Loud crashes and explosions echoed in the wide chamber, its walls and columns shaking to their very foundation. Small pieces of rubble fell from the vaulted ceiling overhead. A young girl could hear her heart beating frantically in her chest, ringing all the way up to her head. She clutched it tightly for a moment, locks of disheveled brown hair falling on either side. She took several deep breaths in an effort to regain her composure. A hand placed itself on her shoulder, patting it reassuringly. She could tell, however, that it was shaking nervously and in fear. She looked up, finding her younger brother standing behind her, an unreadable expression on his face. His lips were pursed tightly and his eyes stared distantly at an older woman with silver hair, standing in the entrance of the room, made up entirely of the color white. "It'll be fine, Ushio," the boy said, trying to sound calm. She placed her hand over his for a moment and took another deep breath.

Ushio remembered having stepped into this largely ceremonial room a couple of times in the past. She had never really thought much of it, even though she had found it rather peaceful. Now, however, there was little left of peace to associate it with. Only one thought rang true in her mind right now: "This is where we'll die."

An old man stood in the center of the room, a solemn expression on his face as he diligently worked on a series of intricate seals and circles that he was drawing on the floor in crimson red. Overwhelming energy seeped through the area, filling the atmosphere with the purest of chakras. "There, that'll keep them busy for a while," muttered the silver haired woman from the other side of the room. "Guru, how's the jutsu going?" She asked, allowing herself to take a few steps away from he now sealed door.

The old man shook his head for a moment, worry creasing onto his brow. "I need at least four more minutes," he said, not taking his eyes off of the work he was doing.

The older woman looked at the door behind her - bending due to whatever force lay behind it. "You'll have to make it in three," she said, not making an effort to hide the urgent tone in her voice. She coughed loudly, her hand reaching over to her mouth to hide the small pool of blood that had come up from her lungs.

"Mom!" Ushio yelled loudly, rushing over to her mother's side, resting the older woman's weight on her shoulder. She pushed her daughter away from her lightly, standing up on her own despite the strain on her wounded body.

The woman - Gin - straightened herself. "I'm fine, it's only a scratch. I've had worse than this," she said, brushing aside the severity of her wounds. The young boy stood a few feet away from his mother and sister, simply looking at the scene. He had known enough loss in his short life to know that it was coming. Yet, a large part off him wanted to believe that his mother was fine. She was the strongest person that he had ever known. She was untouchable - invincible. There was no way that she could die. Gin turned to look at her son and smiled reassuringly. "Kohaku, dear, you're thinking about this too much. You might pop a blood vessel," she said, trying to defuse the tension in the room with some lighthearted humor. She walked over to him and poked his forehead lightly before wrapping an arm around him. She looked at her two children once she let go. "You both know what you need to do, right?" she asked.

The two teenagers had lost count as to how many times she had asked that already. Nevertheless, they both looked at each other and nodded. The explosions were increasing in strength and volume, almost knocking Gin off of her feet as the doors looked like they were about to give in.

Gin pressed a kiss to each of their foreheads, her hand lingering for a second too long as it drifted lovingly over their heads. "I love you both. Now go!" She yelled, gripping her sword tightly in her hand. She looked at it for a moment and bit her lower lip. She took a shaky breath. "Kohaku, take this with you. Protect your sister," she said, tossing the large blade towards the young boy, who despite his hesitation, caught it in one hand.

All kinds of distress were visible in his expression, light blue eyes watering. "W-what?! No! I won't take it! Without it, you'll-" a loud growl came from the silver haired woman. She shot him a look of pure authority, one that he couldn't deny.

"I don't need an old trinket like that to keep me alive," she said, her expression softening and turning into a confident smirk that didn't quite reach her eyes. With a heavy heart, she turned around to face the coming horde or shadows and demons that once called themselves shinobi.

A flash of bright light came from the center of the drawn seal as the deformed shinobi poured through the collapsed doors. Ushio and Kohaku both kept their eyes locked onto their mother, refusing to move from where they stood. They watched the one woman they admired so much struggle against overwhelming odds, brandishing a sword in each hand and slicing through flesh with every strike. And yet when large claws managed to tear through her back, they could both tell that she was holding back a scream. "GO!" The Guru yelled and pushed them into the bright light before they could go back on the promise they had made.



Gin let out a loud laugh, grinning brightly at the man in front of him. There as something taunting about the way she stood, as if claiming with her body language that there was no way her opponent could defeat her. "Come on, Sano-teme! You're better than that!" She yelled across the wide training field they stood in. "You're too used to focusing on speed, that's not how this technique works! So sit your pretty ass still and try again, unless you'd rather admit defeat," she said, knowing full well that there was no way he would ever give up, especially when it came to his long-time rival and current... well, whatever they were. The two of them had decided not to worry about something as stupid as labels, considering themselves above that, in a way. The young woman ran a hand through the loose strands of her silver hair, moving it away from her face.

She and Sano were sparring, but had decided to add a twist into what they were doing: they were only allowed to use each other's jutsu, none of their own. So far, Gin had kept it at using a mixture of taijutsu and kenjutsu, knowing full well that if she were put to the test, she would likely fail to produce Sanosuke's techniques the way he did. She didn't need him making fun of her, or at least not quite yet. She was still trying to remember how he had pulled off these techniques the times she had seen them in order to reproduce them as closely as she could. It didn't make things at all easy when most of these she had seen in battle and had barely caught a glimpse of. She was left to fill in the blanks with her own assumptions for now. However, she still kept up a confident bravado, with a hint of added mischief. Truth be told, she was just happy to spend time with the current Raikage.

[1325]

"Wind Style: Solid Air!" Sanosuke called out in frustration as he focused his chakra in his legs. It was used in conjunction to his technique Icarus and Gin's technique where she was able to stand on mid air. He started the technique with himself launching himself in the air with extraordinary speed that Gin would only hope to achieve. Even though she may have better defenses them him, but she was no where close to his level in speed. Just like a hawk launching into the skies to pounce on their pray, Sanosuke rocketed upwards several meters before feeling his acceleration decrease to a managale level. Before gravity could pull Sanosuke back down to the ground, he focused chakra into the soles of his feet in the similar fashion that Gin had done so while executing this technique. Once he was securely standing in the air, he smirked at the woman full of confidence that he had mastered her own technique in such a small window of time. This exercise they were doing was they were to use the others techniques as opposed to mostly using their own. And thus far, Sanosuke had proved himself just now to be more successful than Gin was.

Adjusting the chakra under the soles of his feet so that he was now angled diagonally at Gin, Sanosuke readied himself with chakra from behind him to launch himself at Gin at high speeds while running on the air itself. She wouldn't expect her to counter this technique as she couldn't deal with speedy opponents. It would be too easy to handle her. Holding his sword in his hand, Sanosuke poised it so that it would be aimed at Gin's torso as he ran at her. Running on air was so simple and easy compared to running on solid ground that he couldn't feel any resistance coming from the absence of surface. With that he could focus only on running down Gin. She wouldn't know what hit her. But just before he was within striking distance of her, something went wrong with his path of chakra he was running on. He felt unbalanced. But then his nightmares came true as he felt himself somersaulting frontwards and losing all control of his motion: he had ran too fast and his chakra road couldn't keep up. With a shout he tumbled past the Kuroka hitting the ground and rolling all the way into a tree. The trunk of the tree bashed into his back causing leaves to fall on him and also a tree branch to break off and smack him right on the nose.

His mistake led to Gin laughing uncontrollably at his failure. Redness flustered his face as he tried to compose himself by getting himself back up. She hadn't even tried to mimic any of his own techniques, so he would see how she does using his own very complicated techniques. "Oh that's pretty rich coming from you. How about you try one of my techniques. Unless you're too chicken shit scared to attempt them. They are pretty complex after all, perhaps too much for you." Sanosuke hissed with a tick mark pulsing on the side of his head. Then an idea popped up in his head which caused him to smirk. It was time to knock Gin down a peg. Bringing his fingers together, Sanosuke focused chakra once more. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Smoke enveloped the Raikage before it cleared. Right at his side was a second Sanosuke but obviously not an exact clone. This clone had all of the Raikage's features but for some reason had an elephant nose. Sanosuke turned to look at his clone, and his clone did the same thing. All that Sanosuke could do was face palm himself hard as he tried to compose himself knowing that Gin was having a riot with this bad display of Sanosuke trying to mimic her techniques. And they were the basic ones after all.

It didn't matter. The clone had arms, legs, and looked enough like him for the plan to work. "Whatever. This'll have to do I guess." Sanosuke mumbled as he picked up his sword once more and got in a stance. His clone mimicing the original in a stance as best as it could. At the same time, they both launched themselves at Gin at high speeds. Sanosuke aimed a low sweep at Gin's legs before feinting to the right so the clone will follow up with a clunky diagonally swipe to Gin's shoulder from the top. Even his sword was something out of a cartoon. It was bother Sanosuke that he had to focus really hard at not judging himself too hard at failing such a technique. He had to focus at the moment. Even though when one uses the shadow clone technique, the clone should be playing support for the caster. But since his clone was so unorthodox, the situations were quite opposite. So whenever Gin would strike at the clone, Sanosuke would have to intercept her and parry her back. And when Gin would strike at him, Sanosuke would have to pivot around her so the clone wouldn't have time to get in the way of him fending off Gin. Sparks flew as the blades clashed one after the other. He only had to hold on for a little while. Then Gin would see.

A ping from the back of his mind signalled that the time had occcured. Sanosuke had bashed his sword into Gin fully expecting her to block it or it would lead to a nasty bruise. Before the exercise, Sanosuke had spent an hour teaching Gin his basic technique of using chakra to temporarily dull the sharpness of her weapons so they won't cut but bruise. Sanosuke would hold Gin down in this locked position. He knew she would meet her in this deadlock of blades as she would struggle to overpower him. Gin always looked to best Sanosuke. And this was an invitation of who's stronger. Of course Gin would take the bait. Dirt pushed under his boots as he felt Gin beginning to overpower him. There was no way he would beat her in a showmanship of strength. But that wasn't what he was after; all he needed was to buy time.

"Now!"

