A/N: So since it took me so long to post another chapter, I figured I'd reward your guys patience and write a super-duper long chapter, and then rush it to you! Don't you love me?

So there's a bit of bad language in this chapter. The pups really do have bad mouths, I think they get it from Kouga. Although Sayomi does a bit of swearing herself...

Thanks you to my loyal reviewers: Keiko Hayasaka, Night-Neko Jin, Lady Rini, Daeth101- Fox version, tsukiko008, and Lady La-sara.

Kazu was lazily running his twentieth lap around that blasted mountain his teacher so adored. After two years of running around it every single night, running had become second nature to him. His body no longer hurt after training, and he could run non-stop around the stupid hill all night without breaking a sweat.

As he neared the place where his teacher awaited him, he thought back on last couple years of his life. It had been pretty much uneventful, even his twelfth birthday a few months back had been dull. The only time life had gotten even slightly exciting was when Kouga was yelling at him, but that had stopped over a year ago.

With Kazu doing all his training at night, he had been sleeping most of the day, which set Kouga off that something wasn't right. Kouga constantly questioned him as to why he spent all his time sleeping, but Kazu never answered him. In fact, Kazu had pretty much ceased talking to his father or the other adults at all to insure that his training remained unknown.

Ignoring Kouga had done the trick for awhile, but then his father had resorted to yelling at him, at which point Kazu had never been more thankful to his teacher for making him run. He simply darted out of the cave and out ran Kouga and his angry rants, which was quite a feat.

After that Kouga left him alone, and withdrew the guards from his son, and Kazu was free to do as he pleased. He was pretty sure that Kouga had finally realized that it was no use trying to cage him in, and he was thankful for that. He wished that he could explain to his father why he was being so distant, but he just couldn't. He started training with Satoru during the day after that, and had been doing so for the past year.

As his teacher came into sight he slowed to a jog and then to a walk, coming to stand before Satoru.

"Twenty laps, Sensei, and the day is still young." He grinned at the old man smugly.

Satoru nodded in acknowledgment.

"Well then, I suppose it's time to begin another area of training then, eh?"

Kazu's face lit up at the prospect of doing something other than running all day.

"You mean it, Sensei?" he asked eagerly.

Satoru nodded and then quickly throw a long object at him. Kazu tried to catch it, but the speed of the object was too fast for him, and it whizzed by him into a nearby bush. He went to retrieve it, and found that it was a wooden practice sword. Snatching it up he returned to Satoru, who stood patiently waiting.

"Apparently we need to work on your reflexes, my boy," he said seriously. "A warrior with poor reflexes can never survive in battle."

Kazu nodded and glanced at the wooden katana in his hands. "What is the practice katana for then, Sensei?"

"I'll show you," Satoru said as he turned around and picked a handful of something off the ground.

Kazu eyed him warily as his teacher turned back around. They stood in silence for a few moments, and then there was a loud whoosh sound and Kazu was on the ground clutching his knee.

"Ow, ow, ow! What the hell was that?!"

A large bruise was already forming on his knee, but he forced himself to stand and search for the object that had assaulted him. There was another whooshing sound and Kazu instinctively leapt out of the way. He heard a loud thumping sound as the object collided with a tree, and Kazu saw a small rock fall to the ground beneath said tree.

"Good job, my boy. Good job," Satoru praised him before motioning him back into place. "Now, again."

Kazu's jawed dropped. "You're chucking rocks at me?! How is that supposed to help me?" He hadn't even seen his teacher move!

Satoru chuckled. "Oh, it's not. It's just fun."

"You're crazy, old man!" Kazu yelled at his teacher, face furious.

Satoru laughed louder, his shoulders shaking. "I'm only teasing. You're supposed to use the katana to block the rocks, or otherwise move out of their way. We're working on reflexes, remember?"

Kazu quickly forced himself to get his temper under control. Taking up his position again, he said, "I'm sorry, Sensei. I meant no disrespect."

Kazu's words sent Satoru into another fit off laughter, and this time he was practically roaring.

"Oh yes you did, my boy, don't lie. Not that I blame you for it though."

Kazu grinned sheepishly for a moment, before returning to the task at hand. Focusing hard on Satoru, he saw his teacher move his wrist slightly, and the whooshing sound came again. This time Kazu was ready.

Although the rock was flying so fast he couldn't see it, he could hear it. Allowing his hearing to guide him, he swung the practice sword and managed to block the rocks path before it could damage his other knee.

