Author's Notes: This update is for MeowMeow Man! -sniff- He was the first (not-one-of-my-friends) to review...I hope you can enjoy this!

So. This the chapter to explain it all...or almost all. It's a tad long but I guess you won't mind... :) I liked writing this one although it was pretty hard, too. ...But...I was sort of expecting it, but still...nearly no-one reviews. If you read, please review. I live for comments. Tell me why you don't like it, or something. (I only ask you to be civil.)

Ah yes...I place this fic somewhere around manga chapter 310. It takes a different direction than the manga from there on. (And I just randomly picked Grass Village for that one part. I don't remember the map...)

And I'm not going to repeat the disclaimer.

---------------------------

Second Chapter

In the bleak little room where the ANBU had escorted Kisame, he sat in an uncomfortable chair as everyone was staring him down. The black coat seemed practically disappointed that Kisame cooperated without any tricks.

It was harder than speaking with Tsunade alone to recount everything to the interrogator and the four others in the room. But he told them everything he had about Akatsuki and their plans. They didn't touch the subject of Hidden Mist's secrets, though, not yet.

In the end he couldn't provide them with that much concerning Akatsuki, as the leader, undoubtedly wisely, held on to most of the details himself. But then he had to tell them about why he was here… That was harder than recounting the cold facts of what he knew of the criminal organisation.

--

That day Team seven was given a short B-rank mission, and for the first time in a long while, they operated with Kakashi instead of Yamato. Sai had been left behind as well. It had been Sakura's idea, but she had convinced her mentor, Tsunade, to support it as well. She had said it would be good for them to "have some together time". Sasuke was still with Orochimaru, the day of his becoming the snake master's new container nearing, but they had had no chance of getting him back since the poignant defeat at Orochimaru's lair. There their ex-team mate had coldly refused to come back, even tried to kill them. Maybe talking about it, getting the situation clear, would do them good.

Kakashi had just been released from the hospital after a long convalescence of recovering from the after effects of his Mangekyou Sharingan. Upon his leaving Tsunade had personally come to tell him that in case he used his Sharingan again this soon, if the effect of it didn't kill him already, she would.

The three of them weren't given a dangerous mission partly because of that, but mostly because Naruto. Now that Yamato wasn't accompanying him, the village counsel wouldn't let him go too far or subject to real danger, for that might bring out Kyuubi. Only the favour of the Hokage let Naruto even set his foot outside Leaf's walls without the constant supervision of the ANBU captain who was the only one in Leaf Village able to control the demon to some extent.

Kakashi had tried hard not to show it, but both Sakura and Naruto realised he wasn't all that happy to have the remains of his team snatched away by Yamato. Maybe that was what had finally coaxed Tsunade to let them out as the old Team seven. Some might have said she cared too much about her subordinate's feelings, and such conduct would endanger the Leaf.

It was to be an exercise, a little bonding trip for them. Only a surveillance round to the Fire Country's closest border to see that there really was no-one from the slightly restless Grass Village crossing over. It was B-rank solely because there was a slight chance of encountering enemy shinobi, but they weren't expected to see anyone at all.

Unfortunately, the Akatsuki was just as resourceful as the counsel feared and Tsunade had hoped not to be. They had found out through a spy that the ninth Jinchuuriki, Naruto, was out of the Hokage's eyes, moving with an incomplete team and a superior in less than perfect state. Their three years were up, and after Shukaku, they moved in at the window of opportunity for Kyuubi.

That's how the Akatsuki pair Itachi and Kisame had ended up lurking near the Fire border. Naruto would walk right into their arms, and his two friends should be relatively easy to deal with.

While waiting rather casually in a large tree, scouting the area where Team seven should appear, Kisame was itching for a real fight. If he couldn't get that green idiot, he could at least do with the Sharingan bastard who had copied his technique. Provided that Itachi wouldn't hog all of the action again. But, on the other hand…

This was hard for him to admit to himself, but he still had a weird kind of a soft spot for the blonde kid. Itachi would probably fight the Jinchuuriki himself, hopefully leaving that pink-haired Haruno girl and Hatake to Kisame, but if it came down to it…could he bring himself to harm the kid? That one time nearly three years ago he hadn't been able to do it. He was sure…or quite sure that as a ninja, he could stand aside let him be captured and robbed of Kyuubi…and his life…but the thought of directly attacking him made him feel unsure.