Sanosuke jumped backwards suddenly and breaking out of the deadlock he engaged on Gin with. Before Gin could realize what would happen, his clone would hit her with a mental ninjutsu attack of his own creation. That was his plan from the beginning. He would make a clone where the clone will be doing little to nothing but prepare itself to launch the technique while Sanosuke would keep Gin's attention so she wouldn't notice. The technique would hit her and slow down her speed and reaction time. Just enough for him to take advantage of the situation. Dashing back into her, Sanosuke used the now slowed Gin to slip into her guard with ease by smacking aside her weapon on the ground and putting his blade to her neck. Her back was to the same tree that Sanosuke rolled on and hit him into.

This was checkmate and she knew it. It was a sneaky plan, that he would admit, but it would get the job done and there would be little to nothing Gin could do to stop it from happening once it was too late. Smirking at her, Sanosuke would be panting as he used quite the bit of chakra and physical endurance for fighting for 2 people to get this far. Sanosuke had his face next to the silver haired woman's as she tried to struggle out of his hold. "Technically speaking the clone used my jutsu not myself. So it's not cheating. So don't even think about being a sore loser." Sanosuke said anticipating Gin to say something along the lines of her being hit with a cheap shot. He would laugh at Gin's pouting that she got fooled by her own technique. In all honesty he really needed this moment with Gin. He had spent too long in the Raikage office and other responsibilities that he forgot how much fun it was to simply train and get stronger. He had to thank Gin for this. "Now about my prize for winning..." Sanosuke chuckled low as he moved in for a kiss. His weapon would fizzle to static as he would place one hand against the tree and the other around Gin's waist to pull her in as they would kiss under the shade of the tree. Moments like these was what Sanosuke was thankful for. Even while sweaty and tired from training, Gin's hair still held on the aroma of chestnuts...

Gin couldn't stop laughing. Really, her sides hurt at this point. It was making it difficult to keep her eyes open, let alone stand up straight. She could even feel her eyes watering. Forget about intimidation tactics, this was definitely the best way to catch an opponent off guard. She needed to develop some sort of jutsu - maybe ninjutsu or a seal - that would make an opponent laugh uncontrollably. After all, she wasn't really planning on imitating Sanosuke to win a fight. She had a reputation and image to maintain, after all. She wanted to retort something to him when he accused her of being too scared of trying to use one of his techniques, but she honestly could't catch her breath or form a sentence. She was starting to calm down and regain her composure, but her attempts to do so were blown out of the water when Sanosuke decided to try and make a shadow clone. It had... it had a trunk... that... she couldn't.

Before he even charged, Gin knew that she'd lost the fight. She would still try to dodge and react to what he was doing, but her actions were severely impaired. So when their swords clashed, it wasn't her so much taking his bait rather than her doing the only thing she thought she could manage at this point. She could feel her voice getting hoarse at this point. She needed to calm down quite badly, As her sword pushed against that of her opponent, she tried to take a couple of deep breaths. However, it was too late to actually do anything against Sanosuke's plan. Her blade was pressed onto the ground, throwing her off balance and letting him his own sword to her neck. Well, at least she could finally focus on trying to stop her uncontrollable laughter. Her sides hurt. She rubbed them as her laughter began to die down. "That... was a dirty way to fight and you know it," she said, panting a little.

Gin finally stood up straight and placed her sword back in its sheathe at the side of her waist. "Sore loser? You cheated, which means you're disqualified. So I don't know who you're calling a loser here," she said, smirking at him as he approached her and closed the gap between them. "But I'm sure we both want the same prize right now, so I think it's a win-win," she added, leaning into his embrace and letting his lips touch her own. Her hands were placed on the tree's trunk, as was her back. If Sanosuke wanted to claim that he'd won, he could do all the work this time around. She pulled back from the kiss and looked at him. Her face was unusually soft, letting her happiness seep through. It was  look that she only reserved for Sanosuke, full of affection and maybe even something more. "You do know that having sex in a public place is illegal, no? Think about the tabloids, they'd be all over this if-"

A sickening crash echoed throughout the forest, effectively stopping Gin from saying anything else. It was followed by the sound of something that could only be described as the sky tearing itself open. The atmosphere was sizzling with energy and static. At this point, Gin feared the worst. Her hand reached for her weapon instantly. She turned to look at Sanosuke with a serious expression on her face. Without saying a word, she knew he would understand that they had to go to the source of the noise. If this was Suna coming after her or someone launching a full-scale attack on Kumogakure, they were likely the only ones that could stop it - or in the worst of cases, slow it down. Gin turned around knowing that he would follow her. She focused chakra into the soles of her feet, placing a seal on the ground - a vector arrow that sped her up to 80 m/s.

As a result, she would arrive on the scene well before Sanosuke did. At his top sprinting speed, he could only reach a quarter of that. He would catch up soon enough, however. Maybe it was some sort of protective instinct over him, but she needed to see what this was first and keep him out of danger if she could. What she saw, however, confused her greatly. A large crater lay in the middle of a clearing. A teenage girl with shortly cropped silver hair stood in a fighting stance, gripping a pair of daggers tightly. Even from this distance, Gin could tell that her hands were shaking and she was barely able to stand. "Bring it on, assholes!" She shouted still. Gin acted in an instant.

There were only four opponents crowding around the girl. Their shapes were mangled, blurring the line between human and demon. Their skins were gray and their movements seemed to be automatic, as if they were blindly following directions. Gin acted on instinct. Yajirushi appeared in her hand. With a simple wave of the blade, two projectiles mimicking the blade's shape appeared and almost instantly skewered the attackers. The girl finally looked up. Much to Gin's confusion, her face lit up the second she saw the former Kazekage. Gin could have sworn that she saw a smile, but then again, maybe that was just because she had likely saved the girl's life. Slowly, Gin began to approach her. She needed answers more than anything. "Who are you?" The silver haired woman began. She stopped when she saw the figures from before begin to move. They were quickly regenerating and reforming. "What the-? What kind of jutsu is this?" she asked the girl, who snapped out of her reverie to answer.

"They'll keep coming back unless you destroy the entire body," she explained, panting. How long had she been fighting these things? Well, there'd be time to ask that later. Gin readied both of her weapons and closed her eyes momentarily. She had just the technique to end this quickly. Chakra streamed through her weapon, heating up quickly.

"Make sure to stay clear from me, got that?" She instructed the younger girl, who only nodded in response. "Heaven Style: Searing Inferno!" She yelled. Her next movements were quick and precise. She used both swords, which were now covered in a sheer aura of heat. It was almost as if she was dancing. Everything she did was  graceful and calculated yet somehow driven by pure instinct. It was as if the woman lived and breathed for battle. With every thrust and slice of her sword, the strange beings were reduced to ashes now drifting in the wind. Once she was done, Yajirushi once again disappeared from her hand and she returned Sabaku no Bara to its rightful place. "Now will you answer my questions?"

[2489]

It was that smile that Gin gave him is the reason for him having so many butterflies in his stomach. The smile and the look she was giving him was for him and for him alone. Sanosuke couldn't help but smile back at Gin looking into her own eyes for a while. Whatever they may be, Sanosuke knew it couldn't be called a relationship. There was something missing but he couldn't figure out what it was. But they were definitely something. And at the moment, that something was going to be the most cherished thing he's ever held dear. Gin began speaking and messing with him by teasing how the tabloids might catch them fooling around a public training field. She knew that Sanosuke couldn't care less about that sort of thing. But before she could finish something caught both of their attentions in a single instant. All that had to be sounded out was the large bang that echoed throughout the forest.

Birds fluttered and panicked to get away from whatever the source of that sound was. A blast of wind came from that direction as well as both Gin and Sanosuke's silver hair swayed from the gust of wind. Gin gave him a look that something was wrong and that they should take a look. Was this an invasion? No that couldn't be in. Navi would have alerted him of something of this magnitude with ease. Either way it was something they should definitely investigate. However he was confused on why Gin was taking such an active roll in this investigation as she bolted towards the source of this anomaly in speeds that she never showed before. It even surprised Sanosuke that she was capable of moving that fast. "Hey! Don't rush in head first!" Sanosuke called after her but she was already gone. A pretty good headstart too. Sanosuke took off behind her. She took off like a rocket so now she wasn't even in his direct sights anymore. That Gin is too antsy for action, Sanosuke could only think as he extended his senses using senjutsu to sense his surroundings of the area and also have a lock on Gin's chakra signature in case anything went wrong as he ran.

The transformation to merely sense chakra was slight as the only visible signs of him doing so was how his eyes lost their pupils. He could see just fine, but to others it would look like he was medically ill or a distant relative of the Hyugga family. According to his senses, Gin was doing just fine. She seemed to have reached her destination, she must have increased her speed drastically as she reached the scene. From what he could also sense he sensed another chakra signature that was similar to Gin's. This was strange it also resembled his own chakra signature as well. Maybe a mixture of both? This was strange. Either way Sanosuke could sense how the two signatures were working together to fend off very demonic chakra signatures that were warped and twisted beyond his own understanding. Sanosuke had to get there soon to figure out what was going on.

Upon reaching location, flames rose from the ground as Gin had just activated her kenjutsu technique with correlation with her katon chakra to create a  sea of flames and she was the controller of said flames. As she danced in the flames with her blades held high, Sanosuke watched as the creatures were turned into ashes. At the end of her dance, the fire died down as she turned her attention to the person who's chakra signature was so similar to both Gin and his own. Before Sanosuke could even make his presence known to the two because he also had questions to ask, another chakra signature like the ones Gin dealt with was attempting to attack from Gin's blind spot. He knew that Gin could defend herself, but his body moved on its own. His hands flashed through a number of hand seals before his right hand was channeling raiton chakra into a disc of pure electricity that would slice through pretty much anything that stood before it.

"Get down!" Sanosuke called out as he flew past Gin and ran down the remaining creature that was trying to ambush Gin and the stranger. His disc of lightning sliced through the creature's husk like a hot knife going through butter. Sanosuke applied raiton chakra into the creature's body so its insides were being electrocuted as well with each slice Sanosuke was dealing out. The creature hit the ground smoldering with smoke like hunks of burnt meat.

