Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto Shippuuden. I do not know what Sakura's parents' names are. The names I used in this chapter are purely out of my imagination. And… I do not know for a fact if Sai really hates beans. XD

Tsunade allowed herself to wave at a smiling Naruto, who vanished outside her office window, lugging a bouquet of bright-yellow tulips. When the blonde was gone, she then let herself to stare bleakly at the ten folders spread out in front of her. Shizune was standing a few feet away from her, quite unsure why the Hokage had suddenly wanted these files out of the blue.

The golden-haired woman flipped through one of the folders labeled 'Sasuke Uchiha', slipped it into her desk drawer thoughtlessly and stared at the remaining nine.

"So," Tsunade asked as she flourished her hands at the folders in front of her. "What do you think?"

Shizune was lost. "I don't think I get the question, my Lady."

Tsunade tapped a sharp red nail on the desk. "Here are the files of one of the most promising batches ever to rise in the Leaf since the Second Shinobi Wars. Though in the generation during and after that, there were… geniuses … that stood out – Minato Namikaze, Jiraiya, Orochimaru," (She was too modest to say her name out loud) " – the fame was never shared equally, the talent never balanced each other out as much as this batch. And if not the talent, at the very least their personalities stand out." She plucked three folders from the stack, 'Kiba Inuzuka', 'Hinata Hyuuga', 'Shino Aburame', examined them with narrowed eyes. "Within the course of five years, from the moment they graduated from the Academy, with the exception of Neji Hyuuga, we've produced a jounin, seven chuunin and…" she threw the three folders she had picked up earlier, then grabbed the folder with 'Naruto Uzumaki' in bold letters printed on it. "… the village idiot."

Shizune felt her forehead bead with sweat. "Well, Naruto has improved a lot…"

"I'm not saying he didn't. But he is still a genin. Which is just sad. Too sad."

"Is this talk all about Naruto Uzumaki, then?"

Tsunade opened her mouth as if to say something, closed it, dropped the folder back on her desk. "No. I'm sorry, Shizune. Can you go get me some tea?"

Shizune stared at her Master suspiciously. "Are you sure?"

Tsunade closed her eyes, slammed her forehead on her desk fiercely. "Rice wine. Warm rice wine."

Shizune was gone and back in a span of three minutes, as if she knew the degree of need her Master was of alcohol.

Tsunade took a small swig of the nice and warm sake as she picked up Shikamaru's folder. "As the Hokage, like my forefathers, I dream of seeing the future of the Leaf. Shikamaru Nara was a surprise. I wasn't expecting him to get married until he was on in deathbed."

Shizune started to arrange the folders into one neat pile. "My Lady. You're tired. Why not have lunch with me at the nearest Izakaya, and maybe – "

"One of these days, Shizune, you and I, Kakashi, Gai, we're going to grow older, and this village will have to be entrusted to these people." She gave the neatly piled folders a jab. "God, Shizune! We're going to hand down the village to Power-training little misfits who only care of becoming stronger and stronger!" Tsunade plucked a very abused-looking piece of paper from the stack of very abused-looking papers on the floor. "The village's birth rate had dropped a whopping thirty-three percent because women and men alike want to become shinobi who do nothing but train!"

Shizune slightly backed away from Tsunade, raising an arm in front of her face to protect herself. "But my Lady… it's for the village's own good to have strong ninja to do missions and safeguard our defense against – "

Tsunade raised a hand to silence her. "At the rate we're going, when this batch reaches their forties, there wouldn't be new shinobi to teach because aside from their own level of fighting, no one is concerned if they have children in the near future or not."

Shizune blinked several times. "Wh – what would you have them do? Make babies?"

Tsunade stared at her with dilated pupils. She took a few deep breaths, leaned back on her chair, and sipped her sake. "If I had my way, you know I'd make them."

"That's just… disturbing… My Lady…"

Tsunade stared at Shizune pointedly, and after a while asked, "How come you never got married, Shizune? You're pretty. Very talented. Your hips look like they're good enough for child birth…"

Shizune, face paling as if the Hokage had said something lewd to her, shook her head. "I was dedicated to my profession… I had wanted to be your apprentice, and be good at my job… Why are you asking me all this, Lady Tsunade? It's making me uncomfortable…"

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at her protégé. "I see the pattern in this. Me, you, Sakura… I hope that kid doesn't end up dying a spinster like me… Or you."