Staring blankly at the sky through the canopy of the tree, he realised his unexpected affection for Naruto hadn't really faded in these years. If something, it was only causing more trouble now that it had come topical again. In truth, his life in the Akatsuki seemed oddly bland with the thoughts of the blonde kid swimming around in his head. Somehow, that kid made questions like "Is this really the life I want?" pop up. As the mission had gotten closer, he had had harder and harder time to keep his face from showing his confusion.

Itachi suddenly stood up on his branch a bit higher than Kisame. The shark nin looked up and put a hand on Samehada, lying beside him. "What is it, Itachi-san?" He hoped his voice hadn't actually sounded as annoyed as he thought it had. Gradually losing his sight had made the Uchiha slightly more short-tempered, though all angriness usually manifested only as sulking and occasional coolly vicious comments. Figuratively tip-toeing around him was getting frustrating…but Uchiha Itachi wasn't a person to make angry, nonetheless.

"Something troublesome", the young man replied and stared at the woods. Kisame stood up to look the same way, and now also felt the chakra.

"Cheh…isn't that that little brother of yours?" Kisame let out, surprised. Of all times, now? How had he found them? "…Looks like we need to go through our contacts again. Someone has been tipping off Orochimaru."

"Be quiet," Itachi dropped monotonously. Kisame flexed his neck irately. One of these days…

The Uchiha brat wasn't even attempting to conceal his chakra. He stood some way into the woods, not yet visible. For a time, no-one moved. Then a flash, and Sasuke appeared on a thick branch opposite to Itachi. He was more composed now than the last time, but his face was contorted in a way that lent ground to suspicion that he was still not as calm as he acted. Kisame did a double take on his outfit. You could really see who had dressed him…the flimsy shirt with a neckline to his navel was like an invitation to that old pedophile Orochimaru. Not to mention the tell-tale purple rope on Sasuke's waist that marked the snake and his people.

Kisame glanced at Itachi, who showed no reaction. Too bad his eyes were pretty much gone. If he hated his brother, he should love this.

"Uchiha Itachi…" Sasuke hissed. "Send away your helper or I'll kill him first." That made Kisame break a wide, very annoyed smile. Those two were brothers for sure!

"Foolish brother," Itachi nearly sighed. "You still think you're a match for me like that?" He brushed away some dark bangs.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you now as my last deed…" Sasuke was starting to lose some of his cool. Kisame wagered he had run off on Orochimaru to try and take on his brother for the last time before their combining. The shark Akatsuki didn't feel too amused by this circus, since he had seen it once before. He looked at his partner again, hoping for the sensible reaction. Just kill the brat like you should have done years ago. This would ruin their mission.

"Kisame, watch the border," Itachi said detachedly. Kisame's jaw almost dropped. That sounded like he was going to take long…which meant he was just playing with the damn brother again!

At that point, the said brother needed no further signal, and unsheathed a trendy-looking sword from his back, jumping at Itachi with a scream.

Kisame grimaced and jumped to another tree. He'd be damned if he'd interfere in that. Let those Uchihas have their bout, then! But this would alert their target for sure…who was the foolish one to waste this chance of seizing Kyuubi?

Sasuke's brand new jutsu were flashy and loud, and the area where the brothers fought was soon covered in debris and clouds of dust. Kisame stood further away and watched with a frown, taking a look at the surrounding area every now and then. If Team seven wouldn't see the dust, they'd hear the booming. And Kisame still wasn't so sure whether he had the willpower to initiate the battle by himself.

I didn't take that long for a small dog, clothed in Leaf's colors, to sneak into the area. Kisame saw it, but the creature seemed so shocked by the show-down of Itachi and Sasuke, that it didn't notice the shark nin and bounded away again. Kisame wondered if there was a way to let Itachi know, and cautiously moved closer to the latest explosion crater.

He found a slightly breathless Itachi standing over the convulsing body of his little brother. He had gotten him in a genjutsu, then. "They're coming, Itachi-san," Kisame said after a short while of looking at the scene.

"…" Itachi straightened his back and turned at Kisame.

They were faster to arrive than Kisame had expected, and right then Naruto came tearing through the forest, screaming "Sasuke!" Kisame had just enough time to feel a bit of frustrated pity at the boy for still wasting compassion to a lost cause like Sasuke, but then he had to evade a bunch of dogs coming through the ground everywhere around them.

