In the deep recesses of the eastern forests of Konoha-gakure lies a sacred shrine, safe guarded by the soft pink petals of sakura trees, and two cold stone statues of one white marble fox, and one obsidian fox, looking on in silent serenity.

Tall, beautiful oak and maple surround the peace, towering fearsomely, only allowing small rivets of sunlight to grace the holy grounds.

Small, stone steps, cracked and riddled with moss wore a traveled pathway through the make-shift gates, beneath withered old wooden gates that had a celebration of paper seals that danced in the breeze, and up through a puzzle of trees, until they leveled out before a huge twisted Cherry blossom.

This great sakura blossom, roots dug deep into the dirt, was drawn in with vibrant green moss and small birds nests, that huddled in the small corners of branches. Yet another wrap of seals joined by weathered old rope was strung around the tree, the yellowness of the paper, seemingly on the verge of crumbling in the wind.

But, directly beneath the very heart of the tree, was a small hollow, that was surrounded by offerings such as 5 yen pieces, food that had now rotted into the ground it sat on, and small wooden prayers that had accumulated around the tree.

A priceless ring, now rusted with copper cracks, unscented candles that were now burnt out, a broken picture, framed in cracked wood.

All, once in the praise of the great Nine Tailed Fox God, Kurama, god of trickery and fire and his disciple, the God of nature, of life itself, referred to as the Kitsune God, Naruto.

Me.

I was once a well known God, respected and praised by the souls who came to me, looking for refreshment of their spirits, for the blessing of new life, for the prosperity of their own, until they soon began to lose their faith.

Began to fear.

To hate.

The master before me, Kurama, was found by a human, and controlled, despite his title, and was forced to attack the very people who had prayed to him, who held him in respect and love.

Forced to kill and destroy the man he favoured above many others, due to his complete devotion and faith, who despite everything, understood and even after Kurama had killed his wife and had a long white claw skewered through his stomach, killed his newborn, saved Kurama from the control and sealed him inside the dead offspring as well as giving its body to my own spirit, giving me a name.

He called me Maelstrom. Naruto.

From that day, nothing has been the same.

Kurama became cruel, condescending and spiteful towards the human race, the mutterings of hate and violence echoing through the seal upon my stomach, his chakra, in ungodly amounts fluctuated violently within me for the first few weeks. Where I was stuck inside of a weak infant body, I would scream and cry out in pain until he realised what he was doing to his apprentice, and soon calmed down enough to talk to me without releasing a large amount of killing intent.

The shrine we once resided in, had been abandoned and fenced off from the village, as if they had decided that if they ignored what had been, they would forget what was.

The foolishness of the human race was astounding.

On that day, of birth and grief, I was found on the stone pillar they had sealed kurama and I on by the predecessor of the fourth, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who, on the discovery of what had occurred that night, decided that I would be once again taken to the shrine after days at what was called a medical centre, being checked on and passed around like the common cold, before a shinobi who had once prayed to me for the health of his newborn daughter treked through the gates of the eastern border, holding me as far away from his own body as he could without dropping me, and placed my frail body beneath the sakura tree, where I grew and survived the best to my abilities, creating a home there with Kurama, despite his already uncomfortable space in my body.

As the years passed, and my human self was reshaped, so was my look on the world, and as with Kurama, I began to despise the human race.

But I could never hate as much as Kurama did.

So I hated with him and suffered through as he did, trapped in a cage of sorts, unable to escape, to do as I once pleased, checked upon yearly as if I was about to ravage their civilization. Stuck in the shrine they once built in our favour.

I grew sadistic and clinical of the world, yet naive and playful, always practicing my skills to one day be on par with what Kurama once was in his prime.

In the coldness of the winter, would I gather the animals that would've suffered outside and brought them into the shrine, where I created warmth and food for them to survive on.

In the beginnings of spring, would I rejuvenate the beautiful trees that I surrounded myself with, restoring them to their original state, leaves and all decor. If there was death in my forests, I would hold vigil in their honour, because despite my hatred and anger at the past, I could not take that and harm my creations. But of course I still knew this was all in compensation for the disciples I lost.

For a god without a praying soul is not a god, but merely a servant to their own whims.

Now, I have grown to see my sixteenth year, but Kurama-kun still thinks I'm a child.

