You guys are seriously killing me with such kind reviews! I'm so glad people are enjoying this story.

Tenzou doesn't like the water, and the rest of Team Hound learns that not all scars are visible.

In retrospect, Kakashi should have seen it coming. Team Hound had had an exceptional couple of months, completing several A and S ranked missions without a hitch, returning to base with minor to no injuries and in a timely fashion to boot. Kakashi couldn't remember the last time missions had gone so smoothly and was positive that this was their longest "no-injury streak" ever. With both a Sharingan and Mokuton user on the same team, going two months without a single case of chakra exhaustion was practically unheard of.

So, really, Kakashi should have known the other shoe was going to drop eventually.

In reward for their outstanding performance, Team Hound was given nearly a week off, which they tried to take full advantage of. Normally, temporary leave was reserved for punishments or emergency situations, but the higher ups had simply stated that they didn't want the top team to get burnt out. Unfortunately, Kakashi hadn't been able to convince the Council of Elders to release Tenzou to him for the week, which foiled their plans of hanging out in the village like normal young shinobi.

Although, Kakashi thought as he settled more comfortably against the trunk of a tree, this wasn't half bad either. The team had decided to take advantage of both the time off and unseasonably hot weather to visit a small lake that was located a few hours north of Anbu headquarters. Kakashi was stretched out in the sun with his well-worn copy of Icha-Icha Paradise while Genma and Raido were taking turns jumping off the small dock that Tenzou had grown for them upon arrival. Said brunette was sitting further back on the platform, laughing and watching his teammate's unofficial competition progress from who could make the largest splash to who could complete the most complicated backflip into the lake.

In his seat on the dock, Tenzou smiled and sighed, enjoying the feel of the warm sun on his bare back. Everyone but Kakashi had stripped down to their undergarments, and Tenzou had a sneaking suspicion that Kakashi just hadn't wanted to remove his mask. Putting his captain's strange personality out of his mind, he closed his eyes and leaned back to let the sun fall on his face.

The peaceful bliss only lasted a minute before a splash of cold water hit his face, causing Tenzou to jump slightly. His eyes snapped open and he mentally restrained himself from flinching as the cold liquid rolled down his face. Genma was laughing while Raido waved from behind him.

"Oi, Tenzou, come on in!"

Tenzou looked at the body of water around him and shook his head. He wasn't the biggest fan of water. Granted, he appreciated it for hygiene purposes and knew how to swim - because what's the point of a shinobi who can't swim? - but he generally avoiding voluntarily submerging himself in the stuff. It brought back too many partial memories of being cold, wet, and alone…

"Oh come on," Genma urged, treading water easily and misinterpreting Tenzou's shiver. "The water's not that cold."

"No, really, I think I'm good." Tenzou shook his head slightly, keeping his voice firm. Genma simply smiled at him, and Tenzou noticed the change too late. Wait, hadn't Raido been right behind Genma just a second-

Suddenly strong arms were wrapping around Tenzou and he gave a cry of surprise, scrambling to hold on to something. But Raido's body was wet and slick and he couldn't get a grasp before the older shinobi gave a strong heave and Tenzou went flying into the water below.

He made the mistake of gasping harshly as he hit the cold water and his head went under. Water rushed into his nose and mouth, choking him, and when he finally opened his eyes, everything was blurred. It was just like his nightmares. Tenzou struggled, and a few strong kicks later broke the surface, coughing violently as he struggled to pull air into his lungs.

There was a strange rushing in his ears and he could barely hear Genma and Raido laughing. A hand found it's way to the top of his head and pushed him under again. Tenzou suddenly felt frantic, his heart beating rapidly. There was water in his eyes and his nose and his mouth and his ears… No, he couldn't do this again!

Tenzou's yelp caused Kakashi to look up just in time to see his kohai go flying through the air and into the lake. He chuckled along with Genma and Raido when the young man surfaced, sputtering and coughing, thinking Tenzou should have known that he couldn't avoid being drawn into his teammate's shenanigans forever. The captain was just returning to his book when another explosion of water sounded, and Genma gave a strangled howl.

"W-what the hell, Tenzou?!"

Looking up, Kakashi saw that Tenzou's arm had completely transformed into a series of thick wooden tendrils which were currently wrapped around the struggling Genma. The older shinobi struggled in his cramped position before actually crying out in pain as the wooden bindings began to shrink, squeezing him. Kakashi frowned and got to his feet; something wasn't right.

