At 7:30 in the morning, most houses would be quiet, and the people living in it would be silently getting ready for their day.

The Hanabishi household was not like most other households.

"RECCA HANABISHI! WAKE UP! YOU'RE GONNA MAKE US LATE!"

Fūko Kirisawa burst in to Recca's bedroom, furious.

"Come on, you idiot! This is my first family reunion in years! If you make us late…"

Fūko kicked Recca in the side, shouting, "WAKE UP!"

A few minutes later, Fūko came back into the living room, where Tokiya Mikami and Domon Ishijima were waiting. Fūko had asked them to accompany her to her family reunion, so they had all gathered there earlier in the morning to get ready. Yanagi would come too, but she was in the kitchen preparing food to bring.

"Recca's getting ready now," Fūko said cheerfully as she walked in. "We can leave in about fifteen minutes."

She stopped, realizing that someone was missing.

"Where's Kaoru?" Fūko asked, confused. She frowned. "Is he still sleeping?"

"No. He actually was the first of us to be ready. He came down and went outside to play while he waited for us," Tokiya corrected.

Fūko frowned again. "It's been a while. Have you gone to check on him at all?"

The entire group, excluding Fūko, looked at the ground. "No…" They said in unison.

"I'm ready to go!"

The hokage all looked over to see Recca, hair combed, dressed nicely for once, coming into the room.

"Great!" Fūko clapped her hands. "Domon, you go get Kaoru, then we'll leave. We're already gonna be a little late, so we need to go really soon.

Domon left to alert Kaoru that they were leaving.

After a moment, he peeked back into the room, a worried expression on his face.

"Umm… guys? We have a problem…"

"What is it?" Fūko snapped, getting impatient.

Domon entered the room, carrying Kaoru, who had a sheepish smile on his face.

Kaoru was covered with mud. Dirt was on every inch of his clothes, there was twigs and leaves in his hair, his shoes were filled with stones, and in general, looked like he had been living in the wild all his life.

Tokiya paled, knowing what was coming. "Crap…" He muttered, then slowly began to back away from Fūko, who was shaking with rage.

Domon set Kaoru down, and also began backing away.

Everyone was worried about the angry glint in Fūko's eyes.

Fūko exploded with rage.

"KAORU KOGANEI! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE? YOU JUST HAD TO GO RUN AROUND AND PLAY IN THE MUD AND CLIMB UP THE TREES LIKE A DAMN SQUIRREL! GUESS WHAT? YOU AREN'T A DAMN SQUIRREL!"

This continued for a while. Once Fūko finally stopped, she marched past Kaoru, and walked up to Tokiya, Recca and Domon.

"I am sick… and tired… of constantly… dealing with you idiots…"

Fūko snapped her head up to look the boys in the eye.

"Get him-" She jabbed her thumb over to Kaoru, who was still standing in the center of the room, pretending to be invisible,"-ready to go, before I come back, in 30 minutes… Or else."

With that, Fūko turned away, marched out of the front door, and disappeared from sight.

The boys all turned to face Kaoru, fidgeting with a Rubix Cube, looking just as muddy as he had a moment ago.

Tokiya was the first to speak up.

"It seems… We have an issue...

The all boys agreed that the first order of business would be to get Kaoru to take a shower.

Actually, all the boys agreed, except Kaoru himself.

"WHAT? No way am I taking a shower! I took one just this morning!"

Tokiya sighed.

"You did take one, but then you got covered in mud." Tokiya pointed out.

"Still! No!" Kaoru shouted again.

"Look, puzzle boy. You either take a shower by choice, or we make you." Domon said, advancing threateningly.

Recca sighed. "Domon… you do realize that makes you sound like a pervert, right?"

The said 'pervert' turned a bright shade of red. "T-Thats not wh-what I meant…"

"Jeez, Domon. It was a joke." Recca turned away from Domon, and turned to face Kaoru.

Only Kaoru wasn't there.

"He ran." Tokiya muttered, eyes narrowed. "Domon, you stay here and guard the door, so he can't leave the house. Recca, quickly, go get his Kōgan Anki so he can't defend himself. I'll go search the house for him."

Domon and Recca nodded, and the boys began Operation: Bath time.

I'm sorry, I meant for this to be longer, but I really need to catch up on sleep. I'll post Part Two soon.

-Bean