Looking at Gin, Sanosuke felt a tick mark grow on the side of his head as he marched towards her ignoring the girl beside her that had silver hair just like the two of them and the same color eyes as Sanosuke. "And YOU...did you not hear me to slow down when we're trying to investigate? Use your head damn you." Sanosuke said annoyed while getting in Gin's face. Sanosuke was annoyed with the chasing he had to do to get himself here. Of course Gin wouldn't be pleased with him protecting, even though she would see it as him taking her kill when all he was doing was protecting her. After ranting at Gin, Sanosuke turned his attention to the girl outside the two of them. She looked around the age of 15. But there was something familiar with her that he couldn't put a finger on. But what was it...

The young girl stared at Gin for a moment, her mouth agape as if she hadn't even heard what Gin had just said. She seemed transfixed, as if she were looking at some sort of entity that she wasn't sure was real or not. She shook her head quickly for a moment to try to regain her composure. "Yeah, right! She said, tucking away the daggers she had been wielding just a moment ago. She seemed completely drained, her face somewhat pale. It looked like she was trying very hard to hide the fact that she was panting. The yawn that came from her, though, she made no attempt to disguise. "So, what do you want to kn-" she began before Sanosuke's voice rang throughout the clearing. Reflexively, Gin wrapped her arms around the girl and tackled her to the ground less than a second before the disk of energy flew over their heads and crashed against a stray body. Gin let out a low but feral growl, clearly annoyed.

She turned to see the figure smoldering, smoke rising from it. Simultaneously, however, there was a crackle of energy about it as its skin began to reform and regenerate. "Those little shits never know when to give up," the girl mumbled. Gin got up. She moved her hands quickly in order to form several hand signs.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb!" She yelled. A stream of fire in the shape of a Chinese dragon left her lips, making its way towards its intended target. It crashed against the regenerating body, turning it into ash before dissipating. The girl began to stand up, not bothering to dust herself off. For a moment, Gin ignored her and turned to Sanosuke, a scowl on her face. "Look who's talking! You just attack a random... thing without knowing what the hell it is or what it does. Unless you turn it into ashes, it'll keep coming back," she yelled at him, fully expecting some sort of rebuttal. They had a tendency to argue with each other constantly, after all. "Besides, I went ahead to spare your ass," she added as an afterthought, turning again to the girl who seemed to be examining the arguing couple closely.

She looked confused. Her eyes focused on each of their hands for a moment before she spoke. "Wait... you two aren't married?" She asked, much to Gin's own confusion. The older woman raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"What? Hell no!" She said. It came almost as a reflex. "What makes you think I'd be married to a useless oaf like him?!" She protested. The girl was unreadable. Her expression transitioned quickly from shock, to disbelief, to anger and frustration only to repeat the cycle all over again. Finally, she yelled out in frustration, pulling at her short silver locks, disregarding her obvious exhaustion and pacing in small circles.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit! He sent us to the wrong place, god dammit! Kohaku... I need to find Kohaku! Where the hell is he?!" She was mumbling incoherently to herself. Almost a minute went by before she apparently snapped out of it, pointing to where both Gin and Sanosuke were standing. "We don't have any time to spare! There's this kid... my brother... we need to find him now," She said, struggling to walk forward, trying to rush her steps as her hands reached for the pair of daggers that she had put away just a moment ago. All the while, Gin didn't really know what to think of the situation or what to say. The girl had clearly lost it. that was the only thing crossing her mind, really. Oh, and also that Sanosuke was being an ass. She could fend for herself.

[Training Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb - 2000/2000]
[1126]

The creature was still moving. Not something that Sanosuke had expected considering he pumped it full of electricity, so the chances of it still able to hold on to its motor skills was very unlikely. Flames danced on the body as it was engulfed in an inferno created by Gin herself. Once the flames died, she ignored the girl beside her that she just saved to chew him out. Although Sanosuke had no idea that the only way to kill these creatures was to burn them and reduce them to ashes. And he knew that he only had one technique that would do the trick, but it was be him wasting energy for no real benefit. Then again how was he supposed to know that? He just came in. "Oh shut up! Don't act like you knew the entire time what the deal with this thing was. Besides how the hell am I supposed to know that? I just showed up to save your ass." Sanosuke retorted back at her after moving his face away from Gin as she began shouting at her only to put his face back into hers. A tick mark pulsed against the side of his head as they continued arguing with each other back and forth. Gin turned around so not to look at him but to look at the girl whom was looking at them arguing trying to figure out what was happening.

What? Hell No!" Sanosuke interjected with Gin simultaneously at the girl's question regarding their relationship. It was like an instinct that caused him to shout that out. "What makes you think I'd be married to a washed up broad like her?!  Sanosuke protested back, still matching the timing with Gin. After he finished he looked at Gin and when he made eye contact with her, Sanosuke averted his eyes to break the contact with her to not allow her to look at his confused state at the question the girl asked.

At that moment the girl began to panic. She was unable to comprehend their answers to her questions. That turned into panic trying to find her brother, a boy by the name of Kohaku if he heard right. The freak out was a bit too much even for Sanosuke as he took a peek at Gin to see how she was handling the situation. She looked just about down with the girl with her arms crossed and looking about ready to just leave. No doubt she was pissed at him and this whole situation. Sanosuke let out a sigh and approached Gin so that she couldn't just ignore him when she was pissed. His hand was placed on her arm gently so she would look him in the eye. A look was exchanged between the two as he gave her the message that they should help her out. No anger or annoyance from their last argument was present in his facial expression, all there was were a glimmer of conviction that it was his job to see this girl out of this predicament. Squeezing her arm softly, Sanosuke simply meant that he needed her help. But there was no way that he was going to admit that verbally, besides Gin probably knew just from his look that he needed her.

With that exchange done with, Sanosuke walked over to the girl who was trying to get up and held her up so she was leaning on his side to take the weight off her injured foot."You're not going anywhere alone this banged up. I'm guessing you don't know where to even begin finding your brother right?" Sanosuke asked critically knowing that she probably didn't know where Kohaku was to begin with. For if she did have a way to track her brother down, then the freak out wouldn't be necessary. Running off without thinking, reminded him of a certain silver haired woman that was currently with them. Letting out a sigh, Sanosuke patted the girl's head to stop her from pouting at being talked to like that. "Lucky for you I have a good idea where to start searching." Sanosuke said winking at the girl as he hoisted her upwards and moved her towards Gin so she could get a hold of her. Once she was properly held onto, Sanosuke would let go knowing Gin had her now.

"I think I can sense his chakra. He's close by. I'll go up ahead and bring your brother back. In the meantime, Gin you hand back with the girl so she can rest. I'll be back soon." Sanosuke nodded towards Gin and the girl. Sanosuke looked at the girl who was looking at him with worry but from the tone of his voice it was held with such conviction that she held her tongue. For being a stranger she was being oddly submissive to his request. Maybe it was because she was grateful for him and Gin saving her life? Looking back at Gin, Sanosuke looked her in the eyes and approached her. He gave her arm a gentle squeeze. "Stay safe. I know how you are....the last thing I need is for me to rescue you too." Sanosuke said lastly to Gin. Turning his head, Sanosuke felt his face blush slightly as he could feel his heart flutter once more. He added the last part of his sentence as a way to shake these feelings from him. But she knew what he truly meant. That he wanted her to be safe despite knowing her strength.

With that said, he waved the two of them off from behind while walking towards the general direction of the other uniquely identified chakra that he was picking up.

A sigh left Gin's lips as she shook her head. Her eyes were still glued to the spot where Sanosuke had just ran towards. He had long since disappeared into the forest, deep into the trees that surrounded the area. "What am I to do with him?" She mumbled under her breath. She could have sworn that she saw Ushio smile or smirk from the corner of her eye, but waved it off. The girl was probably exhausted and unaware of what was going on around her. That was mainly the reason why Gin had stopped pressing her for more answers. Judging by her present state, she needed more time to recover. Gin could only expect half-assed answers and incoherent sentences right now. She frowned. This was turning out to be a very odd day. It was nowhere near the top of the list of strange things that had happened to the silver haired woman over the years, but it was still odd by all normal standards. It was no one's fault that she had lived a weird life, not even her own. Maybe she could blame her mother for bringing her into the world, but other than that, no one, seeing as Gin didn't really believe in any divine presences.

She looked at the young girl, finally turning towards her. She gently - or at least as gently as she could be - placed one of her arms around the younger woman's waist and threw one of the girl's arms over her own shoulder in order to help her stand properly. "Alright, let's go find your brother," Gin said, starting to walk in the same direction that Sanosuke had gone. She didn't have his sensory abilities since she was by no means a sage, but she could easily track where he had been. He hadn't left any explicit tracks, but Gin could still see small pieces of evidence that she was following the right path. Inhaling, she could still smell faint traces of his scent.

"This is too slow," the girl complained. She didn't have to explain her frustration/: time lost meant a greater risk of the boy running into trouble on his own.

"Would you rather I carry you?" Gin asked, somewhat mockingly. The girl glared back at her. "Calm down, Sano-teme's on it. As much as I hate to say it, the bastard's reliable, if nothing else," she assured the girl, her tone quite blase. Gin heard her chuckle, which drew the silver haired woman's attention.

"If you knew who he was, you wouldn't be so laid back about this," she said, confident in her words.

"What? Is the little shit a noble or something?" Gin asked, a little disdain in her voice. Nobles had a tendency to believe themselves to be above everyone else. "Hate to break it to you, kid, but I don't care about titles."

"We're far from nobles, I'll tell you that much," she retorted.

"Doesn't stop you from acting all high and mighty," Gin said back. "Now shut up, you need to conserve what little energy you have left." The girl said nothing, but Gin had a feeling that she had rolled her eyes as an answer. A few minutes later, they arrive at the scene of Sanosuke and a young boy with silver hair and a fierce expression on his face, as if Sanosuke were his number one enemy.

