AN: Have some Kou perspective! And then crazier.

()()()()()()()

Kou had found there were few things he enjoyed as often as sitting by the koi pond and drinking a cup of tea when he had a moment to spare. There were many fond, and embarrassing, memories by this pond after all. Indeed after all the times they had played tag there were some permanent rearrangements to the stones here. Leaves from one of the trees a short ways away drifted lazily on the surface before the vicious koi would attack it, thinking it was nourishment and dragging it down.

He still had nightmares from his last mission. It had not been an exaggeration to tell Ziwei that he had thought he would never return. If he had not practiced as hard as he had, pushed so far, had someone to challenge him and frustrate him as they effortlessly passed him in chakra control? No, Kou was no fool. He would have died, his team would have perished and the mission a failure. Yet, he had done all of that work. He had gone above and beyond where it was expected of him all these years because of a silly purple haired girl with a large shameless grin who had decided to come to him for help. All because they had sat together at a few parties and he found her amusing.

Back then, he had not realized it was a friendship. The idea was so new to him, he had never been that close to any of his cousins in the clan. He still recalled, easily, the fury that had to be tamped down when he saw Zi twirl the leaf that day, then look at him and the shock, guilt, and apology that flew over her face made his anger drain. She, really, hadn't known. For just a moment she had been scared that he would send her away.

The same little girl who had amused him with her brash nature and kept him company, who sought him out, had been afraid he wouldn't want to help her. It had changed how Kou viewed her. Especially at her excitement for him over unlocking his eyes. No envy, just honest joy. It had been pleasant. Her smart alec remarks, complaints, always meant to tease and pull out a laugh as they trained had slowly made it where it just seemed natural to see her in the compound.

Even when she later was there, hand in his own and wide eyes when he needed to get her to help with Neji. The whole Uchiha fiasco was one he had watched her complain over, be terrified by, and then frankly turn into a fantastic political coup for his family. Kou chuckled to himself. He wondered if his friend had any idea that the Hyuuga now wanted her in the future as part of the family, and hadn't been entirely joking about helping her find a match?

Though honestly, he didn't think his clan knew what they were in for. They thought it was just Zi, and perhaps her brother who were so...peculiar. They had gone to the gatherings but alcohol blurred memories after all.

Well, it wasn't his problem. Watching them all panic over her being under Anko was enjoyable, and it seemed, much to Kou's amusement, he had become something of a troll himself over the years.

He sighed though. Honestly? He was worried because Zi and her team were going on their own C-rank, and his had nearly killed him.

()()()()()()()()

"Are we there yet?" I asked with a whine as we followed Anko at a jog, it wasn't a full out shinobi run, we were working up to that because Dai's ninken couldn't run that fast and none of us wanted to carry them.

"No, Ziwei-chan," Sei answered me, as they had been for the past hour when I would ask. Anko was snorting in amusement up ahead. Ten minutes later it was Dai's turn.

"Are we there yet?"

"No, Dai-kun." Sei answered just as deadpan as ever. Anko had assigned them to be the one telling us no and since then we had proceeded to trade off who would ask Sei every ten minutes. What, traveling was boring.

"Rock. Tree. Tree. Tree. Big tree. Tree." I started listing again as we went. "Dirt."

"Clouds, tree." Dai joined in and we heard Sei sigh again. It was the little things. Any moment now Sei would snap and join us, or you know, Anko would whirl around and declare it dodge training and throw things at us but all good.

"Tree. Rock. Tree, tree, ugly tree, a tree that looks like a butt..."

"How can a tree look like a butt? I missed it?" Dai asked me.

"Looked like your face." I snickered and much to Dai's annoyance the rest of our team, and that included Anko and his hounds, laughed.

It was very boring this whole traveling thing. We'd been at it for a few days. Honestly, by now we were really used to camping and did everything without prompting. As I had the crazy chakra I was always on wood gathering duty and would just make a huge pile in one arm as I walked, flinging new sticks into it with chakra threads. Anko always insisted we involve training everywhere we could. Sei was on food gathering as the bugs would inform of everything edible in the area, Dai would start the fire and then go get water and the lot of us would set perimiter traps under Anko's watchful gaze.

Of course, then the whole preparing food and giving Anko a shoulder or hand massage depending on what she wanted was pretty unique to our team but whatever. We hammed it up because I was a little troll and my teammates knew following my lead meant good things.

"Would you like more ration bar, Anko-sensei?" Sei offered while I rubbed one of her wrists and Dai the other. Anko was sprawled against a tree, smirking like a queen as Sei fed her. We'd already eaten berries and some plants that cooked up crispy but for the protein since none of us could hunt yet, we used ration bars.

"Good minions." Anko crooned. "Remind me to teach you those techniques since we'll be far enough away I won't get lectured."

"Hai!"

Okay, Anko got a foot rub too out of that one. Shame was not a good ninja's trait, you know?