"Are you insane"!?

"What was I supposed to do, leave a little sweetheart like him all alone in some drearyvery cell"?

"Well maybe you could have asked first before kidnapping Tin Zu's one and only son"!

"I wasn't kidnapping him, I was just bringing him along".

"His dad is the size of a mountain ! And I really don't think he likes me. This, is just asking to get killed"!

"Calm down. We'll just return him and say it was a simple misunderstanding".

Saras was at first overjoyed to find Shan Qu back alive and well. Then a baby gorilla as big as him began chewing on his tail. After being molested by a giant baby,(a molestation which had ended up with him sucking on a baby bottle), Saras had asked Shan Qu what he was doing. Shan Qu had explained that he had been locked in the Tower of Sacred Flame by someone and that he had woken up on that morning, to find all the doors unlocked. On his way out he had stumbled upon Tin Zu's infant son, who he had delightedly brought along.

Saras looked from the baby who was currently trying to fit his toe into his mouth, giggling the whole while, and shaking the entire bed while doing so., to Shan Qu, who's eyes widened into a form of puppy dog eyes.

"Please can we keep him. Please, please, please, please, please". Saras found Shan Qu's eyes right in front of his, which was impressive as the fox was twice the bat's size.

"Fine, we'll keep him. For now. Until I can return him to Tin Zu." Saras swallowed a yawn, and remembered his exhaustion. "For now, I'm going to sleep".

He turned to the bed, and remembered the gorilla still there. "Alright kid. There's one bed and two of us. This can only end one way".

Two minutes later...

Saras landed on his tail, rather stunned by the strength the baby gorilla already had. Tin Zu's son was giggling away, as if this was some great big game, Shan Qu was trying to not laugh out loud and Saras was trying to keep some dignity, which was at this point an impossible task. Deciding that he would only humiliate himself even further, he picked up a pillow and headed downstairs. Surely wouldn't mind him sleeping in the kitchens, after all the duck had had him working hard all morning.

Yang Chao was whistling pleasantly to himself, watching the looks of terror the members of Tin Zu's gang gave him as he strolled past. Tin Zu was in the center of the room, and for once as he turned to look at Yang Chao, he looked strangely relieved.

"Tinny, you look like you got up on the wrong side of bed this morning".

"Look Mr. Chao, I had the stuff, I had everything, I was going to pay you back in stock. Vodka barrels. Three hundred duo. All yours to do with as you please. I still can actually, but something happened."

Yang Chao sighed inwardly. "Tinny, if you give me another family crisis, I swear I'll kill you. First it's 'boss, boss my wife died'. Then it's 'boss, boss the Masters Council took my son'. What next ? Your sister get pregnant or something"?

The gorilla masked his pain well. "We were attacked." By an elderly ape. "By a shapeshifter. The vodka dealer, he knew all sorts of black magic and stuff. Unfortunately I heard tell that he left this morning". Sure it wasn't the truth, but the only one suffering was the kit, and he had done some weird things.

Yang Chao smiled. "It's funny you said that Tinny, because I heard that the vodka dealer was a fox kit, and also that he's still in Gongmen City. He sounds like a very interesting type of guy. I think I'll invite him to dinner, and maybe then he'll be a little more cooperative, that sounds quite nice doesn't it. Just a polite supper, with a delightful young man."

Tin Zu gulped inwardly, but made no move on the outside. His heart was hammering.

"Enjoy your day Tin Zu, I'll expect you halfway through dinner, so that I can have a little chit-chat with our dealer".

Tin Zu nodded, and turned casually, or as casually as he could. His boss was a creepy person. Small and yet more dangerous than Tin Zu's entire gang put together. The gorilla had seen the hare kill people with one touch, or sometimes a bit less than that. And I lied to his face. Now everything depended on what the shapeshifter said. This time he gulped audibly.

Yang Chao had heard the gulp, but decided not to react. He giggled softly, and then walked away whistling once again. Dinner was always more fun with a guest.

Saras had just had two minutes of nap time, when he heard someone leave the kitchens. He opened his eyes suddenly, and saw Danzaburo strolling out, looking extremely pleased with himself.

In his sleep deprived state Saras' brain forgot to function properly. "You"! Then he kicked himself inwardly when he realized that he would have remained hidden and the tanuki would have walked past without noticing him. Oh well, might as well improvise. "What have you done to Kenji"?

Danzaburo had not planned on the shapeshifter being here. Oh well, might as well improvise. Danzaburo shapeshifted into , the duck then back to his original form.

Saras gasped. "You were him all along"!?

The tanuki didn't hesitate. "Of course. It was the only way I would be able to analyze you closely." Now that he thought about it, why hadn't he just replaced ? That would have been far simpler than kidnapping Shan Qu, locking him up in the Tower of Sacred Flames, then nearly killing the kit, then releasing Shan Qu. This wasn't how he normally did things, why was his mind working so slowly ? This whole mission he had been making rash decisions.

