Hello! ^w^ Here's chapter 3

Tenzou watched Minato walk up the stairs. 'Why did he bring that stick thing?' Tenzou wasn't sure what Minato had taken with him, or why he needed it, it was fuzzy on end and thinned out into a smooth stick with a rounded edge. He stood and shook his head, it wasn't his place to question Minato. 'Besides, its not like he would hurt Kakashi. Its only to scare him, I think.' Tenzou wasn't certain what the stick was for, but he knew Kakashi was safe.

Tenzou turned and padded into the living room, he was going to explore the house. He stopped next to the couch and jumped onto it, from there he could see everything in the room. In front of Tenzou sat a wooden table, it was rectangular and the edges were rounded. On top of the table was an unlit candle and a vase of flowers. Tenzou jumped onto the table to inspect the flowers.

'They're so beautiful!' Tenzou stared at the flowers, their smooth petals were blue in the center but eventually faded out into white at the tips. He leaned forward to sniff them, his nose twitched at the scent. 'They smell so good,' Tenzou smiled, 'everything is perfect here.' He couldn't get over how fortunate he was to have been brought to this home. Tenzou jumped off the table and trotted into the kitchen. There, he could see tall wooden rectangles that rose from the floor, and when he slid his gaze upward, he could see a platform at the top of the rectangles. He craned his neck to see higher and was amazed to see even more of the mysterious wood jutting out from the walls. Turning around, Tenzou could see a large white box, it reached almost as high as the wooden rectangles that were attached to the walls. He could see that it was divided into two parts, the top part being smaller than the bottom. There were handles on the right edges of each section, Tenzou assumed that they opened up whenever Minato pulled on them. He looked over his shoulder at the rectangles, they had little knobs on them, like door knobs, 'Maybe they open when he twists them,' Tenzou thought, remembering when he watched the working people open the doors in the pet store. Tenzou turned back and looked at the thing next to the big white box, it was smaller than the box and had a large square in the middle that he could peer into, but the inside was too dark for Tenzou to see, he turned and looked up at the space between the wooden rectangles. It was too high for him to jump so he scampered over to the large wooden table that sat a little ways off from the kitchen. Jumping onto a chair and then onto the table, Tenzou gazed into the kitchen. The platform on top of the wooden rectangles was white with little black lines and dots, there were many things perched on it, food, decorations, and things the kit didn't recognize. But what took Tenzou's attention was the box-like hole in the platform, it was lined with silver and had a long stem that sprouted from the top of the hollow. Tenzou instantly recognized the silver stem and hollow box, it was a sink. He shivered, pelt twitching uncomfortably at the memory of being washed in the sink at the pet store. The scorching water seeping deep into his fur, burning his skin. And when he had tried to get out, the smooth silver walls towered over him like a prison. He was roughly handled and washed carelessly, soap getting into his eyes and burning the cut in his ear. Tenzou stared vacantly at the sink in his new home, 'Its smaller than the old one,' he tried to reason with his fears of being trapped in the silver cage, 'Minato would never hurt me like they did,' Tenzou found that thought comforting as he teared his gaze away from the kitchen and took a few calming breaths. 'This is my home now, I shouldn't be scared of it.'

Tenzou jumped off the table and landed next to the chairs. He looked at the wooden legs and forgot all about the sink as he studied the chair closest to him. It had grooves in it that created beautiful designs, the kit leaned closer to see the fine details of each dip and curve. Tenzou soon lost himself in the designs, watching how each stroke lead into another and how each valley created a hill in the dark wood. He found a long line in one of the legs and followed it's path upward, but was shocked when he saw a jagged scratch run into it and across the leg in a horrible crooked path. Tenzou looked closely and saw that there were more that ran parallel to the first one, his heart exploded in a flurry of anger and resentment. 'Kakashi!' Tenzou knew that only a cat could have made these, and that the cat had to have been short as well as insensitive. He lashed his tail and bared his teeth, this was the one thing that Tenzou enjoyed to see, the carving of wood into something beautiful and amazing. The kit didn't know why he was drawn to wood craving, whenever he looked at other things like marble designs or stone pictures, he didn't really feel anything other than the basic appreciation of amazing art. But wood was always something that Tenzou loved to admire, he assumed it was because of natural swirling pattern and earthy smell that came from it. He wasn't exactly sure why he liked it, but Tenzou knew that what Kakashi had done was on purpose. He could see how Minato would love to have these chairs because of their artistic beauty, but Tenzou could also see how Kakashi would have raked his claws across the wood in an act of anger or defiance towards Minato. He turned away from the ruined masterpiece and padded back into the cat room where he groomed his ruffled fur and drank some of the refreshing water.

'I can't really judge Kakashi by only using our first encounter,' Tenzou thought, ashamed that he had jumped to the conclusion that Kakashi was a heartless jerk. 'Then that means I have to get to know him better,' Tenzou brightened at the thought of being friends with Kakashi, but his thoughts instantly darkened. As if a roar of thunder had scared him still, Tenzou froze. He lowered his paw from where it had been smoothing down the fur his head, and stared blankly at his paws.

'I've never had a friend.'

The thought made a needle pierce his heart. Pain and fear crashed over his consciousness, the pain made his heart throb and the fear squeezed it until his heart was at the brink of exploding.

"I've never had a friend."

Tenzou felt his eyes burn as he said the thought out loud in a broken whisper. The truth behind the words made the first drops run down his cheeks, but the anger and despair he felt from allowing his weakness to take over kept the tears running. In that moment, Tenzou felt truly alone. With his mother dead, his father never seen or heard from, and sitting in a stranger's house, Tenzou felt the hole that had been growing inside his heart, ever since the death of his mother, double. He lowered his head and clenched his teeth, barely suppressing the wail that threatened to escape his body.

Tenzou sat there for what felt like an eternity, taking in choked inhales and releasing shaky exhales. He listened to the soft patter of his tears dropping onto the ground and slowly calmed himself. He eased the grip that his fears had on his thoughts and nursed the pain in his heart. After a while, Tenzou sat up straight and erased any traces of the salty droplets on his face. He took a deep breath and let it out, grateful that it had stayed smooth. Tenzou looked toward the stairwell, uncertain of what he should do. He had already explored the floor he was on, but wasn't keen on seeing Minato, or Kakashi, after his episode. Tenzou got up and walked around a little bit, after he was certain that the pain had subsided he decided to go upstairs to see Minato.

Tenzou gazed up at the large steps, he was sure it would take a long while to climb them and a sliver of doubt came to him. 'What if Minato gets angry? After all, he never said that I could go upstairs,'

'But he never said you couldn't go upstairs,' A small voice in the back of his mind purred. Tenzou padded confidently toward the steps, he knew that Minato wouldn't punish him for exploring more of the house.

Although he had a feeling that Minato wouldn't be glad with his appearance.

And as Tenzou pulled himself up into the first step, he felt his stomach drop like a stone...

'What if Kakashi's there?'

Please review and stay tuned for chapter 4!