Grabbing a couple of old scrolls, I climbed out of the hollow beneath the sakura tree, grunting as I lifted myself out.

Getting up off the dirt, I hastily pat the dust off my knees, my bare feet were dusty and tanned as the summer sun shone on my body.

The soft blonde strands of my short, spiky hair waved a little in the morning breeze, my long braid on the left side of my head, tinkling in the breeze as the small bells attached to the end of it danced. The tan skin on my shoulders seemed lighter, as the self-sewn pure white baggy pants that draped down my hips and coming to a tight end at my ankles gave off a slight glow in the sun light. Golden tribal tattoos on my biceps, torso, back and neck shone brightly, as my reptilian like blue eyes dilated.

"Oi, kurama." I said out loud, which probably looked like I was talking to no one, but oh well.

A loud snort could be heard from the inside of my mind, before a gruff voice replied.

"What, brat. I'm busy sleeping."

Stretching out a little, scrolls still in hand I retorted sarcastically "Oh, boo hoo, I'm sooo sorry for disturbing your beauty sleep, Oh great and powerful Kyuubi-sama-"

"As you should be-"

"But, please grace me with the insight on what special day it is today, Kyuubi-sama, and I will in return, bless you with these pretty 5 yen pieces I found on the ground a couple years ago."

Que undignified growl.

Scratching my head absently, I said "Or, you know, you can just keep being a little bitch in your cave or whatever, either way I still win so…"

I felt the prickle of irritation and killing intent from the back of my mind, stabbing at me as I ignored it.

Turning around, I began to walk down the concrete steps, my scrolls held underneath my arm as a small group of animals followed me through the trees and by my feet, grunting and sniffing playfully as we walked towards the gates of the shrine.

The sun was blistering as it usually was in the fire country, but even more so in the summer, but I have never experienced any burning from it so I never worried too much.

Only for my small followers that I loved so much.

In my head I could feel the strangest sensation of Kurama flicking his tails in aggravation, before he grudgingly caved in.

"Why do you persist on honoring this day when you know it is not your true birthing, brat? Every year those hairless monkeys do the same, celebrating the day they survived their mother's womb. It's a useless practice."

Breaking through the line of pink and rotted, moss covered wood, I came face to face with the metal fence the civilians put around my forest, which covered approximately 13 acres of land on its own, so they never could truly cadge me as they once wished, but everyone can dream I guess.

A pure black raven cawed and landed softly on my shoulder as I tied one of three scrolls around its leg in red ribbon, sending it high over the fence and into konoha before I began to climb.

"Because if it wasn't for the very man who put us both in this body, you would still be in possession of that disgusting uchiha." I bit out as I swung one leg over, my muscles rippling in return. I had a lean body, and I don't know what would've qualified as tall in humans, but I knew I wasn't.

"You could've even died, and I would have died soon after without you to balance out our responsibilities. Especially with the fucking six tails running loose, do you understand how much irreparable damage that idiot of an uchiha would have caused if you had been killed or continually controlled as you were?"

Kurama was silent.

The aura of deep thought lingered in the space of my mind he occupied, as if he had never really thought about these things, even though I knew that he had infact dwelled on these thoughts for the last 16 years of us trapped in this body.

"Plus, since it's my birthday today, I was thinking about asking the old man to join the shinobi list." I said, swinging the rest of my body over the fence and dropping hard onto the dirt. My small companions whined as they shifted behind the gate, a mixture of stray dogs, lemurs, a few racoons, a monkey I liked to call Mina, and my favorite snake, Chiyo that hissed, knowing they had to stay behind.

Taking a small breath in, my mouth twitched into a smile as they watched me worryingly, I looked at Chiyo and hissed back in softer tones, telling her to look after the shrine until I got back.

Soon enough, the animals each got the message and merged into the overgrown plant life.

Huffing a little, I began to trudge down the worn pathway to the eastern gate of Konoha, my white pants shifting lazily in the breeze as the two remaining scrolls were tied to my side by a makeshift gold chain that tied around my waist as a belt.

The chain was left at the shrine by a wealthy merchant who had once prayed to Kurama for the blessing of tricking his divorced wife into handing over all the money she had supposedly 'stolen' from him.

Obviously he did not succeed, but 'want not waste not' was my motto, so I scavenged it and polished it with some herbal remedies learnt over the centuries, and vola~

Good as new.

