T~

[Kleee]

Three small figured trudged through the all too familiar snow of Yukigakure, looking up in awe at the village that had changed so much in what they had thought had been a short space of time. It turned out that Kei, Ryou and Toya had been away from home alot longer than they had thought.

A long time in which they had learned and changed so much. And strengthened the all too important bond of teamwork they shared.
But it was still good to be back.

Ryou brought up towards the rear of the group as the three genin made their way through the snow, tossing up and catching a handful of coins. His earnings for completing the mission. They had reported to the mission centre on the border of Yukigakure upon arriving; and despite all their efforts and attempts at protests they had still only been paid for a D-Rank mission. It wasn't much; and split amongst themselves it was barely enough for them all to afford the scarf and beanie that the dramatic change in climate brought the necessity for. But for Ryou, it was pretty much all he had left.

Despite his searches, Ryou had failed to find anything remotely usable amongst the pile of charred metal that had once been almost all he had owned. Oh well, at least he had the lightest pack to carry all the way back to Yuki, right?

Ryou sighed. Who was he kidding? He was freezing cold and starving. He'd have to explain to his father (Who apparently hadn't even realized that he had been gone for so long) about how he had lost all of his possessions and then have to endure his stepmother's complaints about how he wasn't aware of the worth of things. He had alot ahead of him.

The snow got heavier, causing Ryou who had been previously oblivious to actually notice it. He looked ahead at his two teammates, barely visible through the white mist. Still, he could see that they at least seemed happy, or at least, content with what they had. Now that he thought about it, neither of them were currently carrying anymore than he was. Perhaps they hadn’t detonated the whole of their things, but they hadn’t brought all that much to begin with.

And on the course of his journey, he’d learned that they had a lot more troubles than he did.
Ugh, what on earth was he worrying about?

“Hey guys! Wait up!”

Ryou grinned, quickening his pace and catching up to Toya and Kei. The trip hadn’t been all that pointless anyway; maybe they hadn’t been given that much cash, but he had been given the ability to smile. He had better put that to use.

--

They walked for another ten minutes or so, much more cheer on their faces than before. They looked around, watching as the bare white landscapes melded into the town of Yukigakure. And then people too began to appear, a few of them looking over at the three teammates, but looking away quickly. In the past, people would greet Ryou, but it didn’t look like that was happening anymore. He didn’t entirely blame though; after all, he had become unrecognizable. His hair had grown out and his clothes were incredibly dirty and tattered. Nothing anybody would usually associate with him.

The village itself had changed too. There were new buildings he did not recognize and some which he remembered had appeared to have vanished. Ryou had lived in Yukigakure since he was born, and yet there was a lack of familiarity even as he returned from a simple shinobi mission.

“Wow, have we really been away this l-?“

Ryou paused midsentence, for the three of them had just subconsciously come to a halt. It only took a glance at the floor to realize why; the single road they had just been following had suddenly split into three separate paths. Yukigakure’s more residential areas lie ahead; one path led to the area lined with handsome mansions, where he resided, another to the village’s incredibly wealthy business district, it’s buildings including Toya’s home, and a final path led to the greatest part of the village, the homes of those who possessed a more average income, such as Kei.

“Well I guess this is where we part ways,”

Ryou tried to sound genial, but he couldn’t help but look away from them. How come he had just spent the most of the past few months whining about wanting to return home, and now when the moment finally came, he felt so awkward? Maybe it was because they had been together for so long. Become almost like family to each other in the wilderness, and now they had their own real families to return to. It almost felt like they were going to throw away everything they had learned…

…No! Families went separate ways all the time. And they were still family. He’d just have to remember that from now on.

“But it’s only temporary, right?" He grinned at them, holding his arm out in a "thumbs up" gesture, "Kei; ring me whenever you feel like doing the next mission. I’ll answer the call this time, promise!”

Feeling like he wasn't really going home at all, Ryou heaved his pack back onto his shoulder properly and turned around, waving back at his teammates as he made off briskly down the track.

[Kleee]

Never in his life had Toya been so happy to be trudging through a snowdrift. After spending a horrendously large amount of time travelling through tropical, desert, and forest climates, it felt incredibly good to be back in good old blizzard territory.