As he ran through the forest, Sanosuke paid close attention to the chakra signature he was tracking. All of his senses were going into the primary task of sensing out the individual and have an idea mapped in his head of the current situation he was facing. That much was critical so that in case he was fighting one of those creatures that they encountered earlier Sanosuke would know what to do. The fact those creatures had to be burnt to ashes was something that Sanosuke saw as an annoyance considering he didn't know katon jutsu. There was only one other technique he knew of that could reduce them into ashes but such a technique would require a tremendous amount of energy and destruction that he wouldn't even think of using it unless the situation was dire. Different methods of a substitute came to mind of dealing with the creatures as he ran through the forest getting closer and closer to his destination. The signature seemed to be flaring up ever so slightly but was static regardless. The girl's brother must be fighting off those creatures like his sister was when Gin and Sanosuke stumbled upon them. He had to hurry. If the kid was in any shape as her sister, then he wouldn't last long against those things. A rush of urgency rushed through his body as Sanosuke quickened his pace as he felt the chakra signature became steady. How was such a thing possible? Sanosuke wondered as he sped up to find the cause of such a thing happening.

Leaping from branch to branch, Sanosuke reached the destination in no time. The source of the chakra signature. What the young Raikage saw shocked him. From his elevated point of view standing on the bark of a tree, Sanosuke was looking down on something that could only be explained to be a blood bath. The bodies of the creatures that Gin and the girl fought off were loitered on the ground. Some of them were reduced to ashes while others were basically sliced to shreds and ribbons. Hunks of flesh were torn and thrown carelessly throughout the floor as though they tried to escape their terrible fate before being struck down by fate. The sight was something that bothered him greatly, but it was the smell that left a metallic taste in his mouth that he had to spit the taste from it or else it might cause him to feel nauseous. It was grotesque. Sanosuke didn't have to look hard to find the person responsible for what he was seeing. In the middle of the slaughter fest was a man in a silver suit of armor with red trimmings. It was coated in blood, but the blood was mixed in with freshblood and old blood. So some of the blood that was splattered on his armor belonged to those creatures and his own. His armor was damaged as well from what he could tell. Chinks and opening could be seen but was somehow being held together. It was as though his will was the only thing keeping himself and the armor from falling to pieces. The man stood like a statue looking downwards at the chunks of one creature he defeated as his weapon was buried into its' dismemboweled head. If he didn't know any better, Sanosuke would have thought the man had died where he stood. But he was breathing, however barely. This was without a doubt the source of the chakra he was scouting for: The girl's brother.

Jumping from his spot, Sanosuke landed on the ground to make his presence known to the man standing before the battlefield of his foes. Stretching his back, Sanosuke began to walk slowly to the man while disengaging his semi sage mode so his eyes would revert back to the shade of blue it originally was. Sanosuke was cautious because he didn't know what he was capable of. Despite the girl being harmless, her brother on the other hand could still be very dangerous. Upon closer inspection, Sanosuke could make out familiar markings on the armor that resembled the same thing that was on his gauntlets when he activated them. Interesting, only those who have been to the Wasp Village in his country would have claimed articles of armor like that. Sanosuke was the last human in decades to set foot in the village. So who was this man? Before Sanosuke could ask who he was, the man awoken from his slumber. His silver mask masked his facial expression, but the heavy breathing could tell that he was energized and had his eyes on Sanosuke for some reason. It glinted with something that the silver haired man could only compare it to a bull looking at a red cape being flapped into its face.

"Easy there, I'm on your si-" Sanosuke could only get out raising his hands to show he meant know harm. But it meant nothing to the man in the armor as he let out a blood curling roar that sounded altered like a robot. It made Sanosuke even wonder if the person in the armor was even human. The man charged Sanosuke with his sword held low with both hands. From how he was charging Sanosuke, it looked like the man was ready to collapse any minute. But something was holding him up. Dodging the man's swipes, Sanosuke noticed how clunky they were. His stance was slacking and due to it was riddled with openings. If he really was an enemy, Sanosuke would have dealt with him in a single blow.

Then something changed. Sanosuke noticed the man's swings were getting stronger and stronger for some reason. Despite the man being injured to the point the ground was being coated with his own blood from each of his swings, his form was getting tighter despite the man's body unable to keep up with it. One swipe nearly took Sanosuke's head clean off as the silver haired man had to move his center of gravity backwards into a back handspring to get some space between the two. Something was up and Sanosuke had to figure out what was going on. Entering his semi sage mode briefly once more, Sanosuke inspected the man and what he saw shocked him. He could sense chakra around the suited man, moving his body despite the condition it was in. The shocking thing was that technique was of his own creation when he fought against all 9 of the previous Raikage to fight despite the injuries he received. But how did he know of such a technique that he only used very rarely? Looks like he would have to beat the answers out of him.

Clapping his hands together so his gloves would turn into his silver coated wasp clan gauntlets, static danced between his fingertips as one of his twin swords materialized into his hands. Gripping it, Sanosuke got himself in a stance. The man in the suit seemed to have made some kind of noise apart of his growling he's been making since meeting him. Was it a chuckle? Sanosuke didn't have time to figure it out as the man pounced on him with his sword held low this time. The man revolved it full circle and went down for a swing at his chest, Sanosuke knew that all he would have to do was block the swipe with his sword and side step to be in line for a parry. Sparks flew as he blocked the man's swipe. Sanosuke quickly overpowered the man and got ready for a parry to the man's flank of the armor so it wouldn't cut but knock the wind out of him. When the man went to block the blade, Sanosuke's eyes went wide as his sword went through the man's sword. The result left Sanosuke tipping over the side unexpected and his stomach landing on the man's knee. Wind left his stomach as he jumped to the side to get some space.

His sword went through the man's sword? How was such a thing possible? Once more he didn't have time to think as he was once more pressured by the man's presence and his sword coming down to attack him. Raising his blade to block it, Sanosuke saw something that shocked him once more. The blade that the man in the suit of armor looked exactly like Gin's Soul Cutter but older and more worn out. But it was definitely the phantom blade. It would explain why his sword phased through the man's blade. Jumping back more, Sanosuke skidded on the ground to increase the distance even more to catch his breath. Gin's blade and Sanosuke's techniques? What's more he fought similar to Gin's father, that old bastard was a master at pressuring his opponent so they can't think straight. Just who the hell was this man? He'd find out soon enough as Sanosuke was done playing around.

When the man came towards him once more with Soul Cutter in his hands looking to cut Sanosuke clean in half from torso to torso. This time, Sanosuke was ready for him. Blocking the swipe, Sanosuke knew it wouldn't work as the blade went through his. He knew once the blade touched his skin, he wouldn't be able to mold chakra for a while. Which was why he had to act quickly. When the Soul Cutter had completely phased through his own sword, Sanosuke allowed for his blade to vanish in sparks. With his hands free, Sanosuke closed his right eye and opened it to reveal the yellow mark of the demon had possessed his right eye. With one touch to the man's sword arm, static electricity ran through his armor giving him a painful shock that resulted in the man screaming in pain. It wouldn't be enough to kill him, but stun him briefly. It resulted in the man dropping Soul Cutter on the ground against his will. With the weapon out of the way, Sanosuke cocked his fist back and channeled senjutsu chakra in his gauntlet. He had to disperse the disheaveled puppet technique from the man's body to cease him from fighting anymore, and this was the best way to do so.

"Now who the hell are you?!" Sanosuke shouted as he bashed his fist in the man's face. Just as he expected, the technique that was on the man's body ceased as well as the man was sent flying meters away from him and into a tree. Senjutsu chakra was stronger than normal chakra and would be enough to cause an interference in the man's technique(Sanosuke's technique that he somehow stole from him to be accurate). When the smoke cleared from his punch, Sanosuke didn't expect from his punch to also get rid of the man's armor as well. In fact he wasn't a man at all. On the ground rubbing his chin was a boy with silver hair like his own and blue eyes similar to Gin's shade. The boy was plagued with bruises and cuts, but despite that his eyes still held onto the heat of battle as though the battle wasn't over just yet. It would seem that the armor around the boy was also made of chakra that was dispelled by his senjutsu gauntlet punch. So now it revealed to be a teenage boy that looked much like the boy that he had originally come to meet. The mysterious brother of the mysterious sister Gin and him met earlier.

Just who were these kids?

"You don't get it!" The girl burst, trying to shove herself away from Gin. She staggered as she tried to take a few steps. The girl seemed to stubborn to rely on Gin's help. That, or maybe she was frustrated and tired. The former Kazekage supposed that she could sympathize with the darker skinned girl. "If my brother sees the Raikage, he'll..." her voice suddenly went quiet, as if she were trying to consider her options or maybe visualizing what it was that she had trouble saying.

Gin cocked her head to the side and crossed her arms. "He'll what?" the silver haired woman asked. Her tone had a sort of undeniable finality to it. She was growing tired of the mystery shrouding this entire ordeal. She wanted answers. She was usually as straightforward and to the point as they came. It pissed her off when people tried to keep secrets from her and didn't even bother to hide it well. She got the feeling that this girl wanted to tell her something but was purposefully holding herself back and trying her best to bite her tongue and stay quiet. Gin narrowed her gaze at her.

"He'll do something stupid like charge at Sanosuke! He'll get himself hurt or killed and I can't just stand here and let that happen!" She yelled back. Gin had to give her credit - the girl had a backbone. Weakened and injured, she was still holding her ground against the older woman's suffocating presence. Gin could tell that she was still struggling to stand up on her own. No matter how much she tried to hide it, her knees were still shaking and her breathing was shallow. It was only a matter of time before she passed out or collapsed. Gin was no medic, but she estimated about ten minutes or so.

"Does he have a grudge against Sanosuke, or something?" Gin said, her voice cautious. Maybe questions like these - more specific - were what she needed to ask to understand what it was that was going on.

"Yeah... he... hurt our mom," She said hesitantly and carefully.

Gin sighed and scratched the back of her head. "Look, I know better than anyone that Sano-teme can be a real asshole, but he wouldn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it. He's not like that," she said. And if this was some other kind of... "hurt"... shit, Sanosuke didn't have any bastard kids running around the continent, did he? Well, she wasn't one to judge, but that still complicated things. After all, the girl had silver hair and dark skin, albeit, it was a few shades lighter than his was.

"She didn't deserve it! None of us did!" She yelled back with even more intensity than before.

