"Asante sana!, Squash Banana!,We we nugu!,Mi mi apana!" Rafiki chanted from a tree branch and as he painted happily on his tree.

"Rafiki!" Kiara called as she entered his tree.

"Kiara!" Rafiki called in joy. He climbed down from his high up branch to her. "I am glad to see you are well enough to leave the den."

Kiara smiled. Rafiki may have been weird, but he was a very caring mandrill. "I know what to do about Kovu and my heir."

Rafiki sighed and looked back at his drawing of Kiara, red lines on the tummy and all. He faced her, "Kiara, we've been through this, the heir needs to be of royal blood."

"What if Kion becomes my heir?"

Rafiki looked at her, eyes widened in surprise. "K-Kion?"

"Yes. He's my brother so he's of royal blood." Kiara explained. "He'd be a great king too. Have you seen him guarding the Pride Lands? He's so nice and can solve conflicts peacefully."

"Hmm..." Rafiki rubbed his fingers against his chin, thinking. A gentle wind blew in the tree and wiped the red lines away from the drawing of Kiara. "Mufasa, what are you doing!?"

The paint stopped blowing in the wind, now making the shape of a cub between Kovu and Kiara's drawing.

Rafiki smiled lightly and touched the tree trunk, then turned to Kiara. "Mufasa approves. Did you speak to the others?"

"Not yet. I just thought of it a couple of minutes ago, and I thought I should tell you first."

Rafiki chuckled and approached her. "You are a wise girl, Kiara. Very wise. Now come along! We need to tell the others!"

...

"You see that cub Kion, anywhere?" Shenzi whispered to the others.

"I can't see, Ed's in my way!" Banzai complained, using his front paws to push the grinning hyena's head down. Unfortunately Ed's head popped back up, causing Shenzi and Banzai to land flat on their backs.

Ed laughed and Banzai growled. "Stop it Ed!"

Banzai lunged and forcefully tugged Ed's ear.

"Would you two knock it off?!" Shenzi snarled, stepping between them. "We have to make sure that dumb lion guard doesn't catch us!"

Banzai and Ed each put a paw above their eyes and scanned the area.

"Hey, there he is!" Banzai pointed a paw at the group of animals.

"Now, sneak around them." Shenzi whispered in a commanding tone. The three hyenas attempted to quietly sneak out the group.

Bunga's ear suddenly twitched up. "You guys hear that?"

Kion's ears perked up. "Yeah. Ono can you check what it is?"

Ono put a wing to her head like a salute and flew into the air to look around. When she caught sight of the hyenas she hurried back down. "It's the hyenas!"

Kion's eyes widened. They'd gotten rid of the hyenas many times, but it was always really difficult. The last time they had to be chased by the beasts to the water hole, where the animals who remembered them from Scar's reign, and their offspring had to scare them off.

Kion felt a pressure on his tail.

"Look what we got here, Shenzi." Banzai growled. "The royal cub."

Shenzi chuckled. "You mean the one who's unfit to be king?"

"Kion's not unfit to be king!" Bunga argued. "He'd be a great king! But, Kiara-"

"Kiara was born first." Shenzi finished, smugly. She leaned to Kion's eyes level and in a fake sweet tone said. "That didn't stop Scar..."

"I'm not like Scar!" Kion roared in anger. He'd always hated that so much. Kiara had confided in him that when Nala was pregnant with him, and even the day he was born, all the Pride Land animals were worried he was going to pull a Scar on her. Turns out his dad was even worried for a while. As time passed though the worry died down as they saw how close he was with his sister. The hyenas still liked to use this to make the cub upset.

"He'll never be like that tyrant!" Fuli snarled.

"Oh, no, no of course not. But, why don't we give him and end like Scar got?" Shenzi got on her hind legs and growled.

Suddenly a mighty roar was heard, causing the hyenas to whimper and run off.

"Daddy!" Kion sighed in relief.

"Are you alright?" Simba asked, checking his cub over. He'd relaxed his parenting since Kion was born, but there were times when it kicked back into overdrive, with his son being a protector and all.

"Yes, daddy." Kion said. "Thank you."

"I'll always be here for you Kion." Simba purred as he nuzzled the lion guard gently.

"Come on, we need you at Pride Rock, it's important."

Kion looked back to his team with worried eyes.

"Is something wrong, King Simba?" Fuli asked.

"No, everything is fine, we just have big news." Simba said. He smiled gently and added, "Why don't you four come along too?"

Shenzi, perched behind a bush was curious. She turned to the others and whispered, "You head back, I'll go see what this 'Good news' is."