And you can tell the Nibi that I don't feel the least bit godly and that the only reason I'm not dead is because I was born with a healing Kekkei Genkai that saved my life."

Yuri tipped her head to one side as her eyes became unfocused and Kojimaru wondered if she was listening to the Nibi right that second. After a short while, her eyes refocused and she nodded her head before she stated, "Matatabi said that you being born with a healing ability capable of saving your life when you were close enough to death for the shinigami to touch your soul is proof that you are a god in mortal skin. He also said the taste of your chakra would not be twisted the way it was if you were fully human."

"Matatabi…?" Kojimaru repeated curiously as he purposefully ignored the rest of Yuri's statement.

"Matatabi is the Nibi's name. He told me that you had earned the right to know his name. He didn't really want Kuma to know because of the whole Senju thing but he allowed me to tell him because of how close you two are."

"Still not a Senju," both teens growled in unison before Kojimaru dumped a pound of slushy snow on the girl.

"Ah! Oh, cold! Cold! Chikushou! Don't do that!"

"Well, stop calling us Senju! We're not."

"I didn't! It's not like you even explained how you can have the Mokuton if you aren't Senju. And Kuma even said you both had the Shodai Hokage's blood!"

"Chikushou, you know Kasai's going to throw a fit about this as soon as he hears about it, ne?" Tenzou groused as he finally let go of Kojimaru and slid off him so he could take a seat on the futon beside them.

"I don't care so long as no one else says that the only reason I exist is to make them miserable."

"In that case, you can be the one to tell him while I explain things to your stray."

"I'm not going anywhere until I've had a cup or ten of tea; I refuse to stand and listen to the inevitable tongue-lashing Kasai's going to give me when I report this without fortifying myself first! Besides, you and I both know that if I go now, he's going to be extra grouchy if I wake him up in the middle of the night. And then he's going to be a jerk about it and restrict my tea making in-house again because he's all grumpy with me over the Nibi's nosiness."

"Baka, how am I supposed to tell her if you're in the room? I really don't want to have to fix everything up in here after you lose your temper instead of just getting a little grumpy like you did earlier."

"Don't be a dobe, Kuma; all you have to do is avoid saying the teme's name and I'll be just fine."

"Until you fall asleep and get caught up in the nightmares again because your memories were stirred up by listening to me talk about it."

"I didn't have any nightmares last night; and that was after Inoichi was digging about in my head yesterday!"

"Only because he stuck to our memories of the time we spent with our summonses," Tenzou snapped back in an irritated tone.

Kojimaru froze; it was very rare that his brother actually got irritated with him. Actually, there were very few things or people that could get under his brother's skin enough to make him angry. Tenzou was always the calm one; the rock to Kojimaru's storm. Except when he wasn't. And then Kojimaru often wished for a bowl of popcorn so he could watch the show as his brother verbally (or physically) tore whoever pissed him off apart. He was not fond of being on the receiving end of that temper though and he usually went out of his way to avoid pissing his brother off as a result.

And apparently Tenzou had no patience at the moment.

It didn't take Kojimaru long to figure out why. He and his brother had had a hard day of training and Yuri's attempts to dig up information had woken the still exhausted Tenzou up. On top of that, Yuri had just told them that the Nibi hated Tenzou for something that Tenzou had no control over and had accused Tenzou of being a Senju even after they'd both told her they weren't. Even worse, the girl was prying into their background and because of the Nibi's little insights, they were going to have to give her information that neither of them really wanted her to have on them.

"No," Kojimaru finally stated in a flat tone. "Forget about it. Go back to bed, Kuma; there's no point in saying anything tonight. We can deal with it some other time when Inu-teichou doesn't have plans to kill us in his next sadistic attempt to break another two or three dozen run records for the Gauntlet over the course of a single day for the second day in a row." Kojimaru then rose to his feet and headed for the door before he called back over his shoulder, "Come, Yuri-chan; I'll walk you back across the hall so you and the nosy furball you're carrying can get some sleep as well."

