Warning(s): The ones as last chapter still apply. Although Kiba controls his language expertly whenever Tsunade is around.

Kiba had never been the kind to respect authority. His father had been a no good son of a bitch he'd never miss. While his mother was a no good bitch that needed to pick up a damned parenting book before either he or Hana finally decided to revolt and shot her as she slept. Both were oppressive bastards that had beaten respect into him; beaten a hate for anything authoritarian into him without even knowing it.

Kiba had never had any authority figure in his life that hadn't tried to beat him into submission.

The teenager had thought that he would have eventually wound up dead in a ditch somewhere after a violent brawl that took his life. And he felt no shame in that. Everyone was bound to die at some point. Some just died sooner than others.

He'd lived a pretty interesting life. Horrible mother, terrible sister, always absent father... Goddamn, he would just wind up as another statistic of broken homes...

Even though he didn't really like it, his life had been an unfortunate series of events that all led to just one place: His grave.

... Well... That had been what he'd thought... But then a bright eyed, six year old girl had jumped on top of Akamaru as if he were some kind of horse and he'd met the first adult in his life he was compelled to respect and make proud.

Hashirama was nothing like any of the teachers Kiba had ever met in his life. He worked to make sure his students got the grades they deserved. And he made time for any wayward students that needed an extra push, even if taking some of those meetings meant having to leave Tsunade in Kiba's care.

Why the man couldn't be a high school teacher rather than professor the teen could not understand.

But... Hashirama was too king to be real. The teenager still found it hard to believe that he wasn't some kind of faker; that this man was actually as nice and pure as his sister had been promiscuous and unrepentant.

He must be genuinely ignorant, must truly be able to see the good in the world that was obscured by misfortune and wrong choices. He must have been to be able to see something inside of Kiba that no one else had ever been bothered to find before. Hashirama must have seen something if he actually contracted the teen as his only grand daughter's babysitter.

Kiba... Had never really thought he could make something of himself. Death was only one fight away and he'd accepted that. He was just another kid born into a dysfunctional family that would get nowhere in life.

But then Hashirama had deemed him smart enough to become something. Not just something, though. Whatever he wanted to be.

It was because of Hashirama that Kiba began to pay attention in class and start to work on getting good grades, rather than leaving them to hang in the D's and F's. It was because of this man with unbelievably long black hair that was beginning to gray on the sides that Kiba actually felt that he might be able to do something other than just die when the time came.

And it was because of this Literature Professor that Kiba convinced his mother to move away from the city and into the suburbs.

~/~

"And why do we not pick fights with Rock Lee?"

Kiba spit out a mixture of saliva and blood onto the concrete below him, bandaged and bloodied knuckles thrust into his dusty and ragged black hoodie. "'Cause the little bitch squeals like a-"

A heavy yet peaceful hand drifted onto his shoulder, making the angered teenager freeze.

Kiba... Had never known a man that wouldn't kick his ass for his temper. His father, uncle, father's friends, and all of Hana's crowd had all been violent people. Just like everyone at his old school. Whenever someone had put a hand on him, it was usually to beat his punk ass mouth shut.

But Hashirama wasn't going to hurt him. This hand didn't have a single shred of anger moving it. Instead, all Kiba could think about was how he could only feel comfort radiating off of the university professor.

"Because then you have to lie to your mother about how your day in your new school went, Kiba." Hashirama's face was smiling kindly down at him, but there was no kind of snobiness within him. Kiba looked into it, analyzed the man's face, but could only come up with genuine sympathy. "You won't get lucky enough to find me free to come down to your school a second time, Kiba. I happened to be free because it's the beginning of the term. But I won't be able to help you out again."

The teenager stared up at him in complete shock. Then, after a few seconds of not finding any words, the tattooed boy questioned, "You... You won't tell my ma, will ya?"

Hashirama's kind face morphed into one of confusion, "Why would you think I would? I thought you had called me to keep her from finding out."

The teen began to shuffle his feet as he looked down at his beaten up old sneakers, then shrugged softly as he kept his gaze from meeting the tall man's own. "I dunno..."

Silence fell over them both as they stood in the school's vast parking lot. There were a couple of hours left before his mother was supposed to go to work, but Kiba didn't want to see her. Or Hana neither. His bitch of a sister would just snitch on him and that'd wind up with Kiba getting his ass kicked by his mother.

