From the opposite side of the hot spring I watched my wife laugh at the cub. He splashed about it the deep water and growled at the bubbles as they popped under his paws. From the moment she began feeding him and beyond she had become animal lover #1, and it was killing my sex life.

You'd think that he was her actual son. Our sleeping arrangements have become cramped now because that little fucker had to sleep in-between my wife and I, God forbid if I moved him. He nearly took my fucking finger off just for readjusting his feet. This was the worst decision of my life.

"Madara, look at him!" She cheered over the Tiger as he climbed out of the hot spring and shook his wet coat violently causing him to fall over ungracefully. My wife laughed and laughed as if it were the "cutest" thing in the world. I found nothing but annoyance from it.

"He's clumsy; I'll have to invite Blade and Ro over to train him."

She pouted at my pessimism, "party pooper, I like him better like this. If you train him to become a killer he won't be fun anymore."

Course, she's concerned about the man eating Tiger being 'fun.' "I didn't bring him home as a toy. I brought him home to guard you. And would you name him already so I have something to call him."

She tapped the side of her lip a couple times and looked up in deep consideration. The cub bombarded her with a large splash of water as he dove in the spring. She snickered, "Blizzard!"

My jaw hung open vacantly, "No fucking way."

Bella nodded up and down slowly at me and increased her smile bit by bit as she let the name grow on her. She plucked the cat out of the water and cuddled him against her bare chest. MaaMa MAaaaa Maaaaaa he complained as she distracted him from the hot water.

"Because he storms around the house and causes havoc, just like a Blizzard! And he has white fur, so it makes it just that much more appropriate." She reasoned logically, and nodded content with her conclusion.

"You're not serious."

"I'll let you name the baby."

Without hesitation I took the bait, "Deal." Better the house cat than the kid. Imagine what she'd name our baby. Probably Potato or something stupid like that.

"Oh!" She jolted in sudden remembrance of something. "I almost forgot to ask, Jonathan came by yesterday to examine me. During the medical screening he said something, but I didn't understand it and he wouldn't elaborate..."

"What did he say?" Blizzard swam over towards my side I grabbed him with one arm and scratched the top of his head. I might just like this cat, not his name- but the cat itself I could possibly warm up to.

She beamed me a wide content smile as the cub purred lowly against my bicep. "Well, we were gossiping about your past love life." Of course. "And he was talking about this woman named Hana."

I omitted whatever was to come next, "disregard anything that has to do with that wench. She's as good as dead in my mind."

"no- It wasn't about your relationship with her. Something about how she was 'packing up the clinic in preparations for the move.' What's that about, are we moving?"

That idiot! I had specifically told everyone to keep their trap shut about the war. "No we're not moving, he's talking about the-" fuck. "- the medical facility is changing locations. It's going to take a lot of manpower to move all the equipment, so we're making preparations early."

She leaned back against the spring and strained her hair of the access water. She proceeded to tie it up into a bun."Oh, okay- that makes sense then. Honestly, I was looking forward to moving." She stood up from the spring and exposed her breasts, I miss touching them. She stepped out of the hot spring and wrapped a towel around herself hiding her perfection once again. Soo I will take that sexy little body of yours, whether the stupid cat likes it or not.

I pushed the cat off of me and followed behind her, he hissed at me angrily for neglecting him. "Why would you want to move?" I adjusted my own towel, not that I really cared whether I walked about nude or not.

"Blizzard, come!" She called for the bathed Tiger. He ran to her instantly and jumped up into her arms. He could still fit- barely though.

"Hey, answer me." I snapped as she ignored me and walked towards the house.

She turned around with a glare settled on her pouty face. Her golden eyes burned through me like beams of animosity. She's mad about something, of course she's mad about something. "I hate this house, and you haven't done any repairs or upgrades like you promised."

Uh, this again. "I don't have time, woman!" I snapped at her as we walked through the porch and into the kitchen where Izuna was inside eating leftovers from dinner. We just ate an hour ago, he's going to get fat if he keep getting those second helpings.

"GET. IN. MY. MOUTH!" He ordered the plate of noodles. He took an enormous fork, slightly resembling a pitch fork, and shoveled half the plate into his detached jaw and chewed it obnoxiously. "NOM NOM NOM! OH, SO GOOD. NOM NOM NOM." He's going to throw up if he keeps eating like that. Sauce dribble down the sides of his mouth and tears came from his eyes as the food hit his gag reflex. "HUH," he gagged but kept it down. "SOOOO GOOD." He smiled like a fat chipmunk.

Bella sighed, "can't you take a day off training and just work on the house. One day won't kill you! What are you even training for, you're in good enough shape."

