"A... hunt."

He didn't voice it as a question.

Quite frankly, he wasn't particularly confused by the petition. His trepidation came more from the immediate question that formulated in his mind upon hearing General Inuzuka's request: What kind of hunt would they be able to have up in a military class starship?

Yes, the Resolute was a large ship and he had first-hand knowledge of how well someone could hide from their CO's because of that size. But the hunt that General Inuzuka had taken them on back in Konoha had taken place in a vast forest- this ship could not compete. And the quarry had been a vermin that their clan regularly hunted down- even though he was much more accustomed to shooting at clankers, aiming at these kinds of large animals wasn't all that outlandish.

"You're all Mando boys, right? I'm sure a good hunt will lift spirits!" there was one beat of silence, then she acquiesced, "Well, simulated hunt. We can build up to life-threatening levels once I've gotten to know the-" there was a noticeable jump in her speech pattern that she tried to cover up with a dramatic yawn. "boys better."

To make a grand show of it, Tsume closed her eyes, leaned back, and stretched her arms high above her head.

Rex knew that this wasn't a proper yawn. She had previously griped about having been unable to really get a good night's rest, even with how tired she had been after all of the sparring with the men- but her eyes were much too alert and awake for her to actually be yawning. Now why she was faking a yawn was interesting.

But Rex had learned after a tireless amount of time working with both Generals Skywalker and Kenobi; and after having grown up with the likes of the commander generation; that sometimes it was best to allow people to believe he had been manipulated. If this matter became pressing, then he could care to figure it out. But it was best to just leave certain things alone.

"And we would be hunting you, sir? Is that wise?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

There were moments in which he wondered if he was the only clone that had the horrible streak of bad luck that made him end up with the most insane sentients as his CO's. Because it was one thing to have had General Skywalker, but General Kenobi was another hare-brained individual, he was just better at hiding it. Then Commander Tano had appeared and Rex had believed he really had the worst luck.

No other Jedi General had as many (unread) reprimands as they did (unread, yet again) commendations- so no one could really compete with his General. Kenobi came a close second, but the margin between him and the third person on this ranking was large.

There were worse Jedi to have, he knew. There were the kind of Jedi that kept the men at arms' length, treating them like just barely more than droids, just like there were Jedi that were too safe in their approach and unwittingly caused more casualties than necessary because of their caution and indecisiveness. But none caused their commanders as many migraines as he knew Kenobi caused Cody.

He could acknowledge that he wasn't as right in the head as the Kaminoans would have liked due to the fact that he didn't have nearly as many bouts of migraines, even though Skywalker was, without a doubt, the most unpredictable of the generals.

When he had met Tsume Inuzuka, he hadn't known exactly what to think. She hadn't been an official member of any distinguished military force within the galaxy- Kenobi had informed them that this had been because of her planet's insular ways more than her ineptitude at command. There had been very little information in the GAR's files on her too, just like there had been the bare minimum about her Clan and the ones that ruled in Konoha.

But he had quickly come to learn some truths about her.

The paramount bit of information he had gathered from simple observation and conversation had been a simple one: She was unpredictable.

He stopped himself just short of sighing before he acknowledged the most troubling aspect of what she had proposed, "If we were to pull all non-essential troopers to join this hunt, sir, there would still be around four companies after you. That is more than three hundred men."

The sparkle in Inuzuka's eyes took on a sharp edge. "Precisely!"

But then that sparkle dimmed, and she looked down at the ground- at the bare feet that made his own feet grow cold due to just the sight. And then she breathed out, "Well, only if the men are intrigued. Think you could ask around and find out if anyone would be interested? I don't want to order you into doing something you're not interested in."

Another thing he had come to learn about this human was that she seemed to actually care about their feelings; she had yet to give any of them a proper order outside of the barked command of throwing her son into the brig.

Which made a needling question pop back up into the back of his head. And it continued to pester at him even with the way he attempted to ignore it- he nodded at the General and informed her that he would have a proper answer from the men within the next ten minutes.

"Make it thirty. And then go crazy. I'll already have hidden."

And then she turned around and began to walk away.

Rex watched her go at first, just taking note of the harsh set to her shoulders and the wild mane of hair that looked nothing like any hairstyle he'd ever seen sported by any Jedi in his lifetime. But he eventually turned away and began to make his way to the bridge, mindful enough to inform Admiral Yularen of the hijinks that their new General had cooked up, as he set about asking around to see which of the men might want to take part in the activity.

Why did she even care?

With a frown, Rex forced himself into paying attention to the task at hand and not the line of thought he'd tried ceaselessly to not go down.

