(A/N) Second half of the zoo filler! If anyone is curious, this imaginary zoo is some weird blend of the Dallas and Denver zoos, because I've been to both many times and have a very hard time working out which zoo is which. To all Kukaqui comments: *cue heavy blushing*

They ended up near the hippos for lunch. There happened to be a show while they were there, so they watched that while eating.

"How do you even train a hippo?" Naruto wondered.

"Treats and patience," Mito guessed, smiling. "Do you want to be a hippo trainer, Naruto?"

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "No way! I wanna be Hokage! Not work with some wrinkly old useless things."

"Dunno," Kiba said doubtfully. "Have you seen the teeth on those things? They look like they could rip you open."

"Probably could," Tenten agreed, eyeing the hippos cautiously.

"Hippos could do far more lethal damage to you then you could to them." Mito confirmed. "If you see one, I would advise not tussling with it, getting injured isn't advised."

"Don't want to go to the hospital," Lee agreed enthusiastically. "Ninja hate the hospital!"

"They hate the feeling of powerlessness that comes in the hospital," Mito hummed. "Besides that, everyone almost finished?"

A chorus of agreement, so Mito allowed the kids to get up and throw the remains away. She did the same with the remains of her own lunch, then herded the kids off towards the fish.

"It's a chocolate chip starfish," Naruto whispered reverently, staring at the starfish in question.

The kids, who were scattered around the rest of the place, immediately made a beeline for the tank Naruto was standing in front of.

"Woah," came the quiet chorus.

Mito chuckled, using her superior height to look over the children to see the starfish in question. It did indeed look like it had been sprinkled with chocolate chips and they had stuck to its back. "It's very cool."

Tenten got bored of staring at the fish pretty quickly and dragged them over to see the blind cave fish. "They're blind, and live in caves!" She explained eloquently.

Mito hid her snickers, bringing a hand up to hide her smile. "They don't have eyes because they don't need any. Their surrounding are completely dark, and there is no light, so they don't need their eyes, and use other senses to get around."

"That's super cool," Lee decided. "Can ninja do that too?"

"Get around in the dark?" Mito asked for confirmation. Upon receiving it, she nodded. "Of course. There's a couple way ninja can. They can use their sense of touch, or their sense of hearing. There's a couple different ways to use chakra to sense out your surroundings, which perhaps you'll learn when you're older."

Naruto bounced in place. "You'll teach me at some point?"

Mito nodded obligingly. "I will. Perhaps when you're a genin."

Naruto beamed, and they moved on.

"It doesn't look like a horse," Kiba complained, staring at the seahorse. "Why's it called a seahorse?"

Mito didn't know that one. "I don't know, maybe it's because of their head shape? It looks a bit like a horse."

Kiba frowned at it, and Akamaru barked at him. "Yeah, Akamaru, I know. Do they always hold on with their tails like that?"

"Sometimes they pretend they're seaweed," Mito agreed. "They're very slow, so they have to rely on camouflage."

"But we can see them just fine," Kiba said, squinting at the seahorse in question.

"Well, animals have different vision than us, so when something looks camouflaged to us, it doesn't always look like that to them, and vise versa." Mito gestured to the seahorse itself. "Its shape means it looks enough like the seaweed for predators not to see it. It's camouflage is only as good as the predator's eyes."

"Kinda makes sense," Kiba decided. Akamaru barked agreement.

"What even is this?" Shino's very confused mutter reached her ears, and she walked over to see. It was a scorpionfish, and she understood his confusion.

"It's a fish," Mito told him. "As strange as it looks."

"Why is it called after an arachnid?" Shino asked, turning his head to look at her.

"Well, it has venomous spines, which is where it got its name. The venomous spines are like the scorpions venomous stinger." Mito pointed out the spines on the fish.

Shino nodded, still eyeing the fish speculatively.

"Huh?!" Lee's confused shout brought everyone over.

Mito got there first, and laughed at Lee's utter confusion over the mud skippers. "They're mudskippers."

"They skip through mud?" Naruto asked, leaning over the glass edge. She pulled him back quickly.