It was quite obvious that Yuri didn't want to be kicked out of the room but Kojimaru wasn't in the mood to cater to her (or the Nibi's) whims at the moment when he knew there was a good chance that her presence would inadvertently goad his brother into answering her questions. At least she didn't kick up a fuss and make demands as he escorted her across the hall to his room. Once she was inside, he bid her goodnight and told her he'd see her either tomorrow or the next day depending on whether or not he and his brother survived the hellish training session that Inu had planned for them.

As soon as the door closed behind Yuri, Kojimaru sank through the floor before he made his way to Kisuke's room; his brother would appreciate his guardian's presence far more than he would Kojimaru's right now because Kojimaru's presence would just remind him of Yuri's prying. After explaining things to Kisuke without mentioning the Nibi's name or bringing up the specifics of what the Nibi had scented on him and his brother, Kojimaru wandered listlessly through ANBU Headquarters as he tried not to think about the Nibi or his past.

He eventually ended up in the small smithy where all of the ANBU's weapons were made.

Having nothing better to do and well aware of the fact that he wouldn't be going back to sleep tonight, Kojimaru fired up the forge and unsealed the tools he'd need to make himself a new pair of swords; his old ones were getting kind of brittle from how often he channeled his Hyouton into them. He also thought that pounding on a little steel might make him feel better since it had been far too long since the last time he'd done any smithing. As soon as the fires in the forge were hot enough, Kojimaru slid the first of two steel blanks that he'd chosen to make his swords from into the fire to heat it.

Once the steel had turned red hot, Kojimaru pulled it out of the forge and cut the blank down to the proper length before he set aside the section he had removed; he'd make something else from it later so it didn't go to waste. He then turned his attention to the remaining section of steel and grabbed his favorite rounding hammer and hefted it a couple of times until it sat comfortably in his hand before he lifted it up and brought it down on the glowing metal bar clamped firmly in his tongs. Seconds later, a loud clang cut through the smith as cold hammer connected solidly with searing steel.

Before the echoes of the first clang faded, Kojimaru struck the steel with his hammer a second time. By his fifth swing, Kojimaru had found his rhythm and he let the rest of the world fade into the background as his focus shrank down to the blade he was shaping while ignoring the constant sound of metal striking metal. The teen would pick up an audience of one in the form of the ANBU smith who usually worked the forge two minutes after the first strike. Any anger the older shinobi might have felt about his forge being invaded faded the moment the man saw Kojimaru was using his own tools.

A smith's tools were the backbone of his trade and few smiths liked other people using their tools since the chances that an amateur could ruin the tools were too high. It was for that reason that Kojimaru often carried his smithing tools around in a storage scroll in his utility pouch (unless he was on a sensitive mission like the one to Kumo). Another reason that smiths preferred to use their own tools was because a person's age, size, strength, and experience dictated the size and weight of their tools and using an unfamiliar tool could easily affect the quality of work that a smith produced.

Kojimaru became aware of his watcher after he returned the blank back to the forge in order to reheat it when the gray-masked man announced his presence when he commented, "You've got a better technique than I expected you to have when I discovered that it was some snot-nosed punk using my forge without permission."

"Sumimasen, master smith," Kojimaru automatically offered as he turned to bow to the man. "I didn't mean to intrude upon your domain so rudely but when I wandered across your smithy I felt an urge to work off a bit of frustration. I will gladly compensate you for the use of the steel blanks you had set aside either in time or money. I normally would've used my own but I didn't have them on me when I stumbled across the smithy."

"It's good to know you have some manners, at least," the man rasped back around a snort of amusement. "And as much as I appreciate to have my skills acknowledged; call me Zou, not master smith."

"As you wish, Zou. I'm Tora."

"So, tell me, Tora; how old were you when you first began learning the trade?"

"Seven."

"How old are you now?"

"Fifteen."

"And the reason you were taught the trade at such a young age?"

"My daifu and my sensei both believed that learning weaponsmithing would teach me a better way to create my own weapons," Kojimaru replied as he withdrew the second steel bar from the forge with one hand while he formed an ice sword with his other hand. He then passed the ice sword over to his fellow smith before he turned his attention back to the second future sword he was crafting so that he could trim off the excess length like he had for the first blank.