"Are you sure you want to do such a thing? They will not treat you as kind as worship, and I can guarantee that those two legged bastards will hold hate if they find out what you are, and just who is inside of you." He grumbled, as I felt him shift slightly.

Deciding to be somewhat social (which may not really apply to the term 'social' when technically talking to yourself) I slipped into my mindscape, melting into a bright nondescript white plane, while my body moved on auto pilot.

Kurama could be seen lying with his paws beneath his giant head, burnt orange fur taking up as much room as he could. Nine long tails wrapped around his form, looking as though it was simply one big tail on its own but I knew better.

One large and impossibly dark vermilion eye glimmered tiredly at me, narrowing slowly from the black color change, as he took in my own true form.

No one could hide in their own mindscape.

Because I had never truly had a 'form' per se, I was usually just seen as a wisp of green flame, drifting, never really smoldering, but my most famed and favourite form, as depicted from the carvings and statues of our shrine, where Kurama was the Yin fox, I was the Yang fox, only I was not a fox at all but a kitsune. A being with 9 tails, but not quite a being at all. So, in my body of a human, automatically, I felt the tips of my teeth and ears becoming just a little bit sharper, my once blue eyes shifted to gold, my tattoos glowing on my skin, my nails turning black and growing into claw-like tips and finally 9 long fully gold tails had grown from my backside and whipped around lazily.

Walking over to kurama, I sat down in front of him, his huge body towering over my own, but we were still the same almost in terms of power.

The white beneath me rippled strangely as I sat, while Kurama blew an impatient snort from his nose, causing my braid to ring with its bells.

Laying my own tails on the ground, I put my elbows on my knees and leant my head in one of my hands, taking in the peace of my own mindscape before looking back and answering his question.

"Well, I either stay here, stuck in the shrine, no real contact and slowly wither away as people forget me, and they will. You will be released, of course, but still tied to this dead body as you were when you were put in here, unable to move inside the vegetative state until it decays, and they move you to yet another host. OR I can go to this village, learn how to undo this, and you will once again be my master and the god you were, and I can become your successor as I had been, and we will still be praised like Gods, only in fear and respect. We both knew there would never truly be the time where things would go back to being the same." I stared back at him as his eyes closed in resignation.

"Yes, but I still don't agree with this method of interacting with those disgusting fucks. There are other ways to accomplish this goal. We could eat them, or even decimate them in an 'accidental' massacre." He said contemplatively.

I hummed my disagreement, shifting my weight before stretching my hands behind my neck, gnawing at the inside of my mouth, accidentally cutting it on the sharpness of my teeth.

I could taste the coppery liquid on my tongue, but it quickly healed itself in a few seconds.

"You don't have any intelligent ideas that wouldn't draw attention to ourselves then?"

A loud deafening growl resounded through the space as I saw a blur of orange in my peripheral vision. Chuckling, I quickly dispersed myself from my mindscape, my tails and additional features disappearing as I snapped back into my body.

As my eyes refocused, I looked around, seeing the difference in tree size, so much smaller than what I was used to. The now gravel path was more open and not as crowded as it once was, opening out into an unguarded, straight path way to a huge Green gate with the Kanji "Leaf Village" written in large.

The sound of bird calls echoed through the space as I walked up to the guards that stood in offencive stances at the gates, suspicion and wariness creasing their faces, the feeling of wind brushing through my golden locks.

As I got closer, I could almost feel some killing intent, but it felt so small I brushed it off casually. To me, anyway, I don't know how normal humans would feel after being exposed to another's killing intent.

They were dressed in what I guessed was standard uniform for this village, where the only thing that stood out were the bandaged wrapped around the nose of one, and the senbon sticking out from the mouth of the other.

I could see their hands creeping to their backs where I guessed a weapons pouch was stored as I got within a few metres distance from their station.

Thinking about what I was wearing now, I probably should have changed into something less… eye catching. The gold hues on my figure probably weren't helping my case either.

Probably.

"Welcome to Konoha, State your ID and purpose" Said the one with the senbon, in his left hand, clutching three of the weapon type in between his fingers threateningly.

Despite the friendly welcome, I couldn't just dismiss the feeling of tension. Honestly, these people, I can't even believe these are the same people who used to pray and drop their change at my doorstep, they used to be so calm and happy.