Samehada made the attacking summon creatures disappear in puffs of smoke, and Itachi had also made short work of the ones disturbing him, and whisked some kunai at the teary-eyed, angry Naruto. Kisame's stomach lurched in a worrying way at that, and he almost forgot to block the last dog. The kunai met, surprisingly, and Naruto also poofed to a cloud of smoke. Itachi's eyes flicked to the side, and that was enough to make Kisame turn and receive the five Narutos jumping at him from the trees. Despite the new attack, he registered letting out a small sigh of relief.

A feeling in one of their chakra made Kisame pull off and evade instead of trying to shave through it, too. He was lucky, since the "Naruto" punched the ground instead of him, creating a huge crater. Kisame recognised Tsunade's fighting style. Some of the Naruto clones he had hit also hadn't offered any resistance and hadn't dissipated, which meant that to add to the confusion, there were regular clones amidst the tangible shadow clones.

Many more Narutos appeared from the trees, and some of them were carrying swirling Rasengan spheres in their hands. The attack seemed more focused on Itachi, which made Kisame crinkle his nose in annoyance. Just a few clones and the Haruno girl to take him down, eh? Growling, he flicked through a series of hand seals and spat out one of his favourite water jutsu.

Some of the clones popped in the huge water torrent, but Kisame still couldn't be sure which ones of the remaining where regular or shadow and which one was Haruno, not to mention Hatake Kakashi, who was probably hiding somewhere. Some Narutos were holding Sasuke and Itachi and the clones surrounding him had also gotten on top of the suddenly appeared lake. The Uchiha cast him an irate look in the middle of dodging a Rasengan. Sure, they hadn't been supposed to make a commotion, but Itachi's battle had already done that, anyway. At least Kakashi couldn't use his earth element jutsus now, and Kisame had the advantage of home ground.

That wouldn't last for more than a moment, though, as some of the treetops already started to come visible from the water. This wasn't like the valley where Kisame had fought the green beast and his team, and the water was flowing away, causing the surface to break and crash in turbulence like a stormy sea. Kisame lost sight of Itachi, but it was fine, since he was finally getting into the battle.

Grinning widely, Kisame ran at the nearest Narutos as he simultaneously did some seals. Maybe he could overcome his reluctance to hurt the kid like this. He only needed to lose himself in the heat of battle and think of all of them as clones or someone using a transformation technique.

A large, shark-shaped gush of water sprang from a wave at the Narutos as Kisame descended on them with his Samehada. They were smart enough to try to evade, some of them. The ones that didn't go poof were normal clones, so Kisame ignored them and turned, slashed, and kicked at the ones that were still scrambling around on the milling waters. As the Narutos then allowed him a brief cautious distance, he brought his other hand into a quick seal and created some water clones. All of the Kisames continued to smile predatorily, as they more or less coordinated brought down the shadow clones. The one Naruto that remained unscathed and disintegrated the clones to puddles using a bit different-looking punches then received Kisame's undivided attention.

On unsure footing, Sakura had to just keep dodging Samehada's blows that splashed into the water and rose up again with almost no regard to water resistance, and when an unexpected wave pushed him to a tree-trunk, Kisame got her in the side.

Sakura screamed but pushed off the tree and jumped further. The water was nearly gone, and she didn't sink too deep although she fell through the surface and collapsed on her knees. She was once again herself, the guise of Naruto fallen apart at the hit, and the remaining regular clones disappeared. Her deep red blood spurted into the swirling, splashing water. Kisame whisked Samehada back into his back, making some blood dribble off it from movement. The girl wouldn't make any more trouble as her chakra must have been mostly gone, thanks to the shark-skin blade.

Now Kisame allowed himself a look at his partner, and realised he should have paid more attention to him. Sakura fell to the soaked ground with a splash, but Kisame let her be and jumped up to the trees, proceeding fast to where he sensed the flare of different chakra.

It was close by, but the shark nin was already late. Itachi had been low on chakra to begin with because of his pointless fight with Sasuke, more than Kisame had thought, and Kakashi probably knew how to exploit his poor eyesight. And Naruto had been on the verge of falling into a Kyuubi-powered battle rage, regardless of what their contacts in Konoha had said about the Hokage taking precautions to stop it. There was nothing like threatening his friends to turn him into a red chakra bursting monster, especially something concerning that Uchiha brat.

