Fives quite liked both the new general and commander. And he wasn't alone in this.

Oh, the Captain thought he had been very slick and mysterious with the way he had answered his and Hardcase's questioning some time ago. But Rex was the kind of guy that wore his heart on his sleeve. He was so accustomed to having to hide that quality from natborns that he'd forgotten that fellow vod'e could read him like an open book if he didn't use stronger tricks.

Poor guy. He actually thought that the little effort he had to put into keeping the General and Commander from figuring out his real emotions would work on a starship full of people that had his exact same face.

The rest of the vod'e didn't really make that much of a fuss of the two newcomers. There were worries, naturally, of how little information they had access to when it pertained to them. There were no military records that spoke of General Inuzuka's capabilities in the battlefield and he'd never been a big fan of going in blind. But, she had done a good job of making them work for her capture and that probably meant something.

It wasn't lost on him that she was also doing a pretty good job of getting her kid integrated into the ranks of the men, either.

Kiba was likeable enough. A bit on the dull side and very much more naïve than the Commander. But what he lacked in actual experience he seemed to make up with raw talent- they might run into tricky waters with this, but he hoped that the kid had good enough sense to listen and wasn't as bad as their proper General. The Commander was a hellion in her own right, but she had a good head on her shoulders- most of the time.

Tup had taken quite the shine to him and it was uncommon to find them separated when walking about the barracks. Tup's downtime became Kiba's and even when the young brother was on shift, the new commander wasn't too far away. It was the kind of friendship that reassured Fives as much as it worried him; the Jedi kept their distance from the brothers for a reason and neither Inuzuka was supposed to be a permanent fixture in the 501st.

But, well, until it became an issue, there was no real reason to make it one. Tup was smiling a lot more than he ever had before and it was attached to the way Kiba treated him. In their lives, there were very few things that brought so much joy- Fives wasn't about to take something so precious away from a younger vod.

"Boys, have any of you seen the General?"

Pulled away from his reverie, Fives looked away from his empty tray to find Rex standing at the head of the table, bucket held between his hip and arm while his left hand held a datapad.

"Can't say I have, sir." he answered earnestly, then looked around the rest of the similar yet different faces accompanying him. The rest of the men around him shook their heads, offering their own version of a negative answer.

Rex's face stayed mostly unchanged, but Fives was able to tell that his eyes did narrow ever so slightly and his lips were pulled at with frustration.

"Why're you looking for her?" he got up from his seat, "Maybe I can help out."

"Hey, Fives, don't litter!"

"You promised you'd clean up after me for a full rotation if I beat you at sabbac, di'kut." he didn't even bother with rolling his eyes at Hardcase's dramatic sound of pain, keeping his gaze focused on the captain.

Rex seemed to contemplate for just a second letting him help out; then he gave one stiff nod before turning around and beginning to move quickly out of the mess. Fives followed at a slightly more sedate pace, but quick enough to keep up.

"It seems General Skywalker failed to complete some requisition forms that require a General's signature. We're good for supplies, but we've got a chance to get some extra firepower from the hundred and fourth. To do that, though, we've got to send this off within the next hour." Rex's voice was neutral in that tight way that always spoke to him being frustrated but trying his best to keep others from finding out.

Ah, General Skywalker. He was a good man and a damn fine general... as long as it didn't have anything to do with tedious office work.

"Alright, so it's important we get a signature." he decided with a nod; it would serve nothing to complain about their general's relaxed ways of taking busy work. "Where have you checked?"

"The mess, the barracks, her quarters, and the main deck."

They moved quickly down a long hallway Fives knew would eventually take them to the hangar, but his brain immediately supplied him with the memory of the hunt they had taken part in not too long ago. "You thought about the vents, vod?"

Rex's step actually faltered, his left foot bumping against the floor, before he breathed out heavily. "I'll check the hangar, you find a way to see about verifying the vents. If you find her, make sure to send her my way."

"Of course, sir." he broke off from Rex, allowing the smile that he had battled for the last few seconds to finally appear on his lips.

Rex deserved a vacation, he felt. Skywalker and Tano were one thing, but if his hunch was right, then Inuzuka was a whole other thing.