"Good. Again!" Satoru called out before flinging another stone in his direction.

The rest of the day was spent in that manner, Satoru throwing rocks, and Kazu trying to block or dodge him. Although he did well, by the time the sun was setting he had multiple bruises blooming all over his body.

'So much for training not hurting anymore,' he groaned inwardly. Just when he had gotten used to the running, he was back to being in pain all over again.

xxxxxx

Kouga watched his son limp back into the den from wherever he had been all day. Although he was incredibly curious as to where his son spent his days, he had decided that he would allow his son some privacy. If Kazu didn't want him to know, then there was probably a reason. But just where did that boy get all of those bruises?!

"Kazu," Kouga called out to his son, who was making his way towards his bed. "Come over here, son."

Kazu froze for a moment, but then went to his father.

"Yes, dad?" he asked, his voice soft.

"What in the world happened to you? Where did you get all of those bruises?"

Kouga waited patiently for a response as Kazu fidgeted. Finally, after several moments of awkward silence, Hakkaku entered the den and came to his rescue.

"Say, Kazu. Did you fall out of a tree or something? You look terrible!"

Kazu's face lit up as he latched onto the excuse. "Yeah! That's what happened! I fell out of a tree!"

Kouga rolled his eyes at the obvious lie but decided to let it go.

"Well next time be more careful, okay?"

Kazu nodded at his father and then yawned. "I'm going to bed now, I'm beat. Falling out of trees takes a lot out of a person."

Kouga just grunted, trying to hold back a laugh.

Kazu made his way to his bed, ready to drop after the day of training, but as luck would have it his sisters entered the den at the exact moment.

"Kazu!" Tsukiko called out as both her and Asami made their way across the den to their brother. "What happened to you?"

Kazu groaned inwardly. 'I wish they would just leave me alone!'

"I fell out of a tree, sis."

Asami snorted. "Yeah right! There's no way you would get all bruised up like that from falling out of a tree!"

"I said I fell out of tree," he growled.

Tsukiko eyed her brother for a moment before dropping her voice to a whisper and asking, "Have you been fighting, Kazu?"

Kazu looked from Tsukiko to Asami, both looking back at him with excitment in their eyes, waiting for their brother's answer.

"Oh come on, Kazu! You can tell us, we won't tell dad!" Asami pleaded.

Kazu just grunted. "I fell out of a tree."

Tsukiko and Asami let out an "Awww..." at the same moment, disappointed that their brother wouldn't share his secret with them.

"Fine then, be that way," Asami pouted before she left to seek out Ginta.

Kazu shrugged and settled down onto his bed, ready to pass out. He felt someone kneel down beside him, and he opened his eyes to glare at Tsukiko.

"What the hell do you want now?" he growled irritably.

"Kazu..." she said softly, "You know you can tell us anything, we wouldn't betray you. I already have some ideas of my own as to where you have been going and what you've been doing, but I haven't said anything to anyone."

Kazu sighed and nodded. "I told you what happened, Tsukiko. I fell out of a tree, end of story."

Tsukiko sighed and stood. "I'll find out one way or another, Kazu. It would be easier if you just told me, you know."

Kazu faked snoring, and Tsukiko just shook her head as she left to join her father by the fire, plans to find out her brother's secret already forming in her mind.

xxxxxx

Tsukiko spent the next week forming her plan to follow her brother, and after telling Asami about it, her sister had gotten in on it too. Their only problem: Kouga.

Although their brother had managed to escape their father's protectiveness, they had not. They were still not allowed to venture outside the den without an escort. They had little freedom at all. And a lot of it had to do with the fact that they were female, and according to their father, too precious and too valuable to the wolf tribes to be allowed to wander off alone.

The two discussed this problem as they sat around the den fire and ate leftover boar meat.

"I don't see why Kazu gets to be the exception!" Asami whined as she tore off a piece of meat and stuffed it in her mouth.

"It's only because daddy gave up on trying to control him," Tsukiko grumbled. "Oh, and the fact that we're girls!" she snarled angerily.

"It's been like this for two years! You would think daddy would be over his protectiveness trip by now," Asami said growling through clenched teeth.

Tsukiko thought for a moment.

"Well, maybe we need to tell him that."

Asami blinked at her sister. "Say what?"