It figured: about the only time he failed to remind the "Uchiha genius" about his chakra, he actually forgot!

Itachi was standing a small distance from Kakashi, who had his Sharingan eye revealed, and Naruto in a little clearing. His posture was worse than usual and he was clutching his right side. A bit further back, behind the two Leaf ninja, someone who Kisame bet was a shadow clone of Naruto was crouched over Sasuke, who moved like he was about to wake up.

And sure enough, Naruto's whisker marks were larger than usual, and his eyes had turned red with the slit pupils of Kyuubi. Kakashi clearly regarded him with caution, and the boy himself stood in a crouched position, shivering violently.

As Kisame, still unnoticed, observed from the tree Itachi's shoulders slumped even more and he coughed. The sound had a nasty wet tone and Kisame frowned. This had escalated into an unpleasant situation…he wasn't entirely sure he could take on both the Copy-nin and Naruto-nearing-Kyuubi himself. And not to forget it was Naruto. If he really thought about it, who did he have more goodwill towards…?

Naruto growled slightly and looked like he was fighting himself. Itachi didn't yet seem like he was about to give up without a fight. "Calm down now, Naruto," Kakashi said emphatically. "No need for that now."

"…I'll finish him," the Copy Nin claimed. Kisame blinked. That still sounded a bit pompous. He was talking about Itachi.

"Hmph," Itachi uttered, probably agreeing with Kisame. He showed no other sign of his plans except a flash of his eyes before making a shadow clone and dashing forth with his famous speed. He didn't target Kakashi, though, but Naruto, who cringed back, trying to block with his hands. Kakashi was busy with Itachi's clone, backing away towards the tree line, but just as Kisame moved to jump in too, Naruto lashed out at the Uchiha, paying no heed to the wounds he had gotten from his kunai. Itachi was surprised by this, too, and Naruto got a slash at him. He was beyond using tools, and his nails -or at this point, claws- were enough. Naruto's shadow clone made a strangled sound and disintegrated by itself. Too much Kyuubi chakra.

Itachi retreated, as Naruto dropped on all fours and prepared to follow. "You'll…leave Sasuke alone!" he snarled.

For some reason, Kisame had halted again when Itachi got hit, and to his surprise, he now saw Sasuke raising his head. Everyone was shocked as the boy hoarsely uttered: "No!"

Naruto, like an idiot, turned and seemed to forget all about Itachi.

"Naruto!" Sasuke spat and gave him a glare that was not only menacing; he had his Sharingan activated. "You won't steal my vengeance!"

As that one time before, three years ago, Kisame's body just seemed to act on its own. He saw Sasuke get up, amazingly fast for someone in his state, and lunge at the stunned Naruto, clearly intent on killing him with a Chidori gathering in his hand. He saw Orochimaru's stain, the curse seal, creep over his skin and his mouth widening in a hate-filled scream. In the same time he jumped through the air, the tree bark cracking from chakra where his feet had been, and without a thought, without a moment's hesitation he gutted Sasuke with his Samehada. Sasuke was good enough to notice and try to block it, but in his state he wasn't fast or strong enough to avert Kisame, who also had the momentum on his side.

So much blood gushed on Kisame and Naruto, and Sasuke made a small, awful sound as his eyes glazed over even before his corpse forcefully hit the ground. Kisame, who wasn't stupid, turned and jumped further as soon as he saw that Sasuke was indeed dead.

Killing Sasuke didn't feel like anything. He didn't even get the delightful rush he was used to. As his eyes hit Naruto's face, he knew why he couldn't enjoy killing the boy, no matter how he had thought him to be annoying. Naruto was frozen, as if the Sharingan was still holding him. His mouth was lax, slightly open, and tears flowed from his eyes, mixing to the red blood on his face. But he didn't blink. He folded on his knees and slowly, slowly reached a hand to Sasuke's corpse.

Everyone was still, unprofessionally shocked. Kakashi's throat made a slight "-N…" He should know, Kisame thought, he should know that he should have done what Kisame did first. But he had hesitated, because Sasuke used to be his star pupil. And Itachi, too, leaning on one knee, should have stricken his little brother down before he would have killed the ninth Jinchuuriki, and the Bijuu as well, their target. But he hadn't, because it was his brother.