"Well, yes, they have modified fins on the bottom of their body, and it allows them to sort of walk in the mud," Mito said, pointing to the offending body parts on the fish. "They're really strong too, and if you watch them carefully…" she trailed off as one abruptly twisted, leaping into the air, its fin on its back opening to flash blue spots at them. "There, they do that to attract a mate. It's really hard work to throw themselves in the air like that, and they're doing it to show off."

"Woah," Naruto decided. "That's super cool."

"Weeeeird," Kiba decided. "Weirder than the not-horses."

Mito giggled at his decision. "Shall we move on? I think I saw leafy sea dragons a little ways down here."

"What're those?" Tenten asked, trailing after her. The other children soon followed suit.

Mito arrived at their tank, and pointed them out. "They're related to the seahorse, like how Okapis are related to giraffes."

"Woah," the kids said obligingly, examining the strange creatures.

"Is their weird shape for camouflage too?" Kiba asked, pointing at all the appendages coming from the dragon itself.

"Yep, they're hiding from predators and keeping themselves safe," Mito agreed, smiling fondly at the kids.

"Look, it's a huuuge crab!" Lee said, having already gotten distracted. "Look how big!"

Mito looked. "It is very big, look at that." It was huge, especially for a crab. Possibly reaching up to 12 feet with its legs stretched out. She checked the time. "Oh, we need to get moving if we want to get to the reptiles."

So she herded them out, and got them moving towards the reptiles. They were close by, although they had to pass the giraffe habitat on their way there.

"Let's feed the giraffes," Naruto suggested, pointing to the people feeding giraffes lettuce.

"Do you want to do that, or see the reptiles," Mito asked. "We have time to do one or the other, but not both."

Naruto waffled, as did the other kids. Ultimately, he decided. "Reptiles. I wanna see a big snake!"

The others quickly agreed with that logic as well, so back on their path to the reptiles it was.

"It's so big!" Naruto declared in amazement.

"You said you wanted to see a big snake," Mito pointed out with no little amusement. "That would be the biggest of snakes."

"It says it's venomous," Tenten said, examining the plaque. "A king cobra. I guess it eats other snakes in the wild."

"Cool," Lee decided, examining the plaque too.

"Guys, guys," Kiba said, pointing into an enclosure. "I can't find the creature supposed to be in here!"

Mito glanced over their shoulders, spotting the creature almost instantly. It was well hidden, glaring at her from its spot camouflaged under a few leaves. "I already found it," she mentioned off handedly.

And thus the hunt for the creature began. Tenten found it next, but didn't tell, choosing to go look at the rattlesnakes.

Lee found it next, wandering off to look at the Komodo dragons.

Then Naruto, who went to look at the eyelash viper, Shino, who went to stare down the black mamba, and finally Kiba and Akamaru, who pouted at being last, but wandered off to look at the horned devils.

"Did you know those guys can shoot blood from their eyeballs?" Mito remarked offhandedly to Kiba, who jumped back, staring warily at the creature. She stifled snickers.

"Really?" he asked, sounding almost horrified.

"Yep," Mito agreed, smiling. "They do it to scare their predators."

"That's not all they scare," Kiba muttered, staring at it.

Mito giggled under her breath and went to check on Lee, who seemed to be having a staring contest with one of the komodo dragons. "Try not to loose to a giant lizard, hm Lee?"

Lee nodded firmly, not breaking eye contact with the reptile.

Mito checked on the other kids, then the time. "Oh dear, come along guys, it's time to start heading home, but we can stop by the shop on the way out for those who still want souvenirs."

The kids looked sad, but agreed, and soon enough they were out of the zoo, and ready to head home to rest.

(A/N) Hello! Aren't they oh so cute? First things first, it's Yugito Nii's birthday. The two tails jinchuuriki if no one remembers her. Next, this has a cover now! Go see it its super pretty! My friend Kukaqui made it for me! Finally and perhaps most importantly, there's a poll! NDSA ended, and the poll ends next tuesday, so be quick! One quick thing though, I can't seem to figure out what the second book of this series should be called, so put your movie and quote suggestion in a review! I do intend on continuing the pattern set by Lilo n Stitch, and have quotes as titles, then quoting the movie throughout the book.