Thus is the mistrust of Humans anyhow.

"I don't really know what my purpose is to be honest. But my name is Naruto, if that helps. Uzumaki Naruto, here to meet the old man on some private business."

I chuckled, slouching inward a little to show I really was unarmed, which may not have made a difference had I decided to kill everyone, but it was still common courtesies that made a difference.

Treat others how you wanted to be treated or someshit. I never really did care all too much for that quote, but it's the thought that counts.

My braid slid from my shoulder to hang in midair, the small bells tinkling at the sudden movement, feeling the heat of the sun at my bare back, the tribal tattoos on my torso glinting softly in the increased light. My pants, though still a little bit dusty from the small trek here, were billowy and light, my 'belt', slipping a little bit on the side with the two scrolls hanging from it.

In order to look even less aggressive and threatening, I managed to up an almost undetectable henge over my eyes, hiding their likeliness to a reptile, and changing them to large human eyes with the circular pupil, 'sparkling' and 'innocent' with clear curiosity and shyness in them.

I made sure I gave off a slightly childlike aura, so that even though my statement sounded mature, to them it seemed as if it just came from a wannabe ninja kid.

Unsuspecting, when in actual fact I looked on in cold indifference.

"Uzumaki Naruto...Naru...nar-naarruuutoo….AH! There you are," The bandaged one exclaimed from behind a clip board. His companion, who had kept a close eye on my movements, twitched a little in irritation, glancing back at him in annoyance.

You're supposed to be intimidating when you are ninja, aren't you? I thought absently, looking back and forth between the pair, But, you both act like overgrown children it seems.

The bandaged one looked up at me and squinted, looking me up and down.

"Hokage-sama said to send you right up as soon as you got here, saying to tell you, 'I caught the black bird, we shall discuss this immediately.' A jonin, that was supposed to be here over an hour ago, should arrive to escort you to the tower, but because this is Kakashi that we're talking about, I don't think he'll be here for the better half of another hour"

The one with the senbon (I'm just gonna call him senbon man) sighed in aggravation, putting away his weapons and shoving his hands into his pockets. Bandage Man just tucked the clipboard away, resigned from the action they probably weren't getting.

Shrugging, I ran a hand through my hair, the tattoos going up my throat and down my back glittering and shifting when I swallowed, calmer than anything.

I wonder if this Kakashi really will take such a long time. I'm sick of waiting. I thought.

I blinked slowly and looked up past the canopy, and stared at the white clouds drifting gently in the mid morning sky.

The reason I had traveled to the village, was to become a certified ninja of course, and with the hokage's support, I should be able to become one as soon as possible. Yeah, so maybe I haven't thought in depth of all the things I'd have to do and achieve before becoming a ninja, but it couldn't be all that hard could it?

Shinobi and Kunoichi alike seemed to appear in the hundreds when I used to watch over them, appearing in the strangest places such as trees, in the ground, hell, sometimes you even saw them disappearing and reappearing in the form of wind they were so stealthy.

They were a lot like ghosts in that sense, as all over the place as they were.

But when you look back at what most of them must have gone through to become such a tool for their leader and village, look back at how young most of them must've been when they first started out as trainee-genin, how their first kill would have scarred them, you can only feel pity to how they were brought up.

The world is a cruel place.

Cracking the bones in my neck a little bit, I looked back towards the taller shinobi, upping the genjutsu on my eyes a smidge to make them look somewhat cute and even more innocent, only to see a tint of pink on both of their cheeks as they glanced away, senbon man scratching his head.

Confused, I tilted my head to the side in question.

"Is there something wrong Shinobi-san?" I asked, but interrupted before either of them could answer.

My eyes widened as I said, "Oh, I never asked your names! Sorry about that, uh…"

"Genma. Shiranui Genma, filling in for Izumo-san." Grunted senbon man, who seemed to want to look anywhere, but at me.

Weird

"K-kotetsu. Uh I mean, Hagane Kotetsu. It's nice to meet you Naruto-kun." Bandage guy stammered out, a bright toothy smile that stretched from one side of his head to the other, one hand dangling loosely outside of his pocket, as the other was held out for me to shake.

Reaching out to him, I instead pulled him in for a friendly hug, doing the same for Genma. I don't like handshakes, they don't really convey a proper hello in my opinion, whereas hugs let you know if you really are welcome in their presence or not. It's like a physical lie detector.