There was a wider turnout than he was happy with. Just about every single trooper that did not have a task that was necessary for the Resolute to run smoothly had agreed to join in on the still ill-defined hunt of their general. Word had quickly gone around about the sparring session that had taken place in the gym only a few hours prior and now most of the men were eager to witness firsthand the skills Inuzuka had at her disposal.

Midway through spreading the word, he had received a communication from the general that he had not expected.

Considering her rather rough treatment of her son, Rex had believed that she would have been the kind of person that would have left him to rot in the brig for the rest of the campaign. But then she had sent him a written message detailing how Kiba could be allowed to leave his cell during the hunt if he wished, but only if Rex gave the order to let him loose.

It was only under the express instruction that he could not really take part in the apprehension. He could only aid in tracking his mother and chasing her down, sure, but there it was: The kid's chance at freedom. Sure, there was no promise of it being a permanent thing, but at least for the time this activity took place, Kiba would have a reason to not be locked up.

After he had spread the word in the mess, he decided to head towards the barracks. Odds were that plenty of brothers would be there, enjoying the time off they had been given before their next landing to either laze about or catch up on sleep. So, it wasn't like going to give Kiba the news was going to make his job any harder.

And that was why he found himself where he was now.

What he did not know, though, was the reason behind why he was currently faced with a broadly grinning Kiba Inuzuka, clad in select pieces of clone trooper armor, with Jesse and Tup seated on either side of him, each with a different expression on his face. Tup, as always, looked properly horrified upon getting caught by his CO. Jesse, unsurprisingly, had a pleased smirk playing loosely on his lips.

"What do you think, Rex? Jesse said I could paint 'em if I don't die in my first battle."

He took a moment to get a good look at the teenager- he wasn't much older than Ahsoka, he was sure, and was undoubtedly much more reckless than her. What he still was not sure of was if he was as reckless as she had once been, back when she had first appeared in their lives. If he was really unlucky, the kid would turn out to be worse than that. He held out hope, though, that he wouldn't be and he allowed himself this because of the strictness he had seen demonstrated by his mother.

The blacks that had been cut up and sewn to better fit his frame were ones he was sure had been grabbed by Jesse, because Tup was not the kind of vod to deal with contraband but was too deferent to the older brothers to do anything to stop them. Who had done the sewing, though, was up in the air because he had not heard about either trooper having learned such a skill.

It was… an interesting mashup of Kiba's clothes with his extremities clad in armor. Clearly, they had also sewn the knee-down part of the blacks to the upper-half of the loose pants Kiba wore.

He took a moment to just soak in the absurdity of the jagged ends of the armor that Kiba had to stand stiffly to avoid getting stabbed by. And then he asked the most important question, "You do know there's a requisition form you can fill to get a set of Jedi Commander Armor with your measurements?"

"There's no need for that, Rex!" Jesse's eyes sparkled as he pointed at the upper half of the lower leg pieces that were too long for Kiba to walk around in comfortably, "We just need to modify them a little." Then, after clearing his throat softly, he added, "Besides, we don't know how long it'll be for that armor to be made. Kid might get snatched up by another legion if we don't mark territory."

Kiba's smile was abuzz with all of the energy of a fusion core. Tup's own emotions were much more composed than either idiot that had spoken, but Rex could see the flash of a damp emotion coming over him- probably horrified at the idea of any other legion taking the kid away from them.

Which was a ludicrous position for Tup to be taking, considering how the Inuzuka's presence in the 501st was temporary and only going to last until General Skywalker and Commander Tano returned.

He could have pressed about the Commander Armor because it would have been the logical step to take if Kiba really wanted to have trooper-reminiscent garb to wear that also protected him. It could be tailored to him and would all fall under GAR spending, so, if he filled the paperwork adequately, he wouldn't have to pay any credits. Or he could have attempted to talk Jesse out of the idea of attempting to modify any armor around natborns- Kiba seemed like a good kid, but he wasn't a brother, and they barely knew him. There were so many things he could have said that could have hopefully led them to not accidentally stepping on any of the toes of the natborns on the ship.

But, instead, he chose the path of least resistance.

"The general's asked for your presence, if you'd like to get out of the barracks for a bit."

"A hunt, right?"

Kiba's smile dropped.

Rex didn't allow his face to mimic the confusion he felt, but he did allow himself to wonder why the kid seemed so down over something that was supposed to bring him joy. He had been given a perfect opportunity to not get in trouble for being outside of the brig. Why did he currently look as if he had just been told he'd be forced to sit on the sidelines of a good fight?

"What's up with the face, kid?" Jesse seemed to have warmed up to him in no time, "We've got homefield advantage and more than just an advantage in numbers."