Tsume didn't look nearly as groggy with sleep as she had when Fives had found her.

He remained standing off to the side, standing with enough rigidity to make it seem like he was alert and acting the proper part of a soldier, while Rex explained to her what she was needed for.

Quite frankly, it was kind of funny to think that if Rex had thought about the vents, he would have found Tsume as soon as his search had begun- she had been hiding in the ventilation system, yes, but in the opening closest to the General's private quarters. She had been sleeping when Fives found her, curled up in a tight ball without a single sound emanating from her, and it had been a surreal experience.

He had poked his head up there, Jesse helping him by offering him a quick boost. And there she had been.

The peacefulness of her sleep had been juxtaposed with how incredibly quiet she was- something that made him think was more born out of years of training rather than something that came naturally to her.

"If you're going to be disappearing like this again, sir, I'd recommend to leave your comm on. At least that way, I'll be able to find you, even if you don't answer it." the datapad was returned to Rex after Tsume went about giving a fast and short signature to its screen.

"Sure thing, captain." the general gave a stiff nod, "How long before we're supposed to meet with the other battalion?"

"A few hours, give or take. It depends more on their systems than our own."

She hummed, crossing his arms over her chest as she said, "I'll meet with you by then, captain."

"Of course." Rex saluted crisply before turning to leave, his steps just as fast as they had previously been.

Tsume remained rooted in the same spot for a couple of seconds and Fives just watched as his older, much too overworked brother walked away. Once he was far enough away, Tsume's shoulders slumped and she breathed out heavily.

"Fives?" her voice was now as exhausted as it had sounded when he had woken her up.

"Yes, sir?" he shifted ever so slightly in his stance, eyes now focusing on her.

She turned around now, and the dark circles around her eyes weren't as marked as they had previously been. Her eyes were narrowed and it seemed as if she was attempting to glare, but the look was much too tired to have any true fire to it.

A few seconds passed in silence; her eyes went from attempting to glare at him to full on glaring at the floor. Then she breathed out, closed her eyes, and shook her head.

"This is not an order- you can say no." when her eyes opened, they weren't quiet open, eyelids pulled with tiredness. "If I were to hide in the ventilation system again to get some sleep, do you think you would be able to wake me up a bit before we're supposed to meet with the others?"

This much exhaustion was something he felt like Kix would be glad to know about. Aside from the hunt and spars every now and again, the general hadn't really gotten up to anything too strenuous. The fact that she was needing to steal naps now was supposed to be worrying.

But Generals were never quite right in the head. And Fives knew that all Kix would try to do would just be to stick a needle in her neck to force her to sleep; as unorthodox as it may have been, at least this general was trying to sleep. Generals Skywalker and Kenobi were the kind that would push through and collapse when their bodies couldn't take any more.

"Same place?" he asked, watching on as Tsume raised one hand to rub at the side of her neck.

"I'd rather be closer to more action, but wouldn't want to bother any of the men." she admitted in a murmur, and Fives' brain got to turning again.

Kiba had made it more than clear on plenty of occasions that he was having a lot of fun in the barracks because he was surrounded by so many bodies- he'd mentioned at one point that it reminded him of 'back home'.

Even though they didn't know that much about either Inuzuka, the vod had managed to learn little things here and there. And one of the most important things was that they seemed to have a very strong pack-like structure for their social composition.

"If you'd like, sir, you could take up a post in the system closer to the barracks."

This was... somehow even more surreal than having found his general napping within the vents.

He had always been the kind to roll with the punches life threw his way, though, so he didn't bother to think too hard on what this was or what it could have meant.

A small frown came onto her lips then, face seemingly souring.

Fives didn't allow himself to wonder if he had said the wrong thing because he knew he had not. He could leave the worrying over everything outside of his power to Rex; he'd much rather leave the worrying to things that were in his control.

"You tell no one about this." she sounded as if she had wanted to make that sound threatening; Fives didn't bother with letting her know that she had failed.

"Of course, sir."

True to his word, Fives woke the general up when they received word that the 104th was nearby and preparing for the exchange.

