A/N: You guys! I'm so sorry this has taken forever for me to update! This chapter's not very long, but I felt obligated to give you guys SOMETHING after waiting forever. I hope you like!

The five travelers trekked along through the narrow, overgrown paths of the mountainside in a perfect line with Kali leading the way, Goku not far behind, then Hakkai, Sanzo, and lastly Gojyo. The redhead seemed to be trying to keep a healthy distance between himself and the gypsy.

"Remind me again why we couldn't use the road?"

Kali glanced back over her shoulder and grinned. "What's wrong, Sanzo? Too hard to hike in that dress of yours?"

Gojyo snickered, loud enough for Sanzo to hear. In one fluid move, the priest walked past a low branch, pulled it, then suddenly let it go and it whipped into the kappa's face with a satisfying whack.

"Ow! Sanzo, you asshole! What the hell kinda cheap shot was that?"

"I thought it was a pretty clever one, if you ask me."

Hakkai smiled hopelessly, nimbly picking his way around the rocks on the trail with Hakuryu perched on his shoulder. "I think what Sanzo was trying to say was that this seems to be the long way around the mountain. Wouldn't it have been more efficient to stay closer to the road?"

"Oh sure," she said. "But the demons are expecting that. They've camped out all along the highway, waiting to ambush any travelers. By all means, feel free to return to the main road if you want, but…seems kinda foolish if you ask me."

Hakkai looked up from the ground, studying the back of the gypsy's corset. "It sounds like you've spent a lot of time up here."

"Eh…let's just say I'm a fast learner."

She turned into a denser thicket, following some unseen trail that was laden with brambles and vines. Despite the shade, the air was thick and muggy and filled with giant spider webs laced across their path. To make matters worse, the terrain was quickly becoming steeper with each step and it wasn't long before she could hear heavy wheezes coming from the rear of her little caravan.

With her hand on the trunk of a giant tree, Kali paused and turned around to face the others. Eyeing Sanzo in particular, she said,

"Should we take a break?"

He never said a word, but she read the message loud and clear in his beautiful, violet glare: fuck off.

"Yeah!" Goku thrust a fist into the air. "Lunch break!"

"Well, I was thinking more like a cigarette break for some people," Kali muttered. In truth, she wasn't trying to completely ridicule Sanzo; she could only imagine what he was like if he didn't get his hourly dose of nicotine. A monk from hell, probably.

"But Goku," Hakkai said, "it's not even noon yet. In fact, it's barely ten in the morning."

"But I'm starving," the teen whined. "Sanzo, can't we just have a little snack? Just one? Please?"

Kali flinched as the infamous fan whipped across Goku's head. Hakkai looked back at her with a distinct I—told—you—so expression smugly printed across his face.

"Why the hell are you asking me? Do I look like a pantry to you?"

"But Sanzo! All this hiking is making me really hungry! And there's nothing out here but leaves and rocks!"

"Then try chewing on a few," Sanzo said and brushed his way past Goku.

Goku looked at the various green plants surrounding him, seriously considering Sanzo's words, then turned his golden eyes back to the priest.

"Hey, Sanzo! How do I know which ones aren't poisonous? Sanzo!"

"For the love of—" The priest wheeled around and a flash of white clapped over Goku's head again. "I swear, you're whiny little ass is starting to give me a headache! So shut up or so help me, I'll—"

"All right, Sanzo. No need to beat the kid into a pulp," Kali stepped forward. "C'mon, Goku. I'll show you something."

She steered the teen away with one stenciled hand on his shoulder, leading him back up the path and a little off the beaten trail. Hakkai and Gojyo both looked expectantly at Sanzo. Never before had anyone ever taken the monkey away from his owner in the middle of a training session. That was something not even they dared to do. To their surprise, the monk simply huffed and walked on until he came to a large boulder further up the trail. Leaning against it, he calmly took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Hakkai?" Gojyo made sure to keep his voice quiet. "Did you just—?"

