These are really long, recently...I'll go back to shorter short stories :'D

Anyway, traveling in time again! Back to before the wedding, and Aokami Katsurou, the second eldest brother of Mariko's family, does a surprise visit! Haha, this one I sort of slacked on, but it got hard to finish... (me and my plots...eternal enemies XD). I am the Naruto to my Plot's Sasuke. Well, more like the Shikamaru to the Plot's Hidan, or something, because I'm so extremely lazy.

Thanksgiving Break, and I'm not doing my homework...till tomorrow. lol.

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, but chapter 610 was really amusing. Obito and Madara call each other childish. lol.

If I owned Naruto, the Juubi wouldn't be so ugly, and Rin would appear as an angel. Oh, and Hashi, Mito, Tobirama, and all these old Konoha characters would appear five times more than they do.

Chapter 5: Big Brothers and Baby Sisters

Aokami Katsurou was a tall guy. Tall, muscular, and…tall. He was the completely opposite of his youngest sister Mariko, a small girl who was dwarfed by the rest of her family. Sometimes Katsurou teased that he'd stolen all the height genes and left none for her (despite the fact that the one sister between them was of medium height, and their oldest brother wasn't that much shorter than Katsurou as well). On the other hand, it seemed like the Aokami's blue hair had plenty of genes to pass around, seeing as all four children inherited the same thick azure hair.

Katsurou shed his jacket; the Fire Country's climate was very pleasant, warm and inviting. It was a nice break from the Frost Country's chilly atmosphere. He folded his jacket over his arm, but kept his hat on. It was a thinner winter cap, the kind that had flaps over the ears and a yarn ball of fuzz at the top, strings hanging down the sides. It had been a gift from his wife, the daughter of the Frost's daimyo.

"Hello, sir, welcome to Konoha!" A cheerful shinobi waved from a check-in desk alongside the main gate of the village. "Please check in, here!"

"Sure thing." Katsurou quickly filled out a few visitor forms, and then set off into the village. The hidden villages may have been relatively new establishments, but Konoha looked as if it had been there forever. The buildings and the people seemed as if they had settled down for a while now, almost merged with the land and its distinctive Fire Country taste. Boisterous children ran through the streets, followed by stressed mothers, and street vendors yelled at the little ones when some of their products tumbled off the stands.

A few younger shinobi were seen among the adults, a few proudly wearing new chuunin flak jackets, while others had just the hitai-ate.

"I'm telling you, he summoned a monkey!" one of them yelled, waving his hands.

"Yeah right," another sneered, and the group giggled. Katsurou watched as a few of the genin began to argue, and chuckled to himself. Venturing further into the city, he found that as lunchtime approached, the streets became more and more crowded. Soon, he found himself weaving through heavy traffic, nearly bowled over by a donkey whose cart driver brashly tried pushing through the people.

"Get your ramen here, right here, best ramen in Konoha!"

"Fresh takoyaki, takoyaki here, best in the Fire Country!"

"Ramen, ramen! It's lunch time people, get some ramen!"

Restaurants began sending employees outside into the chaos to advertise, screaming their lungs out. The poor things.

"I told you, I don't want ramen!"

"Aw, c'mon! Just once, eat with the team!"

A group of three wiggled through the bustling crowd and into the ramen shop. Katsurou took a glance at the noodle house and decided to give Konoha's best ramen (supposedly) a try. He sat down on a stool, and was immediately waited on. After he chose a mild dish, he absently twirled a pair of chopsticks in his fingers, listening in on the children.

"Seriously, Kagami is so annoying," said the brown-haired kid. He rolled his eyes and swung his legs back and forth, spinning his stool.

"Hiruzen, that's because you're annoying too," the one girl replied. She shot a leg out to stop his incessant spinning, and he scowled.

"Hey, Koharu, at least I join in during team lunches!" Hiruzen returned. Meanwhile, the third boy, a dark-haired one with glasses constantly slipping down his nose, sat quietly behind the other two. He seemed perfectly content to stay in the background, out of the conversation.

Katsurou smiled. It was nice to see energetic young people. Konoha had a nice generation of young ninja.

"Well, I don't like ramen that much. I'm only coming this one time."

"You wouldn't come even if Tobirama-sensei was here?" Hiruzen pouted. Koharu blushed visibly and shoved him off the stool, before shooting the third boy a venomous glare, as if he'd done something wrong. The bespectacled boy shrank backwards, suddenly terrified.

