Here's chapter 2 ^o^, enjoy!

Minato sighed as he watched Kakashi's tail disappear around the corner of the stairwell. He had hoped that Kakashi would openly welcome Tenzou, but he had already suspected that the aggressive kit would react badly to a new cat in the house. Minato looked down at Tenzou, his fur stuck out in all angles and his eyes were wide with fear and confusion. 'Poor little scrap," Minato thought, 'Kakashi almost attacked him.' He bent down and picked up the shaking kit, he was incredibly light and quickly burrowed into the crook of Minato's arm. The man smiled down at the ball of fur in his arms, but frowned as he looked up at the ceiling, worried about what Kakashi was thinking or planning to do. After a few moments, Minato pushed the issue of Kakashi to the back of his mind and focused on calming Tenzou down so that he could get settled in.

"Why does he hate me?" Tenzou looked at Minato, his eyes were wide and full of hurt. Minato scratched the back of the kit's head before he answered.

"Kakashi doesn't hate you, he just... doesn't know how to react to you, that's all," Minato smiled at Tenzou, trying to convince himself and the kit that Kakashi's outburst was just brought on by uncertainty. Tenzou's eyes brightened, he seemed to believe Minato, 'Good,' Minato thought, 'it's best if he doesn't take Kakashi's actions seriously." Minato walked the kit to the cat room.

"Here is your room, this is where you eat, drink, and do your business," Minato said as he pointed to the bowls and to the cat litter. "You don't have to sleep here though, sleep anywhere you want as long as you don't scratch the furniture."

"Okay!" Tenzou looked around the room with wonder in his eyes. He couldn't believe that he had a room! He knew that this room was for both him and Kakashi, a small fragment of fear seeped into his heart, but he pushed that away, he could be friends with Kakashi. Tenzou was convinced that Kakashi's initial reaction to him was just panic, not something serious. He struggled in Minato's grip, wanting to inspect his new room. The man put him down gently and watched as the brown scrap scurried into the cat room to explore. He sniffed the food and took a bite of one of the hard pellets, the taste was quite bland, but Tenzou didn't care; he was lucky that the blonde man had taken him home instead of leaving him in the pet store like all the other people did. When they looked at him, he could see how uninterested they were. The other people liked kittens with different colors or cool markings, but he was only one color and didn't have any distinct characteristics, he only had a little nick in his right ear from when he had been a stray with his mother. He didn't remember how she looked or what she was like, he only remembered that one day they had been confronted by an aggressive cat that had given him the scratch and killed her. He didn't have any siblings so when she had screamed for him to run, he did and didn't look back. It wasn't long until someone had found him shivering on the curb in the freezing rain, they brought him to the pet store where they cleaned him and fed him. They were kind and even put him into the area where people could adopt him, but when no one took him home, they started talking about putting him into a shelter. His blood had run cold when he heard one of them try to defend him for fear of the shelter putting him to sleep, he instantly understood, if no one adopted him from the shelter, they would kill him to make room for another animal. He had retreated under one of the structures in the pen, fear clawing at his heart, sending his thoughts into a frenzy. He imagined how they would kill him and how know one would give any thought of his absence. It was then that Tenzou realized how alone he was, his mother was killed, he had no siblings, and no human would pay any attention to him. Even the pen was empty, every other kit having been adopted and brought to their new home. Tenzou had curled up into a ball, trying to escape his cruel reality, it was then that he heard a man ask one of the working people if they had anymore kittens, he poked his head out from underneath the thing he was hiding under. The man, whose hair was as bright as the sun, looked at him and smiled. Tenzou watched in disbelief as the man walked over to him and turned to the working person.

"I would like this one," he said. He turned back to the kitten and leaned forward. "Hello, I'm Minato. What's your name?" Tenzou looked into the man's eyes, his own were wide with astonishment, he had been adopted at last! He crawled out from under his shelter and padded over to the man.

"M-My name is Tenzou," he said shakily, his tail was swishing rapidly from the happiness and excitement that he felt. His new owner, Minato, picked him up and hugged him tenderly. Tenzou had never felt so safe and happy, he pressed himself to Minato as he walked them to the working person where he paid for him and put him in the box, promising not to drop the box or leave without him. The darkness swallowed Tenzou, and when he could finally see light, he was in Minato's home with Kakashi watching him. The older kit's gaze made Tenzou uncomfortable, but he didn't care because he finally had a home!

Tenzou ate some more of the hard food and went over to the water to drink, it wasn't like the nasty metallic water in the pet store or the gritty water from the street, this water was fresh and rejuvenated Tenzou. He drank his fill and looked at the cat litter, he didn't need to go right now so he turned and padded out of his room. Tenzou walked over to Minato where he squatted just beyond the door to the cat room, Tenzou brushed against his hand and purred as Minato scratched his neck and back. He reared up on his back legs, one forepaw on the man's arm for leverage as he craned his neck to lick Minato's face. Tenzou dropped back onto four legs and rubbed his face against Minato's leg. He was the happiest cat in the world right now.

Minato grinned at Tenzou, he knew the kitten would be perfect for Kakashi and a good change for both of them. He and Kakashi had gotten into more quarrels and agreed less and less until Minato was forced to throw the mouthy kit into his room for extended periods of time. They needed a buffer between them, and Tenzou would be perfect, he might even be able to help with Kakashi's temper and bad habits.

'Hopefully,' Minato thought shaking his head, 'I don't know if anyone, human or feline, can change Kakashi's bad habits or his sour temper.' He stood up and left Tenzou to explore the rest of the down stairs while he went to check on Kakashi. He grabbed the broom, already aware of where Kakashi would be hiding.

'He's angry at me and yet he uses my bed as his hiding place," Minato chuckled as he walked up the stairwell, trying to make a plan that would get him back into Kakashi's good graces and make the defiant kit start to like Tenzou.

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