Also because humans tend to get sweaty hands for some reason.

"It's nice to meet you too, Genma-senpai, Kotetsu-senpai! And I really do need to see the old man urgently, so, maybe if Kakashi-san is going to be that late, one of you could take me instead?" I said hopefully after pulling away, a large, fake grin adorned my flushed cheeks. The hug was kind of hard because I was a little bit shorter than both of them, and my lean body didn't really help, despite my irritation, so I hugged their torsos instead, my head resting on the side of their necks, but only just reaching.

Stupid human growth.

Both men had shocked expressions, their cheeks flushed red, but while Genma broke out of that state in a few seconds, Koutetsu remained frozen in that position for longer, blinking at the strange (for him) greeting, before reddening like a tomato and smiling dopily.

Even more confused than I was before, I decided to ask the fox about it.

'Oi, Kurama. What's wrong with them? Did they catch something? Their faces keep changing colour.'

There was a strange internal pause, before the booming snort of laughter echoed from the seal on my stomach to my head, frustrating me.

'What?! What is it?!' I demanded, for some reason picturing a chibi me stomping like a two year old having a tantrum.

I need to get out more.

'You're even more of an idiot than I once took you for, what month is it?' he asked, his laughter dying down to amused chuckles.

'It's July, but what does-'

'And what's the date?' he interrupted.

My eyebrows creased in concentration for a second, before I gasped (internally) in shock, my eyes widening in realisation, before groaning to myself silently in pity.

'...July 1st. I'm in heat, again.' I cried to myself, where my outside appearance seemed to crumble as I remembered why I hardly come out of that shrine anymore.

Kurama's chuckles then increased to their original volume, almost blowing my eardrums from the sound of it, as I looked down in depression at the ground.

'Shut up, you shitty fox.' I grumbled, aggravated at my new problem.

Every mid-summer of the year, I begin heat like every other animal in my forest that has their 'heat' in spring. The only reason I had mine in summer is probably because of firefox in my stomach, who thinks 'Only the hottest season is fit for gods such as myself.' Thus forcing my body to change.

Although, my first heat came later than most other animals experience theirs, mine occurring in my 14th year, in which I had to be physically restrained by my plants in order to stop me from hunting out the nearest shinobi and fucking him like a rabbit.

But after going through the same thing for two years now, you learn how to stop yourself from jumping the things closest to you.

Coming here, I didn't realise the heat would come so soon, or that the humans could, if not smell, at least sense the bucket load of pheromones bursting out of my pores.

But, I'm pretty sure the fucking Fox could beforehand.

My face was pale, the genjutsu on my eyes flickering for a split second, as I opened my mouth to apologize, before the strangest thing happened.

"YOSH MY ETERNAL RIVAL! I HAVE WON THIS ROUND WITH THE POWER OF YOUTH!"

The sound of two pairs of running feet crashed through the bushes next to us, a cloud of dust exploding as the owner of said feet came to a skidding halt in the middle of the pathway.

My face scrunched up, coughing as I tried to wave away the dirt cloud, Kotetsu and Genma though, had an irritated and deadpan expression respectively, looking as though they were fighting the urge not to hit something.

Or in this case, someone.

"Gai-san, we would really appreciate it if you didn't-"

"KAKASHI, MY RIVAL, THE FOUNTAIN OF ETERNAL YOUTH WILL LET ME BLOSSOM IN THE SPRINGTIME IT SEEMS!" Interrupted the voice.

Discreetly, I managed a small wind-jutsu, sick of all the sneezing the cloud was causing me, while everyone had their attention on the grating voice on the other side.

I just wish I had the foresight not to do that.

When the dirt cloud cleared away, all there was to see was bright.

Blinding.

Green.

The eccentric looking man stood in the stereotypical 'good guy' pose, a thumb pointed out to who knows where, a strange looking bowl cut on the top of his head that was accompanied by the weirdest caterpillars above his eyes. He wore a disgustingly bright leaf-green spandex suit on his form, along with orange leg and wrist warmers, standard shinobi sandals adorning his feet. His glinting, closed eye, toothy smile was enough to cause my face to go even paler than it already was.

All in all, this guy was the meaning of a migraine.