A heavy sigh fell from Hashirama's lips and a twinge of something foreign forced Kiba to scowl. He didn't like disappointing Hashirama. This man was the only person that had ever believed he might actually be able to do something with his life. Letting him down was like a having a medieval dungeon master twist rusted, serrated knife into his heart at a snail's pace.

"How about we go pick Tsunade up and then go get some dinner? I could help you finish up that essay on 1984 you were writing."

For a moment, Kiba didn't know how he should have reacted. He'd never had someone not kicking his ass after getting in trouble in school. And he'd never been offered help on an essay. Everything he'd ever done in his life had been by himself.

But it didn't take a genius to see that if ever Kiba should ask for help on an essay, then it should be to someone that knew literature inside and out. "Yes, please! Where we gettin' the grub?"

~/~

Kiba had been left stunned when he'd found out that the albino jerk from across the street was Hashirama's brother. Not just brother, but younger brother to boot!

"He's got a joint practice now with Madara Uchiha. They hated each other as kids, just about destroyed each other whenever they met in court, and have never been able to see eye to eye on anything." Hashirama informed the teenager as Tsunade ran off towards the slide in the small neighborhood park where her best friend, a young boy with an odd hair mutation named Jiraiya waited. "Yet they somehow are able to communicate well enough to work together... I'll never understand my brother..."

It was kind of weird to hear that the seemingly robotic red eyed man could feel anything. And it was even weirder to think that he had enough passion within himself to argue with anyone. Although the career of lawyer fit the man so perfectly it was almost scary.

Ma had never had anything good to say 'bout ambulance chasers...

The teenager shouldered his battered messenger bag and lifted it up with his left hand, meaning to grab the next book he was supposed to read for his Literature class, A Brave New World.

First they had read Animal Farm. Then they continued reading Orwell's much more complex and disheartening dystopian tale that had left Kiba feeling terrified of the future, confused because of such a large verbatim- he'd learned that word and felt awfully intelligent-, and kind of amazed with how easy the prose was to understand; even for someone as dumb as him.

One large, calloused hand reached into his messenger bag to grab the book for him before the teenager could even get ahold of his book. And when he looked up at Hashirama, he found the man looking down at his bandaged hands with eyes that were full of guilt and worry.

"Did it hurt? Getting stitches, I mean."

Kiba stood frozen for a moment as the man continued to look down at his hand, then cleared his throat and allowed his left hand to let go of his bag's strap, then made to grab the book.

"Local anesthesia got it to feel pretty numb." He mumbled as he grabbed his book, then he looked over to some of the clean, wooden benches that were strategically placed around the kid's playground to allow those sitting to see just about all the angles to be seen of the place. "I'm fine, you know. Hurt like a bitch, but it's not my first time under the knife." Then he pursed his lips, an image forming in his mind that he didn't really like. "Well, more like needle and thread, I guess."

That had been when he had been only eight years old and had cut his leg on something he couldn't really remember as he tried to chase after Hana and her friends. She hadn't wanted to wait for him and had made him run. He hadn't been careful as he maneuvered through their cramped apartment and had gotten cut. And his mother had been kind enough to use her scant medical knowledge to keep from having to go to the hospital and miss her shift at work.

Coincidentally enough, that had been the first time Kiba had found himself hating his older sister.

Hashirama's eyes were swimming with indecision and confusion as Kiba glanced back at him. But then he soon nodded and moved after him, then quickly sat down at the park bench, easily taking up a good portion of it.

Hashirama, much like his parents, kept a good physique. He didn't look like someone that had raised three kids and was currently working on a granddaughter. If anything, he looked as if he was Tsunade's father. And he wasn't bad to look at, Kiba was more than aware that he'd left more than a few teachers and students swooning as he'd saved him from his great Rock Lee related disaster. But, in Kiba's honest opinion, he wasn't the best looking of the brothers.

Not that he was a fag or nothing. He could just understand that Hashirama and Tobirama had the kind of face that a lot of female writers would detail to much more depth than what was really needed.

"How far have you gotten into the book? Passed the first chapter?" The man murmured as he opened the book to the bookmark Kiba had placed in it, a homemade gift from Tsunade with too much pink and purple glitter for Kiba to truly understand, only to find that the teen was on the second page of the book. "Has the hand been bothering you?"