"If you can make swords using your Kekkei Genkai now, then why bother with steel?" Zou inquired the next time an opportunity for conversation arose.

"I can't always use either of my Kekkei Genkai openly and there are times when good steel is necessary."

"Why not just stick with steel all the time then?"

"I tend to throw my swords quite often during the course of a battle and carrying around enough swords to throw would bog me down with unnecessary weight. Not to mention that it would cost me a fortune to purchase replacements each time I lost or damaged one of them."

"Is that why you also chose to forgo using chakra conductive metal instead of plain old steel?"

"Partially; though I've been saving up to buy me enough chakra conductive metal to make me a pair of swords. I won't be able to use those while I wear the mask though, they'd be too recognizable, and the steel ones I made myself need to be replaced periodically because my Hyouton is murder on the blades."

"I take it that the basic size and shape you chose were because it made them easier to throw?"

"Aa."

Zou was quiet for a moment before he announced, "I'll let you stay until dawn, Tora; after that, you need to get the hell out of my smithy so that I can fill today's quota."

"I'll be gone by five; my teichou will be cross with me if I'm late to today's training," Kojimaru countered with a small shudder as he imagined what new hell Kakashi would come up to torture him with if Kojimaru turned up late. "I'll stop by later tonight after he lets me go to work out what I owe you, Zou."

"Fair enough. If I'm not at the forge, my room is the door directly to the left of the smithy."

Kojimaru hummed an acknowledgement before he resumed beating a sword out of the steel bar in his hands. He had the smithy to himself again less than a minute later and Kojimaru quickly tuned out the rest of the world once more. By the time he had to head off to meet up with the others for training, Kojimaru had hammered out the rough shape of both swords and a pair of daggers that he was thinking of giving to Yuri when they were finished. He was also thinking about making his godfather a set of kitchen knives to replace his old ones and he knew Tenzou needed a new tanto.

After cleaning up after himself and resealing away his tools and his unfinished swords, Kojimaru leisurely made his way to the Gauntlet to meet up with the rest of his squad instead of bothering to rush back to his and Tenzou's rooms just to change before their scheduled training session. The fact that it meant that doing so would delay meeting back up with his self-claimed brother and reduce the chances of him running into his little stray that morning was mere coincidence.

That was his story, and he was sticking to it.

November 06, 0295 AtD, 12:31 AM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Maboroshi Kisuke watched his honorary nephew and his adopted nephew's best friend slink off down the hall with a dejected air. The long-time ANBU Captain then let out a soft sigh and shook his head over the continuing drama that seemed to perpetually surround both of his boys (the two boys were a package deal due to how close they'd been right from the start) these days. He then grabbed the extra package of the candied walnuts he kept on hand for when he needed to bribe his adopted nephew to help him remember important dates (like his wife's birthday) before he left his room.

He arrived at the room that had been assigned to his adopted nephew just a few minutes later and he was only half surprised when the door opened before he could knock; Tenzou was a sensor and he'd probably felt him approaching.

"Oji? What are you doing here?"

"Tora informed me that you were having a particularly stressful night and he was under the impression that you would prefer my presence to his," Kisuke informed the young teen he'd raised for the past twelve years.

Tenzou stared at him through his bear mask for a long minute before he sighed and opened the door wider so that Kisuke could enter his room. As soon as the door closed behind them, Tenzou removed his mask and flopped onto the rumpled futons that had been laid out on the floor; the teen now a perfect picture of dejection. It was quite obvious to the long-time ANBU that Kojimaru had left out a few pertinent facts and understated Tenzou's mood.

Restraining the urge to sigh himself, Kisuke removed his mask as he sat down to join the young man he and his wife had raised for the past eleven or so years. He then tossed the pack of candied walnuts in his hand to Tenzou and while his nephew automatically caught the bag before they could hit him in the face, he didn't actually bother to open the bag in order to dig into the favored treat. Nor did he make any attempts to tease him about trying to bribe him to stay in Emiko's good graces like he usually would.