"Oi, Tenzou, what're you doing?" Raido asked angrily, stroking through the water toward the Mokuton user, one hand reaching out in front to grab Tenzou's shoulder. "It was just a joke!"

But before Raido could come any closer, Tenzou raised his other hand and a sharp wood spear burst from it, piercing through Raido's shoulder. "Don't touch me!"

Raido grunted at the impact, blood already darkening the water around him. Kakashi strode across the dock, book safely stowed away and stern look on his face. He looked from Raido, holding his bleeding shoulder to Genma, still struggling in his constricting wooden prison. He turned a glare on the young Anbu between his men. "Tenzou! Release them!"

Tenzou looked up at his captain as though startled, and Kakashi had a split second to take in the strangely blank look in his eyes before the silver-haired shinobi was knocked backward in an explosion of wood. He struck his head sharply on the dirt behind him.

"Captain!" He heard Genma yell, and he struggled to sit up only to smash his head again on the small wooden dome surrounding him. What the hell was Tenzou thinking, attacking his teammates like this? Luckily for him, he knew exactly how to escape Tenzou's wooden prison.

Chidori danced in his palm as he sprung out of the wooden dome just in time to see Tenzou swing both arms and send his two older teammates smashing into the packed dirt of the lake shore. A surge of water rose and lifted Tenzou up on to the dock, where he stood panting, his stance wary and untrusting.

Kakashi stepped forward to meet him, calling back to the other men. "Genma, Raido, you alright?"

Raido groaned slightly, hand pressed against his shoulder in an attempt to stem the bleeding, and Genma looked a bit dazed from the impact with the ground. But he nodded. "Yeah, we'll live."

Satisfied, Kakashi turned his attention back to his dripping kohai and took a tentative step forward. Tenzou reacted immediately, two short pointed wooden stakes, almost like batons, erupting from his palms. Kakashi stopped moving, deciding to try a different approach.

"Tenzou," he said cautiously, voice placating. "I don't know what you're doing, but we're not your enemies. Stand down."

This close, he could now see that Tenzou was shuddering, his whole frame shaking violently and his face flushed. Both of his pupils were severely dilated and he shook his head slightly, as if to dispel Kakashi's words.

"I'm not listening to any more of your lies," the Mokuton user spat venomously, raising both his weapons. "You'll never take me back!"

Kakashi pivoted on his heel sharply, raising his leg in a high kick to block Tenzou's swipe with his wooden spikes. Tenzou swung his other hand and Kakashi sprung forward onto his hands, pressing close to the ground briefly to avoid the attack and then sweeping his legs around in an attempt to knock Tenzou off balance. He managed to clip one of the younger shinobi's ankles but a wooden tendril burst out of the ground to steady Tenzou at the last second. Kakashi leaped back, eager to put distance between the two and the wooden tendril was fast to follow, shooting upward through the sky and curling around his ankle.

He cursed softly as the tendril slammed him to the ground. He landed in a crouched roll, which helped to ease the impact somewhat, but Kakashi still felt the his bones ja uncomfortably. Climbing to his feet, Kakashi found himself already caught in another Mokuton trap, roots springing up from the ground to hold him in place. A sharp battle cry caused him to look up to find Tenzou leaping at him, his wooden spikes merging into one thick wooden sword.

Damn, the kid was fast. Kakashi barely had time to throw his arms up in front of his face, his forearms taking the blow instead of his head. All the same, he was pretty sure Tenzou had actually managed to fracture one of his wrists. Kakashi didn't know what had made the Mokuton user snap, but he was obviously fighting with an intent to do serious harm, if not kill. He needed to end this soon.

Arms still raised in front of him and legs still immobilized by roots, Kakashi swiped at Tenzou with a sudden burst of Chidori. The jutsu had an explosive impact with Tenzou's wooden broadsword, knocking the younger man back. Still moving, Kakashi used Chidori to free himself from his bonds and sprung after his kohai. The shinobi collided in midair, Kakashi grabbing onto Tenzou's arms and forcing them apart to prevent him from forming another sword.

