Uri – The leash-trained Bengal.

xxxxx

Somehow or another, and despite the fact that Tsuna knew a lot of people found difficulty in just volunteering, Hayato had landed himself a job in the local Austin animal shelter. The group had been stopped in Austin to earn some money, and all of them had been surprised by Hayato's choice.

At the same time, they didn't really question it, and let things go as usual.

Tsuna was willing to let it go until Hayato practically pranced into their camp one day with a spitting cat in his arms. Mostly, he would have ignored it (everyone was bringing in strays at this point) but this cat was hurting Hayato.

"Haya, what are you doing?"

The silver-haired man looked up shocked, he was in the middle of trying to get –what looked like, but Tsuna couldn't be sure –a harness onto the squirming kitten. "I'm putting a leash on Uri." He explained matter-a-factly. "She can't stay if she can't walk on a leash. I would never make her travel in a crate."

And Tsuna agreed, it would be very cruel to make the cat stay in a cage. Roll was different, he could sleep in a small pocket. But a cat needed to be as free as the dogs did.

"No, not that…well I mean, I am a bit curious about the harness. But where did you get the cat?"

Here Hayato actually looked a bit bashful, but he had this cheeky grin on his face. "See, boss, someone recognized that I worked in the shelter in town."

"Okay?"

"And they asked if I would take this guy to the pound, since they were busy but didn't think it were fair to trap the cat."

"Okay…?"

Hayato looked even cheekier, completely unashamed of his next admittance. "So I decided to take her for myself."

And Tsuna deadpanned, because that was taking a lot of advantage of his position at the shelter, and also probably illegal. But Hayato looked so happy, and who was Tsuna to tell his friend no, everyone else had pets who weren't registered.

They were all strays, what was one more.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Uri made it incredibly clear as a kitten that she didn't appreciate having a leash on.

Hayato's face and hands took a lot of damage in the early years. While the silver-haired men was not soft and tried to put his foot down, he also didn't distress his cat.

If Uri had really had enough she had a comfy place on the lid of his pack.

She wore the harness regardless though.

Xxxxxxxxx

It was pretty obvious that Uri was intelligent, when Hayato scoped out a library for some information he was shocked to find out exactly how intelligent his Bengal was.

He was quick to remedy his training when he read more. He wasn't about to waste Uri's potential, after all, she was gorgeous and strong, and he was ready to prove to Mukuro that ferrets weren't the only creatures 'smarter than useless mutts'.

Xxxxxxxxx

Talking about smart, Uri caught on quickly that if she wore the damned harness she could run. She loved to run and sniff, and explore. She saw how the dogs trotted happily, running into the forest without concern.

She learnt her name, Uri. It fit.

She learnt that Hayato only wanted her safe, and healthy. He didn't hit her, or scream (too much) and all he asked was that she wore the thrice-damned harness (and it didn't hurt or anything) so that he could keep an eye on her.

She supposed that was the least she could do, after all, Hayato gave her pretty good food.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Uri liked to prance next to Natsu and Jirou the most. By this point most of the dogs and Uri didn't travel on leashes unless traffic was heavy, or they were in the city. Everyone trusted their animals to come back if they ran off.

It was amusing to watch the animals play. Because Uri just trotted across the dogs' backs when they were walking in line, and sometimes even let Mukuro's ferret ride on her back when she was feeling particularly happy.