"Will you tell me why your best friend believes you're upset with him, oituko?" Kisuke inquired when it became clear that Tenzou wasn't going to speak up first. "Tora was a little vague when he woke me up."

"I'm tired, oji," Tenzou eventually muttered as he reached up to run his hand over his face and through his hair. "Inu-teichou tried to kill us with training yesterday and he plans to try again today. If that wasn't bad enough, Tora's little stray woke us up just to ask a bunch of prying questions because the annoying furball she's carrying can 'smell the Senju' on me and he hates me because of it. But most of all, I'm getting tired of always having to keep Tora in check when he loses his temper. It's annoying and at times it's like he's not even trying!"

"It was my understanding that Tora had his little temper issue under control."

"He does except when he doesn't. And sometimes it's the stupidest things that set him off."

"I take it that something set him off earlier, ne?" Kisuke insightfully asked as he studied the sour look on Tenzou's face.

"Aa, Yuri-chan's prying touched on a number of sore spots and he'd have skewered us both multiple times if I hadn't calmed him down."

"You've not minded being able to snap Tora out of a temper in the past. So, did it annoy you this time just because you're tired and cranky after a long day of hard training or have you been bottling up your resentment all of this time until it exploded out?"

"I don't know. It usually doesn't really bother me because Tora rarely ever lost his temper until they took the stupid seal off of him and now it seems like he's always losing his temper. And tonight he lost control three times! He even lost control of his Mokuton one time!"

Kisuke frowned upon hearing that Kojimaru had lost control of his Mokuton. He knew, from Shikaku's report, that the sometimes green-eyed teen only lost control of his Mokuton when he was scared, not when he was angry. He also knew that there was very little that actually frightened Kojimaru. So, what was it that Yuri could have possibly asked or said that had scared the fifteen year old? There were only three potential ways to find out; to ask one of the three involved. Kojimaru had vanished though and Yuri was most likely sleeping in Tora's room which left Tenzou as the only option.

"Why did Tora lose control of his Mokuton? What was it that Yuri-chan said to him or asked of him that scared him?"

Tenzou hesitated (a clear indication that whatever it was that had scared Kojimaru was a big deal) before he sighed and wearily answered, "The Nibi told Yuri that Tora should be dead; that he smelled of death. The bijuu also claimed that Tora wasn't fully human because he'd been touched by the shinigami and lived. Tora's been rather touchy about anyone implying that he doesn't belong in this world ever since the Hokage made an offhand comment about the only reason Tora existed was to make his life miserable. I just don't know why."

"Do you know if that's a topic that Inoichi has covered in their sessions?"

"I'm not sure."

"I will bring the matter up with Inoichi and Kosuke later then," Kisuke declared; chances were that Inoichi was already aware of the matter but it was better to be certain so that the issue wasn't dropped by mistake like the suppression seal on Kojimaru's mind had been. He then refocused on Tenzou in order to get to the bottom of the slight falling out between the to boys before he stated, "Right now, I'd like to you to tell me what it was that bothered you so much about needing to police Tora's temper tonight."

"I don't know. I'm just tired, sore, and not in the mood for all the drama."

"Ah, so you're saying you're cranky and overtired and you over reacted to Tora having a 'moment' or two, ne?"

"You think I over reacted?" Tenzou asked in a hurt voice.

"How often do any of Tora's slips of control truly upset you, oituko?"

"They usually don't."

"Yet his slip ups tonight bothered you, ne? You also already admitted that you were tired and that you'd been upset by Yuri-chan's prying; so, are you upset with Tora because he lost control or are you upset because Yuri-chan was bringing up things you and Tora dislike thinking or talking about?"

Tenzou frowned and fiddled with the unopened bag of candied walnuts before he grudgingly admitted, "I was upset by the fact that we're going to have to share certain things about our past with Yuri because the Nibi won't stop prodding her into pestering us about it until we do. And Kasai is going to be pissed about it because he's still annoyed that Tora's stray turned out to be a Jinchuuriki and none of us knew it until she revealed her status in front of the Hokage."

"So why did you snap at Tora and not at Yuri-chan?"