Grandpa walked in the kitchen naked of everything but his white briefs and my wife's pink bunny slippers that she "had to have."

"Grandpa, stop stealing my slippers!" My wife whined.

"Bach!" He shouted abruptly making me jump slightly. "Hey, you hooligan!" He snapped at Izuna. "Save me some!" Izuna growled and turned away with the bowl and quickly ate as much as he could.

Grandpa glared, "UH UH NOT TODAY, SUNNY!" He came up behind him and wrapped his thick wrinkled hands around his neck and started to choke the greedy man. "Spit it out, Chunky, I'm hungry!"

Why is my family so insane! With the chaos going on around me I lost all sense and said the first thing that came to mind. "I need to train for the war!"

Izuna paused with the fork lingering outside of his mouth, Grandpa took his chance and ripped the bowl out from under the petrified man's nose. "TEE-HE-HE!" the geezer giggled and finished off the bowl.

Bella watched me in utter confusion, "war- what war?"

On the outside I maintained a face of calm, but on the inside I quickly scrambled about and searched through files and books of excuses inside my mind.

My little brother watched in humor as I quietly destroy what little trust I had earned in my marriage. "Uh-"I stuttered. "Uh, I didn't say war. I said I need to maintain the décor."

She nodded in acceptance of the surrogate explanation. Izuna bit on his tongue and smiled at me in a way only a little brother who knew all my secrets could. She adjusted her towel and gave me a deadpan wife stare. "Well your décor is lacking style, so you need to change it now." She emphasized at me.

Tired from navigating through the field of mines I let out a deep exhausted breath. "I'll start tomorrow." She wins, like usual.

Satisfied she glimmered a priceless I'm pleased smile, "Good, Blizzard and I are going to bed. Try to keep it down." She turned on her heel with the cat in hand and walked up the stairs.

I watched her as if she were a ticking bomb. The second she disappeared from view I threw my head back and let out a long loud groan. "That was so close I could smell my dead corpse."

Izuna grinned, "just tell her we're going so that we all can stop walking on eggshells around her."

"Never." I stubbornly stated.I furrowed my brow, eventually I will have to tell her though. "You think she'll notice if I'm just like… gone for a year or so."

He shook his head, "nah man. She probably won't notice her husband doesn't sleep in the same bed anymore, or eat at the table, or even say hi once a while… and isn't even anywhere to be found…. And hasn't said a word or left a note for several months while she's pregnant with his kid."

I snapped my fingers as light bulb ignited in my dark cluttered mind, "a note, perfect! I'll put a note on the fridge the day we leave. Conflict resolved!"

Izuna shook his head, "no." he continued to shake it in horror. "Just no."

I nodded in rebuttal, "yah… perfect idea." This way she can't kill me if I'm far, far away!

(Day before war)

My husband and I were in the middle of the "park" (as they call it.) In all honesty it was just a mowed down path in the middle of the forest that bordered their estate. Although it was a perfectly pleasant place to spend time with my husband; it was quiet, solitary, and quaint. The ideal area for him and I to take some time to read and be alone together.

We were sitting on a stone bench that sat on the side of the path. Madara had his legs up on the seat and had leaned his back against the arm of the bench, and I was in a similar position but in-between his legs with my back resting on his chest. I held the book Hope and Faith out in front of us and we read it together.

It was one of those "quality time" things that we hardly ever indulged ourselves in. He was always working out, dealing with the elders, or finally putting some man hours in on the house. And I was always chasing after Grandpa to put his pants on and trying to clean after my messy brother in law.

"Next page," Madara grunted. I shifted the page over and started on the new line.

I turned to look to the man who sat beside me in the bar, he was half way through a liter and the bartender didn't have the heart to cut him off. He looked up, looked over, and stared at me vacantly. "How did I get here?"

That was the first time I saw a man unanchored from the earth.

"You're here." I reminded.

Just the simplest statement, but it brought grand revelation behind his eyes. I couldn't begin to understand what was going on inside his blank expression. He simply nodded to me, "I almost forgot I was even alive."

Wise men often say that hope is the anchor to the soul, this man had definitely lost his hope.

A heavy loud snore snapped me out of the novel. I turned around to see my snorting husband nodding off. "Madara!"

He jumped up, nearly shoving me off his lap, "What!"

"You fell asleep, again." I closed the book and leaned my head back against his shoulder. Poor man is exhausted from all his errands.

"No I didn't, I was just…" He closed his eyes slowly and bowed his chin down to his chest.

Really? Oh my goodness. "Madara!"

His eyes shot open, "Stop you're shouting, woman!"

I sighed and attempted to stand from his lap but he buckled me down with his arms. "Eh, stop your fussing and open the damn book."