Tsukiko shook her head. "Maybe would should tell him that we've had enough of this, and that he needs to get over himself."

Asami's jaw dropped. "You want to tell our father, and alpha of our pack, to get over himself? Are you crazy?!"

Tsukiko laughed. "No, but I don't see any other way to get around him. Maybe I won't say it to him exactly like that..."

Her sister just looked at her like she was insane.

"Whatever, Tsukiko. I'll back you on this, but you get to do all the talking."

xxxxxx

The following day Tsukiko and Asami approached their father, determined to get their way and their freedom back, whatever it took.

"Daddy?" Tsukiko said sweetly, taking a seat in her father's lap and looking up at him with the best puppy eyes she could muster. Asami merely sat beside her father, copying her sister's expression.

Kouga was no fool though, and knew that his daughters where up to something.

"What is it that you two want?" he asked them, suspicious.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you about Kazu," Tsukiko said, still putting on the innocent display.

The mention of Kazu pricked Kouga's interest. "What about your brother?" he asked.

Asami motioned to her sister to go on, and Tsukiko summoned the saddest look she could.

"We don't think that it's fair that Kazu gets to do what he wants, but we're stuck here under lock and key."

'So that's what they want,' he thought dryly.

"It's not going to happen girls, sorry. You know I only do this because it's in yours and the packs best interest."

Tsukiko was instantly on her feet and her face went from sad to pure anger in point two seconds. If sweetness wasn't going to work then maybe a direct approach would.

"And who says that it's in our best interest to be kept like caged birds?!" she snarled. She had had enough of her father's antics, and she was going to let him know it.

"What about what we want? You give Kazu freedom yet deny it to us! Why is he so special?!"

Kouga was stunned for a moment. Looking at his enraged daughter he could have sworn for a moment that it was Sayomi. Shaking his head the vision cleared, and he was faced with his daughter once more.

Asami had moved from his side to stand defiantly beside her sister, and Kouga pondered Tsukiko's question. He really didn't have an answer. Kazu only had his freedom because no matter what Kouga did, the boy would not obey him, and he had given up trying to control him. But he couldn't give the girls that freedom, they were the future of the pack.

"We are not going to discuss this, my decision is final!" he growled, frustrated.

Asami glared at her father, choosing that moment to speak up.

"Do you really think that this is what mom would have wanted for us? Do you think that she would have been okay with locking us away simply because we are female?!" she asked in a low growl.

That did it. Kouga stared at his daughter, wanting to yell at her for her insolence, but he knew she was right. All Sayomi had wanted all of her life was freedom, and she would never have wanted her pups denied the same freedom. If she could see him right then Kouga was sure that she would have smacked him silly for his transgressions against their pups.

Kouga's shoulders slumped, and he sighed. "You're right. I have not been fair. You are free to do as you please as long as you stay in the pack lands."

Asami and Tsukiko's serious faces at once broke into smiles as they looked at each other in victory, and Kouga finally realized the extent of his selfishness.

"Girls, I'm sorry. I never meant to be unfair, I only meant to protect you and keep you safe."

Both girls knelt and hugged their father, understanding that he had only done what he had thought was right.

"It's alright, daddy. It's alright."

xxxxxx

The next morning the two girls set out after their brother, determined to get to the bottom of things. They stayed a mile behind their brother at all times and followed only his scent so that he wouldn't know they were there.

As they ran through the woods, weaving in and out of trees, Asami asked, "So what do you think is going on here, Tsukiko? Any ideas?"

Tsukiko nodded. "I think that it has something to do with mom. Like, maybe he's trying to find her still."

Asami frowned. "But we already know that she's not in the tribe lands, and he's headed deeper into the lands, not away from them."

Tsukiko suddenly changed her course of direction. "He went this way," she said, signaling to Asami.

As Kazu's scent grew stronger the girls slowed their pace to a walk. They weren't far from a human village, they could smell it in the air.

"Maybe he's taken a liking to a human girl?" Asami suggested.

Tsukiko shook her head. "No, he isn't going into the village. Check his scent again. He's somewhere on the outskirts of the village."

As they drew nearer to where Kazu was, they could hear their brother's voice, and he was talking to someone.

"Sensei, don't you have something softer to throw at me?" they heard their brother whine.

"Oh course not! If it was softer you wouldn't try so hard to dodge it, now would you?" a voice boomed.