At having been caught by Hashirama, Kiba began to feel guilty. The man had assigned him to read two chapters of the book a week ago, before Tsunade had cut his hand. After that, he'd just asked for one chapter. School wanted him to read up to the fifth chapter, just like with 1984. But Hashirama wanted him to read the books completely so he could truly understand the lessons they tried to slam into an ignorant reader.

"Kinda..." The teen grunted with a shrug, trying his best to not have to look into the man's disappointed brown eyes as he forced his gaze to follow a smiling Tsunade as she chased after a new boy that had joined them.

Dark hair, pointed and angular face, hazel eyes, and pale, almost gray skin. The kid looked a lot like that jerk of a neighbor that had hissed at him about calling the police if Akamaru got into his yard.

"Would you like to read together now?"

Quite frankly, the teen didn't want to read. He wasn't as interested in that book as he had been with either of two stories he'd read before. And he didn't want to feel like a damned fool because Hashirama had a habit of reading out loud whenever Kiba was near. Usually he would shut up when Tsunade was near, but now that the girl was off with her friends, there was no excuse for them to remain quiet.

The problem with the man reading out loud was that he always, eventually, got tired. And when he did, he'd ask Kiba to continue for him. And even though the teen loved to read, he'd only just begun to become accustomed to reading out loud. He sounded like an idiot when he did so. And he refused to look like an idiot out in public.

"Uh..."

Hashirama's phone began to ring from within his backpack, luckily distracting him and taking his attention away from the book in his hands.

Kiba breathed out softly in relief as he allowed his body to slouch for a few seconds, then tried to find the hyperactive Tsunade once more from the large wave of children that had formed now that the sun had lowered a bit, meaning that quite a bit more families had decided to spend a pleasant Saturday afternoon together.

To his left, Kiba was able to see a girl he knew went to his school laughing as she pushed a boy that looked almost like her, except with shorter hair. Behind them there was a taller girl that looked just like them holding onto the hand of a brat that was clearly their last sibling. And behind these two were a man and woman that were undoubtedly their parents.

As a kid, all Kiba had wanted was a family that might have been able to look like those picturesque families he had grown up watching on TV.

Now, though, all he wanted was to just keep Hashirama pleased with his schoolwork.

"No, I'm at the park with Kiba and Tsunade..." He heard Hashirama murmuring softly from his side, "After this we're going to get some ice cream... It's not because Tsunade wanted some, brother! I want some. And deserve some after the week I've... Well, you could come if you wanted to!" When Kiba turned to look at the man, he found that Hashirama was smiling fondly, even though he sounded exasperated.

... Why was he smiling? Shouldn't he be annoyed his brother was most probably being a dick? 'Cause Tobirama sounded like a dick from the way Hashirama was answering him.

"Alright, brother. Maybe next time... Well, I don't know if he'll be there, I kind of invited him out to apologize for Tsunade having hurt him... Why are you asking about Kiba so much? Wanna talk to him?"

Suddenly Kiba found a phone being pushed into his ear, causing him to jump away from Hashirama. "Here, say hi to my brother, Kiba."

The teenager's whole body was coiled tight because of the sudden sensation of run that had come to him, but soon uncoiled. And then with a confused glance to Tobirama, then mumbled, "Yo."

"How is your hand?"

Tobirama's voice was extremely deep. Even deeper than Hashirama's, and his was already sounded as if were inches from scratching against the floor.

"Fine. Hurts like a bitch at night, but I'm good."

"No sign of infection?"

"Mm-mm."

"When will you be getting your stitches taken out?"

"Didn't the doc say three weeks?"

There was a hum from the other line that made Kiba think he'd had the time frame correct. Then, after a beat of silence, he heard the man ask, "Who will take you to the appointment?"

This time his tone was much softer, like one would adopt when they were in a library and didn't want to get caught after hours.

Kiba screwed his face up as a sudden flash of annoyance hit him, reminding him that, no, he did not have a ride to the hospital. Nor did he have an older than twenty one years old adult willing to accompany him.

Hana was a bitch. Ma was always working. And pa was nowhere to be found. But he'd disappeared years ago.