"—witness Sanzo willingly acquiesce to a gypsy?"

"Dude, small words."

The green-eyed man chuckled. "Yes Gojyo, I did. Why did he listen to her, I wonder? Do you think its because he actually trusts her?"

"Nah," Gojyo grinned and walked ahead. "More like he really needed a smoke."

"Here," Kali pointed to a series of shrubs scattered about their feet. They were speckled with flaming orange flowers and underneath their pedals were dark red and purple berries. Goku watched curiously as she bent down to pluck some of the fruit from a stem. "These are good to eat. Just be sure to peel off the leaves. Those'll give you nasty indigestion, which means they'd be good to put in Sanzo's beer."

Goku laughed. "Or that stupid kappa." Kali watched with a smile as the boy started harvesting his own handfuls of berries, devouring them as quickly as he was picking them. "Mm…they're really good!" She undid the sash around her waist and used it as a basket to collect the fruits, eating a few as she went along.

"Doesn't that hurt your feet?"

She glanced down at her bare toes. "Not really. In fact, I think it's more painful if I do wear shoes. Besides, they make me trip a lot."

At this, the teen giggled. Then, descending into a more serious tone, he said,

"Hey, Kali?"

"Hm?"

"Are all gypsies thieves?"

"Not necessarily. Though we do seem to have a certain knack for it. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it…well, it's just 'cause I've never met a gypsy before, but everyone always tells me to watch out for 'em, 'cause they lie and cheat and steal your stuff and do all these bad things. But you're not like that at all."

"Well, I can't say that I've never lied or stolen anything, but it's not really fair to say all gypsies are 'bad' people. That would be like saying all demons are evil. And that's certainly not true, is it?"

Goku, seeing the sly grin on her face, cocked his head. "Do you…do you know about Hakkai?" She nodded. "How can you tell?"

"He seems like a pretty fashionable guy anyway, but he probably wouldn't be wearing those ear cuffs if he didn't have to. Right?"

"Oh. His limiters."

The boy fell quiet again, and Kali's gaze landed on his gold coronet catching the sunlight that filtered in from the canopy above. Still smiling, she plucked a few more berries.

"And up until yesterday, I thought all monks were good and virtuous and holy," she said. "Boy, was I wrong."

Goku laughed. "Yeah, I guess Sanzo's a little different from other priests." The teen threw a berry up into the air, tossed his head back, and let it plop into his gaping mouth. "But he's always been that way. Ever since I can remember. He can be a real pain in the ass, 'specially when he hits me with his fan, and sometimes he can be really scary, too. But he's not a bad person."

Kali watched calmly as he continued to catch the tiny fruits in his mouth. "How long have you known Sanzo?"

"Mm…a couple years, but it seems a lot longer than that. He was the one that found me. Sanzo took me back to live with him at the temple and if it weren't for him, I dunno where'd I be."

The gypsy grinned, emerald eyes sparkling as if she had just been let it on some secret. Turning back to her berry harvesting, she said,

"Well then, I guess he can't be so bad."

When her sash was full of ripened berries and Goku's lips were stained a rich purple from eating an entire bush's worth of fruit, she started to turn back towards the path. Goku skipped along behind her, nimbly frolicking through the thick undergrowth like the monkey that he swore he wasn't.

"You think Sanzo's finished his cigarette by now?" she asked Goku.

"Probably. He always burns through 'em really fast when he's pissed."

"Oh? Is there ever a time he's not pissed?"

"Well, not really," Goku said nonchalantly. "But he was really pissed when we left him."

"How can you tell?"

"He brings out the fan."

"Ah."

A/N: It took me a while to figure out what Goku and Kali were going to talk about; it's extremely hard to put Goku into a serious conversation, so I apologize if it gets a little 'meh' towards the end here. I promise the next chapter will have more funnies =) Thank you for reading!