Sasuke rolled to his feet and hurried to take a shower. Damn! He couldn't, because of his finger. So he just managed to wash his hair clumsily with one hand.

Yukimura yawned and rolled onto his side. He shook Saizo gently.

"Saizo? You awake?"

A pale face surrounded by a tangled mass of hair rose up from under the blanket. Yukimura gasped in mock fear.

"Are you Saizo?" he asked. The ghoul nodded and a hand stiffly reached up to pull a bloodstained wad of tissue from its nose.

"Eww..." Yukimura cringed and made a cross sign with his index fingers as if to ward Saizo off. The man yawned and scratched his head. There were so many snarls his hand wouldn't come free. Sasuke came in.

"You look like a lion with a bad hair day." he remarked.

Yukimura laughed. "Saizo, you've got blood crusties on your face." he pinched Saizo's cheeks with both hands. "My, your face is soft!" he pouted playfully. "Were you using my face wash? Were you? Were you?"

"You two are pathetic."

Yukimura tickled Saizo's armpits. "Are you ticklish?" Saizo's face stayed straight. Yukimura pried Saizo's mouth open and looked inside. "Is there a soul in there?"

"Apparently not." Sasuke observed, as Saizo's eyes closed and he fell back snoring with one hand stuck in his mane.

Mrs. Gladys was wearing an unusual grin on when Sasuke got on the bus.

"Broken eh? May I take a look?" She looked hard at Sasuke's hand. Sasuke folded his arms.

"No, you may not." He replied curtly, cringing at the cat food aroma. Cat food stank like hell. He guessed had like, thrity cats or something. He took a seat in the middle of the bus and noticed the blond boy was sitting across from his.

"Hi, Sasuke." He said.

"Hey." Sasuke mumbled. The blond boy smiled.

"I'm Russell. I noticed you live in our neighborhood."

"Oh," Sasuke said, continuing to stare at the trees. Russell tried again.

"What happened to your hand?"

"Broke it." Sasuke held it up. "It's too stupid to talk about." He added. (It was Sasizo's fault!)

Russell grinned, but Sasuke saw that he understood. So he smiled back.

Meanwhile, Saizo and Yukimura were both sitting in the room they called the 'red light district'. It was called that because of the luminous red Chinese styled lamps that hung from the ceiling. (That was Yukimura's idea, even as ludicrous as it was; he always got a kick out of it.) On the walls were tapestries of dragons; tatami mats lined the floor. The two men were seated at a low Japanese table in the middle of the room, sipping hot green tea that Saizo made after Sasuke left for school.

"Ahh..." Yukimura said, and took another sip. "Ahhh..." he closed his eyes and took a third gulp.

"Ahhhh..."

Saizo tried to ignore it.

"Ahhhh..."

Saizo closed his eyes and attempted to focus on something else other than Yukimura's sighs. Instead, it only bored into his skull.

"Yukimura-sama. How does music sound to you?" Saizo asked.

"Why not?" Yukimura refilled his cup. "Take your pick."

Saizo found the CD case and flipped through a couple before he found one of a shamisen. He popped it into the stereo and pressed play.

Five minutes into the music, Yukimura started up again, this time with a loud slurping sound. He chuckled. "slurp Ahhh... slurp Ahhh..."

The music was beginning to sound erotic. Saizo sweatdropped. "Yukimura-sama," he interrupted. "How's your tea so far?"

"Very good, Saizo. You make great tea." Yukimura got ready to take another sip, but Saizo reached over and grabbed his wrist.

"Huh?"

"You've got...a fly on your cup." Saizo said. "I think it's in your tea."

"Oh," Yukimura swirled his tea around. "Poor guy..." he set his cup down, much to Saizo's relief.

"Why's your hair all messed up?" Yukimura asked, folding his slender fingers neatly on the table.

"I've been busy all week," Saizo replied stiffly. Yukimura smiled.

"Why don't I...fix it up a bit?"

"Er..." Saizo thought cautiously. He hoped Yukimura-sama wouldn't go overboard with his hair like last time. He'd walked around the mall with pigtails tied with pink ribbons. Sasuke nearly died laughing.

"Come," Yukimura practically dragged Saizo to a chair in the living room, plunked him down, and began untangling the snarls one by one using his fingers.

"Tsk, so many tangles. I dunno where to begin." Yukimura thought a moment. "Let's wash it!"

"Yukimura-sama...!" Saizo mumbled as he was pushed to the sink.

"Lemme get a towel; be right back." Yukimura hurried away and Saizo could hear him rummaging around in the bathroom through his stash of hair products.

"No, not that...maybe I'll use that..." Yukimura returned with a blue fluffy towel and an armload of bottles. Saizo gaped.

"Now, to take really good care of hair, you need to blah blah blah blah blah..." he went on for some time. "Blah blah blah. All set?" he beamed.

Saizo sweatdropped and nodded.

It was lunchtime at the school. Sasuke was teaching Russell how to play with a kendama.

"Wow, this is fun!" Russell hit the ball a couple times. "I didn't know you had one of these."

"I can hit people with it too." Sasuke grinned. "I can show you, but we need someone to use as a guinea pig..."

"Hey, blondie! Who's your friend?" called an ominous voice. "Oh, it's Snake Eyes." A rather large kid with bulging muscles stepped out of thin air.

"Who're you?" Sasuke said with dislike. Russell tensed, and scooted a bit closer to Sasuke.