"You just love playing the pronoun game," Gin mumbled under her breath. It was all "he" or "she" or "us" and no names that Gin could use to piece together a story. She walked over to the girl. She was definitely getting annoyed now, but it wasn't like she could - or rather wanted to - punch answers out of her. She seemed harmless enough, after all. Besides, she was still needed. Nevertheless, with one swift motion, Gin through the girl over her shoulder. She protested weakly, but let it happen anyways. Part of her was probably happy to finally get off of her feet. "You'll get your wish. I'll get us there in a second," Gin mumbled, channeling chakra to her feet once again to repeat the jutsu she had used before. A black arrow appeared below her feet, carrying her in the same path that Sanosuke had walked only a few minutes before.

The two of them traveled through the forest like a hurricane, trees and branches giving way as the resulting winds around their figures tore them from their place. Only a few moments later, would they arrive on the scene of Sanosuke standing before a defeated boy who lay slumped against a tree and covered in cuts and bruises. It was just as the girl had said, most likely. It was easy to tell that this was the little brother she was adamant on finding - their appearances were uncannily similar. The girl's eyes went wide. With strength pulled out of nowhere, she ripped herself out of Gin's grip and was kneeling next to the boy only a second later.

"What the hell happened here?" Gin asked the older man. She needed a drink or a smoke or both. This day was getting out of hand. Maybe she was dreaming and just needed someone to wake her up. Or maybe this was some sort of sick-ass joke and someone was about to pop out from behind the trees and yell surprise. The former Kazekage couldn't make heads or tails out of this. She only hoped that Sanosuke could. She looked at the man standing next to her and realized that she wasn't likely to get an answer any time soon. She sighed and looked at the kids, huddled up together and murmuring to each other. They were speaking, so at least that meant that they were alright, despite the fact that they looked downright exhausted. For a moment, the silver haired woman wondered if they would end up staying with her and Sanosuke at the Raikage's Estate. Whether or not that happened likely relied on the conversation that they were about to have right now.

Gin took a few cautious steps forward and stood looming over the two teenagers. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest and her expression was unreadable. "We got you what you wanted. You're with your brother. Now explain." Her voice left no room for questioning, no room for doubts. The boy finally lifted his gaze, struggling to hold his head up high. One of his eyes was closed, a thin trail of blood running profusely over it. Nevertheless, he looked at her with awe. The girl finally nodded and stood up. Her brother remained leaning against the tree, closing both of his eyes and taking deep breaths.

"My name is Ushio Flynt. This is my younger brother, Kohaku," the girl began. At this, Gin raised an eyebrow, recognizing Sanosuke's last name attached to hers. "There's no easy way to say this. I - we're... we're your kids." her voice went quiet towards the end.

Gin stayed in silence for a few seconds. Then, she burst out laughing. "Alright, alright, I get it now. Who put you up to this? Was it Dameon? it sounds like some shit he'd do. Look, tell him I'm sorry about the pachinko machines, I didn't mean to nearly break his back," Gin said once her laughter died down.

At this, the girl - Ushio - sighed. The boy, on the other hand, almost let out a feral growl. "It's true! We're not from this timeline. Just... Just look!" he kicked the ground, pushing a blade towards Gin. It was used and somewhat weathered, but it was unmistakable. The length, the glowing skull at the hilt - it was Soul Cutter, alright. Slowly, Gin picked it up and maneuvered it briefly, twirling it around herself to get a better feel of the weapon. Yes, it was definitely hers. No genjutsu could replicate knowledge that only she was aware of. She knew this sword better than anyone. There couldn't be two of the same. There was no way in hell.

Gin looked at the two of them. The similarities were there - no doubt about it. They both had silver hair that matched that of Sanosuke and herself. The boy's eyes were the same shade of blue as hers. The girl's eyes almost mirrored Sanosuke's perfectly. Their facial features - slightly narrowed eyes with a long shape and sharp angles, full and heart-shaped faces and even the color of their skin - were all a mixture of the two adults standing in front of them. "How...?" It was the only word that Gin could say. She felt her stomach sink as the realization hit her. The silver haired woman had heard of jutsu that could bend space and time but never at this level, to the point where it could send two people back at least a decade.

"Guru Pathik helped. It took a while and he didn't get it completely right. We're about 4 years early. We were supposed to get here when you two were married already, with Ushio born and me on the way," the boy, Kohaku, chimed in.

Her. Married to Sanosuke. She looked at the man beside her. It was hard to believe and even harder to digest.

"We were supposed to get here to stop you from abandoning her out of your own stupidity, you good for nothing piece of -" he added. The anger in his voice was unmistakable.

"What he means is that we're supposed to stop you from dying. That's how it all starts. Those... things you saw. They eventually take over everything. Hard to believe, but they used to be shinobi. When they're like that, they keep their abilities but lose themselves completely. The only way to kill them is to make sure that nothing's left of them," she explained, trying to keep emotions out of her tone. Gin didn't have to ask to know that those things had most likely killed their entire family. "The experiments start a little after he gets killed. The person that kills him... she goes insane, tries to bring him back in a way that'll fit with her idea of a perfect son... It all goes downhill form there."

She looked at Sanosuke, unsure of what to do. "So what now?" She asked him.[/color]

Despite the boy being in the condition he was, his body plagued with bruises and cuts alike, he was still struggling to get back on his feet. That punch Sanosuke delivered to him should have been enough to knock him out of his equilibrium making it extremely difficult for him regain his center of balance. But yet there he was trying to get back on his feet. Time and time again, Sanosuke watched as he tried to plant the sword into the ground to hoist him up so he could stand. The entire time, the boy's eyes never detered from his own. Shades of blue clashed with each other; pure unadulterated anger met eyes of confused fascination. Why did the boy have that look in his eyes? What did he do to him to have this much hatred for him? Of course Sanosuke had a mountain worth of wrong doings he had done to people in the past, but he never would do something to a kid. "You're too injured to continue this fight. There's no point in fighting on." Sanosuke let out a sigh after watching the boy try and fail each time to get up but would wind up sinking back in his spot.

The boy spat on the ground before Sanosuke which warranted the young raikage to roll his eyes at the kid. "Screw you old man, what the hell do you know?!" The boy growled at Sanosuke. That kind of anger was something that for some reason reminded him of Gin when he pissed her off. Her nostrils would flare slightly and the bridge of her nose would wrinkle up slightly just before she opened her mouth to speak; much like how this boy was doing. It was obvious that the boy wasn't going to stop this vain attempt of getting back up. Why was he so adamant on fighting despite the fight between the two having a clear winner? Someone should have taught this kid how to accept defeat gracefully while keeping his dignity in contact.

Closing his eyes briefly, Sanosuke channeled an incredible amount of chakra in the air filling it with both fuuton and raiton chakra. It created a cloud of chakra around the two as they were locked in with each other without there being anything else they could look at to deter their focus from one another. The cloud turned into a vaccum that was then sucking the air towards Sanosuke's general direction, creating a cyclone around the older man. It distorted his figure making him look more demonic than human. His eyes from the wind glinted with blue chakra as the boy looked in awe and fear at the man before him. The amount of chakra that Sanosuke was generating was putting the fear into him. The boy couldn't breath let alone open his mouth to say another rude insult like he did previously. "No. This fight is over." Sanosuke said simply to the boy, his voice distorted from the surrounding wind cloaking his body. The amount of chakra Sanosuke was generating should be enough to have even the most battle hardened warriors intimidated. They would immediately drop their weapons and submit.

However this boy was still holding on just barely. Sweat dropped down his face as he was before a force of energy that he never encountered before. He should have yielded a while ago, yet he was still hanging on. His knuckles were wrapped tightly around the hilt of Soul Cutter to the point they were getting paler from how hard he was clenching it. He had to hand it to the kid, he had some guts. But alas it wasn't going to last long as he finally relinquished his grasp and subdue to Sanosuke. His weapon clattered to the ground as the fight in his eyes was cast downwards. No doubt the fire was still contained in them, but he seemed to have realized the gap between their abilities. With the boy finally subdue, Sanosuke decided to cease his jutsu. The air around him dissipated to the normal state of the environment leaving Sanosuke and the boy to where they were. The boy was a bit calmer, but still very upset at the outcome of their fight.

While he was in his technique, he sensed Gin's chakra and the girl's coming fast. So it seemed that Gin decided to come over to him. Well it wasn't according to plan but at least he wouldn't have to make the trip of carrying the injured brat over to them. Maybe once the sister was here, she could make some sense of what was all happening. He really needed a drink after this. This was going to be a long day, that much was for certain. When Gin asked him what happened, Sanosuke snorted and crossed his arms. "Well the kid attacked me right out of the blue once I found him. Long story short, these kids have some explaining to do." Sanosuke answered in a low voice so only Gin could hear her. The kid could fight like Gin's father and wielded Soul Cutter, plus his armor was made out of the same material as his gauntlets and his own blades. What was going on? Gin beat him to the question after the kids were done having their own sidebar conversation. It was time to get some answers.

The answer they got surprised Sanosuke. In fact he took one look at Gin and instantly couldn't contain his laughter. He was holding his sides from laughing so hard. "Oh come on Gin, there's no way Dameon could've thought of this on his own. Kaekio, Nozomi get out of here. We promise we're not mad!" Sanosuke nudged Gin jokingly before calling out the young couple that both he and Gin taught respectively. But to no avail nobody came out of the bushes. They were joking right? When the boy showed the weapon he was wielding in their brief fight, that seemed to convince Gin. Before Sanosuke thought the boy was using a weapon that just merely copied the abilities and appearance of Soul Cutter. But Gin identified that this was indeed her signature weapon, but obviously wore out more so than usual. She just whispered how this was at all possible? Yes those kids looked like his own flesh and blood, but there was no way. He had a few close calls with pregnancies of the women he's slept with, but no way should any of the kids he might have had should be this old.

Sanosuke rolled his eyes and put his arm before Gin to make her snap out of it. "Gin think for a second. Those kids might be using some technique to alter their appearance to make themselves look this way." Sanosuke spoke finally, still very much skeptic of the whole situation while Gin was convinced entirely of what they kids were saying. He eyed the boy critically, who then returned the same look with a scowl and a middle finger. "If they truly are from the future, then I'm willing to bet the brat over there stole it from you in the future. Looks like your skills got rusty over the years for a novice like him to get the best of you." Sanosuke added the last part to be sure that Gin snapped out of it. That warranted the boy to try and get up once more from his sitting position against the tree. His fist clenched tightly.

