Hi!

This does contain stories, and also some side stuff too. These don't necessarily have plots, and might not have anything to do with Mokuren's plot. I often feel like telling you about some character we saw for like two seconds, or never wanted to hear about, like Kujaku's dress. I might take that story out of that chapter, too. As much as I liked sticking it in there, it would fit better over here.

Also! If you're interested in artwork etc related to Mokuren, please look at my profile for some details on finding that.

If there's someone in particular you're interested in hearing about, let me know? Now, here's a piece on Senurou.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from somewhere else other than my Naruto fanfiction Mokuren (which you should read first or this is all meaningless) doesn't belong to me. I make no profit from this.

Author's Note: This is about Senurou, Teru's (Mokuren's father) teammate. He is also Umerano's (Maitsu's sensei) husband. It takes place between the Lost Mission and Chunin Exam arcs.

Senurou's Regret

Senurou was young still; logically, he knew this. Sometimes, though, his regrets caught up and aged him.

There was nothing that allowed them to do so more than seeing Mokuren. She was the daughter of his dead teammate, of the man he owed his life to; the child his wife had always wanted, when he could never give her children; her precocious attitude and determination were identical to that of his other teammate, a traitor.

Teru, Umerano, Machiko. The people who had trusted him, and who he had failed, all wrapped up into one child that was fast becoming an angsty teenager.

As he entered the hospital, feeling older and wearier than ever, he wondered if he was failing Mokuren too.

For years - since the mission that had taken her father, really - Mokuren had been pestering him for training. If he had ever agreed, he wondered if she would still have ended up here. Initially it had been too hard to face her, and later, his rejections were based on her growing resemblance to Machiko.

Machiko, the traitor he hadn't seen since he was thirteen. She'd been placed on his genin team, along with Teru. She had been proud, he remembered, and arrogant, but only as a cover for her emotional frailty. Her eyes were blue, and Mokuren's brown, but even physically they were extraordinarily similar in build and in hair.

As silly as he felt thinking it, even Umerano looked less like Machiko than Mokuren did.

Umerano and Machiko had been twins, identical but for Umerano's purple eyes. For much of their childhood and time as a genin, the two had the same haircut and shared outfits. Still, he rationalized, their mannerisms had always been very different. You never needed to see their eyes to know one from the other. But Mokuren acted just like her, spoke just like her. Even though their roots were different, even though Umerano was insistent that Machiko had practically been born to betray Sunagakure,

The darkness in Machiko, the way she began to distance herself, it hadn't been at all subtle or unexpected. Everyone had seen it coming, and had let it go. He could see something in Mokuren, too. Had been seeing it grow more a little every year. Always, he convinced himself he was projecting. That his fear of another Machiko was making him see things that weren't there.

Still, he treated her differently. Always saw Machiko in her shadow. He wanted to be there for her: Mokuren had always been a lonely child, and he knew her mother wasn't a good person... but it was stressful to be haunted so viciously by his mistakes.

Mokuren's teammates were two boys, one tall and thin that had placed himself out of sight, in the far corner of her hospital room. The other was stocky, and pinkish hair - Senurou was pretty sure he was Kisako's son, as hers was nearly the same shade.

Senurou watched the three of them interact with some sorrow. It was clear that her teammates felt responsible for her injuries; Senurou hadn't been given any information yet about what had happened, but Mokuren had complained enough that his best guess was that she had done something sacrificial, having no faith in her teammates' abilities.

Machiko had always done that kind of thing, to. She had never trusted her teammates, not really.

Mokuren seemed conflicted in her behavior today, lashing out at her teammates, being apologetic the next second, but somehow seeming angrier for it. Senurou himself said little, not knowing the boys at all and feeling nostalgic at seeing a genin team talking so much.

"They're not acting right!" She revealed her problem to him, after the boys had left. "They're not yelling back. They should be furious. Why aren't they?"

"Mokuren..." it hurt him to see her in distress, but he wasn't sure what to say.

"Ugh, and you too, Senu-jii. Are they blaming themselves or something?" Mokuren had been lying down, glaring at the ceiling, but she sat up to look over at him. "Are you doing that, too?"

"... Sorry." For blaming himself, and for failing her, too.

Mokuren seemed very eager to scold somebody - trying to settle into some kind of normalcy, probably. Establish her superiority with someone, since it had failed with her teammates.

"Senu-jii, you really overthink things, you know? And now those two are doing it, too. There isn't a thing that happened to me on this mission that was in any way your fault or theirs. I did most of this to myself too, you know! Taking on the blame doesn't even do anything, except make it about you.

"On that topic - I've been meaning to say this to you for a really long time. I know there's a lot I don't know, and that you can't tell me, but I can still tell. Tou-san's death wasn't your fault at all. Anything he ever did, he chose to do."

Senurou felt a flash of alarm, but realized that it wasn't much of a leap to get to this. Her father's death was what everything came down to, from Mokuren's point of view.

(The way her parents' deaths had been for Machiko.)

"I'm sorry," he found himself repeating.

Mokuren huffed, and sat up more fully. She wanted to look him in the eyes, so that maybe the words would sink in. "I just said. It's not your fault. The things other people chose to do - even if you think you influenced them, or that you could have done something to make them do something better - that's their fault still. Stop thinking like that! If you're really so sorry for whatever, do something about it. Help somebody else."

Senurou grimaced, but huffed out a laugh. "Is that a hint?"

"No, not really. Unless you want to help me figure out how to piss Ringo and Bishou off? Because I can't keep up like this. I'm the only one getting angry, and it has me feeling kind of... weak."

Senurou is kind of important, as a character. He's one of the links between Mokuren's past and her future, and I feel kind of bad that I did end up cutting his scenes from the first arc way back when.