Kiba's lips pursed as he seemed to think over what he was about to say. Rex watched on quietly, only taking a small note over the way that Tup seemed to frown in agreement with the kid.

"Jesse, she's the Inuzuka Clan Head for a reason." With fluid fingers, the kid went about removing the plates on his left armor, "What's the plan, captain?"

Rex contemplated the shift in mood for just a moment, then informed, "I was hoping to gather some information from you first. We don't have any information on the General outside of what little we learned about her fighting style in a few sparring matches and what I observed on the hunt she took us on."

Inuzuka hunted with pack dynamics that relied on their sharp sense of smell and a strong non-verbal communication that seemed as incomprehensible as the way the Jedi used the Force.

As Kiba nodded, he didn't miss the way the kid put care into placing the plates carefully on top of the bed Jesse and Tup sat on.

"I'll need a communicator real quick, Rexster. Think I've got to tell all the men what you'll need to know."

And there was annoyance in his voice.

Odd.

"Of course, sir."

And then Kiba shuddered, a small, contained thing that he clearly tried to stamp down on, and Rex was left completely mystified as to what was going on in his head.

"First, you've got to clear out the obvious hiding places. Odds are she'll be in the vents cause it's obvious but difficult for men in armor to explore easily- so we've got to smoke her out."

He knew for a fact that those without a filtering system at easy access were going to be pissed off with them. But Kiba's concoction of spiced gas proved to have been the right move when Hawk called out that his squad had contact with the target and had begun the engagement.

It had taken no more than thirty seconds for Hawk to call in that they had lost visual of the General after she had, as he had put it, "thoroughly kicked their shebs."

"Inuzuka don't go down easy. They've got to be put down. For that, you've gotta cage her in. Some people say that cornering a wild animal's the wrong thing to do 'cause they'll lash out or something. Well, you've gotta corner an Inuzuka or else they'll slip away."

The scouts were trying their damnedest to pick up the General's trail but were quickly proven just how capable she was of erasing any evidence of her presence.

"Do you think we'll get anything if we catch her?" Fives asked conversationally as they walked towards the hangar. "She seems like she'll give us something."

"Maybe a match against the squad that catches her?" Hardcase sounded as if he was filled with so much energy that he may have just burst. "I wanna get my chance at beating her up!"

"Please, vod, she'll wipe the floor with you."

"Only if she's better than me!"

In an active battlefield, he would have bit at them to cut the unnecessary chatter- they needed to be able to listen to all of the updates coming from the other squads. But, even though he was filled with the same apprehension and want to do his best because he wanted to impress his general, Rex knew that this wasn't a life or death situation and that it wouldn't hurt the men to talk amongst themselves.

If the worst came, he could just mute them.

"Hey, Rex?" Fives didn't wait for him to confirm that he was paying attention before he asked, "What do you think of the new general and commander?"

There was something in the original's DNA that made all of the brothers predisposed to an almost unnatural love for gossip. Even he, who didn't necessarily want to take part in gossip (or 'tactical exchange of information' as Cody called it to make it seem less ridiculous than it actually was), couldn't deny that he didn't outright condemn it either.

When they entered the hangar, Rex took a moment to both contemplate the question and scan over the large space.

Tsume Inuzuka seemed like she cared about her men and that was really all that he needed to know, he felt. As long as his men were treated with the minimum amount of respect all soldiers deserved, he didn't really think there was much more that he needed from someone in charge.

But he could also tell that she was someone that cared for her men having fun. Because, from the way that Fives and Hardcase's voice were filled with excitement and from the way he too was eager to perform, it was hard to think that there was any other reason that Inuzuka had come up with this whole thing.

Well, maybe she also wanted to test out their skills in a non-lethal setting before she was due to command them in an active war-zone. Reasonably, that should have been the first thing Rex contemplated when it came to possible objectives Inuzuka had behind this hunt. But there was just something about the whole thing that made him think such logic was secondary.

Still, the way Inuzuka carried herself spoke of competence and confidence in a post of command, even if she didn't seem eager to bark anyone (other than her own child) around.

Kiba, on the other hand, was painfully young. The way he carried himself was confident, yes, even playing on the dangerous nature of cockiness. And there was no doubt that he understood himself well enough to be proud of his skills in battle. But, whenever he spoke up, it was so obvious that he had no idea how the world worked.

For quick second, he lamented having yet another young'un to look over- then he took a second to acknowledge that he wasn't nearly as bothered by this as he probably should have been.

Finally, once he was content with the once-over of the hangar, he answered Fives' question.

"That they're in charge and they seem like they know what they're supposed to be doing."

"Lame!"

"C'mon, Rex, that's not an answer!"

"We've got a mission, boys. Chins up."