"Don't you ever insult mom you mother f-"

He was cut off by his sister whom seem to finally have composed herself. The girl, Ushio seemed to have finally got a grasp of the situation and looked at the two grownups. "I'll prove to you then by telling you information that only your kids would know; Mom, you're a die hard fan of The Youthful and The Kunoichi. Your favorite couple is Asami and Kyusuke. You have every single DVD sealed in a scroll, hidden in the cellar of the house under the floor board right bellow your favorite bottle of sake, Western Dragon Sake." Sanosuke looked at Gin in awe and instantly fell on the ground laughing. So Gin had been watching soap operas this entire time? That would explain why he would come home and have Gin instantly switch the channel to an action movie that was playing. It all made sense now. He made sure to get out of Gin's way in case she tried to hit him for knowing that much about her.

"And Dad, the puzzle that you're always fidgeting with. We solved it together when I was 2 years old after you threw it on the ground. I turned it clockwise once and moved the center piece northward. Then it opened, Mom said you were so proud that you let me pick out any toy I wanted at the store. Ushio continued a soft, yet melancholy smile was on her face as she spoke. Sanosuke had picked himself on the ground and looked at the girl more skeptically. Deciding it was worth a try, Sanosuke got out the cursed puzzle that his mentor, Guru Pathik, gave him to solve. Following her instructions, Sanosuke got the puzzle to open up for the first time in 6 years. There was a piece of paper that had a crudely drawn picture of his mentor giving Sanosuke a peace sign and sticking his tongue out. A tick mark pulsed against his forehead. For years he wondered what was in the puzzle, years of working. Just for this? Sanosuke shoved it in his pockets annoyed with the results. "If you still don't believe me, then Dad look here." When he made contact with her, Sanosuke saw something that made his heart stop. It was the mark of the demon contract in her right eye, just like his own. The demonic mark was something only people of Kumo could get, and it was very rare. True family lineage isn't a direction causation of who is marked by the demon, but there has always been a strong correlation.

There was no mistaking it, those were definitely their kids. Sanosuke let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at them in disbelief. He really needed a strong drink after this, maybe something like rubbing alcohol. This was unreal. He was before his kids from the future. "Explain, now." Sanosuke said tiredly. How the hell was this all possible? And so the children began to explain their story to both him and Gin. Sanosuke had his arms crossed trying to figure out what was going on. So in the future Guru Pathik was responsible for sending them into the future. At least that part made sense. If there was a person who would be able to understand the flow of time and space it would be that man. But then they talked about the reason why they were here in the first place. To stop his death. Sanosuke was shocked. That was the reason why they came to the past? To stop him from dying? What could have possibly killed him? Was it a sickness, an assassination? Just when he thought about the court of owls being responsible for his death and tried to shake it off, Ushio's words rung clear in his ears. Perfect idea of a son. No it couldn't be. She died a long time ago. There was no way she was alive. Questions pounded against his head time and time again like a drum being struck timelessly. Suddenly it became very difficult for him to breath. His surroundings were being less and less relevant as the pounding in his head grew louder and louder.

Gin touched his arm and asked him what they should do next. Her words was what snapped him out of his thoughts. It wasn't then that he realized that all eyes were on him. Both Gin and Ushio were looking at him with concern while his son Kohaku looked at him with a simple raised eyebrow. Closing his eyes, Sanosuke took a deep breath in and let one out to compose himself. "The last of those creatures were dealt with. Let's get you two back to the house to rest. We'll talk more there." Sanosuke said to the group. With that said, Sanosuke decided it was best to take Ushio with him. Kohaku, at the moment, would rather take his chances with another horde of those creatures than rather have his father carry him around. Letting Ushio grab onto his back, Sanosuke hoisted her up and waited for Gin to get Kohaku before taking off.

On his back Ushio was making herself comfortable and rested her head on his back. She must have been exhausted to have been fighting for so long. It wouldn't at all be surprising if she passed out on the way. That was good, he wasn't in much of a mood to carry on a conversation. There were too many things to think about. He would shoot a quick thought to Navi back at the estate when they were close enough for him to pick up her thoughts that they needed a doctor to look at the new arrival's wounds. In the meantime Sanosuke was left to simply run straight and be submersed in his thoughts.

Gin watched as Sanosuke left, carrying the girl - Ushio, she had to keep reminding herself - on his back. She sighed. What a mess they had gotten themselves into. It was still hard to grasp or even to put what she was feeling into words. If anything, this just seemed ethereal, like a dream or something parallel to reality. She knew that wasn't the case, of course. She was wide awake and this wasn't any kind of out of body experience, no matter how much it felt like it. She supposed she would have to comprehend this slowly, step by step - starting with the fact that she was going to end up marrying Sanosuke. That was likely the hardest thing to fully digest at the moment. Sure, they were close and had been for a while and there was no doubt that they cared for each other. They occasionally had sex, but that was more of a mutually beneficial arrangement than anything else. Both of them had unusually high sex drives and spent large amounts of time together, so why not take advantage of that? It was a rational line of thought. Distantly, her mind wondered whether or not Sanosuke had been with anyone else for the past few months. They were being exclusive with each other without even really realizing it and Gin wasn’t quite sure she knew what that meant.

After her latest fiasco – to put it lightly – Gin had never planned on marrying again or even falling for someone. It always ended badly and putting herself through that again, now knowing that Sanosuke would die, seemed like unnecessary torture. And yet something in her felt a soft pull towards that very future. Her unconscious mind indulged in the idea of having a happy family, living together in peace. Deep down, she knew that what the two children had said would somehow come to pass, no matter how much she fought against it. Destiny – though the former Kazekage refused to believe in the notion – had a way of pushing her and pulling her towards whatever end it pleased.


Gin finally turned to look at the boy – again, Kohaku – who was struggling to stand on his own. Before his legs collapsed underneath him, Gin caught him. “Whoa there, take it easy. You shouldn’t be pushing yourself like that,” she scolded him lightly. She pulled him up into a piggy back ride, despite his protests.

“I can walk on my own…” he mumbled under his breath but didn’t make a move to try to release himself from Gin. Instead, he chose silence, leaning his head against Gin’s back. She felt his soft hair tickling her neck, but said nothing. She simply walked ahead, towards the direction of the Raikage’s Estate. Fortunately, they weren’t too far away, maybe a fifteen-minute walk at their current pace. No doubt Sanosuke had already figured a way to signal a couple of trustworthy medics to take a look at both of the kids just to make sure that they were both fine. As much as she hated the idea of having medics in her general vicinity, she knew it was a necessary precaution. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t glare at them the whole time. She had a tendency to wreak havoc on anyone or anything involved with the medical profession. She had had to fund a new hospital wing in Kirigakure after having burnt it to the ground one time. It made her wonder whether she had infected these two kids with that same skepticism in the future.

“I saw you die just now,” she heard the boy say in a barely audible whisper. At that she momentarily froze, her chest constricting at the words and at the pain laced into them. His grip on Gin tightened. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

Gin didn’t know what to say. All that came out was a nervous laughter. “Come on now, I’m fine. I’m here and I don’t plan on going anywhere,” she said with more enthusiasm than the moment warranted. She wasn’t good at dealing with emotions, much less when they carried such an air of finality with them. She would instead brush it off and wait to confront it later or not at all.

“You died because you gave me Soul Cutter instead of keeping it to defend yourself. It was my fault,” he added, disregarding what Gin had said.

The older woman sighed and contemplated how to deal with this. “You know, I’m not sure what my future self was thinking, but that sounds like something I would do. Family is everything and despite it all, I’ve lived a pretty good life. I have no regrets and I’m sure my future self thought the same thing. I aim to live and die that way. But if I had a chance to help the people I love – my kids – and passed it up for my own safety, I’d be going against that and everything I stand for. I guess what I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t blame yourself at all.”
The words hung in the air for a moment. Gin was unsure as to whether she had said helped at all, but it was the truth. She had never been one to lie to spare someone else’s feelings, no matter how much she cared for them and she supposed she cared for Kohaku a great deal.




Gin tapped her metallic fingers against her bicep, her arms crossed in front of her chest as she sat outside of a large room in the Raikage’s unnecessarily large home. Whoever had constructed the thing definitely had a penchant for grandeur and overkill. Not for the first time, she heard something crash inside the room – probably a tray of medical equipment or something like that. Apparently, Ushio hated medics as much as he did. Kohaku seemed uncomfortable under someone else’s care, but was composed enough to suck it up and accept the treatment. After having tried and failed to get the young girl to calm down, she settled for sealing the windows and door as well as reinforcing the walls for good measure. The medics would corner her eventually or she would run out of stamina.

At the moment, that wasn’t the most pressing issue on Gin’s mind. Her anxiety came from somewhere – or rather someone else. They had been sitting in silence like this for the past twenty minutes. They alternated between staring at each other intensely and completely ignoring that that the other existed. Right now, it was the latter, with Sanosuke examining a stain on the wall like it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen and Gin pretending to contemplate the finer details of her mechanical limb. Quite frankly, it was driving her insane, but she didn’t know what the hell it was that she was supposed to say. A couple of things had come to mind, such as:


Quite frankly, none of those seemed like a good idea. They all probably led to even more awkwardness and… whatever this weird anxiety that she was feeling was. Instead, she settled for a good conversation started before this got any worse.

“So are we going to talk about the metaphorical elephant in the room or what?” She asked, straightforward as ever. Considering what the other options had been, though, this was comparatively harmless. Nevertheless, she wondered if it would lead to the same dark pit that she was picturing. She wondered how much of the house would end up being completely destroyed if they broke out into a fight. Maybe she should just begin planning her trip back to Kiri instead. She was sure Ayakashi would be kind enough to pretend to listen to her rambling about what the hell was going on before trying to ship her off to a mental institution. Maybe she should leave with one of the kids as proof that she wasn’t hallucinating or insane. In any case, escape sounded like a viable option after the pending conversation went to hell.