Shizune didn't know how to take that last comment, so she decided to leave.

The second day of their stay in the bath house started as uneventful as breakfast brought to their rooms at around seven in the morning. Sakura had pretty much slept through the preparations like a rock. She had drifted in and out of sleep, and fluttering her eyes open once in a while revealed that Sai had not left her side the whole night. She would see him sometimes sitting up against the wall, staring at his hands, sometimes sitting at the open sliding rice paper doors that overlooked the dark rock garden. In some occasions, she saw him poised as if to draw something on an open canvas, but his hands were not moving, and on his face was a deadpanned expression that would have come natural to him, had he not been frowning uncharacteristically. When the maids had finished bringing in their breakfast on two low tables, Sai had merely dismissed them, and he did not move to touch the food. Sakura had willed herself to get up then, but her head seemed too full, and her body too heavy that all she could do was grunt, roll over and hurry back to dreamland, only to wake up again a few moments later to find Sai brushing a lock of hair from her forehead. She blinked groggily and when she opened her eyes, the dark-haired boy was gone.

The sudden absence of her companion made her sit up gingerly, and she squinted in the sunlight that was pouring in from the window just at the right angle to hit her directly in her emerald eyes. She instantly looked over her shoulder and found her reflection looking back at her from the mirror on the low dresser to her left.

She blinked.

On her right shoulder, just between the slope of her neck and her armpit, was a beautiful painting of a butterfly in hues of reds and oranges, the lower parts of its wings trailed down to her arm, swirling elegantly in wispy fine strokes. She could not help but admire the work of art a few minutes longer than necessary before she covered her shoulder up with her yukata and once again searched the room for the former ROOT member. If Sai had decided to make a canvas out of her, she could not remember giving him permission.

It turned out that Sai had decided to take a bath in the springs again, proven a minute later when he came back in the room in a fresh bathrobe, rubbing a white towel on his dripping wet hair.

"Breakfast is ready," he announced blandly when he saw she was awake.

"It's illegal to be this energetic this early in the morning unless one has a mission," Sakura retorted grouchily, holding her head as it began to throb when she tried to get up.

"I asked the maids to bring in hot coffee instead of tea. For your hang-over."

"Hang-over…?"

"For such a talented kunoichi, it's a wonder how you weren't able to distinguish alcohol disguised as chocolate treats. You ate the Fire Whiskey Chocolates like a greedy little hamster eating nuts."

The statement made Sakura pull a face at him and wondered why he kept on comparing her to furry animals. Finally convincing herself that trying to understand Sai's way of thinking at this early hour was impossible, she crawled over to one of the low tables sitting neatly adjacent to the other, and sat on the mattress strategically placed next to it. Sai folded the towel he was using to dry his hair, gently placing it on a low chair near the dresser, and sat on the other mattress across Sakura.

Although the food laid in front of her would normally make her smile in appreciation – a warm bowl of rice, miso soup and grilled salmon, steamed vegetables and the cup of coffee Sai was talking about earlier – Sakura could only sigh as she snapped her chopsticks apart and started sipping her soup while casting sideway glances at the futon that looked so appealing to slip back into. She was pulled back to her meal when she saw several beans roll on the plate that held her salmon. She looked up and saw Sai in the middle of dropping more beans into her plate.

Sai gave her an unemotional glance, shrugged indifferently and started eating what was left of his steamed vegetables. When Sakura would not stop looking at him, he asked, "What?"

Sakura jabbed the beans crowding her salmon. "You don't like steamed beans?"

Sai stared at said things. "I prefer not to eat them."

"Are you allergic?"

"I don't like the aftertaste."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him warily. She hadn't really heard that beans left an aftertaste in your mouth, but she ate the beans for him anyway. After that, they fell into wordless agreement on eating in silence.

Sakura could not remember what had happened last night after Sai had tried to experiment on her what he had learned from Master Jiraiya's Icha-Icha Tactics. The memory made her face heat up, and she stole a glance at the boy in front of her. He had finished his bowl of rice and was now intent on sipping his coffee contentedly, his straight bangs slightly falling into those flat, glassy eyes. When those eyes saw her watching him, she instantly looked away. And that was probably the last time that morning she and Sai had a conversation. Sakura had begrudgingly jumped back into her futon, and Sai had planted himself in the far wall looking at his feet for some reason. The last she saw of him before she nodded off was him wiggling his toes curiously.

