Shikaku swore quietly to himself.

He was really, really late. The kind of late that meant his new team had probably gone home in disgust and wouldn't be back tomorrow. And here he was, trying to be reliable(ish).

Chōza at least had the grace not to laugh at him too hard when Shikaku rushed out of the compound to beg him to feed the deer for him as he had other appointments. His father's laughter however wasn't turned down in the least, and echoed after him for the longest time.

Shikaku skidded to a halt at the entrance of the training field. There was only one kid on the field, dressed in bright green spandex. He was busy doing pushups, counting the number loudly- "Two-hundred thirty, two hundred thirty one, two hundred thirty two-"

Talk about someone who had too much energy. Shikaku frowned- eyes scanning the field. Something was off about this field. While there were marks of people entering and exiting, the tracks were over a day old. His Genin team that he was supposed to meet here hadn't appeared. Shikaku pulled out the scroll, checking it over as he expanded his range of nearby people. There was a watcher up in the trees- yeah, this kid was related to Ebisu somehow.

Shikaku carefully went over the teachers scroll in his hands. There, on the date written, it was spaced a little oddly. Like it had been crammed together. Don't tell him-Shikaku rubbed at the ink. It fell away. Father had changed the date. What was supposedly today would be tomorrow. Shikaku resisted the urge to swear unceremoniously at the sky, and settled with just a empathetic glare.

But- that child in the field was probably at least one of his students. He had already met Ebisu, Genma was probably still in the hospital, so that just left- Gai. The one who apparently liked challenging the Hatake child.

Shikaku ran his fingers though his hair, and wondered if he should go up and introduce himself or not.

Gai settled it when he went headfirst into the dirt and didn't get back up.

Shikaku cautiously approached, hyper-aware of the ANBU silently watching from the tree line. He crouched down next to Gai, lying face-first in the dirt. His face was a mass of dirt ingrained onto skin. Gai's chest rose and fell erratically. "Gai, how long have you been out here?"

The kid stirred, voice the slightest whisper, "Since after I challenged Kakashi."

Yesterday? Why hadn't he collapsed before this? Why hadn't anyone come and retrieved him? Well, it certainly ruled out him having any parents. And he probably had collapsed and just slept curled up on the ground. Shikaku considered leaving him there, but Gai's fingers twitched. "D-Don't mind me. I just gotta finish my two thousand pushups. I'm at a thousand two hundred thirty."

Never mind. Shikaku reached over to drag the mostly-unconscious child onto his back. Gai stirred weakly, a protest forming. He nearly hissed at the heat pouring from the small frame. Gai had been exercising long and hard, but now he needed to cool down.

"You need to get home and cool down."

The teachers scroll had Gai's address jotted down. He had only looked at it once, but it was more then enough. It was in the poorer part of town, not rougher- but poorer. Shikaku grumbled to himself, a steady stream of soft noises that seemed to relax Gai.

He tried silence, and was rewarded with fingers tensing along his shoulders, telling him that Gai didn't appreciate silence. So he filled it any way he could- mostly with ramblings about how troublesome and bothersome the last few missions were. Shikaku didn't talk about the fact that his newest 'mission' persay was the training and teaching of Gai. He doubted Gai even really registered he was there.

The house was small, but carefully tended too. There were no holes in the walls, no cracked windows, the walls were surprisingly clean of dirt even though there were a few pieces of graffiti scrawled on the white… But the lights were off, and the house was empty.

Shikaku tried the door knob. He wasn't sure if he was surprised, or resigned when the door easily gave way. It slowly, silently opened to a dark hallway. There was a pile of blankets, piled up at the end of the short hallway leading to the living room. It was left like a little nest of ugliness compared to how clean the rest of the house was. From that little nest, one could watch the door open.

There were two sets of shoes lined up next to the door way, one child size, the other adult. Shikaku kicked off his sandals, and shut the door behind him. Gai stirred on his back. "Is the kitchen near the living room?"

"… Yeah. If you let me down, then I'll go get you a drink as an apology for carrying me."

"No, you just stay still." Shikaku was already planning the ice bath that he was going to be dropping Gai into. Hopefully, and if his suspicions were right, there should be plenty of ice in the freezer.

Shikaku quickly stepped over the pile of blankets into the living room. His eyes scanned the room- there were two doors. One that led to the master bedroom, and one that led to the bathroom. The kitchen was part of the living room, really. The small refrigerator and freezer were pushed up right next to the stove.

Shikaku guessed the first doorway would lead him to the bathroom, and was gratified when his guess proved correct. The bathroom was small, but it had a tub. Shampoo, conditioner, and a men's razor lay on the sink countertop. Shikaku crouched next to the tub, noting how it was already twisted to the coldest setting one could possibly get. There was a folded up and thrown away ice-bag in the trash.

This was the house of a couple of taijutsu users alright.

Shikaku settled Gai into the tub, and started the cold water to fill up the tub. "Let's cool you down first."

Gai shivered, but didn't protest. Shikaku could swear he could see steam rising for a brief second. He stood, trusting that Gai wouldn't wander off, to go into the kitchen. He returned a minute later carrying a bag full of ice. He dumped it in. Gai mumbled, "You're doing it wrong."

Shikaku paused- and continued dumping in a bit more ice. He probably was doing it wrong. It was probably supposed to only be half the amount of ice, but Gai needed a quick cool down, a towel, and in another half-hour, or hour, a warm shower.

Gai sighed as he sank down among the ice-cubes. He rolled over, briefly burying his face in the cold water. Shikaku counted down the seconds- at fifteen seconds, he reached in to lightly touch Gai on the shoulder. Ga surfaced. "Yeah?" He sounded a little more awake now, but there was still a hazy quality to his eyes that Shikaku didn't like.