The pair crashed to the ground, Kakashi on top of Tenzou, pinning him down by maintaining a firm grasp on the Mokuton user's arms. Tenzou was thrashing, trying to kick his senpai off and Kakashi had no choice but to slam his own knee into the younger shinobi's diaphragm, hard. Tenzou gave a strangled cry of pain and his struggles ceased momentarily as he tried to gasp air back into his lungs. Taking advantage of his kohai's distraction, Kakashi reached up and removed the covering from his scarred eye. He hated to do this, but the younger shinobi wasn't giving him any other choice. Tenzou was more than a match for the silver haired shinobi, and this was the only way to guarantee that neither of them would get hurt.

Kakashi opened his and and activated the Sharingan, boring his gaze into Tenzou's and causing the young man to go slack in his grasp. After pausing to make sure the the jutsu was holding, Kakashi released his grip on Tenzou's wrists to sit back on his heels and breathe heavily. Footsteps disturbed the dirt around him and he looked up into the eyes of a very confused Raido and Genma.

The younger of the two swirled a senbon lightly between his teeth, a nervous habit. "What the hell was that?"

Kakashi stood in one of the broad hallways of the Hokage's residence, leaning casually against the wall. Beside him, Raido and Genma fidgeted quietly. Their Anbu masks were securely in place, preventing the captain from reading their expressions.

After Tenzou's sudden freak out, the team had had no option other than to cut their leave short and return to Anbu headquarters to report the incident and see to their injuries. About a day after returning, Kakashi and the two senior members of Team Hound received an official summons from the Hokage. They left Tenzou in the capable hands of Anbu's medics who were keeping the suddenly volatile Mokuton user in a separate recovery room where he was both sedated and restrained.

Remembering the blank yet simultaneously terrified look in Tenzou's eyes, Kakashi suppressed a shudder. Something was obviously very wrong with his kohai, and he wanted answers now.

As if in response to Kakashi's impatience, the door to the Hokage's office swung open, and one of his aids motioned to the Anbu team. "Lord Third will see you now."

Team Hound filed into the office and knelt respectfully just in front of the raised platform where the Hiruzen Sarutobi sat, drafting a document at his low desk. The Anbu members remained perfectly quiet and still, waiting to be acknowledged.

A quiet chuckle startled all three teammates into raising their heads. The Third was looking at them fondly. "My, my. Never did I expect to send you on leave only to have you return with more injuries."

It was true; the remaining members of the team did look fairly rough. Raido's shoulder was wrapped in a layer of bandages and Kashi had a thick brace on his fractured wrist. Only Genma bore no outward sign of injury, though the Third was perceptive enough to see from his ginger stance that his bruised ribs were still bothering him.

Hiruzen waved at them slightly. "Please, sit. I owe you an explanation, and this may take a while."

"Sir?" Kakashi asked on behalf of the whole team as they hesitantly relaxed from their respectful stances to sit cross legged on the floor.

The Third likewise settled himself into a more comfortable position, lighting his pipe. "It's time you knew the truth about your comrade Tenzou. Kakashi, you may already know some of this, but I hope you will bear with me all the same."

"It is common knowledge that there are no known living members of the Senju clan and there have been no Mokuton users since the First Hokage. It is a power widely sought after because, as I am sure you've all experienced, it is so widely adaptable. The Mokuton can be used for everything from building an entire village without having to cut down a single tree to taming the Tailed Beasts."

Kakashi felt his teammates stiffen beside him and knew that, if Hiruzen had not already shared this information with him years before, he would also be completely surprised. Pausing to take a pull from his pipe, the old man continued. "For years many abroad and here in the Leaf sought to replicate that power using Hashirama's preserved cells. There were many waves of experimentation, injecting the cells into willing shinobi, all of whom hoped to become a vessel for such amazing power. Unfortunately, the Mokuton is not such an easy power to control. At it's core, the Mokuton is pure, creative life force, and the volunteer's bodies were not strong enough to contain it. After years of unsuccessful implantation attempts and a rising body count, the Leaf's official experiments were called off and Hashirama's cells locked away."

"Of course, some were not so easily dissuaded," Hiruzen said, his face darkening. "My former student, Orochimaru, was one of them. He began conducting his own experiments to try and recreate the Mokuton, kidnapping villagers and shinobi to serve as his test subjects."

Even with his mask on, Raido seemed distressed. "Are you saying that Tenzou-"

"That's right," Hiruzen nodded. "16 years ago there was a series of attacks on smaller communities located around the Leaf village, in which many villagers were slaughtered and their infant children kidnapped. We cannot be certain which of those communities or families Tenzou is from, but we believe that he is from a small village to the east which was believed to be home to the last remaining descendants of Hashirama and the Senju clan. We believe that faint bloodline may have been the only thing to keep Tenzou alive."