When they had first crossed over into the more snow-covered landscapes, Toya had blinked in disbelief when he caught a glimpse of a foggy whiteness coming from each of the three genin’s mouths. Taking off his sunglasses and rubbing them against his shirt to clean the dark lenses, and then quickly covering his eyes with them once again, he confirmed the fact that he wasn’t hallucinating or seeing anything incorrectly. He really could see his own breath! The weather was finally icy cold again!

To add on to the growing list of things that were finally going right for the team, Ryou seemed to be completely over the fact that almost all of the money and other random possessions that had been stolen by the bandits had become a molten pile of nothingness. Toya would never understand why his teammate had brought so much stuff in the first place, but that was beside the point.

Toya himself had ended up only taking the short sword that now hung loosely at his side. The rest of his supplies consisted of food and other survival items, but the bandits had probably already consumed them all long ago when they had first robbed the poor Yuki shinobi. But luckily for him, all of that stuff amounted to mere pennies in comparison to the amount of money that he had access to if he needed it. He wasn’t sure what Kei had ended up losing, but he and Ryou could probably pitch in and replace all of it if she needed them to. Okay, so maybe only Toya would be willing to give up any money for that, but still…

His black scarf flapped violently as the snowstorm began to pick up, and he glanced over to see that Kei was still keeping up with him. Now the question was whether Ryou had…

“Hey guys! Wait up!”

Damn, so he hadn’t been blown away by the snowy gusts of wind… no, stop thinking like that! Ryou isn’t a jerk anymore, or at least not as much of a jerk, remember? It would probably take Toya quite some time to fully adjust to acting completely hospitable when it came to Ryou, but this team was definitely going in the right direction, figuratively and literally as they continued to walk towards the village.

--

They continued to walk through the village in silence, drawing a few strange stares from villagers as they passed by them. The three of them probably looked like a group of homeless rogues at this point, so Toya could understand why people looked at them in that way.

“Wow, have we really been away this l-?“

Toya was about to ask why Ryou had suddenly paused midsentence when he noticed that they had reached a crossroads of sorts. It was here in this spot that they would each need to go off in their own separate directions to reach their homes.

“Well I guess this is where we part ways,”

Toya had to admit that this was a pretty bitter-sweet moment. He would finally get to return to his own house and reunite with Kohaku, Hisui, and his staff of employees who had probably been working frantically to keep the business afloat during his long absence. This also meant that he would be parting ways with Ryou and Kei for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. They had gone through so much together, learned so much together, failed and succeeded together. Now it felt like some sort of chapter in their lives would be ending, permanently.

“But it’s only temporary, right? Kei; ring me whenever you feel like doing the next mission. I’ll answer the call this time, promise!”

A smirk slowly spread across Toya’s face as he struck Ryou’s back with his open palm, a gesture that he had come to use frequently as a strange mixture of affection and their continued rivalry of sorts.

“She won’t need to call you, ‘cause I’ll kick your front door down next time we come to pick you up. See you guys soon.”

And with that said, Toya headed down the path that would eventually lead him to his house, resisting the urge to look over his shoulder at the two friends he had spent so much time with. They would be reunited soon, and he took comfort in the hope that things would be even better now that they were back in Yuki. Their seemingly everlasting mission was finally over, but it would only be the first in a long line of adventures to come.

[Kleee]

In reality, it hadn't been all that long ago that the Kei, Ryou, and Toya had stood here, right in this very spot where the road split three ways, only moments before they departing on the mission that would change their lives forever. But to Kei, it felt like ages had passed since then. And even though they'd finally returned, she couldn't help but feel as though somehow, the three genin that had stood there not so long ago were three very different people from the team that had returned.

Not that Kei had any objections; this new Ryou, for example, complained a whole lot less than the old one, and that was perfectly fine with her. Although that did unfortunately mean from now on Kei was going to have to make fun of him a whole lot less...

“Well I guess this is where we part ways,” Ryou was saying. Was Kei imagining things or did he actually sound just a tiny bit disappointed there? “But it’s only temporary, right? Kei; ring me whenever you feel like doing the next mission. I’ll answer the call this time, promise!”