She woke up at around noon, her head feeling a bit better but her body feeling no lighter than it was that morning. Getting up for a toilet break, she discovered lunch had already been served, and Sai seemed to have eaten already without waiting for her to wake up. Much to her annoyance, steamed beans were piled unceremoniously on her rice bowl. She ate them without complaining and shouted out loudly to no one in particular that not eating their vegetables is not good.

When no one responded, it was then did she finally realize that Sai was not in the premises. After finishing her lunch, she was tempted to set out searching for him when she felt something move slightly from inside the sleeve of her yukata. Being slightly ticklish, she gasped as the red and orange butterfly tattoo fluttered in front of her face, perched slightly on her nose, then darted out of the sliding doors leading to the rock garden.

If this was one of Sai's ideas of a prank, she hoped for his sake that he hid well enough or she will drown him in the springs later. Slightly in a bad mood, she put on a new yukata, grabbed the happi bearing the Tsuruga crest hanging on the coat stand, and put it on. The butterfly was nowhere to be seen, and so she figured it would be better if she searched for Sai herself.

"Excuse me," Sakura said as she made her way to the front desk, where the woman who welcomed them yesterday was sitting on a low chair with a newspaper opened in front of her behind the counter.

The woman looked up, smiled. "Good day to you, Ma'am. Is there anything I can do for you?"

Sakura nodded. "I'm looking for the guy I came with. He's about this tall – " she raised her hand about a head over hers. "Short black hair, very pale, pretty much nothing going on in his eyes… "

"You mean your husband, yes?" the woman asked skeptically.

Sakura paused, remembered that they came here as a married couple, giggled and waved a hand in front of her face, feeling hot. "Yes, yes! My husband! Did he happen to step out of the Bath House?"

"Actually, yes, Mrs. Nara. He left the bath house about half an hour ago, saying he was going to walk around town."

Sakura gaped at her. "Without shoes on?"

The woman gestured at the shelf by the entrance. "We have geta slippers available for stay-in guests. Feel free to use them."

"Great. Thanks."

"Oh, and Mrs. Nara?"

"Huh."

"We're going to prepare dinner at around six in the evening. Will you and your husband be back by then?"

Sakura paused. "If I find him soon enough, yes." She slipped on her geta, and dashed out of the bath house hoping Sai did not insult anyone while she was not watching.

Apparently she was worried over nothing. He found him in front of a souvenir shop.

A girl on either side of him.

Sakura backed away behind a tree. She did not hear what the girls were saying to Sai, and Sai as always was not giving anything off with his body language, but she felt something tug at her gut most uncomfortably. Though she had already come into terms with Sai – like Sasuke – was good-looking, it was the first time she had seen Sai actually been approached by another girl. Well, back in the Leaf, she supposed she had seen it once or twice, or maybe more, girls' heads turn twice when Sai would walk down the market to get his art supplies. And hadn't the Ink Shop Owner's daughter been quite happy ever since Sai started coming back as a regular customer?

These were things that Sakura had partially known since Sai had been her teammate, but it had never really bothered her before.

She frowned. Who said anything about being bothered by this now?

The girl to Sai's left touched his forearm, and whispered something in his ear.

The orange and red butterfly Sai had painted on her shoulder fluttered by her cheek.

Sakura crushed the butterfly against the tree trunk, and it vanished in a splatter of red ink. After that, she stalked back to the bath house, telling to herself today did not bother her at all.

Women were probably created in this world for one reason, and that was to humble men from their high pedestals of power defined by the shinobi world into the lowly task of buying things to please them.

Sai was looking for shoes, and he had no idea how to start this duty people defined as shopping. And the two girls who had somehow attached themselves to him when he stayed lingering in front of a shop window were not helping. Of course getting rid of them was a cinch.

"What are you looking for?"

"Shoes."

"Aww, that's so sweet. Who are they for?"

"My wife."

They vanished almost as fast as they came.

When he was finally alone, the task did not take as long as he thought it would. He had decided on getting Sakura some comfortable-looking flat sandals, and while he was at it, got himself a pair, too. It didn't look like Sakura appreciated stepping out of the village without footwear.

And personally, Sai did not want her to bruise her tiny feet.