Saras was more than a bit weirded out by the tanuki's last statement. "And just out of curiosity ? Why were you, um, analyzing me ?" The young fox's mind came up with three possibilities. One, he was being spied on, which was just ridiculous, why would anyone be spying on him ? Two, he was a creepy stalker, this was by far the most likely. Three, he was just some assassin trying to screw with his head. He gulped, his body visibly tense.

Danzaburo laughed. And brushed the question aside with a wave of the paw. "Don't worry, it's not important".

Saras narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Who are you anyways"?

"My name is Danzaburo."

Saras gritted his teeth. That was a bunch of useless information.

Danzaburo noticed the tension around the young fox beginning to mount. He sighed inwardly. If he was going to take this shapeshifter back with him, then he had to at least be honest. The room soon became clouded with smoke.

Saras got up, and whipped out one of his knives, the smoke was everywhere, he couldn't even see anything. Then the smoke cleared, and Saras found himself in a strange place. He was on a grassy hill on a hot summer's day surrounded by a whole bunch of Danzaburos. But no, they couldn't be Danzaburos, their eyes were different, energetic, joyful, so full of life. Saras' jaw dropped as a pair of laughing tanuki raced right through him, followed by their mother. His heart began beating against his ribs, then he felt something light land on his head. He put a paw to find that his rice hat had been returned. Danzaburo was next to him.

"I am a tanuki, Saras Kun. There were once many of us. Joyful, happy, full of life. We were pranksters, a whole clan of them." Danzaburo spoke. "We would never do anything dangerous. We would turn leaves into money or pretend to be someone's wife. But it was all just fun and games."

"What happened"?

"All good things come to an end." Was Danzaburo's simple reply.

Suddenly the tanuki's began vanishing in puffs of smoke, as if they had never been there. One by one. Saras felt a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach. He knew where this was going.

"Once, one of our clan pulled a prank on Daimyo Masuta."

"Who's he"?

Danzaburo ignored the interruption and the question. "He feared what we could do, if left to our own devices. And so, he ordered our execution. Most tried their best to hide, and escape. But our talents were used for pranks. Noone could remain hidden for long. One by one, we dwindled."

The scene changed to a tanuki trying to escape a bunch of guards, only to find a quarrel in his back. "The Daimyo was ruthless. But he was clever in his own way. He soon came to value what he had feared. Every time one of us was caught, he would 'employ' us, to use our gifts for him. Like I said before, our talents were used for pranks. My clan vanished, one by one, little by little, all in his service." The smoke faded.

"And now I'm the only one left".

Saras felt his insides twist. He had just had the worst bedtime story of his life. But strangely he felt his heart go out to Danzaburo. His tongue found itself unable to move, or maybe it was his throat refusing to make any sound.

Then the spy turned to him. "I was honest to you. Now tell me who you are".

Saras began his tail, which would have been far more interesting to tell if he could manipulate the smoke like Danzaburo had done.

"Well I come from the village of Piaoliang. I was born into the Jit Kun. We were gifted from the moment we were born by the Yellow Emperor himself, who had entrusted us to guard the Jit Kun Crystal with our lives. I don't really remember much, I was young when it all happened, but it was the Naming Day, a day that came once every twelve years, on the fourth year of the dragon. In the Naming day we were all given our gifts by the crystal. I was the last to receive my gift, when the raiders came. Mongol raiders charged through the village in tens of thousands. They butchered my people, stole the crystal and left us for dead."

"How is it that you are still alive"? Ventured the tanuki, surprised by all the similarities he shared with the kit.

Saras shrugged. "I don't remember. All I remember was running, and then tripping, then I was in darkness for as long as I could remember. I climbed out of the wreckage of a collapsed house. I found Aang, and then all I remember is being hungry and walking. Then Daitui found us, fed us and brought us to the Bat Cave. It's been my home ever since."

Danzaburo decided that he could find out more about Aang and Daitui later on.

The two looked at each other for a long time. Then Saras broke the silence.

"You still haven't told me why you're here"?

"That is a story for another time, now, you need rest." The tanuki turned and walked away, Saras continued to stare after him. Ten minutes later he was snoring into his pillow, his dream full of tanuki, Jit Kun and snow.

Shan Qu watched as Tin Zu's son slept soundly. He was such an angelic boy. The gorilla reminded him of his own little brothers, and how he always used to tickle their noses to wake them up. He smiled at the memory, only for a quarrel to smash through the window and embed itself into the wall, a piece of parchment rolled downwards. Shan Qu skimmed it's contents briefly.

"BOSS"!

Footnote: This chapter was named as it was because while writing it Fanfiction cut out all the ' Kenji's.

Also you might notice that throughout my stories the Jit Kun's backstory changes slightly. This is because different characters have different points of view on what happened, not because of bad writing.