When she awoke this time, it was with the alertness he had come to expect from her; even though there were still noticeable dents below both of her eyes, it wasn't as noticeable as it had previously been. She first stretched, then bounced up and down for a couple of seconds, and finally thanked him before asking if he wished to accompany her.

Fives had wanted to see what craziness would be stirred up between the 501st and 104th, so it wasn't like he had a real reason to tell her no.

On their walk there, the general asked about the 104th, their general, what they were like, what kind of missions they usually completed. He answered as best he could, sprinkling his own opinions in every now and again because he couldn't be bothered to stay purely objective when speaking with a general he had caught napping and then helped get some more unorthodox sleep.

"So this Plo Koon's one of the good ones?"

He shrugged noncommittally, "That's what his boys say. But they're not all one hundred percent there, if what Commander Cody says is true."

"Oh?" Tsume sounded positively curious.

He smiled softly at this before he answered with, "In the GAR, there're battalions that are well known for being filled with wild cards. The 501st is one of those, the 104th being another."

He understood why Rex was so cautious about the new general and not-quite commander. He understood that natborns were much more dangerous than what they were worth when it pertained to the rest of the clone troopers; it only took one bastard in a high-enough position to get a brother decommissioned or re-educated. Wariness was their way of life whenever they were around those that weren't vod'e.

But Tsume Inuzuka struck him as the kind of natborn that didn't really give a shit about what others thought. She clearly had enough sense to worry about her men; and she had flat out told him that he hadn't had to help her get some more sleep.

"That means I should get along swimmingly with them, then." when he glanced at her, it was to find that her lips were pulled into an excited smile- all sharp teeth and alertness. Yup, there was no more tiredness pulling at her. "Think we'll have enough time to put on a bolo-ball game? It wouldn't be unfair for me to play if the other team's got a Jedi in their ranks."

Now that was quite a good idea.

He'd be able to rake in a lot credits if he played his cards right, too.

"Can't promise you anything." he stated simply, "But that'd be fun to see."

Many of the people that left their planet to then come back had come back with tales about how Onsei wasn't right in quite a large part of the galaxy. Tsume had worried over what this could have meant, but hadn't bothered with actively philosophizing over what it may have meant.

The fact of the matter was that Onsei felt sick to her. The farther away they traveled from her home, the harder it became to properly hear. Her sense of smell was supposed to be fine, but Inuzuka relied on Onsei just a little bit more than they relied on scents. So not being as connected to Onsei meant that their noses just wouldn't be as sharp.

There was nothing she could do to fix this issue. She could do her job, it just took more concentration on her part than what she was willing to admit.

Onsei's sickness should be dealt with by the Jedi, though. There was no way that they weren't being just as affected, if not more affected, by this.

Instead of lazy and happy, Onseif felt sluggish and unwell. It still walked around the hangar space, going from trooper to trooper with the care it had demonstrated so many times before, but it was at a pace that made a childish feeling of despair grip Tsume's soul.

The last time she had felt Onsei this incapacitated... had been never.

And she couldn't really say much.

This was the darkness that loomed over the galaxy that she had heard a traveling force sensitive once mutter about as he and his nomadic people had taken momentary refuge in Konoha. It was a stifling thing, thick as smog, that lay over every single living being and impacted them. It truly was like seeing a blanket of shadows, sheer as it may have been, covering everything around her.

No wonder the Republic was slowly but surely losing ground in this fight. If this is what their Jedi were constantly having to work through; if this had been affecting for longer than the war had been going; if there was no end in sight... Tsume had half a mind to make the decision to work on figuring this out and solving it herself.

But the 501st came first right now.

The men worked quickly but efficiently. Onsei tried to dance around them, tried to bring soothing comforts, but not even Rex seemed able to feel its intervention.

She was beginning to create a hypothesis within her mind about just what was going on with Rex and how he had reacted to Onsei back home. But she'd need to observe for a bit longer, just to make sure that her mind was not playing tricks on her.

Jedi General Plo Koon came to greet her when there was almost nothing left to move, offering a genuine apology over not having been able to meet earlier. He had been called for an immediate debrief from the mission they had just recently completed by the Chancellor and "One must make accommodations for these matters."