"You'd better," Kei warned him. "We'll have another mission in no time! And it'll be even more epic than the last one."

"She won’t need to call you, ‘cause I’ll kick your front door down next time we come to pick you up," Toya added in agreement. Kei had a feeling he was dead serious about it too. "See you guys soon."

"Later!" Kei chimed in, and with that she was off down the snowy path. She wasn't all that worried about whether or not she'd see her teammates again soon, to be honest. They still owed her that cake, after all. As long as there was still a chance of cake waiting for her somewhere in the future, Kei would find them again somehow.

Besides, she had a feeling it wouldn't be long before the three of them got caught up in yet another dangerous adventure. Dangerous adventures seemed to like her team a lot, Kei was beginning to realize. When the time came for their next epic mission, whenever that was, she'd be ready. For now, however, Kei had some other things to take care of.

"I'm home~"

Kei's announcement was directed at no one in particular; the Murasaki residence--a simple two-story home with a nondescript appearance, aside from the fact that it was clearly in dire need of a repaint and some maintenance--was usually pretty quiet around this time of day. And that was just the way Kei wanted it; she wasn't so sure she was ready to give her family the whole long explanation of everything that had happened since she'd left. She hadn't given it much thought while she was away but... they must've been really worried about her while she was gone, Kei realized suddenly with a slight twinge of guilt.

"Kei!"

Kei let out an uncharacteristic "eep!" of surprise and whirled around to find herself face to face with a serious-looking young man with dark hair and a dark scowl to match.

"Akio-niisa--!"

"Where the hell have you been?"

Kei winced. Of course, out of all the people she could've run into, it just had to be him.

Akio was seventeen, or as he always insisted on saying it, 'almost eighteen'. Almost an adult, but still young enough to feel the need to go around proving his 'maturity' to anyone and everyone that gave him half a chance. It didn't help that he was the second boy (or the 'almost oldest' in Akio-speak) in the family, either. He was constantly trying to outdo his older brother (who, in Akio's mind, was a 'bad influence' on the other three), while bossing around his three younger siblings at the same time. Like everyone else in the family, he wanted to be successful shinobi like their father, but Akio took the whole ninja thing a little too seriously. At times it seemed like all he ever did was bury himself in huge stacks of intimidating-looking medical books, his idea of ‘training’. In short, he always looked and acted like he had a huge stick up his butt, and he was the last person on earth Kei wanted to be stuck talking to right now.

Before Kei even had a chance to react, Akio had grabbed her by the arm and was pulling her up the front steps and into the house, complaining all the while.

"...how does one even manage to go missing for so long on a D-rank mission, honestly? What’d you do, get distracted by a colorful butterfly and decide to chase it all the way to Suna or something? And you look terrible—are those bandages? What on earth did you do to your arm? Wait until Father hears about this…" Akio sighed in exasperation, shutting the door behind them and turning to face Kei, his expression darkening again. "Do you have any idea how w—" Akio stopped himself. Kei rolled her eyes. “—how much trouble you’ve caused us?"

“Yeah, hi too you too, Akio.”

"…Hello, Kei." Akio looked looked so exasperated right then that Kei almost would’ve felt bad for him, but then he had to go open his mouth again and ruin it. "Are you going to tell me where you’ve been all this time…?"

"Haha Island!"

"…What?"

"You know, it’s this little island really far away, it’s kinda hot and I think it’s near Suna or something… Reaaally far away. But it was okay, because there was a bakery there, and this scary guy with a sword gave us cake! Not that I went there on purpose or anything, it was an accident. It was all those stupid bandits' fault... But then there was a boat! And the map sort of blew away so then we were in the desert somehow and I was a famous fashion designer and and... and you should have seen those ghosts, they were so cool," Kei insisted. "And it was really awesome, until we ran into those assassins... But that was okay too, eventually. We got more awesome and beat up the bandits! And then--"

Kei had been doing her best to seem nonchalant about everything before Akio got any more worried and exploded or something, but it didn't seem to be working. Instead of sharing in the sheer awesomeness of Kei's long and slightly dangerous first mission, her brother looked positively horrified.

"Assassins, Kei? Assasssins!? Why on earth would there be...hold on, this isn't another one of your stories, is it?"

