The wind was freezing. Danzaburo shivered as he stood there, on the very top of the Tower of Sacred Flame, the wind and weather battering him mercilessly as he waited there, his patience beginning to wear thin. The shapeshifter was supposed to have been here half an hour ago ! Danzaburo scowled. He had not brought Shan Qu with him, as he had promised, but the point was to build trust, and see what the fox could do. He needed time to do that, and if he gave back the bat, well then there was no guarantee the fox wouldn't leave. He heard the sound of flapping and a few seconds later Saras landed. He transformed into a fox, one that suffered even more from the cold than Danzaburo. The two eyed each other uneasily.

"Where's Shan"? Saras finally opted to ask, a little bit surprised by the tanuki's appearance.

The japanese spy smiled disarmingly. "He's safe".

Saras scowled. "Where is he"?

"Somewhere".

"Don't play games with me"!

"Or what"?

Saras blinked, he hadn't gotten that far.

The tanuki smirked. Danzaburo spoke Japanese. "Come now, we can be honest with each other".

"Um"-

"You don't recognise your own mother-tongue ? Tsk, tsk, you're either a very good actor or have very bad memory".

What is he talking about ? Saras asked himself, his face the very portrait of confusion.

Danzaburo felt his heart flutter, why was this child trying to lie to him ?

"You can shapeshift. That's very impressive, I've seen you fight. For one so young you are quite skilled".

"I had a good, er, teacher", this was quickly getting very uncomfortable.

"Was he a shapeshifter too"? Danzaburo's mind formed the image of a whole community of secret tanukis.

"No, he was just, familiar with,er, magic and stuff".

"Maybe I know him"?

"I don't think you do." Said Saras with a nervous chuckle.

Danzaburo scowled on the inside, this fox was hiding something.

"You're very fond of that form of yours".

"I'm a fox, what do you expect"? Saras was extremely confused by now.

Danzaburo slapped him. It wasn't very hard, but was enough to sting more than a little. All the while the tanuki watched his form. His eyes in particular. Notrhing. There was no change.

"What was that for"? Saras demanded.

Danzaburo's voice changed. It conveyed a far more serious tone. "Well, that's interesting to note. You're a shapeshifter, but you're not a tanuki. That makes you a kitsune."

Saras moved cautiously backwards, the tanuki followed him, edging ever closer, soon Saras realized he had reached the edge and gulped.

"And another thing is, you now know too much".

Unexpectedly the tanuki jabbed forwards with a katana that seemed to come out of nowhere. Saras moved backwards instinctively, accidentally tripping when he realized that there was no more roof behind him. His fall ended as quickly as it had begun as he snatched the only thing within his grasp, which happened to be the katana. His paws snatched the blade between them. The sudden weight made Danzaburo trip forwards, but the tanuki kept his balance. Saras teleported to the other side of the roof. His paws were cut deeply, and blood oozed freely. The sight of it made his blood boil, ignoring the pain he balled his paws into fists, the majority of his arsenal having been left in his room. Danzaburo turned sharply, the blade came down quickly, but Saras blocked it with the spikes that lined the edges of his rice hat. Letting go of the hat he spun in close to Danza, his paws shot out and slapped the mammal on both ears from both sides. Slightly disorientated Danzaburo let go of the katana and let it drop over the edge, rice hat still attached to it. His fist suddenly leapt upwards, and caught Saras' chin in an uppercut. The fox's nose was now bleeding a bit, Saras wiped it away hurriedly, whilst dodging Danzaburo's attacks. The last thing he needed was to go Blood Diamond now. He caught Danza's next punch and transformed into a platypus. He spun around, his club like tail smashing into the tanuki's face with the force of a hammer. Danzaburo lost his balance and went teetering over the edge. Saras panted softly.

But it wasn't over yet. A hawk barged into him from behind, knocking him over the edge as well. Saras chose his crane form. The two collided mid-air, and both transformed, Danzaburo became a leopard and Saras became a mole. Both fell through the air like a pair of boulders. Danzaburo headbutted Saras, who retaliated with a claw swipe that cut Danzaburo clean across the chest, ruining his vest but alas failing to draw blood. The leopard grabbed the mole and twisted mid-air, so that the smaller mammal would be the first to land. Saras changed forms again. This time he became a dragon. His wings expanded behind him like a parachute as he breathed a bolt of flame, which the feline was lucky to avoid. Danzaburo leapt off of the dragon, before assuming his normal form and launching a single leaf towards tilted his head away from it, but it exploded mid-air in an eruption of tar, which covered half of the Jit Kun's face. Saras steadied himself, before remembering that he had the advantage of flight. He promptly swooped into the falling form of the Japanese spy and sent him flying into the Tower of Sacred Flame. Danzaburo caught himself before becoming a crane and sending a gust of wind to deter the other shapeshifter's blast of fire. The attacks collided mid-air and burnt each other out. The two eyed each other for a second, before continuing. Saras teleported behind Danzaburo, now as a fox, and performed the infamous Backstabber's Leg Sweep as Daitui had taught him. The technique was performed by shifting one's body weight between one foot, while reaching out in a moving semi-circle with the other leg, before switching feet. It was supposed to disorientate an opponent, but Danzaburo had seen it before. Still in crane form, he lifted one foot to avoid both leg sweeps, before suddenly bringing his talons down on the vulpine's face. This proved to be somewhat unhelpful when he found that the tar had stuck the two of them together, like some sort of unorthodox glue.