Tsume offered a curt bow before scoffing at the sentiment, "Politicians have little to care about in the war effort as long as they stay in their precious towers of glass."

That was a cornerstone of Inuzuka philosophy. Those that fought battles were the ones that needed to know everything. Those that did not could wait.

Plo Koon belonged to an alien species she could not remember the name for, even though she could remember that they were some hardy bastards. His overall stance spoke of the kind of serene calm Jedi aspired to reach, but there was a looseness to his words that spoke about that calm nature being more than just one-dimensional peace.

Onsei's purr, soft and subtle as it may have been, wrapped around him as he spoke up, "I am pleased to hear that Little Soka's assessment of your straightforwardness was not an exaggeration."

For just one second, the tone sounded as if it was condescending. Then Tsume noticed just how happy Onsei felt around the male and she found that she needed to quickly chide herself. This is why Onsei was important. She was a naturally combative person, she searched around for moments of confrontations even if they didn't exist.

Still, she was quick to move the conversation along. "Good kid." she acknowledged, but wasn't about to enter another round of exchanging stories about the padawan. Ever since she had mentioned to Fives that it might be a good idea to get to play bolo-ball, she had been eager to get to play it. "Tell me, Master Jedi, are you one of the boring kind? Or one of the fun ones?"

"I would consider myself quite fun." was the immediate retort, earning a muffled swoon from Onsei.

Nestled around Plo, it seemed just a little less lethargic, just a tad more alert. He was a bit of a glowing beacon, so it wasn't that hard to understand why this was a truth.

"Good." the smile that came onto her was as vicious and sharp as was necessary to make it seem dangerous, just marginally not-quite deranged. "Pick a team. We're playing bolo-ball and putting on a show for the rest of the men."

The skin over his goggles lifted in that way that spoke of surprise in humanoids, but his overall mood continued to be rather sedate and relaxed.

Good, she found herself thinking.

"Seeing how you are still getting to know the vod'e in the 501st, Tsume-dono, I believe it only fair if we were to trade battalions. I know my men and they know me after countless battles, but I am not as well versed with your own."

"Alright. Would you trust me to pick your squad or would you rather do it yourself?"

"I, of course, trust you."

"And I you."

Plo Koon made the great mistake of assigning Commander Wolffe to be her second in command for the game.

Wolffe was ferocious, determined, and a complete softy. During the course of the game, whenever it came down to him having to do anything in Plo Koon's direction, the man did a good job of suddenly becoming blinded and getting hit with the dumbest tackles.

His playing style was aggressive and fast, just like the rest of his men's, and that had been perfect for her. Weakness for Jedi General notwithstanding, Wolffe was ruthless. He barreled over any brother in blue armor that did not get out of the way in time and the rest of his men took him as point, mimicking such ruthlessness.

Tsume relished in being able to properly use her legs to chase Plo Koon down, just like she thrived off of the fact that she hadn't had to lessen her momentum when she went to tackle him. The kel dor (Onsei had finally reminded her) reciprocated with an ability to grab her and just pin her whenever she was running with the ball that kept the game even enough.

The men of the 501st were nothing to scoff at, adapting their playing style to mimic Plo Koon's 'flow like water' way of existing, even with a bit of rust on it.

Kiba cheered for the boys in blue from the sidelines, as loud as she was, and she wasn't the least bit bothered. The Wolfpack had quickly learned her name and begun to chant it along with the names of the men fighting by her side.

"Good tackle, Wolffe." she clapped his shoulder with enough force to make him stumble forward just a little, but he nodded back at her with glee that was blinding. "One more score, boys, and I'll be buying the round of drinks for the next time we're stationed together!" she called to the rest of her team.

Amidst all of the panting and huffing they were doing, they were able to unite for a cheer that made all of the blood pumping in her veins flow faster.

The way the Wolfpack worked was so very Inuzuka that it hadn't been hard at all to work with them. She barked at Comet, Boost, and Sinker to tighten their defenses, this was their last chance to prove that the Wolfpack was the better Battalion.