"Of course not, why would I lie about that?! There really were assassins, three of them! One of them even stabbed me in the arm and I didn't even cry or anything, look--!!" She pointed, making sure Akio was well aware of her 'epic bravery'. But as usual, it didn't work. Akio was still worried about all the wrong things.

"Okay, slow down. We can talk about this later," the boy announced, visibly trying a little too hard to seem calm. He directed Kei upstairs. "First, though, you need a bath or something. And food--real food, none of that cake stuff." Kei pouted at this, but didn't bother arguing. It had been a while since she'd eaten anything normal... "I need to take a look at that arm, too. But after that..." Kei could tell from Akio's tone of voice alone that her brother was serious--there was no getting out of this one.

"After that... you're going to tell me everything."

[Kleee]

"You'd better, We'll have another mission in no time! And it'll be even more epic than the last one."

"She won’t need to call you, ‘cause I’ll kick your front door down next time we come to pick you up,See you guys soon."

Ryou laughed. He wasn't entirely sure whether to take them seriously or not as he set off down the road, hearing the last of their footsteps vanish into the space behind him.

It seemed to take him much less time than usual to make it to his home. The road on which he lived was just the same as ever, mansion after mansion boasting beautiful snowy gardens with their frozen fountains and glittering lights. It had been like this for as long as he could remember, every new building threatening to overtake the last in its regal prose.

But none of them had ever managed to outshine the home at the very end. His own.

Throwing open the cast iron gate, Ryou let himself into the yard, looking incredibly out of place in his dirty rags. He realized with a twinge of regret as he came to the door, that he had blown up the house key he had brought with him along with the rest of his things.

Knock knock.
"Hello?"

He was freezing and just wanted to get inside. The comfort of a bed, shower, edible food... it was all so close. Hopefully somebody was at home to let him in. Somebody other tha-

"Ryouuuuuu~"

The squeal was followed by the sound of high heels connecting sharply with the floorboards inside the house. Ryou couldn't even begin to curse his luck before the door was swung open, his stepmother standing on the threshold; her expression re-arranging itself into a disgusted snarl as soon as she saw him.

"Oh whoops, I just mistook you for my son. Well I'm sorry. It's my policy to not give money to filthy beggars,"

Ryou ignored her. He knew quite well that she was perfectly aware of who he was. It didn't really bother him anyway; his eyes were fixed on what she was wearing.

"I-Is t-that a penguin sheet?!!"

For once in her life, the woman wasn't walking around in her underwear. Her clothing was merely a poncho like sheet that covered her upper body, a hole cut for her whole head to fit through. But there was no mistaking the rainbow penguin design on the front.

"Oh, yes! I completely adore these designs~" her face softened as she apparently forgot to be angry at him for a minute, "I know I used to be strictly underwear, but I just couldn't resist modelling these things for the Yuki edition of Fashion-HIME. These designs are just sweeping the whole world, and this is just a variation of Hayari-Sama's original thing, I have that too, but you know it's a bit inconvenient, and I'm also sponsoring an underwear line based on these things too, oh wow, it's so exciting, good to know that you haven't been living under a rock all this time. Good that you've at least heard of these things~"

"...I'm sorry I asked,"

Ryou wondered mentally whether he ought to tell Kei all of this disturbing information or not.

No. No need to get her excited about things that she did not understand the horror of.

"Anyway, can you move so I ca co-"

Ryou stopped. In all of her ranting about Kei's couture, his stepmother had moved to lift up her penguin sheet, revealing that one thing about her had certainly changed.

"Uh, whatever happened to your celery diet? You've gotten fa-"

He had to duck out of the way to avoid her smacking him as soon as she heard the forbidden F-word being uttered. Unfortunately, her temporary euphoria vanished too.

"How dare you talk to me like that?! You've left us so worried all this time and then you come back and still haven't bothered to learn any manners..."

"I'm sure you really missed me," Ryou rolled his eyes, not even bothering to listen to her ranting. She could say all she wanted; it didn't matter. He was pretty convinced he had become a better person. He was merely just stating the facts. Her stomach rivalled all those bandits... put together.