"Why would Tobirama-sensei being here make me want to eat ramen more?" she snapped, crossing her arms.

"I dunno, maybe because he's cool like that? We do what sensei says, you know?" Hiruzen held his hands up defensively when he saw Koharu's hands come up, as if to punch him.

The girl visibly calmed down, composed herself, and turned away from Hiruzen with a dignified humph. They waited patiently for their ramen to come, oblivious to the eyes of other customers watching them either with annoyance, or amusedly.

Katsurou had been thinking; the name of their sensei seemed familiar, rang some bells in his head. Seeing as his only connection to Konoha was his sister, he assumed that this Tobirama was part of the family—the Senju clan—she married into. Well, was going to, anyway. The wedding was in about six months, as far as he knew.

"Hey, you three," he called. The trio whipped around, surprised at the stranger's call. "You know Tobirama?"

"Yeah, he's our teacher!" Hiruzen said proudly, grinning at the man. He studied the stranger for a moment, not recognizing him. Judging from his clothing, it seemed he wasn't from Konoha either. "Are you a tourist?"

"Yeah, first time in Konoha," Katsurou explained.

"Tobirama-sensei is the Hokage's brother," said the third boy, the quiet one. Katsurou watched him frantically try to clear his glasses of steam when his ramen was placed in front of him. Besides that, he was now sure that Tobirama was a Senju. The Hokage's brother? That meant Tobirama was his future brother-in-law. How fun.

"Homura, I think everyone knows that." Hiruzen rolled his eyes, and Katsurou sighed inwardly. Everyone besides Katsurou, apparently. He didn't pay attention to the little details when he heard that his baby sister was getting married. It was too fast for him—it meant he was getting old. Being six years older than Mariko, he felt like he was entitled to some protectiveness. Actually, any brother should feel protective of their sister, right? Well, at least that was Katsurou's idea. With his other younger sister, Sumiko, he'd felt less capable of actually protecting. If given the chance, Sumiko would whoop his ass easily.

"Well, it's always nice to know," Katsurou noted, nodding. Hiruzen then began an elaborate description of how they were the best team of genin, and how Tobirama was so proud of them, and how they were going to take the new chuunin exams soon, and how lucky the current chuunin were that they had just been promoted without exams, yadda, yadda, this and that.

"Hey, that's real interesting," Katsurou told him, smiling as he finished up his ramen. The ramen was, in fact, very delicious. The Aokami left a decent tip with his payment.

"We're going to go training this afternoon. If you find your way to the training grounds, you can see real shinobi in action!" Hiruzen assumed that the stranger was just a regular human being who would enjoy watching the epic battles of ninja.

"Sounds great," Katsurou said. "Nice meeting you three. I'm Katsurou, by the way."

"Nice to meet you too, Katsurou-san!" Hiruzen shook his hand, flashing his mischievous grin again. "Where are you from?"

"I'm from the Frost Country."

"Is it cold there?"

"Very." Katsurou tipped his head, then walked outside.

A few hours later, the blue-haired man was sauntering along the sidewalk that ran beside the training grounds. Konoha really was a nice place, grassy and green, unlike the frozen tundra of Frost. Well, not all parts of Frost were that cold, but plenty of it consisted of icy fields. One hour outside the capital, and wham! Glaciers!

A tall, white-haired man, presumably Tobirama, was coaching the team of genin. Katsurou recognized the bun on Koharu's head and Homura's dark-hair and his sulking position. He leaned on the fence and watched the team scatter into different positions, drawing their weapons and facing off against their teacher.

Tobirama had noticed the man long before he'd even come into sight, but so far, he seemed harmless. Occasionally, people came to watch shinobi practice and train, but Tobirama always kept an eye on them. He still remembered that one time when a crazy guy hopped the fence and tried to kill Toka, for what reason, they had no idea. From then on, they had been wary of random foreigners traveling alone.

In the meantime, the Senju dodged a few kunai that Homura sent his way. He countered Koharu's low-level earth-shaking jutsu with a geyser that split open the ground and soaked all three of them. Tobirama leapt out of the way, watching as his students scrambled for the trees.

All of a sudden, a movement caught the corner of his eye. It wasn't from the man wearing that hat at the fence; in the opposite direction, a head of blue hair came bobbing his way.

"Quick, he's distracted!" snapped Koharu. Homura and Hiruzen body-slammed into their sensei, knocking him off his feet. The astonished look on Tobirama's face made Hiruzen snort with laughter, watching his teacher tumble a few yards before deftly rolling to his feet.