When they got to the estate, everything was a blur. Navi had whizzed by to inform him the medics were hear and swore themselves using loyalty of seals Sanosuke had designed to swear people to secrecy momentarily before erasing their memories of what was agreed. It only worked on those that didn't know of its existance, so the trick was to trick the patron into swearing themselves(by simply bowing was a trigger that they agreed on) to the seal. That way his tracks would be covered from anyone who would want to pry information about the Raikage's operations. So using the seals, the medics would treat the children and once they were stable, their memories of them being ordered to treat the 2 heavily wounded children in the estate of the Raikage with no questions asked. Navi flew past Sanosuke to the administration office to sort out of meetings so nobody would meet with him today. That way he could focus on the issue at hand. She must have realized how this was bothering him and the last thing he needed was the pressures of being a kage berate him to a worst situation.

With the kid's being treated, Sanosuke wanted to badly be in there to make sure they were okay. Despite him being skeptical at first of meeting them, after they confirmed who they were some feeling deep inside of him began to make itself more apparent and tangible in the back of his mind. The feeling he was experiencing was a sudden protective urge of the injured children. It was accompanied with anger that he couldn't do anything for them to rescue them besides hope his medics heal them. His fist clenched and unclenched as he calmed down his uneasiness while stating at a speck of dirt on the window beside him. What could he do? His hand went limp as he realized that they were all in this situation because he was killed. And Sanosuke had a good idea who it might be. So his past has come back to haunt him, and take his life. It was almost comical. That after all those years, just when he would find happiness that his sin he had committed so many years ago would chose then to take his life for payment. It was too funny but at the same time, if he started to laugh at how funny it was Sanosuke was concerned those chuckles would turn into pangs in his heart causing tears to roll down his eyes. No he'd stay still and try to focus on the speck on the wall.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sanosuke could see something moving in the background. After a while, the silver haired Raikage was able to identify it was Gin being just as anxious. That reminded him that in the feature they were destined to be married. It was so unbelievable that this was going to happen. He wouldn't deny that he had feelings for her. But the fact they would choose each other later in the future to spend the rest of their lives? Hell Sanosuke couldn't stand Gin being in his bed for less than the hour or two they usually spend having sex with one another. No strings attached when they did it, or so they thought. Because in the future, according to the children that are now being treated, one of them caught the feelings for the other and decided to announce it. But who was it? Many more questions popped in his head, but he had no answers for.

That's when Gin decided to speak. It snapped him out of his mental interlude he was having with himself. Yeah there was an elephant in the room that had to be addressed. Seeing how Gin wasn't smiling or trying to get a ruse out of him. She was serious about this. It would seem the time to talk about "them" was now. He hadn't really gave it much thought, but this was going to have to happen eventually. Destiny had predicted that much. Moving closer to Gin, Sanosuke decided to turn to face her so blue and blue matched with one another. "You mean the fact that I'm going to have to specify exactly what you can or can't have in my will?" Sanosuke said making a dark humor joke about the matter. But then again that wasn't at all something Gin would want to hear. Why? Why did he say that. Shaking his head, Sanosuke instinctly grabbed Gin's hand. He noticed it but realized he couldn't let go. Looking back at her, Sanosuke began to speak once more. This time more sincere than he was before. "This is all so much to take in. You and I getting married, we have 2 strong kids that I couldn't be any more proud of and that I'm scared shitless of what could go wrong while they're being treated. But importantly, we both fall in..."

Sanosuke couldn't say the last part. His slight clenching of Gin's hand in his own was what finished the message. "But I do know is, I do care about you. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you. I guess what I'm trying to say is, let me take sometime to think to myself. And then, we can talk about 'us.' " Sanosuke said with a soft smile as he looked at Gin. Despite her being older than him, he was still taller than her and there were times where he looked older than she. Getting up, Sanosuke noticed the light above the room where the kids were being treated to signal that the kids were being done treated. He helped Gin up from the chair she was in. But before she could follow, Sanosuke lightly kissed her on her forehead in that one motion to catch her off guard. His lips rested there as he held her in his arms. Time slowed down as nothing mattered but what was being held in his arms. After a while, he placed her head in his broad chest so she could rest in it.

"Just a little bit of time is all I'm asking. Besides settling down for once does sound, interesting and peaceful. Might be worth looking into. But for now, let's check on our kids to see how they're doing okay?" Sanosuke said with a smile as he looked at Gin to let go of her and opened the door so she can follow. He made that promise with Gin for himself to keep pushing on through no matter what. He was going to live at least to confess whatever feelings he had for Gin. That much was for certain.

---

Getting into the room, Sanosuke saw the medics had already left and it was just the four of them in the room. Kohaku was in a cast for his right leg and his right arm was in a sling. He also had multiple bandages to hold himself together. Ushio was less injured and had multiple bandages around her body. It would seem that in the future, she was the most skilled one of the kids for being able to fight without receiving as much damage. They were both sleeping in beds that were close to one another. After fighting for so long, it was no wonder they were dead tired. All the chakra they must have expended as well. Just for that message?

Lightly knocking on the door to get their attention, Sanosuke smiled softly at his kids getting up. "Hey mind if we come in?" Kohaku retorted with a snort of permission while Ushio yawned and lazily rolled her eyes at Kohaku's pettiness. Sitting on spot of her bed next to Ushio, she smiled at him delicately as Sanosuke gingerly went to touch her cheek. She allowed him to do so. It was a pet that turned into an affectionate stroking of the cheek with his hand. Already Sanosuke was in another plain of existence. "You're my daughter. My beautiful, and strong daughter. I can't believe you're mine, both of you. Sanosuke said almost choking on his own words while talking to Ushio who was nuzzling his hand. He was laughing as he spoke to stop himself from crying but it was hard to. But even so not a tear was shed, but in the reflection of sapphire there was Sanosuke's mind sobbing uncontrollably at how cruel fate could be.

Ushio was holding onto her father's hands and craddling it in her own as she could see the pain in his eyes and wept on his behalf. From the sounds of her crying, it was a mixture of several emotions: happiness that she was reunited with her father, empathy at the pain being seen in Sanosuke's eyes, and anger that there was nothing they could do but hope what they did was enough to change the past. It had to. Despite all of that, she demonstrated the one trait from her father which was to cover up emotions quickly. Wiping her tears, Ushio quickly composed herself just enough for her to speak. "Yes that's us. Dad I missed you so much. How you'd tuck me in, how you'd and mom would argue about who's turn it was to change Kohaku, how granny yoshida would badger Mom at not teaching me how to play the piano. I miss you guys, just so much!" She said before losing it once more. This time, Sanosuke held her in her arms. Still not a tear left his face as he held her daughter's shaking form.


"I don't remember much about Dad, Mom but I do remember how much Ushio loved him. He was the only person she listened to. If it wasn't something 'Dad would do' she would want nothing to do with it. It would piss me off at what the hell kind of guy my father was." Kohaku explained to his mother quietly while the father and daughter had their moment. He looked at the two with envy as he never would have known much about his father besides the stories Gin his mother would tell. In fact his fist clenched in jealousy. Another thing that Ushio had over him. After father died, Ushio was affected by it almost as much as mother was. They both stopped smiling like they used to just because that man was gone, his father. To this day, Kohaku still blames his father for being too weak to fight for his life. But that grip he had on his fist was left unclenched as he smiled softly. "But I am beginning to see the kind of idiot my dad is. I guess I do respect that he's adamant about his goals. When I'm with him, I'm beginning to see why my idiot sister puts so much faith in that bastard." The last part he said was a whisper but he was sure his mother heard it

Clearing his throat, Kohaku got a pillow and chucked it hard at the two crying people huddled over the bed. The pillow was thrown with enough force at Sanosuke's head that it bopped and smacked Ushio's head as well. So there were a match set of bumps on their heads. "Damn it Kohaku! What was that for!" Sanosuke hissed while rubbing his head, all the while Ushio is holding her own bump and wiping her tears.

"Ushio, show them the letter."

Gin stepped into the room behind Sanosuke, trying to hide her hesitance. The conversation that she had just had with him had been somewhat unsettling. She needed time just as much as he did, sure, but there was something still bothering her, something that she couldn't put her finger on no matter how much she tried to think about it now. It would surely come to her later, provided that she had enough rest. She stood at the foot of the bed, trying her best to smile at her children. Kohaku offered her a small smile while Ushio was too busy yawning to notice.

The beds were pushed closely together, so much so that it was almost like the two kids were lying on the same one. They probably didn't mind the lack of personal space, or were too tired to even notice it.

Watching the scene in front of her with Sanosuke and Ushio felt awkward. It was like she was intruding in an intimate moment that she wasn't allowed to see. Therefore, she tried her best to look away, opting to move towards Kohaku's bed and sitting there. She looked at the boy. There was a silent understanding between the two of them. They didn't need physical proximity to express their affection. She finally turned towards Ushio once the girl began to speak. "No child of mine will play that stupid instrument if I can help it," she chimed in. Although she was sure that Misao already knew how, since she had been left under her grandmother's care. Her words made Kohaku let out a soft laugh that he quickly tried to hide. Then, he began to speak.

Gin nodded and listened quietly. It sounded like he needed to get these feelings of of his chest. "He's not so bad once you get to know him," Gin said, only loud enough that Kohaku could hear. "He can be obnoxious, but he... he cares. And the two of you are more alike than you'd want to admit," she said, winking playfully at Kohaku, who hid his smile behind a scoff.

"I missed you, mom. I never thought I'd see you again," he admitted. His voice sounded incredibly vulnerable. But before Gin could offer any sort of comfort, he asked Ushio to show Gin a letter.

With unsteady fingers, the silver haired girl reached into her item's pouch. She must have still been very drained. It made sense, after all, if she were to believe what the kids claimed, they had traveled back in time. The girl pulled out a piece of paper, sealed in an envelope, not by the usual conventional means, but by a jutsu. She motioned for Gin to take it from her. It was ordinary by all means, save for the complex engraving keeping it shut. There were no other markings, no other clues indicating who had written it, who it was addressed to or why it existed in the first place. For a few moments, Gin held it, wondering whether or not to open it now or when she had a private moment. Who knew what could be written in it. Instinct told the older woman that it was nothing to be trifled with. Well, instinct and also the seal that she had mild trouble deciphering.

"You're the only one that can read it," Kohaku chimed in, as if he already knew what was going through her head.