Sandals stuffed in a paper bag safely tucked under one arm, he made his way back to the bath house, almost got into a fight with ferry-guy Fred, and was slightly giddy to see Sakura, who did nothing but sleep half of their second day. He, however, found their room empty. Housekeeping had done its job, the remnants of lunch gone, the futon tucked away in the closet, new towels and new yukatas placed neatly on the dresser.

In the neatness, Sakura was nowhere to be found.

He decided to set off looking for her within the bath house. He spent several minutes owlishly peeking his way through the halls, the coffee shop, the gift shop and the ramen shop until he finally stumbled upon her in the Izakaya. No one could miss that bright shade of pink sitting on the bar counter, her back to the entrance.

Sitting next to Sakura was what looked like a very tipsy guy who was practically undressing her with his eyes.

Sai frowned. Some weird beast of an emotion started to lurch in his chest. It felt like an itch on his back that he couldn't quite reach, and then it started to hurt a bit after a while. He instantly classified this feeling as a bad feeling. In the span of almost a week of trying to master his emotions, he had deducted that bad feelings were not healthy and should be rid of as soon as possible.

So he slowly made his way to the counter just in time to hear the guy say, "So are you alone tonight, my chickadee? What's your name?"

What the heck is a chickadee?

Sakura sized up the man with one emerald-green eye. He was obviously not a ninja. Probably a traveling merchant looking for something to do.

The man's inferiority still did not make Sai's bad feeling go away. Taking a deep breath, he purposefully leaned his elbows on the bar counter right between Sakura and the guy. "There you are," he said to Sakura.

Sakura, he discovered, had a glass of something in her hand. He could only hope it was not anything alcoholic. She was now staring at him with one perfectly arched eyebrow. "You're back earlier than expected," she mused.

Still caught reeling at the degree of happiness that seeing her brought him, he dropped the paper bag containing their sandals in front of her. "I got you footwear. Does that please you?"

The man did not seem to like having someone interrupt his exploits. He clamped a hand on Sai's shoulder meanly. "You go find your own bitch, mister. I saw her first."

And that was when Sai felt his body move without thinking, grabbed the guy by the wrist holding his shoulder, making him wince in pain. "I think we have a slight misunderstanding here. This girl is not a bitch, and she is most certainly not your chickadee, whatever a chickadee is." He bared his teeth with a frozen smile. "If you call her any other weird names again, I'll break your arm." His smile widened.

Of course, this was probably overkill for a civilian. But Sai didn't care. He felt quite content – yeah that was the emotion for it – as he watched the man scamper away from them without looking back.

Sakura was watching him with an amused look on her face. "Was that supposed to be an act of manly chivalry to impress women?"

Sai took his seat on the just vacated seat beside Sakura. "Were you impressed?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose and took a sip of her drink. "You know me better than that."

Sai grinned. "It wouldn't hurt to try. What are you drinking? It isn't anything that will make you sleep on me again like last night, right?"

"It's just Oolong tea."

"I see."

Sakura took this opportunity to examine him intently. Sai ignored her. Somehow, he could feel as if he was starting to understand Sakura a bit better with this trip. But it was easy to say that he did not like most of what he saw. After having mulled everything about last night in his head, he was nothing but confused about this girl's feelings. She had said that Sasuke was everything to her, and that she was what she was because of him. Was that even possible? How could anyone try to define themselves by someone else's existence?

He just did not quite understand. For someone like him, who had always thought that his existence was for the mission alone, he guessed it was just too early to understand something so complex. He wondered if – no, hoped he was going to understand things better after a month.

"Say," Sakura started, draining her glass of oolong tea and gesturing at him with a finger. "If you aren't doing anything later after dinner, I was hoping that maybe you can accompany me to look for some souvenirs. For my parents, and maybe for Naruto, too."

Sai perked up at the sound of the invitation. This was actually the first time he had heard Sakura talk about her family. It was probably a normal topic of a conversation between friends, but Sai had never really had such a conversation before. "I've never gone shopping for a friend's parents before. It should prove to be educational. Sure."

Sakura shook her head, waved at the waiter for another glass of tea, and ordered Sai one, too. "There's nothing educational about picking out a souvenir. You should get Naruto and Captain Yamato something while we're at it."

It took Sai a while before he nodded. "All right."

When their drinks arrived, Sai could only stare at it for a few moments before sipping it. "Why?"

Sakura looked over to him. "Why what?"

"Why should we bring home a souvenir? What is the purpose of one?"

