Oooh chapter two! (Secret Sharing Session...try saying that three times fast. =_=)

And it's election day! I'm getting distracted from watching the TV's updates and typing this up...when I really should be doing homework. (shhh)

Enjoy my rather arbitrary fountain of ideas...

Disclaimer: Naruto and its characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto - if it was mine, Konohamaru would be Gangnam Styling through the streets of Konoha.

Chapter 2: Secret Sharing Session

"And it was, like, this big!" Hiruzen measured out his description of the team's adventures to Mariko by spreading his arms wide, eyes and mouth wide open in a comical gape.

"That's impressive," Mariko noted, nodding seriously as the boy continued to describe how he had proceeded to cut down enemy forces with a vigorous new Katon jutsu he'd recently mastered. During all this, Homura rolled his eyes and Koharu scoffed, muttering under her breath about how it had gone nothing like that, and that Hiruzen's imagination ran too wild.

"And then Tobirama-sensei got stuck in a pinch, so I saved him!" Hiruzen planted his hands on his hips and grinned, nodding to himself.

"That's nothing near what happened!" snapped Koharu, frowning at her teammate. She was okay with Hiruzen letting his mouth run just a little, but Tobirama-sensei was a different subject all together. No one, besides Homura, knew that she still harbored a secret crush on their sensei. The one day poor Homura had discovered her little infatuation for their instructor, he had a near-death experience by the hands of Koharu, and from then on, wisely kept his mouth shut because he valued his life.

Hiruzen pouted, feigning hurt.

"Besides, Tobirama-sensei never needs saving." Koharu, satisfied with this, smirked condescendingly at her teammate. He may have been a strong, young shinobi, but Hiruzen was still the annoying brat she remembered. Koharu held the power in this team, and it was something she was proud of.

"I thought it would be interesting," Hiruzen retorted, his ego a little dulled by Koharu's lavish upon their sensei. "Besides, why are you always so focused on sensei?"

A sour, twanging chord had been hit, and Homura cringed inwardly at the barely noticeable flush that sprinkled Koharu's fair cheeks. She sputtered for a few seconds before resorting to a glare that would've melted a human, had it been someone besides Hiruzen.

Mariko had been following the conversation loosely, and when Koharu paused after Hiruzen's light, seemingly harmless question, the teeny blush on Koharu did not escape her attention. Smiling inwardly, she continued to watch the three, suddenly having an idea as to why Koharu mysteriously stared at her (or even seethed sometimes) when Tobirama brought her to their training sessions or held her hand (and especially when he felt daring enough to risk a modest kiss in front of the students).

"You shouldn't make fun of powerful ninja," Homura reasoned, hoping to come to Koharu's rescue. Mariko smiled at this; she had known for a time that Homura had a thing for his teammate, and was always trying to get on her good side. Homura, at the moment, just hoped that this would ward away any possible life-threatening situations again, despite still adoring the girl. (He would later develop an interest in the hotheaded redhead from Suna, a girl by the name of Chiyo who wore deadly toxins on her lips and spat out words twice as poisonous.)

"I'm not making fun of sensei," replied Hiruzen, casually pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table across from Mariko. There was a pause, and then the sound of an anguished stomach growling rumbled through the room. Koharu's irritation went up a few levels, but she was hungry as well, so she and Homura settled down at the table as well. It was around lunch time, then, and Mito had been preparing the meal.

"Well, it's not like sensei has no faults at all," Hiruzen pointed out. He arched a brow and winked at Mariko. "Mariko-san would know, right?"

Koharu was ready to let her tongue fly and defend Tobirama, but realized that she really had nothing good to get back at him with, so she bit her lip and waited to see what Mariko would say. It wasn't as if she was curious, or anything, she thought to herself.

"I know too much," Mariko told them, wrinkling her nose into a cute grin.

"Like?" prompted Hiruzen, leaning forward with interest. Mariko paused to consider for a few moments, wondering what she should share. On the spot, it was rather hard for her to think up anything particularly interesting.

"Well, he's very obsessive when he bakes, and will not hesitate to maim you with a spoon should you jeopardize his banana bread," she said.

"Spoon?" Homura piped up, a little incredulous. The mental image of his sensei cooking was already very strange, but Senju Tobirama wielding a spoon?

"Yes. He threw it, and it went straight through the wall." Mariko nodded gravely. Koharu vaguely wondered if she was just making it up, or if Tobirama could really do such a thing. It was ridiculous and actually rather impressive all at once.

"This is great," Hiruzen exclaimed, a tad too brightly. "This should be a secret-sharing circle! Like those things girls do at slumber parties…"

"I heard secrets and sharing, fill me in." Mito arrived at the table, sliding plates and utensils in front of them. They each took a good amount of the noodles that Mito had painstakingly made, along with the aromatic soup she'd brewed just for them (it was also Koharu's favorite, she remembered).