"What do you mean?" Genma sounded confused.

Hiruzen sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "When Orochimaru's facility was discovered, we found the bodies of at least 60 children. Tenzou was the only survivor."

"How long?" Kakashi asked quietly, almost dreading to know the answer. "How long were Tenzou and the other children kept there?"

"Until he was six years old, when Danzo found Tenzou alive and abandoned and took him into the Foundation," Hiruzen said, lifting his pipe to his mouth again. "Of course, this all fell under Lord Danzo's jurisdiction as a matter of the highest discretion, and I only found out about it in retrospect. Orochimaru had injected each infant with Hashirama's cells directly in the spinal cord, operating on the theory that as the children grew and their nervous system developed, the Mokuton cells would merge with their own and manifest the First's abilities. Unfortunately for most of the children, this wasn't the case. The power of the Mokuton was just too great for their tiny bodies and they all died, one after another."

Kakashi closed his eyes in regret, imagining the fear a young Tenzou must have felt, watching his companions dying all around him, constantly wondering if he was next.

"Lord Hokage," Genma spoke again, though his tone was tentative. "While we are honored to be trusted with this information, I don't understand what this has to do with what happened to Tenzou at the lake."

"We do not know what exactly Orochimaru did to his test subjects, and I highly doubt we ever will," Hiruzen answered patiently. "I highly doubt his experimentation ended with the initial injection. It is safe to assume that he was always tinkering, always prodding the children with treatments. The only thing we know for sure was that he kept his subjects suspended in some sort of chemical solution at all times."

"The medics believe that Tenzou's contact with the lake triggered some sort of a flashback of his imprisonment. His violent actions were a temporary response to his belief that you were trying to take him back to Orochimaru. You mustn't blame him for your injuries; he was not in control of himself. However, it is imperative you are aware of these facts to prevent similar incidents in the future."

The members of Team Hound shifted uncomfortably, and Hiruzen quickly saw the cause. The Anbu felt guilty for bringing on the flashback. The Hokage wanted to reassure them, but he was not in the habit of coddling his shinobi. "It was only a matter of time before Tenzou's memory of his time with Orochimaru began coming back to him. Quite frankly, a weaker psyche would have been lost to the darkness long ago."

Kakashi inclined his head to the side questioningly. "Lost to the darkness?"

Hiruzen nodded, his wise gaze seeming to look past Kakasi's hound mask and into his very soul. "You of all people know of what I speak, Hatake. Tenzou has every right to fall into dispair. His family was murdered, his body violated and experimented on against his will, his very identity stripped from him. And yet he fights on because that is all he knows how to do. All you can do for Tenzou as his teammates is to stay beside him and keep him firmly in the light."

As Team Hound took their leave, each member quietly made their way back to Anbu headquarters by separate routes, weighed down with heavy thoughts.

Upon returning to Anbu headquarters, Kakashi went straight to the infirmary to check on Tenzou. He found the Mokuton user awake and much calmer than before. The younger shinobi didn't look Kakashi when he entered the recovery room, keeping his scowling gaze fixed carefully on the ceiling instead.

Kakashi came to stop at the foot of his kohai's bed. When he spoke, be kept his voice low. "Hey."

Tenzou glanced at him, his face carefully blank and his eyes unreadable. "You went to see Lord Hokage."

"Yes," Kakashi replied honestly. "We were all summoned."

"Hm." Kakashi watched as Tenzou's arms strained slightly against the thick leather straps that secured his arms to the bed on either side of his head. "And he told you everything."

Kakashi didn't respond, letting his silence speak for him.

"Don't," Tenzou said quietly, his hands curling into shaking fists. "Don't look at me like that."

Kakashi reached down to place a hand on his kohai's knee. "Tenzou..."

Tenzou jerked and tried to twist out of his grasp, his movements restricted by by the restraints on his arms and legs. "I don't need your pity."

The strained tone of Tenzou's voice about broke Kakashi's heart. So he continued to stand at the foot of the bed, even when Tenzou turned his face away, his body shaking with silent sobs. Kakashi had never considered himself a very uplifting person; he had too much guilt, too many ghosts. But if the Hokage honestly believed he could keep Tenzou from falling into the darkness, then Kakashi would stay by his kohai's side whether he was wanted or not.