He had plenty of thoughts about the general and commander. But he knew that his men put a lot of stock into everything he said, no matter how much they wanted to think they didn't. He'd leave any true judgments for later, after the men had come to their own conclusions.

The hunt lasted for hours.

Whenever any squad called in visual contact, it took little to no time for them to update that they had lost her.

The sporadic locations weren't chaotic, though. And, within a few sightings, they were able to come up with a conclusive plan. With every sighting, they drew her closer and closer to the brig area, where she would be cornered, as Kiba had advised for them to do.

Even though he was part of a squad that was eager to take part in any form of fighting, the hunt ended rather anti-climatically when Jesse called in that they had managed to trap her inside of a cell.

Rex would have liked having been part of the squad that had managed such a feat- just like he would have been happy to have taken on a more active role in the day's activity. But he was just relieved to know that no casualties had sprung up, there were only minimal complaints from the spice smell coming from the vents, and no damage had been caused to any part of the ship.

The celebration for a successful hunt that the General called for was thrown within the barracks, far away from any peering eyes from natborns that weren't Konoha born. Initially, Rex had wondered why such a decision had been made when it could have just as easily been thrown in the mess.

When the General appeared with a crate filled with enough bottles of the glorious alcoholic drink called saké, he had immediately understood the decision.

There were strict rules against any sort of contraband and any form of drunkenness was grounds for severe reprimands. All of the clone troopers understood that such rules were little more than suggestions when infringed upon in secret. And it seemed that the General understood such a nature- something that undoubtedly aided in making the rest of the men become even more comfortable around her.

"A round for your victory!" she exclaimed over the soft chatter of very curious brothers, only to immediately receive an outburst of cheers. "You boys did good work- you've earned this much!"

It was only one round, though, because enough alcohol to sustain them all for multiple rounds was not the quantity she had brought along with her. And the brothers in charge of the moonshine ring didn't offer up some of the ship-made stuff; Rex gave it a few more rotations before they informed at least Kiba about its existence.

It may take longer to reach the General, just because of the inherent distance that existed between her and the men. She had, though, mostly obliterated that distance between the men and Kiba. And the kid's presence in the barracks seemed to have aided in making the men warm up to him. Jesse and Tup seemed to like him well enough.

At some point, someone recommended playing an impromptu game of bolo-ball with the General as captain of one team and the new Commander as the captain of the other. Many jeers followed Tsume Inuzuka's announcement that she needed to head out and get some rest, she was tired enough to sleep for a full rotation.

"But," she added quickly with a smile that was all sharp teeth and bite, "It should be Kiba as captain versus Jesse as a captain, seeing how integral he was to my capture."

It took no time for the men to agree that this was a solid back-up. But Fives, ever uncaring of propriety, called after the General as she attempted to sneak out of the barracks "Next game, you'll lead, sir!"

She didn't say that such a thing would never happen; and considering how broadly she had smiled back at the trooper, Rex guessed that she was intrigued by the idea.

And it took no time for plans to be made for an impromptu bolo-ball game in the gym, with less members on each team to make up for the smaller field they'd be able to utilize, complete with made-up rules about no armor use for the kid to be able to play even if he didn't have any armor for himself and all blows except for low-blows to be legal unless otherwise stated by the referee.

He just barely dodged having to have either Jesse or Kiba to argue over who would be getting him as a player by declaring his official position as the perpetual referee in all sporting matters in the 501st. The usual crowd complained, but they were the few that refused to accept that his having spent the better part of his cadet life dragged around by the commander class gave him an advantage on sporting events. Both 'captains' just accepted the decision because it saved them from an argument.

There was nothing he could do about the argument that broke out over who would get Tup, though.

Still, after five minutes were wasted and Jesse relented ("but only because I want to play- I'll get Tup next time."), the game was underway.

Brothers were sandwiched together, shoulder to shoulder, on the exteriors of the play area that had been cleared away in the gym for the game. The sound became deafening as the actual plays took place, with most brothers picking a team they wanted to win.

He purposefully ignored any and all interactions that seemed to take place with the exchange of objects that could be considered gambling, because if he didn't know anything about such activities, no one could cite any of them for taking part in them.

A few minutes into the game, when Kiba threw his whole body into a tackle that would have knocked a lesser man onto the ground, just to have Fives retaliate by leveling his whole body forward to pin him against the ground, and the kid retaliated by letting out a whooping cross between a cough and a laugh, Rex felt something within himself relax.

Tsume Inuzuka was no Anaking Skywalker, just like Kiba Inuzuka was no Ahsoka Tano. But they weren't bad fits for the 501st.

~..~..~

Real likely, the next chapter will be the next official one for a while, because then we begin with Umbara!

Hope y'all liked this!