Sakura smiled a small smile. It was one of those gestures she would give him when he asked something that normal people should understand. He didn't know if the gesture brought him a good feeling or a bad feeling. "It's purpose is to show a person that they are remembered, and that we wish they were here with us. But since they're not, we try to bring back a part of the experience through well-thought-of gifts."

Sai rolled that in his head, nodded and made a mental note to get Naruto something memorable. "I get it." He turned to Sakura. "So… Your parents… Have you thought what to get them?"

The mention of her parents' gifts made Sakura lean forward, twirling the ice in her glass. "My mother loves collecting small wooden trinkets, so I was hoping to get something to add to her collection."

"I saw a shop that has a lot of tiny objects displayed in it. We can take a look later after dinner."

Sakura nodded happily. "My dad would be easier to please. He just loves anything he can eat. So I was thinking of getting him some onsen buns. He'd love those."

Sai watched Sakura's happy face as she went on talking about what to give her parents. It was obvious she was having a good feeling when she thought of them.

Her next question to him made him almost back away from her.

"Do you remember how your parents were?" she asked him, resting her chin on one hand and looked at him, interested.

Sai blinked. "I have no past memories. I don't think I have parents at all… "

Sakura snorted. "You can't not have parents, Sai! How do you think you were born? Mitosis?"

Sai blinked again. "I don't remember them… though I sort of wish I did."

That was a lie. He did not feel anything about the absence of his parents, or even the fact about their absence. Should he be unhappy that he did not have parents?

Sakura looked at him sadly. Sai wondered why she was sad. "I bet your parents were good-looking people."

"Why is that?"

Sakura's sad look instantly turned icy. "Why you narcissistic little slime… It's because you're good-looking. I bet you asked me that question because you wanted me to compliment you out loud."

Sai was now genuinely confused. "Huh." Then the idea hit him that perhaps saying that a person gets certain strong traits from their parents was a good compliment, he turned to Sakura cheerfully and said, "I bet your mother's cooking sucks, because yours does and – "

The next thing Sai remembered was waking up on the floor with a slightly bloody nose, Sakura nowhere to be found.

What Naruto thought weird about Hinata Hyuuga was that before the mission in the Mukagawa ravine, she was almost always in his peripheral vision; lurking behind tree trunks while he was training, sitting a few chairs away from him while he ate ramen at Ichiraku, and even almost always running across her when he went shopping for daily provisions in the market. But ever since they came back to the village, it was as if the girl was doing everything in her power not to be found.

Naruto sighed dejectedly, squatting on the balls of his feet right outside the bakery, slinging the bouquet of yellow tulips on his right shoulder. He had doubted why Granny Tsunade suggested flowers could appease a girl when he sincerely believed anything and anyone could be appeased with a single bowl of ramen.

A flash of long, straight, blue-black hair caught his attention. Much to his pleasure, he was saw Hinata step out of the bakery, a big brown paper bag in her arms containing something that smelled deliciously good.

"There you are!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping to his feet, startling Hinata and making her jump.

"Na-na-n-na-ruto…!" she stammered, arms wrapping around the paper bag as if her life depended on it. Shuffling her feet uncomfortably, looking at anything and everything but the boy standing a few feet away from her, she started to blush.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, rubbed it with the back of his hand and approached her slowly, afraid that she might take off. "I've been looking all over for you. I've been to your manor twice yesterday, but I couldn't get the courage to ask your dad about you."

"I was…. Uhm… busy…" Hinata said meekly, this time taking a small step back.

Naruto frowned. Sure, he was not the smartest person in the village, but he wasn't that slow not to catch up that Hinata looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but near him. "Busy doing what?" he asked suspiciously.

Hinata's eyes widened in panic. "Ah! I was… sleeping… "

"You were busy sleeping?"

Hinata's eyes started to dart from left to right, and at that moment Naruto could have sworn she was going to use the Byakugan just to look for any means of escape. And though contrary to what he thought, she did not use her technique, but instead whirled around on her heel and attempted to make a run for it. He decided that he did not want to allow her to get away. She had not taken but four strides away from him did Naruto's free hand snap forward and caught her by the sleeve of her zip-up jacket. Hinata squeaked nervously.

"Please don't run away. I've been all over the village trying to find you. And I don't have much time left…"

The last thing he said seemed to have hit a nerve in Hinata. Her shoulders, which were shaking earlier, sagged. "Are you… leaving… again?" she asked silently.