"...And no. You're not coming anywhere near my house until you shower,"

Luckily, Ryou was spared having to point out to her that he wasn't entirely able to do that without going inside by a familiar voice echoing from the hall behind his stepmother's newly pudgy figure.

"What's going on out there, honey?"

"Dad!"

It turned out that Ryou's father was actually home for once, the man appearing out of the dark hall, heading forward to see what the commotion was. He was a rather tall man, sporting yet another immaculately dry cleaned suit. His hair was dark, still not greying in many areas. Ryou didn't really look much like him.

"Hm, What's going on here?" - he had very sparkly white teeth that gleamed whenever he grinned - "Honey I thought I told you we're not giving money ou- Ryou! Oh, what on earth happened to you? You look horrible,"
Ryou scowled. His stepmother, that was understandable, but he had at least expected his father to have had missed him. Or more, have sent a search party half way across the world in search of him and all that. Except his father didn't look phazed at all by his sudden reappearance.

"...Um, well I've been stranded in the middle of nowhere trying to make my way back here for the last... I don't even know how long it's been, you didn't even realize that..?"

"What? No... I knew you'd be gone for a long time, son. What with all that stuff you took with you. Looked like you were going to be gone for a year or more. Still, whatever happened to you, why are you covered in dirt? And what on earth happened to all those things you took with you...? You're going to catch a cold if you don't wear anything but that,"

"Father," he sighed, "Have you ever heard of a place called Haha Island?"

"Haha- Oh, what are you talking about Ryou? There's no such place as..."

"Yeah, I thought not. Look, I'll explain. Can I come in? I'm freezing!"

Despite his stepmother's objections, Ryou's mildly amused father allowed him to actually enter the house, the warmth of the various fires causing him to suddenly feel a whole lot better as he entered the living room, ready to just collapse onto one of the couches. Unfortunately his stepmother reappeared and decided to throw what looked like an old newspaper on the seat before he got there.

"Sit on top of that. You're not touching my furniture until you shower,"

Other than cursing under his breath, Ryou pretty much ignored her as he fell on top of the newspaper and on to the couch. Even with it, he couldn't deny the refreshing comfort of luxury furniture.

It didn't take long to explain the story to his so-called parents. The hardest part was to come up with the "stealthiest" way to tell the story. Meaning both attempting to portray himself in a high light all while having them feel sorry for him and hating themselves for not looking for him.

"Wait wait wait; you blew up all of that money?"

"Well like I said, I did it for my team, it was all a noble sacrifice! But even so, I didn't have any of those things the whole time. It was horrible..."

His father didn't look like entirely bought it. He simply shrugged the "noble sacrifice" part off and continued with the whole "you're too spoilt" stern look all the way until Ryou finished.

"Don't expect me to purchase it all back for you,"

Ryou didn't answer. Now that he thought about it, he didn't particularly mind. He looked up to find that his father actually looked relieved that he hadn't recieved a tantrum.

"Right well, I'm sorry we didn't go searching for you. You see, we've had more important things to worry about~"

"I fail to see what's more important than the safety of your only child, but whatever,"

"Well, that's just the thing~"

Behind his father, Ryou noticed his stepmother emerge from the shadows in which she had been lurking since they had arrived in the room. She was smiling broadly as she came closer, his father throwing his arm around her.

"Huh?"

"You see Ryou, you're no longer going to be the only child!"

Just when Ryou was already failing to compute, his stepmother lifted up her penguin sheet thing again, suddenly having Ryou realize the horrid truth behind her sudden fatness.

"You're going to be a big brother! We're having another baby~"

Ryou felt kind of like his whole world was exploding or something. He'd known for a very long time that he was the sole heir to this house and all the riches inside it. Sure, he was changed. But he wasn't ready to accept thi-

"Wh-what?! H-How did that happen?"

"Oh, you don't know? When a man and a woman love each other very much..."

"No, not that bit, I know that it's just how did y-"

"Ooh, you want the details now? I didn't think you were like this, Ryou. Been sleeping around all this time..?"

"Ew no! You're sick. And no I mean, how did you decide to suddenly have a-"

"Oh, well your stepmother was all insistant that she wants a child of her own. So what was I to do, refuse?"