"No one. Guess I'll just go-"

"Nonsense. Either Hashirama or I will take you. Put him back on so we can coordinate."

The sudden interruption didn't piss Kiba as it normally would have. But he signaled for the man beside him to pull back his phone. So the man did so and began to talk once more, quickly humming and nodding to whatever it was that his brother was telling him.

As they continued to speak, Kiba looked down at his injured hand.

Tsunade's favorite unicorn stickers decorated his bandages. The girl had put them on as soon as she'd seen him that morning.

A frown pulled at the corner of his lips as he continued to look at the stickers. Then he heard, "Alright, brother. We'll go together if you're so worried. Now, what will we do about Tsunade's schooling? I honestly do not wish to put her in that private school you insist on being so great. The public school Kiba goes to doesn't seem so bad. And she already has friends that will go there!"

Something odd was bubbling up inside of his chest... Something Kiba couldn't really place...

He'd never had anyone actually worry enough about his well being to want to take him to the hospital. And he'd certainly never been given unicorn stickers and six year old kisses to try and make his cuts heal faster.

~/~

After having had his stitches pulled out and being given the A-O.K. by the doctor that had seen him the first time in the emergency room, Kiba found himself being pulled into a family dinner with Tobirama, Hashirama, and Tsunade.

"To celebrate you getting better! And for getting an A-plus on your Brave New World test!" Hashirama had beamed.

"I'm hungry! And sorry! But you're good now!" Tsunade had chirped.

And Tobirama had grunted softly, "We're all hungry."

Then, in a move that had let the teenager completely taken aback, the three had looked at him as if they'd wanted him to tell them something. Kiba had blinked back at them all with a blank stare on his face, then had asked, "What?"

Tobirama's face morphed into something that wasn't quite annoyance but didn't look pleased at all as he said, "Where do you want to go?"

The question only made Kiba even more confused. "Why does it matter?" He asked, then looked over at a softly frowning Hashirama. "Ain't we going where you want to go?"

Hashirama was most probably going to pay, after all. He'd heard the two brothers faintly arguing over who would be paying as he'd helped Tsunade eat her breakfast in the dining room table. They'd stayed in the kitchen to have their whispered discussion.

First discussion Kiba'd ever seen that wasn't on TV where people didn't shout and things weren't smashed.

"I'd much rather take you where you want to go, Kiba." The man answered him with what kind of looked like a forced smile, but Kiba knew better than that.

Professor Hashirama Senju didn't force smiles. Either he was genuine about them or he didn't give them.

With a soft shrug, the teen looked down at Tsunade. The girl looked back up at him with curious blue eyes. "How's Cracker Barrel sound? I like their steak."

Not a complete lie. But he knew that the restaurant served the girl's favorite mac and cheese. And Hashirama didn't hate any of the items on the menu either. So it was the best place to go to.

"Yay!" Tsunade jumped, then grabbed Kiba's left hand to begin to pull him towards the back seat of Tobirama's sleek, luxurious car.

Hana would know what model this was. What year it had been made. From what brain its design had come from. But all Kiba knew was that this was a car he'd never be able to buy on his own.

"Cracker Barrel! Cracker Barrel! I'm going to get all the mac and cheese!" The girl sang, then hugged Kiba's leg tightly. "You're the bestest big brother ever!"

For a moment, Tsunade's blonde hair became a sandy brown and her skin paled a tiny bit. For a heartbeat, all Kiba could see was the niece he hadn't seen in six months attached to his leg, thanking him for the bestestest birthday gift in the whole wide world, it was better than ponies and cookies and fairies and groblins combined!

Under her father's tutelage, his niece was an incredibly bright six year old with a love for mythology Kiba only wanted to help expand. Even though she didn't always remember the names correctly, hence the term groblin.

"Sure thing, Ten-" Kiba managed to stop himself in the middle of the girl's name and instead ruffled Tsunade's hair to try and cover up his blunder. "Tsunade."

Tsunade frowned at her hair being messed up and stuck her tongue out at him, earning an amused chuckle from the teenager. Then they heard the sound of the car's doors being unlocked, which made Kiba open the door, allow Tsunade to climb in, then slid onto the plush leather chairs with as much discomfort as when he'd first slid in all that time ago with an open and bleeding hand.

..~..~..

And the new chapter has been published! Please don't forget to review!