My eyebrows furrowed in disgust as I backed away behind Genma, Kotetsu standing not so far away with his hands shoved back into his pockets, the annoyance was clear on his face as he tried to calm down the green creature in front of us.

"GAI-SAN! Please refrain from scaring-"

"KOTETSU-SAN! IS HAS BEEN A WHILE, MY FRIEND! HOW-"

"GAI-SAN! WE HAVE A GUEST!" He shouted angrily, the veins in his forehead and neck bulging in exasperation.

The two began a heated (basically one-sided) argument as I tuned them both out, the strangest smell wafting up my nostrils as I glared from my hiding place at the trees the green creature had jumped out from.

'I swear I heard TWO pairs of FEET. Not paws. So then why does it smell like dog?' I thought, staring confusedly from behind genma.

Wrinkling my nose a little bit, I sniffed a little at the scent, and began to walk, unnoticed by the three men, towards it, trailing off the track and through the bushes, my sensitive ears sharpening at the small rustle of leaves here and there.

As my bare feet dug into the dirt, I could feel the pull of twigs at my pants as I began to pick up the pace, my curiosity gaining as I soon began to faze into a light jog.

It seemed as though it was getting further away the closer I got to it, I realised as my eyebrows creased into a frustrated frown as jogging turned into sprinting.

As I was running and dodging trees, my tattoos gleamed like jewels in the small rays of sunlight that peaked through the green canopy, giving off my obvious presence. I would have been more worried about other people seeing such an odd blur running through their forests, but that scent.

It was so irritating. It took up my attention, a deep earthy smell mixed in with dog and mint (strangely) and, surprisingly enough, ended up being so potent it almost blocked out Kurama's snarky comments.

Almost.

'Brat, you don't even realise do you?' He snorted

No response.

'You're running into something you probably won't like.'

…..

'OI! GAKI! DID YOU LISTEN?! IF YOU KEEP GOING YOU WON'T LIKE IT!''

I heard the faint disgruntled growls of the kyuubi echo in my mind, but I couldn't be bothered to listen.

For the first time in a long while, my legs began to warm a bit as I sprinted towards my target, grunting as the twigs turned into branches, dragging along my torso and now green-stained pants. My blonde locks wavered through the drag of the wind, the golden bell braid trailing along behind, tinkling in the wind.

I didn't even know where I was where I was. But I didn't care.

This was the rush of a good hunt. The first one of the season.

At that thought the genjutsu on my eyes broke, to reveal blood-red pools of near crushing excitement, the sharp pupil flashing in anticipation as a breathless laughter escaped my throat.

But then the target stopped. And the scent got Stronger.

My mind was clouded by primal need at this point, as the sharp teeth smashed together in a some-what violent grin.

I could've cared less at the noise I made.

I could've cared less about the crazed look on my face.

I could've cared less when I crashed through the bushes and into the clearing.

And I Definitely could've cared less when a barely restrained growl squeezed out my mouth when I saw my target.

My prey.

"You…" I breathed, the glint in my eyes dulled a bit as I narrowed them on the strange silver-haired man in front of me,my hands relaxed at my sides as my head cocked to my left. Strands of yellow hung in front of my eyes, the grin turning into a primal smirk as red misted my vision.

He stood in the middle of what seemed to be a training field, with what I now recognised as a jonin uniform, white bandages tied around the deep blue ankle cuffs of sweatpants, kunai holster around one thigh and his waist, typical jonin flak jacket, and a long-sleeved over-top with an added short sleeved undertop and mask that adorned the bottom half of his pale face. A hitate tied around spiky silver hair, angled to cover one eye, but it was the lone visible grey of the uncovered one that starred unnervingly.

His hands were shoved into his pockets as he slouched deceivingly, as if he couldn't hold himself up.

Never before had I been so riled up over one human, so much that my more… Animalistic side, spilled over the edges of my consciousness.

This type of behaviour only usually came out when there was a particularly frustrating enemy, or when I hunted a faster than normal prey. Sometimes in bouts of anger, which rarely happened.

Not over a mere man.

But the feeling was there, sitting smugly in the foregrounds of my mind, rearing its ugly head as I glared at the dog-smelling silver man in front of me, stranger were the emotions he brought out, irritatingly enough, as I couldn't yet comprehend them.

So I settled for hunger and anger.

"Who..are you, human?" I asked as the stretched smile slipped from my face.