Gin smiled at him, and without a word, flipped the piece of paper and stared at the seal a moment longer. Some of the patterns she recognized - the curving lines oddly resembling an ancient mandala. modified to serve a specific purpose. This was something that she was currently developing, tinkering with in her free time, so to speak. It was based off of one of her deceased husband's former designs, which he had left nowhere near complete. It was meant to be applied to a multitude of things. It was basic, but adaptable. The entire point of it was that only the caster could open temporarily remove the seal. Moments later, however, it would seal once again. Even if sliced or broken, it would regenerate once more, making the seal whole again. Moreover, the object itself could suffer no damage as long as the seal was intact.

"And to think I used to be terrible at sealing..." She muttered to herself.

The silver haired woman placed a hand on top of the sign and channeled a small amount of chakra through it. This wasn't the most surprising thing that had happened today, even if it did confirm that Gin had written another letter to herself from some time in the future. The envelope unfolded, revealing the letter inside. The handwriting was messy, but legible.


Gin let out a breath that she didn't even know that she had been holding. Her hands were shaking. Tears were silently streaming down her face. She needed to be alone. She needed time to think about all of this. She needed... she didn't know what she needed. If and when Sanosuke asked what was wrong, she would only smile and shrug it off. She couldn't tell him about this.

"Thank you for giving me this," she said, barely above a whisper. She wrapped her arms around Ushio and Kohaku in a steady embrace. It was all she could do for now.

It was like watching a performance as Gin was handed a parcel by their daughter, Ushio. The silver haired girl seemed hesitant giving it to her own mother. It was as though it was something that she knew was going to bring great pain to the recipient of the letter; bearing down an unbearable burden upon them to carry and them alone. But at the same time, Sanosuke could see a reflection in his own daughter's eyes. The same look of fire and duty that he held everyday as kage and everyday he named himself a shinobi. It was her duty, her responsibility that Gin received this letter. Sanosuke swallowed as he witnessed the exchange happen. His eyes never left Gin as she began working to open the package. It was a rather complicated usages of seals that the silver haired man could only make out the general, basic functionality each character on the seal all together. Like Gin said, this craftsmanship was on a different level than what Gin and himself could combine together. But what could be so secretive that it needed that much high security, and what was it that was so important that only Gin could read it?

Regardless, Sanosuke could only look at Gin taking in each word of the letter that she got from the package. Her own blue eyes slowly enveloped each word in its own form of embrace to understand the letter in its entirety. She didn't want to make a single mistake of what she was reading. Then pattering could be heard. There wasn't a leak was there? Sanosuke wondered. Then he noticed it was coming from Gin. Her tears were hitting the parchment as she continued to read. Her face was still iron set on finishing the letter, despite whatever it was she was learning was breaking her heart. The tears started off small, but then multiplied until it was patter after patter hitting the letter. Despite it not soaking the letter all together, Gin continued to read the letter to its completion. What did she just read? Sanosuke looked around the room to see what he should do, but a grunt from Kohaku pointed him into Ushio's direction. She simply shook her head 'no' to imply to her father to leave her alone while she read.

After she finished, Gin put the letter down and hugged her children close together. This time it was the silver haired man's turn to feel like an outsider. The kids knew something about the future, now including Gin, that they felt that Sanosuke shouldn't know. But what was it? He was unsure what secrets they were hiding. Still his death was something that had plagued his mind ever since they discussed it very briefly in the woods. It couldn't be her. That she would be the one that would take his life, after so many years. Sanosuke refused to believe it, but the thought was haunting the back of his mind of the possibility.

Focusing his mind, Sanosuke began to think what else happened in the future that they might be overlooking. But alas, Sanosuke couldn't think of anything. "So what happens now? You passed on the message, was that all you had to do?" Sanosuke asked his kids. They both looked at each other, as though they were both working on an answer to their father looking back at them. Kohaku seemed to have been more prepared than his sister. "There's one more thing we have to do. Mom said when you left us in your own idiocy, your body's chakra system went into spasms causing you to lose control of your own techniques. It's a disease that very few shinobi get. And in your time don't have a cure for yet for another 12 years." Now that caught Sanosuke off guard. He dies partially to a disease that weakens him? Sanosuke gritted his teeth at his death being so anticlimactic. Yes he died in combat, but to have died with a medical handicap left a sore taste in his mouth. Seeing that face on his father let Kohaku sneer and cleared his throat to get his father's attention.

"Bastard you should probably be paying attention to this last part. We have the cure with us. If you take it now, your body will begin to break down the vitamin and strengthen your immune system. Take 1 a day for the next month and you'll be better." Kohaku tossed Sanosuke a container of pills from his inside pocket. However how he did it was similar to how he would use chakra to move things around; similar to telekinesis. If he wasn't so pissed at his son's smugness, Sanosuke might have been proud. Opening the container, Sanosuke did as he was instructed and took one orange pill. He engulfed it whole, while following that up with the rest of Kohaku's orange juice. The boy was pissed, Sanosuke could tell that it was his turn to return a sneer.

"Thanks so much, son. You're a real lifesaver."

"YOU BASTARD! That was mine you egotistical, sun bleached haired, hack of a kage!"

Sanosuke grabbed the scruff of his son's neck and pushed him to a wall while pushing his forehead against his sons so both of them were looking into eachother's eyes. "Who are you calling a hack, you knock off fighting style hasbin."This time Kohaku bashed his own skull up against his fathers, returning the same glare.

"Jack ass.."

"Bitch ass..."

For a while the two of them glared at each other. Both of them sending the same kind of explosive vibe at each other. Blue eyes clashed with blues as both silver haired males had their temples slightly enlarged as though they were mirror images of each other. At the same time, both males remembered Gin's comment how they were both more alike than they would admit. While Sanosuke threw down his son back into place, Kohaku pushed back his father back into his own place. They scuffed at each other while both adjusting themselves simultaneously. "With that said, the seal that we used to travel back in time should be slowly preparing our bodies to be launched back into our time. It'll take a few days, but in the meantime we'll have to stay here. Out of sight of course." Kohaku finished up his explanation once he was situated in a proper sitting position on his bed. A yawn came out of Kohaku's lips as it made sense since the painkillers they were injected with must be kicking in. They're going to need rest.

"Right, we'll let you two rest. Talk later when you both wake up." Sanosuke smirked at his son and his daughter. Kohaku turned his head to look up at the ceiling, and not his father. Moving quickly, Sanosuke put his hand down on the boy's silver hair and patted it. He playfully ruffled his hair, but did it affectionately. "Not too bad brat. Good work, I'm proud of the both of you." Sanosuke said the first part to Kohaku and the other to both of his children. Moving his hand quickly off his son's hair before he has the chance to rip it off, Sanosuke hugged Ushio one last time before kissing her on her forehead. Ushio smiled at that before yawning herself. This time it wasn't out of her personality but of the painkillers just now affecting her body. With that, Sanosuke guided Gin back outside of the room and closed the door so the kids would have time to rest.

Once more, there was silence between the two of them. What to even say, after seeing Gin's reaction to learning some more terrible news, the woman looked more tired than usual. It was a long day, and Sanosuke didn't know what to say to her. The silver haired man looked at the woman before him. She probably didn't want to speak to him,as she was trying really hard not to make eye contact with Sanosuke once more. Taking a deep breath, Sanosuke decided to mess around with Gin to break the ice before Gin goes off by herself. "So I take it you'll be spending the night catching up with your two old friends Asami and Kyusuke?" Sanosuke teased while alluding to the personal information about Gin Ushio revealed to prove who they were. Getting himself ready, Sanosuke expected Gin to punch him, or slap him, anything to let Sanosuke know that the Gin he knew was still going to be okay. After that, he would worry about the next coming days: His survival.
[Thread Exit]

Watching Sanosuke and Kohaku argue was… it was… Gin couldn’t quite describe the feeling she got. It was like watching something to familiar, so endearing. Maybe it was an effect of her future self’s chakra still lingering in her body or maybe it was something else. Still, she felt like this had happened before, like it was a common occurrence within the family. And for some reason, that made her happy. It gave her a feeling of belonging that she hadn’t had for a very long time. With one of her arms still around Ushio, she began to laugh. Despite the tears that had been in her eyes only seconds ago, she couldn’t help it. Through her slightly reddened and swollen eyes, she still smiled. It made her think about how much she missed her family, how much she had needed this without even realizing. Part of her quietly hoped that this could happen again one day, in the future, with all of them joined by Chie and Reiko and Shinji and Misao and Ren. It was all she could do, really – hope that they would survive all of the adversity thrown at them, so that they could be together.

Gin’s sudden outburst effectively cut through the tension. Kohaku turned to look at her briefly. There was something in his eyes that Gin couldn’t quite pinpoint. Maybe it was relief, a fleeting sense that everything would be alright and that this would be the family he would have when they once again returned to their own timeline. He soon returned to his old self, just as Gin’s laughter died down. He was practically growling at Sanosuke. The former Kazekage was almost sure that they were simultaneously realizing how she was right – the two of them were very much alike.

Ushio and Kohaku yawned almost at the same time. They were without a doubt tired, even though they tried to pretend otherwise. Each did so in their own way. Ushio feigned general laziness and a touch of disinterest while Kohaku tried to brush it aside altogether. Gin wondered how they had grown up to be so different. She wondered how much of a hand she would have in their development and how their current personalities came to be.

The silver haired woman stood up from the bed, giving each a hug and insisting on tucking them in. Ushio gladly let her mother coddle her while her younger brother pretended to be annoyed “I don’t know how long it’ll be before the jutsu that brought you here wears off, so let’s try to do something together – as a family. Before that happens,” she said, smiling at the two teenagers. Even if things were slightly tense with Sanosuke, she knew that they could both put that aside for the sake of a happy family outing.

As soon as the door was closed, Gin sighed heavily, rubbing her temples in an attempt to get some sort of relief. This was a lot to digest. And with Sanosuke looking at her like that… she couldn’t quite face him. Not right now, at least. She didn’t know when, but she needed to work herself up to the eventual discussion that they would have about this. Today definitely wasn’t the time. Gin forced a mirk when he finally spoke. “I’ll binge watch the rest of the season on your 100” TV. Surround sound and everything. Interrupt me and I’ll… I dunno, I’ll rip your trachea out while you sleep,” she said, not feeling particularly creative with her threats. She needed to rest. And she needed her space. Maybe a distraction could serve as both.