"Because Yuri is just a kid and Tora would have been cranky with me for snapping at her and I knew Tora wouldn't hold it against me if I snapped at him while the Nibi would just hate me more if I snapped at Yuri. And… and I was grumpy enough that I wanted Tora to feel a smidge guilty about losing control now when his probationary period is quite over and there's still a chance that Kasai could pull him from our squad."

"I trust you'll make up with him when he returns tonight?"

"Iie, Tora's not coming back tonight; he's avoiding me because he knows I'm grumpy. I'll make him a canteen of his favorite tea in the morning and take him breakfast because I won't see him until it's time for us to meet up with Inu and Taka again."

"How do you know he won't return sooner?"

"Because he's still feeling guilty about losing control and he'll seek out a distraction to avoid thinking about it."

"In that case, you should probably get some sleep so you aren't as cranky when you see him in the morning."

"Hai, oji," Tenzou agreed as the still unopened bag of walnuts disappeared into his utility pouch. "Are you going to stay here or are you going back to your room?"

"I'll stay," Kisuke replied upon hearing the uncertainty in his adopted nephew's voice.

Tenzou shot him a relieved smile before he remade the two futons on the floor instead of bothering with the bed. Kisuke ruffled the teen's hair a minute later as a silent offer of comfort and reassurance before he bedded down beside him on the floor. Tenzou was out like a light just seconds later. Kisuke allowed a wry grin to tug at his lips as he stared up at the ceiling and listened to Tenzou's breathing even out; he owed Kosuke a bottle of sake for not properly commiserating with him when he had first heard about Kojimaru's puberty induced emotional hang ups.

Apparently, Tenzou had been feeling a little left out and decided it was high time he let loose a little angst.

Translations: Japanese to English

Ahou – fool
Baka – idiot
Chigau – can be used to mean wrong, no, or to differ
Chikushou – damn/damn it
Daifu – godfather
Dobe – idiot/loser (dead last)
Gomen – I'm sorry (informal)
Hai – yes
Iie – no
Inu – dog
Kasai – flame
Kuma – bear
Mendoukusei – how troublesome, what a drag, or this sucks
Ne – used to solicit agreement or confirmation from the listener similar to using 'isn't it?' or 'right?' in English
Ojisan/oji – uncle
Oituko – nephew
Sensei – instructor
Sumimasen – I'm sorry (formal)
Taka – hawk
Teme – jerk/bastard (rude way of saying you)
Tora – tiger
Yagi – goat
Youjiyo – little girl
Zou – Elephant

AN: Urgh, this chapter was a right pain to write; Tenzou did not want to cooperate. Apparently, he didn't like the fact that he needed to demonstrate a little moodiness in this chapter. I need to show that Kojimaru wasn't the only one going through puberty though and it was high time that Tenzou got a bit upset and Yugito/Yuri's prying was the perfect lead in to him having a 'moment'. The last 1,600 words of this chapter were what had held it up all this time as I'd written most of Kojimaru's PoV right around the same time as I'd finished and posted the last chapter and while I originally hoped for it to be a longer section and include the discussion between Kosuke, Kisuke, & Inoichi about Kojimaru's sensitivity about any implications that he didn't belong in this world I figured I'd held this chapter up long enough.

In any case, this arc is finally finished and I can start focusing on the next arc of this fic. I make no promises as when I'll be posting on this story again though; I have a bunch of other stories I need to update first. As always, you can check my author's page out for updates and schedule dates though; I will be updating that regularly once again now. You can also look me up on that site that lets you patronize authors, photographers, and various other artists where I also post monthly progress reports along with other rewards.

And finally, I've managed to work through a third of my PMs before I got distracted by a few plot bunnies; so, I need to get back to that soon. I'm still not ignoring anyone. At least not on purpose. So, my apologies if I haven't yet responded to your message – it's not intentional! I swear. I'm just… procrastinating. And I have kittens that are evil enough to take over my desk. And my lap. And my bed. And they think my damn legs are climbing posts. The only redeeming feature is that they are cute.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you again for your patience with my extremely slow and erratic posting schedule. One of these years I'll get around to fixing that. Maybe. I'll at least try. ~ Jenn