Tin Zu heard the noises of battle from outside his office. He heard grunts, yelps, Fuzzy Fujian getting fly-kicked. He couldn't stop himself from lifting a hand into his face in his signature face-palm. Once again his entire gang was having their asses handed to them. First it had been the Masters Council, that was understandable. Then there was how the fox kit had injured four of his men in what was supposed to be a friendly invitation. And now yet another assailant was giving them a knuckle sandwich. Tin Zu cracked his knuckles and pushed aside his entire desk, leaving the space between the door and him, empty. The noises of struggle came to a halt, but his hearing was better than most thought. Footsteps were coming his way. Time to see which loony thinks they can mess with me.

Apparently it was a deranged one.

The door flew open and in walked Master Golden Gibbon, though of course Tin Zu thought he was just some guy. The gorilla stopped himself from facepalming. A kid and then an old man showed my boy's who's boss. I am going to have to have a serious conversation with them afterwards.

"Is there a problem"? Came Tin Zu's voice, deep and deceptively slow.

The gibbon wordlessly entered his stance. Tin Zu did likewise. He had no problem beating up the old man.

"You know what the problem is", Lao Pi said, before charging forwards and punching the gorilla.

Tin Zu's whole fighting style was about absorbing the power of an opponent's blow and using it against them. This old man, however, had too much power. The gorilla flew out the window.

Saras found out the hard way that if he teleported he would only be taking his opponent with him. He had wanted to teleport to the other side of the shapeshifter and take him unaware's, but of course that hadn't worked out and he had dragged Danzaburo with him. Both were now in their original forms. Somehow their fight had taken themselves away from the Tower of Sacred Flame and into the Training Grounds of the Masters Council. Saras pulled his head back, and pulled Danzaburo with him, before kicking the shapeshifter in between the legs, where every man's weakness was. The spy hollered, and retaliated by bringing his leg and Saras' head, down onto the ground, before bringing his other leg down onto the vulpine's nose, which promptly got a tad bit bloodier. Danzaburo brought it down again, but this time Saras opened his jaw, as wide as he could with all the tar still on his face and let the tanuki's leg drop into his maw, only to allow his sharp teeth to deal with his opponent. Danzaburo hollered again.

Really it was a miracle noone had awoken yet.

Tin Zu was astounded, the 'old' man was throwing him around like he weighed nothing. Tin Zu was a big guy, even for his species, and he was heavy, but this lighweight little gibbon was beating the crap out of him. Tin Zu however, did manage to put up more of a fight than his gang. Lao Pi swung, by now Tin Zu knew better than to block, and so sidestepped it, before catching the ape by the shoulder. Lao Pi, however twisted around and landed a back-kick, which sent the ape flying into a tree. The gorilla stood up, brushed away the pain, cracked his neck, and waited his opponent's next attack.

Saras soon learned that with one nostril covered by tar and another coated in blood, and what with his mouth full of tanuki leg, breathing was beginning to get quite difficult. He released his grip on Danzaburo's leg, and rolled, so that the tanuki was forced onto his back, the wind knocked out of him. Saras' eyes darted around the training square. There had to be something he could use here. Anything to get this stupid racoon off of him. That was when he caught sight of Master Storming Ox's Axes.

He had no more time to think when Danzaburo pulled at his cheek with his leg, clearly wanting off as well. Saras signaled with his paws for half-time, the japanese spy gave him a curious look. Saras pointed once at the axe, then at the tar. Danzaburo understood. Getting to their feet, the tanuki promptly hopped towards them on one leg, while dragging the fox along the ground with him. They had gotten two feet closer, when Saras got tired of being dragged, stood up, and Danzaburo promptly fell over.

Lao Pi had him cornered. But he was once again having his doubts, surely someone as enigmatic as Danzaburo Danaki could put up more of a fight then that. He sighed, the Spy of a Thousand Scents was supposed to be the best spy in Japan's arsenal, and yet this one wouldn't even shapeshift. Lao Pi threw Tin Zu into another tree, and this time the gorilla did not rise, the gibbon sighed, dramatically. He was back to square one, or rather he was going to have to go back to his only other lead. The fox.

After what seemed like a century, the pair managed to drag one another towards the axe. Now this was the tricky part.

Danzaburo watched as the fox lay on the ground. He was clearly rethinking the idea, and audibly gulped. The tanuki lifting the axe above him. The tanuki had no doubts whatsoever now, the fox was an idiot, or the most naive person he had ever met, or both. He was lying on the ground asking to get decapitated. Danzaburo sighed. It would be so easy to bring the axe head down on the fox's skull, it would be death in one second, or more, depending on how sharp Ox kept his weapons.

Danzaburo had been so angry when he realized that the fox was not a tanuki, but rage had also clouded his judgement, kitsune had more than one tail, this fox had exactly one. He had been so angry he would have killed the fox on the spot, but over the course of the fight, he had realized something. He was angry at the wrong person. After all it wasn't the kit's fault he was the only tanuki left alive.

The tanuki lifted the axe and brought it down on the tar, not cutting even a single piece of Saras' fur. Saras' eyes slowly opened, to see Danzaburo looking in the other direction.

Saras was tired, he was cold. He stood up and entered his stance, though he did so shakily, and sneezed half way.

"Go home", the tanuki finally said with a sigh. Saras blinked, stumbled backwards, turned and finally walked away.