Ryou wasn't entirely sure how to intepret this.

"And besides, you mentioned that you're a changed person now or something? Your team is a family now or whatever? Excellent. You have plenty of practice,"

Suddenly his family had just beaten the team in being the most dysfunctional thing in the whole world.

"And we know it's going to be a girl too, Ryou~ a mini-version of me~"

Cue groan.
It looked like the chaos was only beginning.

[Kleee]

Toya had been staring at the large double-door entrance of his house for a good five minutes before finally being forced into action when a very light snow began to fall upon the village. Taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed his master key into the door and turned it. After a loud clanking sound indicated that the door was indeed unlocked, he pushed it open and slowly entered. He was, surprisingly, greeted by a resounding silence. There were no servants or any of the usual employees he would normally expect to see scurrying about the rooms and hallways of the mansion with stacks of papers and trays of food and drinks.

Shrugging off this abnormality, Toya strode down the main hallway and headed up a few flights of stairs, aiming for the general vicinity of the president’s office, AKA his room. He was halfway down the exceptionally long hallway on the third story of the building when he suddenly stopped and did a double-take. Sitting on a very showy display table in a small nook in the hallway was a framed picture of him in the middle of several unlit candles. When he accounted for the flowers scattered around, there could only be one conclusion that Toya could logically come to.

What. The. Hell?! Taking another few steps, Toya centered himself in front of the proper door and kicked the door open, not bothering to test whether it was locked or not. Dressed in her usual maid outfit, Hisui quickly turned towards the door, startled by the sudden noise. Sitting at the desk and leaning back in the large chair beside her twin sister, Kohaku looked up from a large stack of papers. She was wearing some sort of black suit and had been methodically jotting something down with a pen when Toya had barged in.

”Don’t go killing me off yet, you two! Were you really so eager to get rid of me that you’d assume I had died so quickly? I can’t believe you… I…”

Toya was quickly cut off when two pairs of arms wrapped around his body and pulled him into a suffocating embrace. He tried to continue speaking, but only an inaudible muffling sound resulted. Finally he completely dropped his angry, tough-guy act and spread his arms out to return both of their hugs. Small tears had begun forming in his eyes ever since he had entered the room, and finally one began to roll down his right cheek. After a few moments of this silent moment exchanged among the three of them, the twins released their grip a bit, allowing Toya to pull his head back enough to speak.

“I’m sorry, I know you two only did it to keep the company going until I got back. It’s funny to think that the next-in-line to inherit the Nanaya’s trading company and mansion is a pair of their own servants.”

Toya wiped his reddening eyes with his left sleeve and managed to flash a small grin.

“I really missed you both…”

”We missed you too, Toya-sama. We could only hope and pray for your safe return everyday. And now you’ve finally come back to us.” Kohaku pulled away after speaking and smiled brightly, a radiant expression that could brighten any room. Hisui nodded in agreement and spoke up as well.

”I’ll go get some tea for you. I’m sure you’re exhausted from your long journey, so you should go clean up and rest while we prepare refreshments.”

Kohaku seemed to agree with her sister’s idea, and the two of them began stepping towards the door. Toya reflexively gripped each of their arms and prevented them from moving any further.

”Wait… I don’t want anything to eat right now, and there will be time for me to rest later. I… just want you to stay with me a little longer. I can tell you about my mission and everything. Just don’t go yet…”

Toya felt like he had reverted back to the time when he was a blind young boy, forced to undergo his father’s horrible training. Hisui and Kohaku had been his sole relief during those years, and even after gaining his sight and his freedom, he continued to rely on them more than even he would admit. The maid sisters both gave him an understanding smile and each grasped one of his hands, leading him to a cushioned bench at the side of the office and sitting down on either side of him. Kohaku took the initiative once again, continuing to show off her infectious smile.

”Alright, Toya-sama. Take as much time as you need and tell us everything about your team’s mission. And then after some tea and cake, you can work on the rest of today’s paperwork that I didn’t finish!”

Toya simply sighed and made sure to expound upon every detail of his lengthy story, ensuring that he would be able to put off working until the next day. But honestly, he was just glad to be back. Nothing would be able to detract from that feeling of bliss and relief.

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