Naruto shrugged, uncomfortable. "To train, yeah." He was not used to talking to her like this, as if having learned of her feelings for him, and having said – though unconsciously – that he liked her too, had created some sort of wall between them. He hated this even more than having to deal with awkward moments when all she did was faint on him. But having her avoid him was something he did not want to get used to.

"Can I walk you home?" he asked uncertainly. He was not used to asking permission if they could walk together, either.

Hinata, still looking the other way, nodded her head vaguely after considering it for a few minutes.

That walk was probably the longest walk Naruto had ever had. It was as if they were walking in super slow motion, and Hinata kept her head lowered the whole time, arms still choking the paper bag. Naruto, deciding to respect her silence, had his hands thrown at the back of his head, the tulips dangling upside-down his back.

They did not talk the whole time until they finally reached the Hyuuga Manor, where Hinata ended up shuffling her feet more, face completely drawn to the ground.

Naruto rubbed his nose again, uncertain of what to do.

"Naruto – "

"Hinata – "

It was one of those times when they just had to make the situation more uncomfortable by speaking at the same time.

Naruto reached out his free hand to her. "When I come back from training, you won't run away again, will you? Because you hide too good, and I don't think I can keep up…"

That was when Hinata finally raised her eyes to meet his. She was still red in the face, but at least there was a ghost of a smile on her lips. "I'll… I'll be waiting until you get back." She placed her hands gingerly on Naruto's, fingers shaking.

And those words, for some unexplainable reason, made Naruto sigh in relief. "That's good to hear." He gripped her tiny hand in his rough, calloused one. "We need to have a long, long talk. But there would be more than enough time for that." He leaned forward, planted a feint kiss on her red hot cheeks, thrust the bouquet into her arms, and ran like hell before she saw him blushing like crazy.

The shelters provided for the squatters, Shikamaru discovered, was found inside a fairly large village merely a few hours away from the boarder crossing the Land of Rice Paddies. Now, Shikamaru was not into putting too much thought in coincidence, but being so near the Hidden Sound Village made him uncomfortable.

Eyeing the broad expanse of rice fields to the north, and then the huge clusters of low brick buildings and tall windmills to the north-west, Shikamaru shrugged, adjusted his hold on the boy, who he later found out came by the name of Kazu, sleeping on his back, and motioned for Ino and Chouji, who were resting under a tree.

Chouji, munching on huge quantities of sodium, stood up, brushed his lap of crumbs, then nodded. "So what's the name of the guy we're meeting?"

Ino followed suit, pulled her cloak down her front and set off towards the village. "His name's Yue Matsunaga, right?"

Shikamaru nodded. "According to the Hokage, Matsunaga will be waiting for us in the entrance of the village to relieve us of the boy." He looked over his shoulder silently. "I have to warn you, that this Yue Matsunaga is… different, and the Fifth told me to exercise… prudence."

Ino frowned. "What's wrong with him? Is he, like, bad-smelling?"

Shikamaru chewed on the inside of his mouth. "He's… uhm, you'll see for yourself."

And they did, with Ino barely maintaining a straight face, and Chouji suddenly stopped eating his potato chips.

Yue Matsunaga was a six-foot tall man, whose face was something no one could put an age to.

The bandages made sure of that.

He was wrapped in white and grey bandages around the face, with only one dark eye peeking through a hole that looked like it was poked open, and a mop of raven-black hair flaring over his head. A bit of scaly skin was exposed around the neck with a scarf meant to cover it up. Under his red and black robes were more bandages. And more bandages. And then some.

"I've been waiting for you to arrive," said Yue, his voice so strikingly deep that Shikamaru couldn't have possibly come from this almost decaying body. He would have backed away in haste had Kazu not scampered down his back in a hurry, nearly dropping his precious teddy bear in the process, and threw his arms around the tall mummy of a man.

Who… is this guy?

I can't resist not putting in a serious plot for this story. XD Just more story advancement here, but we'll see how this leads to Sai later on.

Anyway, thank you for the wait. There were some readers who actually PMed me, asking me when the next chapter will come up. I don't blame you, since I've updated the story every two or three days then. But you know how life is, where work gets in the way of everything. Please be patient with me. There are times when I'd be able to upload fast, and there are times when it would take a few weeks to do so. Of course, sending me cookies and chocolates will make the updates come faster.

Oh, and reviews. Yes, reviews make the updates flow like honey. XD