I kept the book to my side, "You've been working non-stop this past week. You deserve a nap, now come on- let's go home." At first reluctant to obey his needy wife, he eventually succumbed and followed my lead too tired to argue.

We walked alone down the worn grass path that led to town. "I wonder how Blitz is doing." He mused. My husband had made a parody of his name, and although it annoyed me since it sounded more like a war tactic than a name I didn't argue.

"Probably being a little devil, he doesn't like Blade."

"Nobody likes Blade."

"I like Blade."

"You're the exception to everything."

I took a hold of his bicep and strolled alongside him intimately. "You never told me about that Shinju book of yours."

He secured my grasp on his arm and smiled, "yes. I forgot all about that. I'm surprised you're even interested."

"I wasn't until…" He looked at me in anticipation. Should I tell him? I knew if I told him he'd think I was crazy, and right now I didn't need that kind of negativity. "I got past the first chapter. The first chapter of every story is always arid and flat."

He nodded, "that is true. I really only bought the novel as research."

"My husband, research...?" I muzzled an insolate giggle.

Madara rolled his eyes, "if you haven't noticed my family is superstitious and believes strongly in legends. They think that the Shinju gave us our Chakra, I'm skeptical though. I wanted to do some studying on the topic before I confirmed that sort of faith. I'm starting to think its more myth than truth."

I wonder... "What if it wasn't, maybe there is a monster-like God tree out there that gave us all our Chakra."

"It sounds farfetched."

"And Gods and Goddess's aren't?"

"Can both exist in one world?"

"Ask God, I don't know."

He smiled at my cheekiness, "God doesn't talk to me anymore; we're on bad terms right now."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?"

"Because, I kidnapped one of his angels."

I gave him a sly look, Isn't he the sweetest. I wonder what he wants. "You better be careful, she might be a demon in disguise. They tend to be man-eaters."

He pulled his arm out of my grasp and wrapped it around my waist. He gave me a quick kiss to the forehead, he's always so much more affectionate when we're alone. "That's fine, I'm a man that generally desires destructive things. I suppose my craving for self-destruction is what lured me to you."

Hm, he's been reading too many chick-books."That's pretty deep, honey."

He chuckled, "I know, what am I thinking? I'm not deep! I need to get some sleep before I start writing poetry."

We had arrived home from our short journey through the park, and the sight of the disheveled house made me throw up slightly in my mouth. "RAW," a squeaky high pitched roar came from the backyard of our house. I looked up at my husband who was smiling, "sounds like he doesn't like training."

We strolled around our home and saw our little tiger chasing Blade who was running away like a frightened Banshee. "Blizzard, that's not nice!" He stopped abruptly and toppled head over heel. The cub stood up shakily and shook his coat of the dust he had accumulated.

He looked over to where the familiar voice had come from. "MAAAAA!" He mewed at me and ran across the yard into my arms. I scooped the overgrown cat into my arms and scratched him on the top of his head.

"Awe, you don't like being worked out do you?"

Blade huffed and gathered his tools into his weapon pouch. The grounds looked to be destroyed from the short hour long training session. The ground had numerous kunai and shuriken sticking in it and potholes had been dug up for some peculiar reason. Ro waved to his superior, "Hey Madara, sorry but we didn't get very far with him."

Madara growled like a grown man-tiger, man he really could be Blizzards Daddy. "What do you mean?"

Ro jumped up and postulated himself, "Well- I-I" He stuttered under Madara ferocious gaze. "He wouldn't listen, I mean no matter what we tried he just wouldn't listen to us."

I pouted down at the cub, "is that true, Blizzy. Were you being disobedient to your Sensei's?"

He lowered his eyes and nuzzled his head into the crook of my neck in shame. "Maaa MaaaaaaMAAA."

Madara glowered at him, "What good are you if you can't even learn a few tricks."

Blizzard picked his head up and narrowed his eyes at my husband and gave him a low hiss. I laughed and put him on the ground,"Blizzard sit."

He sat down on his butt and looked up at me awaiting further order. I looked over to my husband foxily and without leaving eye contact I ordered the cat to "get Daddy."

The cub did exactly what I said and launched at Madara's feet and started to bite his ankles. "Get off you little bastard!"

Ro and Blade's jaws dropped as he obeyed my orders and stomped off the premises without further word. "Oh, they're mad."

Madara batted Blizzard on the ear to get him off, "well they're supposed to be the animal trainers, and you just upstaged them in seconds."

I picked up the little injured baby and stroked the side where Madara had smacked him. "That's because you're a Mommy's boy."

"MAAAAA!" He agreed.

A/N: Filler chapters suck, next one will be longer.