"…Kisame…." Itachi whispered. "…That was…unnecessary." His eyes looked a bit wide, and Kisame felt an odd, rebellious glee. "I see that we needed to preserve the Jinchuuriki, but I…had uses for him still." Kisame was silent for a moment, but his insides were in an upheaval too. He had the feeling you sometimes get, when you start to want to make something drastic. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but didn't, and then he looked like he was about to surprise himself, too.

"…You know what? You shut up, Itachi-san." He stood up straight and pointed Samehada at the young man, who now frowned in a way he would, in another situation, think absolutely laughable on Itachi. This felt right, for some reason. "...I think I'm quite fed up with the Akatsuki," Kisame said levelly, and Kakashi blinked and shook his head as if to clear his mind from an illusion.

"You what?" Itachi asked faintly.

Kisame decided to ignore him, because he was very aware of Naruto. "Kakashi-san, do you happen to have something that would help Naruto restrain himself?"

Kakashi mostly just stared. Kisame glanced at Naruto and continued quickly. "I realise the situation, but you have my word you can trust me this time." He had to force the words out, but he knew this might be the only way to get the Copy Nin to cooperate, and he didn't want to fight against all three of them. "…That damn kid…he…I think he has a way with people. I just...don't want to see him dead." He hoped Kakashi would understand him. "And you know I can't go back to Akatsuki anymore, at least."

At this point, Naruto prevented any more conversation. He uttered a wordless cry and even Kisame flinched as his chakra jumped. He spun around as red chakra emerged in liquid-looking bubbles through his orange coat. He was growing a second tail by the time he was flying at Kisame. His scream was rage, but also sadness, and abundant tears were still falling before dissipating inside the chakra coating bubbling over him.

Kisame managed to block and retreat for some time, but he had subdued to the fact that he couldn't hurt the blonde kid after all. He didn't want to see him hurt, and for that he had killed Sasuke, but that may have hurt the kid more than taking the Uchiha's blow. Naruto had no such qualms, though, and completely ignoring everything but the killer of his best friend, fought in a berserker rage.

Kakashi had evidently followed the process, and seeing that Kisame purposefully left some openings unused, was convinced. He appeared before the Kyuubi's vessel and tried to hit his forehead with a small paper slip. Naruto ducked and nearly took Kakashi's arm off with an extending chakra limb. He didn't even recognise friends anymore.

"Give it to me," Kisame grunted. Kakashi didn't have time to argue, and he wasn't in the reputation of a quick ninja for nothing. Kisame was in better condition, and possibly better in taijutsu. He slapped Jiraiya's note, carrying the characters of sealing, into the blue hand. They were forced to scatter as Naruto, going on the third tail, struck down to where they had been.

Determinedly Kisame squeezed the seal paper and shot forward to Naruto. His fourth tail was about to form, and Kisame had heard that was bad. He couldn't afford caution anymore. Kisame roared with Naruto and slashed Samehada at the boy. As he had hoped, Naruto evaded the blow easily and moved closer. He smacked the Samehada aside and struck upwards, driving the claws and the searing chakra into Kisame's chest.

"Guhh!" Kisame gasped and blood dribbled through his grimace. But he managed to press the paper slip to the boy's brow. His red eyes went blank sickeningly similarly to Sasuke a moment ago, but then the bloody color slowly started to drain out.

Naruto's blow had been worse than he had expected, and as he pulled the still smallish hand out of the wound, his legs felt weak and he collapsed on his knees. "Fuh," he voiced and licked blood from his lips. That was…a wound bit too severe for his tastes. Naruto sat still like a statue, and it didn't look very pleasant to Kisame. Kakashi quietly walked over and said in a hushed voice:

"Seems like Itachi left when our attention was on Naruto. I guess he judged he couldn't take us on like he was, but I think he might have remained close by. So act like you are ok." Kisame looked up. He had covered his Sharingan again, but he looked like shit, barely able to stand without swaying. The shark nin could recognise the overuse of Sharingan easily.

"Easier said than done," Kisame breathed, grasping his wound. It was bleeding worrisome amounts. Kakashi observed him quietly and crouched in front of Naruto, placing a hand on his eyes. He probably used a genjutsu to make the kid go to sleep. "…Do you believe me now, Kakashi-san?" Kisame asked dryly.