"Tobirama!" the blue-headed bobbing figure called. Mariko stopped in front of them, panting slightly from her run. She waved a document in his face. "Read it."

"Mariko, you're distracting our lesson," Tobirama said.

"I know, I just saw you wipe out." Mariko grinned, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I certainly didn't distract Hiruzen and co."

"We're on top of our game," Hiruzen blurted proudly, grinning widely. Tobirama glowered, taking the scroll with a defiance just short of snatching it, and pulled it open. As he skimmed over it, Mariko asked how the team was doing. By then, Koharu had joined them, and they were giggling at Tobirama's muddy outfit.

"We're doing great. We one-upped Tobirama-sensei," continued Hiruzen. Koharu, for once, agreed, and Homura nodded. They then realized that the man in the hat had slid over the fence and was casually making his way towards them. Immediately, all three…well, Koharu and Homura, were on the defensive, fingers sliding towards their weapons pouches. His approach was a sign that he might be after Mariko, who had just appeared.

Hiruzen was still carefree, and lit up with recognition.

"He came after all! We met him at the ramen shop," he explained to Mariko. "I forgot his name, though…"

"What's he doing?" Tobirama had let the scroll roll itself shut, handing it back to Mariko who tied it with a string.

"I don't know, but we're watching him." Homura already had a kunai in each hand, poised readily. There was still quite some distance, but he was steadily making his way towards the small group, but he didn't seem to notice or care that all of them were staring at him.

"Pretend like you don't notice him, let's see what he wants," Koharu suggested. She pretended to battle Hiruzen, who lightly blocked her strikes. Homura pushed his glasses up his nose and assisted Koharu against Hiruzen, who complained about unfair sides. Tobirama kept his eye on the man.

Katsurou was astonished to see his little sister jogging out to the field, long hair flying behind her wildly, like a horse's long tail in the wind. He decided now was a good time to visit, seeing as the next chance to see her was during the chaos that was an Aokami's wedding. Sliding over the fence, he pulled his jacket on and sauntered towards the group.

What sort of surprise would really surprise her? He watched the sparring students, and a thought popped into his head. What if I attacked her?

Katsurou understood that this was the most idiotic idea ever, seeing as they might think he was a threat and try to take him down, but he supposed he could hold his own until he was recognized and his baby sister screamed something like "Katsurou, you stupid!", hopefully.

He pulled a kunai from his pocket.

"Heads up," Koharu warned, seeing the glint of a weapon in the man's hand.

"Aw man, and I thought he was pretty cool!" Hiruzen whined, before pressing his hands together in the tiger seal. He immediately blew a fireball at Katsurou, who dodged it and continued towards them at his leisurely pace. "I thought he wasn't a shinobi, too."

"You can never tell," Homura sighed, throwing a few shuriken. They clanged off the man's kunai, useless.

"He's not stupid, guys," Tobirama emphasized. "Suiton: Suishouha."

A hurricane of water swirled around them and rushed at Katsurou, who paused for a moment, staring at the typhoon that rose above them. This was the jutsu Hiruzen called the Mighty Toilet Bowl, despite Tobirama's exasperated face and Koharu's objections.

Katsurou formed four seals: Bird, Dog, Dragon, Horse.

"Hyoton: Kori Kuroru!" He let the wave crash into him, but his jutsu quickly froze it until Tobirama broke off his end and leapt out of the freezing vortex.

"Ice style?" he muttered to himself, backing up. The man had a kekkei genkai, putting his team at a disadvantage. He glanced at Hiruzen, who had formed a few seals and was blasting fire at the mass of ice now. "Keep that up, Saru. Koharu, go left, Homura, go up the ice."

Tobirama sprinted to the right, behind the melting ice. Homura had some difficulty, seeing as he had to dodge Hiruzen's badly aimed fireballs and climb up the slippery ice, but he made it over the peak and started towards Katsurou. Koharu threw a few of her senbon needles, but again, Katsurou's kunai deflected them, despite the thin senbon being nearly invisible.

"He's good," Koharu said under her breath.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" A huge wave cascaded down on Katsurou in one hit, Tobirama following the water to close in on him. Suddenly, the water froze again, and Katsurou leapt out, countering Tobirama's kicks. Up close, the Senju saw that the stranger was very tall, and very muscular. He was nearly thrown aside when he let his guard slip. Katsurou was no slouch, and punched down hard. The entire sea of ice shattered under his fist as he missed Tobirama, who distanced himself cautiously.