Creeping up to hide behind a nearby bush, both Asami and Tsukiko picked out at the scene before them. Their brother stood wielding a wooden katana, and in front of him stood a old human man.

"What in the world is going on here?" Asami whispered.

Tsukiko just shrugged. "Shh, let's watch."

The man facing their brother suddenly threw a rock right at Kazu's head, and Asami instinctively jumped out from her hiding place and yelled. "Kazu! Watch out!"

Kazu, startled by his sister's sudden appearance, stopped focusing on the rock, which in turn hit him square in the forehead.

"God damnit!" he swore, dropping his practice sword and clutching his forehead.

"Good going Asami," Tsukiko said with a sigh as she came out into the open. "You went and blew our cover."

Since Kazu was still spewing colorful strings of curses, Satoru turned to the greet the girls.

"Ah, you must be Kazuhiko's sisters. I heard so much about you both."

Tsukiko eyed the old man warily. "Yes, we are his sisters. And just who are you?"

Satoru chuckled at the girl's defensiveness. She too, like her brother, had the makings of a warrior.

'Even little Asami does,' he thought as he looked her over. 'What parents these three must have!'

Shaking himself from his thoughts he smiled at Tsukiko.

"I am Satoru, your brother's sensei."

"Sensei?" Asami questioned. "What exactly are you teaching him, and why?"

Just then their brother came sauntering over, glaring daggers.

"Just what are you two doing here?!"

Tsukiko smiled smugly. "Well, when you wouldn't tell us what you were up to we decided to follow you and see for ourselves. We are quite disappointed that we followed you all the way out here to find out you spend your time having rocks thrown at you, though."

"I'm not having rocks thrown at me, I'm training!" he growled, fists clenched at his sides.

"Oh really? What are you training for, huh?" Asami prodded.

Kazu opened his mouth but then quickly shut it, realizing he had already given too much away.

Quickly changing the subject he said, "What are you doing out here without escorts? You two aren't allowed to leave the den with out a guard."

Asami giggled. "Oh no, we're free to do as we please. We had a little chat with daddy, you see."

Ignoring a now fuming Kazu, Tsukiko turned back to the old man. "So Satoru, what is going on here?"

The old man chuckled. "Well you see..."

"Stop right there!" Kazu ground out. "Not another word!"

Satoru looked at his pupil quizzically. "What's wrong, Kazu? You're sister's have every right to know what's going on here."

Kazu shook his head violently. "No, they cannot get involved in this, I won't risk it!"

Satoru placed a hand on Kazu's shoulder. "Now, my boy, don't you think that you've let this go long enough? What you wish to do cannot be done alone. I think your sisters would want the choice to stand by your side, and your mothers."

"Mom?" Asami pipped up. "What about mom?"

Kazu sighed, knowing he was defeated. "Alright, alright. I'll tell you. I know where mother went. She went to fight Naraku. And I'm training so that I can go help her."

Tsukiko marched right up to her brother and slapped him. "Who the hell do you think you are?! I can't believe that you knew what was going on this entire time and you didn't tell us! How could you do that to us? Oh! And what makes you think that we don't want to help mom, too? All this time you've been training we could have been training too!"

By the time Tsukiko was done with her tirade the little girl was severely out of breath, and stood panting in front of her brother.

"She's right, you know," was all Asami said.

Kazu nodded. "I know. I just didn't want you to get involved. You could get hurt!"

Tsukiko snorted. "As much as you like to think that you're the only warrior around here, you're wrong. You know damn well that Asami and I can hold our own."

Kazu looked down at his feet, ashamed.

After several moments of silence, Satoru clapped his hands.

"Well! Now that we know that the girls want to be a part of this, how about you two join us in training?" he said with a grin.

"But Sensei, they're two years behind me in training! They'll never catch up in time!" Kazu protested.

Tsukiko and Asami glared at him, but Satoru broke in and said, "No, no, my boy. They are not. You see, the time that I've spent with you honing your speed and now your agility doesn't need to be spent with them. As females, they are naturally faster and more agile then males. With them, I'll have to work on brute strength, which comes naturally to you."

Kazu wanted to protest, but what his Sensei said made sense. Even with all the training he had done the girls still bested him in speed and agility, but they lacked muscle unlike him.

With a sigh he nodded in agreement.

"So what will it be, ladies?" Satoru asked Tsukiko and Asami.

The girls looked at each other and nodded.

"Count us in!"