"Maybe." Kakashi didn't look at him and checked Naruto's necklace, moving it firmly against his skin, and set his now limp body to lie on the ground. With feigned aloofness, he asked: "Now, where is Sakura?"

Kisame's face fell slightly, and he told the Leaf. Kakashi set off after a look at his new ally that made him feel uncomfortable. How should he have known something like this would happen? It was self preservation, really.

Kakashi returned soon, half carrying Sakura, who was -remarkably- conscious. Guess what they said about her part in the death of Sasori was true, then. Kakashi had probably briefed Sakura about the situation, but he still had to restrain her when she saw the corpse of her old crush. She gained some respect from the missing-nin, though, because she managed to rein in her emotions and do as Kakashi ordered her to: She used green healing chakra to patch up Kisame as much as she could despite that she was silently weeping and gritting her teeth. Kisame didn't miss the sharp look Kakashi gave to his wound. Yeah, he probably couldn't hide it from the Leaf. They would guess it anyway.

Kisame bandaged himself with a little help from Kakashi, and they set to limping back to Leaf Village. Kisame had decided to accept what was now coming for him, whatever it may be. He would have never dreamed of trying to do this with any other village, but Leaf was known for its mushy idiots. He just hoped they would be mushy enough not to kill him, but they were ninja. In any case, his fate had pretty much been decided when he spoke to Itachi.

They had no way of carrying the youngest Uchiha's corpse with them, and they couldn't tardy around with Itachi somewhere and the possibility of Orochimaru's minions showing up after Sasuke. As a former ANBU Kakashi knew very well that an Uchiha body couldn't be left lying around, and expended some of his waning chakra to burn him as Sakura sat further away, staring at the pyre with tears in her eyes and the comatose Naruto in her lap. As he finally turned into ashes, the girl buried her face into Naruto's coat, trying to stifle her crying.

Kisame watched quietly.

--

Kisame ended his story by telling his audience how they had then been found by a border patrol, which was his last memory before passing out. They had some more questions after that, and Tsunade joined them after a while. Kisame had no way of telling what time it was, but he estimated the interrogation lasted long into the night. When Tsunade and her five subordinates had learned everything important about Kisame's childhood, years of acting as a Mist ninja and time in the Akatsuki, the woman finally settled and ordered for some food to be brought for the shark nin.

Kisame felt empty, as if all the knowledge had seeped out of him some of his spirit, too. His biggest secret probably hadn't been that much of a surprise to Tsunade, but her worries were even more evident on her face than before. His underlings looked at each other like they wanted to whisper among themselves, but were much too professional for that.

The Hokage sighed and crossed her hands in her lap. "This might prove to be very troublesome indeed." She looked up at Kisame, and then at the interrogators. "This is, as is obvious, very S-class information. You are not to relate it to anyone. …I'll tell the counsel myself."

She rose, and so did everyone else except for the shark nin. He was, maybe a bit foolishly, still not wearing the Leaf forehead protector, but had in fact carried it in his hand to this place.

Tsunade unexpectedly smiled lightly, but it wasn't without certain sarcastic quality. "From now on, you can wear that forehead protector, Kisame. For the time being…and hopefully for a long time…on my authority as the Hokage, you are a Leaf Jounin. You may go, but watch your step in the village. And I might call for you any time. …I trust you can control yourself." The last sentence was accompanied by a calculative look.

Kisame got up, and even succeeded in not swaying. "Good night then, Hokage-sama." He inclined his head in a small bow, and tied the metal plate on his forehead. The familiar ANBUs came in as Tsunade left, and with forced courtesy, led Kisame, the Leaf ninja, out into the night.

---------------------------

Author's Notes: Yeaah...that was the longest chapter I've posted here...even my oneshots are shorter. The next one will be shorter again, and it will have the first yaoi-ness in this fic...with the surprise pairing! ;)

Please don't kill me if you like the Uchihas...it's just that I love to hate them. Ahaha... (Or Sasuke, at least.) I didn't kill him just for fun, though... It'll have effects later, as I'm sure you understand.

So please review now if you dragged yourselves through it all, and if you see where I'm wrong...tell me. I wouldn't want Kisame to act weird...or TOO weird, at least.