"Hyoton: Kori no Mai." Katsurou began weaving seals, but the team was intent on stopping him. However, he finished, and huge spikes of ice began sprouting from the ground. The genin yelped and fled backwards, behind the now diminished wall of ice. Katsurou froze a gauntlet of ice around his left wrist, then shaped a bow attached to it, pulling a few ice arrows out of thin air. The arctic crossbow glinted chillingly in the afternoon sunlight.

Mariko recognized all of the jutsu immediately, but couldn't interfere as Tobirama forcefully put her behind them, and the team leapt into formation. When the cloaked man drew his ice bow, she was sure: It was Katsurou's "Ice Arrow".

Though not as adept at using Ice Release, or high-level jutsu in general, Mariko gave it a try. Katsurou aimed straight at her and let his first arrow fly. There was a shout from Hiruzen's side, and Tobirama's eyes went wide as the surprisingly light structure shot past him.

"Hyoton: Hyoryuu no Shippo!" Ice Dragon's Tail. The so-called tail was really a sword, and Mariko swung the blade at the arrow, successfully shattering it. She took off straight ahead, reaching Katsurou and swinging defiantly at him. She wasn't very effective, but she snagged the end of his yarn hat and it fell off.

"Gotcha!" Hiruzen appeared from above, weaving his seals for a fire jutsu again. When the hat came off and revealed a head of sapphire hair, he faltered, and Katsurou ducked out of the way.

"Hyoton—"

"Katsurou, you idiot!"

With his gaze focused on Hiruzen, he'd missed Mariko's quick maneuver to his side, and she kneed him in the stomach.

"Geez, Mariko!" he exclaimed, doubling over. Team Tobirama stared at them.

"Mariko?" Tobirama asked hesitantly. "You know him?"

"Do I know him? Do I know him?" Mariko put her hands on her hips. "Of course I know him! He's my brother!"

Team Tobirama stared. Each of them looked from Katsurou's bright blue hair, to Mariko's matching tresses, and back. Even their hairstyles were similar, and their eyes were exactly the same color.

"Hello there. I decided on an interesting entry," Katsurou said, laughing lightly. He waved at Tobirama, standing up. He secretly delighted at the fact that he could look down on his baby sister's fiancé. Tobirama was not a small man, which made Katsurou very, very tall. "So you're by precious baby sister's fiancé? Nice to meet you, future brother-in-law. Hopefully." He grinned brutally.

Hiruzen gaped, and then sniggered.

"Nice to meet you. I assume you're…Katsurou, then?" Tobirama shook hands with the Aokami.

"And you must be Tobirama. Nice to meet you as well." Katsurou cleared his throat, and smiled again. "If you hurt my little sister or break her heart, I will make you wish you were never born, Mr. Tobirama."

"I understand," Tobirama said flatly. Hiruzen continued staring, and now Homura and Koharu were crowding around him.

"And if you taint my baby sister's purity, I will also put you in a world of hurt," Katsurou added.

At the word "purity", Hiruzen stifled an extremely loud snort of laughter. Katsurou turned slightly to look at him, while his teammates winced. If Hiruzen had been about to say "what purity?", the world would never know, because his two teammates clamped their hands over his mouth urgently.

Katsurou turned back to Tobirama, who subtly glanced at Mariko. He looked stoic, but Mariko knew better; he was secretly frantic on the inside and was freaking out, looking to her for help. He didn't show it though, of course.

Mariko ambled up to them and wrapped her arms around Tobirama, smiling up at her tall older brother.

"It's okay, Bakakatsurou, Tobirama's a good guy," she reassured him. Katsurou sighed at his old nickname.

"As long as he makes you happy," he replied to his sister, patting her on the head. Hiruzen tried not to snort again, because the action looked ridiculously similar to what Tobirama often did to Mariko. It was often that they saw their sensei ruffling his fiancée's hair lovingly.

"He does," Mariko answered happily. Katsurou glanced at Tobirama.

"I'll see you at the wedding."

If you last that long.

The jutsus that aren't Tobirama's (all the Ice Release) are my own random creations.

I just strung words together...or based them off Gray Fullbuster's moves. Like the sword. *nod nod*

Though if I called things "Cold Excalibur no Jutsu!" that would just sound weird.

Happy Thanksgiving, eat some turkey~