"I'm Nate." The big guy said. Nearly everyone knew Nate. He was the most notorious bully the school ever had.

"I'm gonna kick your skinny ass!" Nate yelled. Sasuke shrugged. "So?" Nate charged like a bull, both fists at the ready. Russell ran out of his way, but Sasuke stood his ground. Nate's fist surged forth and stopped not an inch from Sasuke's nose.

"Quit bluffing and do it for real." Sasuke sneered. "You're not at all tough, are you?"

"I'll show you, little punk." Nate snarled, and ran at Sasuke again. Sasuke still didn't move. Nate punched as hard he could.

"Where are you going? I'm right here." Sasuke called. Nate turned his ugly head around. Sasuke was standing directly behind him.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you never to show your back to your opponent?" Sasuke asked casually. "That's the stupidest move I've ever seen." A crowd of kids was beginning to gather. Most of the tougher kids were cheering for Nate, but the weaker ones went for Sasuke.

"Kill him, Nate!"

"Don't lose, Sasuke!"

"Show him who's the boss, Sasuke!" Russell yelled.

Sasuke and Nate slowly moved in circles. Nate threw his third punch, which Sasuke dodged with ease.

Nate cursed. "Stand still long enough for me to hit you!" he shouted.

"I don't think tough guys are supposed to plea for someone to wait." Sasuke shook his head. "Bad move...!"

Nate followed up with like, a dozen punches. It was starting to look like a scene from Dragon Ball Z.

"How is he doing that?!" someone shouted. Sasuke moved so swiftly you could hardly see him.

"He's like a ninja!" another called.

"Fighting people like you..." Sasuke called. "...is a piece of cake. Tired, now?" Nate was huffing and puffing; Sasuke hadn't even broken a sweat yet.

"Finish him!!" Someone shouted.

"Sasuke, finish him!!"

"Kill, kill, kill, kill!!" they all chanted.

"You'll be dead," Nate whispered, and used the last of his strength to hurl forth and beat the other boy to a pulp. It would've worked, but Sasuke sidestepped and tripped him, at the same time using a free hand to send him further off balance. Nate crashed to the ground with a satisfying, "UNG H!!" and everyone else burst into cheers.

"The ninja wins!!" Russell yelled.

"NINJA, NINJA, NINJA...!!"

Sasuke walked into the living room that afternoon to find Saizo munching out on a chocolate donut.

"Donuts are on the table." Saizo murmured, brushing the crumbs from his face.

"What're those?" Sasuke reached over and yanked on Saizo's hair. It was braided into miniscule plaits scaling his head.

"Cornrows," Yukimura said proudly, he was holding a donut.

"Corn-what?" Sasuke began, and Yukimura shoved a donut in his mouth.

"Guess what?" Yukimura said.

"Mmph!" the boy mumbled through his mouthful.

"Mrs. Gladys wants you to mow her lawn! For five bucks a week..."

"NO WAY!" Sasuke thundered. "Grass does not grow that fast!"

"Do it, Sasuke." Saizo ordered. "Not many kids your age get paid to do something like that."

"Uh-uh, not her lawn." Sasuke shook his head furiously. "She's a witch! She beats kids up with her pole!"

"I think I recall her saying that she used it for pushing roadkill off the highway." Yukimura mused.

"That's disgusting!" Sasuke cried. "I'm not gonna waste time mowing my bus driver's lawn!"

"Don't be lazy." Saizo said.

"I'm not!"

"Sure you are. What would you rather be doing then?"

"..." Sasuke thought hard. What would he use his weekends for? He usually stayed home and played the GameCube, or climbed trees at the park. Only their park was so stingy with the trees; they put up signs that said 'please, don't climb!'

"For one thing, I'd rather stay home with you two idiots than go to that stinky shack. I'll bet her cats crapped all over her front yard."

"Aww, Sasuke." Yukimura fawned. "I didn't know you loved us. Saizo, you're a great dad!"

"I am not his dad!" Saizo cried. "Who wants a spoiled brat for a son?"

"Me? Spoiled?!"

"Okay, okay," Yukimura interrupted. "Here's how we'll settle this. You and Saizo can go. Saizo, make sure she doesn't kill Sasuke, and Sasuke, make sure she doesn't seduce Saizo."

Saizo jumped up. "What?!" he yelled. Yukimura giggled. "No, I was joking. Would an 'old hag' like Mrs. Gladys have any sex drive left? I really don't think so."

Sasuke frowned. "And what about you?" Yukimura put on a straight face.

"Well...I suppose I'll be 'running errands'." He chuckled softly.

"Saizo, distract her so she won't kill someone. She'll grind us into cat food." Sasuke said.

Saizo frowned. "She's not a wild animal. It's easy for someone like me to handle someone like her."

"Living with all those cats, I'm sure she'd be an animal." Sasuke contradicted.

"You have such a diverse imagination." Yukimura said.

"Enough of this." Sasuke took another donut from the plate on the table. "I'm doing my homework now." He went into his room and set his bag on the floor. But instead of taking out his books, he curled up right there and dozed off. (I bet he was tired!)

There was a knock at the door. Yukimura came in. "Sasuke, want the last donut?" he saw the boy sleeping on the floor.

"If you were tired, why didn't you say so?" Yukimura put the donut in his mouth and got a pillow from the closet. He tucked it gently under Sasuke's head. The boy sighed and turned over. Yukimura smiled and ate the rest of the donut. Then he shut the door and joined Saizo in MarioKart.