"Hey, you're still stationed with the five-oh-first, ma!" Kiba's loud shout pierced through the cheers of the spectators and she quickly turned to find him.

This sporting event had been moved to be hosted in the 104th's cruiser, seeing how there was no feasible way to make enough space in the hangar of the Resolute with all of the supplies they had moved there previously. There were still a few ships scattered in the space, but all had been moved out of the way to leave enough empty space for a playing field.

On top of the ships were plenty of troopers that had been lucky enough to get up there to get the best view of the game. Above one those ships, seated beside a shocked looking trooper, was her runt. He was firmly in the 501st's side of the hangar, far away from any of the 104th.

Even though she was exhilarated from the large amount of fun she was currently experiencing, Kiba's shout did help sober her up ever so slightly. She looked over in the direction of Plo Koon, to where he was surrounded by her men, and she found a small smile appearing on her lips.

"Hey, five-oh-first!" she called, then the whole of the huddle was looking at her. "You're doing a great job!" she reassured them; the swelling of emotions that came from them was enough to make Onsei trill with happiness. "But you're still going down."

Rex in particular seemed to be elated. His eyes were narrowed with a hunter's focus, but the loose smile on his lips was not something he was able to cover up quick enough.

The crowd cheered and jeered, insults were hurled every which way, and then Tsume turned one final time to her team.

She clapped her hands on the shoulders closest to her, bringing the men beside her closer into the huddle, and told them the exact plan they would be running.

"Bruised, sir?"

Rex frowned at Fives' question, but didn't bother with answering it.

There was a reason he was not generally eager to throw himself into a game of bolo-ball between the men. Quite frankly, the only reason he had agreed to take part in it had been because Wolffe was going to play, no matter if it was right or not, and his men would struggle without him by their side.

"Next time, I'll make sure you're pulled into the general's plans." he vowed and Fives was such a little shit that he actually laughed.

"Oh, that sounds fun." the brat threw himself down onto the cot beside him and Rex winced as soon as his ribs were rattled by the sudden movement. "The five-oh-first is going to have to fight the Wolfpack again. We can't let them think this one time fluke means something."

He shook his head at how confident Fives sounded, but chose to focus on finishing applying the bacta to his ribs. Wolffe's tackles were more like vicious spears that left one rattled; Rex had made sure to take the brunt of them or throw General Plo Koon in his older brother's direction in an attempt to mitigate the kind of damage he could cause.

Fives fell silent as he allowed him to work.

Through the walls, he could still hear the excited buzzing of the rest of the 501st. Every now and again he heard a young voice that was not like the rest- Kiba fanning their flames.

They had lost by one point. That had stung. The men were already creating game plans that they weren't going to let the general get a hold of to make sure they would be able to play this exact game again but win.

Being invited to play by General Plo Koon had been... odd. But it had been with a gentle invitation that had made it clear he had an option.

He had only ever heard good things about Wolffe's general. But getting to work with him, even if it had been for a silly sporting event that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things... it put a lot into perspective.

They were lucky with the generals they had gotten, it seemed, no matter how much Skywalker made him want to pull out hairs he did not have at times.

"So, got any new thoughts on the General?"

With a soft sigh, Rex raised his free hand to Fives' head. He ruffled at his hair and Fives didn't bother with pushing him off- beside himself, he smiled.

"If she's as good on a battlefield as she was on the bolo-ball field, we'll be just fine."

"You're such a softy, Rexster."

"Don't make me kick you out, Fives. My ribs hurt."

~..~..~

Parsecs away, in hyperspace, aboard the 104th's ship:

Plo Koon: Wolffe? Rex is your younger brother, correct?

Wolffe: Yes, sir.

Plo Koon: Hmm (Internally contemplating the logistics necessary to adopt the whole of the 501st into the 104th in the case of anything happening to their commanding general).

Wolffe: ... (Already worrying over whatever insanity is going on inside Plo's head)

~.~

And this is the end for now! I think I'm going to attempt to write the whole of the next installment before posting it, just to make sure that everything's nice and understandable.

Hope y'all liked this!