"We're sharing secrets," Hiruzen said, before slurping up some of his meal and earning an angry glare from Koharu again, accompanied by a slight tsk of her tongue. "Do you have any secrets, Mito-san? Of other people, I mean."

"So we're just gossiping?"

"Yes."

Mito smiled and appeared thoughtful for a moment.

"Here's one. Hashirama is extremely ticklish…on his feet." The Uzumaki smiled fondly at the thought, rather amused by her husband and his secrets. Hiruzen guffawed at this, and Homura choked on his noodles. Both earned a toe-stomping from Koharu, who put on an annoyed expression, though really, she was laughing her head off on the inside. The Hokage, ticklish?

Hiruzen mentioned something about Kagami and a fear of spiders, which sent his teammates into fits of hysterical laughter, Koharu especially. Homura told them that he once caught Danzo talking to a kitten outside the Senju complex and petting its head fondly, calling it "Meow-chan" as he scratched its ears.

"His name is Tenzou," Mariko brought up. "He looks like Hashi."

"He does?" Mito gave her sister-in-law a curious glance. "Hm. I guess he does, in a way. I can see it."

"Actually, I saw—" Koharu started.

"Hey," Hiruzen interrupted. "Do you have anything else on Tobirama-sensei?"

Had he asked a different question, Koharu would've taken any utensils present on the table and threatened him dearly, but Tobirama's name caught her interest, and now she paused to listen.

"Tobirama? Hmm." Mariko thought for a few seconds. "There was this one time I caught him looking through my stuff, and—"

"And what?" A deep, familiar voice from behind Mariko surprised them all (besides Mito, who had seen the white-haired Senju slip silently into the room).

Mariko squeaked—the boys found it quite endearing, a very cute noise—and her hands flew to her head, but was unable to keep her fiancé from ruffling her blue hair fondly. Tobirama leaned down and gave her a light peck on the forehead before turning to the rest of the people.

"Were you guys talking about me?" Now that Mariko was effectively silenced, and blushing rather fiercely as he rubbed her shoulders, Tobirama turned to his team. He didn't bother with Mito, knowing that the stubborn redhead would never open her mouth if she didn't want to. Hashirama already had a hard time with her, so he just stayed out of the way; he usually failed, though.

"No." Koharu spoke too soon, the single word coming out rushed and harsh. Tobirama arched an eyebrow at her. While the light pink on her face was hardly detectable, the two who knew what they were looking for saw it right away. Mariko's own blush lessened upon seeing Koharu wriggle a bit under Tobirama's gaze, and Homura just sighed inwardly. As he habitually pushed his glasses up his nose, he caught Mariko winking at him, and he knew that she knew that he knew that Koharu liked Tobirama. An untold secret shared during secret-sharing-session.

"Are you sure, Koharu? I could've sworn I heard this one—" Tobirama playfully pinched Mariko's cheek, "—trying to sell me out."

Mariko swatted his hands away. Hiruzen inexplicably wiggled his eyebrows at his mentor, to which Tobirama just rolled his eyes. Mito had once said something about how if he rolled his eyes too much, he would eventually roll them up to the side and they would get stuck there. Tobirama rolled his eyes at that.

"W-well…" Koharu stuttered, diverting her gaze shyly. For Tobirama, who was rather clueless, he pursued his question and thought the usually bold Koharu's hesitancy quite odd.

"I-It's not like I, uh, well," she continued stammering.

"Koharu, Kagami's cat got your tongue?" Hiruzen teased, flashing a toothy grin.

"Shut up, Hiruzen! You're getting on my nerves!" she snapped fiercely.

"And Kagami has been chased out, folks," Hiruzen concluded.

"Hey guys." Tobirama snapped his fingers impatiently. "I'm still curious to know what you were going to say about me."

"Well, it definitely was not about that one time the cat in the yard jumped on your armor because he thought the fur collar was a squirrel," Hiruzen stated nonchalantly. Mariko made a strangled noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

"That's not funny."

"At least I didn't tell them the one time you tried to bounce me off the bed, but instead bounced yourself off." Mariko smiled innocently. Oh, good times. He had had the most comical expression at that time…

"That's not funny either." Tobirama stared at her icily.

"Of course it's not," Mito jumped in. "It's only funny if you include at Uchiha. Like that one time Madara chopped down a tree and presented it to Hashirama as a representation of peace during New Year's."

"More like a declaration of war," replied Tobirama.

"At least you didn't see Kagami in a dress."

They all stared at Homura.

"What?"

Mariko was originally about to share the one time Mito mixed hair dye into his shampoo as revenge for spilling orange juice on her earlier that day, and he woke up with pink hair that she just couldn't bear to admit looked cute on him.

And Homura, why did you say that? This is why Kagami tried to kill you, and made you a grumpy old counselor that could only squint at Uchiha all the time.