"Don't go under the water like that. I don't want you to drown."

Gai blinked, and slowly nodded. He sank into the water, slowly. But his nose remained above the water, letting him breathe, even as his head tilted back, further into the water.

Shikaku counted down the seconds until exactly ten minutes were up. "Gai, can you move? Ten minutes are up."

Gai didn't reply. Shikaku sighed, but didn't dare say his trade-mark 'How troublesome'. This wasn't so troublesome, as it was a teachers duty. Obviously Gai had no one else to do this for him. So he kept quiet, and stared at the razor sitting on the countertop. He pulled his eyes away, and reached into the tub to pull the sopping wet Gai out.

Gai squirmed as Shikaku dropped a towel on top of his head. "I'm not going to help with this just so you know."

Gai flushed bright red- the first expression that he'd seen yet. "I don't need you too! I'm perfectly fine on my own!"

"Good. I'll be in the living room then."

Shikaku pulled the plug to the tub, letting it drain as Gai slowly moved to start drying himself off.

Shikaku closed the bathroom door- and collapsed into a sitting position next to the low table. The sitting mats were stacked close at hand, but Shikaku ignored them to rest his forehead against the cool wood. It was no wonder nobody had stolen anything- mainly because there was nothing to steal. There were no pictures except for a few personal proudly displayed on the table. There was no furniture except for the table, stove, and refrigerator/freezer. Shikaku bet if he went into the bedroom there would only be a thin mattress, a pillow, and a few blankets. The entire place was empty and quiet.

Only recently quiet too, Shikaku thought as he glanced into the kitchen. Sitting on the stove was a pot. Next to the pot were dried, withered vegetables waiting to be cut and added to a stew that had probably gone bad by now.

Shikaku closed his eyes, and tried to turn off his brain from continuing on with its horrible conclusion. It didn't help.

Gai wrapped the towel around his body and considered just locking himself in the room and never coming out again. All of his actions recently had been extremely shameful. Being carried out by Ebisu and letting Genma get injured, challenging Kakashi most foolishly and selfishly to a match he hadn't been close to putting his heart in, and now a complete stranger had taken pity on him and taken him home.

Home was so very, very quiet.

Home was supposed to have Papa singing in the shower, yelling as he cut himself on vegetables, or snoring like a thunders rumble in bed. Instead it was silent, and Gai had found himself huddling under his Papa's blanket as he stared forlornly at a door that wasn't opening to let Papa in with a bag full of groceries or Papa coming in with a big, goofy smile saying that a mission had run late or… or…

Because Papa isn't coming back. The treacherous, traitorous thought that had been haunting his dreams had come back. Gai closed his eyes, curled up further underneath his towel. It was a thought he had tried to banish, reassuring himself that because no one had found Papa's body, he must've escaped and was merely hiding. When normal thinking didn't work, he'd gone out seeking fights and exercise.

Papa is dead. Papa wasn't dead, because he hadn't finished the stew, and Papa always said that you shouldn't waste food. They were too poor to waste food anyways.

The vegetables are withered, Papa's bed is cold, and the door is empty.

It had been a long, long four days since Gai had watched his father's back turn to deadly crimson and vanish. A long, long time of staring at an empty doorway waiting for someone who wasn't coming back.

Tears flooded Gai's eyes. Papa wasn't coming back, no matter what he told himself. Papa wasn't coming back, and Kakashi couldn't fight him until he felt better, because this wasn't something one could feel better about. Papa had told him, when they stood before Mother's grave, that grief took a long time to get over. Gai hadn't understood then, but now he could.

He couldn't wait for someone to pick his heart off the ground and dust it off to return to him. Nobody could do that. He could only get up on his own. But it hurt a lot, and Papa's stuff was everywhere, and he didn't want to touch it.

Gai sobbed into the towel without care, finally acknowledging his Papa's death.

When he came out, the living room was empty. He glanced around, scrubbing at tear stains. Whoever had helped him had left already. Not too surprising- it had been a long, long time. It was dark out, and he could distantly remember the late-morning sun on his skin when he had been picked up.

Gai straggled past the small table- if the man had taken anything, then Gai couldn't bring himself to care. He had been acting very un-shinobi like recently, and this person had taken him home. Who had done it anyway? It wasn't a member of ANBU- they wouldn't touch him. It must've been Minato-senpai, but Gai couldn't remember the face among the haze of heat and exhaustion. But Minato was one of the few adults he knew that didn't flat out ignore him.

Gai dragged his feet into the kitchen. He wasn't hungry, but he should probably eat. Eating was important. He hadn't touched the kitchen since Papa had… since Papa. Restaurants could fill him up, but he didn't have any money left. But he hadn't wanted to disturb the food left out waiting for Papa to cook either.

Gai stopped in the small kitchen, staring directly at the food left out. It was still there, but a piece of paper had been placed on top. Gai slowly took the paper, checking for any traps. There wasn't even a hint of chakra on the paper. There were no seals. Only beautiful, plain handwriting. It said, This is a bit much for just one person, isn't it?

Gai crumpled up the paper, and tossed it away. He glanced at the withered, dried vegetables- and tossed them out as well. No sense in keeping bad food. Gai settled the pot into the sink, and stared at the cleaned up kitchen for a moment.

Suddenly he didn't want to look at the kitchen any more tonight.

Gai turned away, exhaustion weighing heavily on his shoulders. He walked into Papa's bedroom- their bedroom really. Gai had often woken up, sprawled and drooling onto Papa's chest.

The futon was neatly made, and untouched. Gai crawled in, pulled the covers over his head, and stared into the darkness for a long, long time.

Ebisu stared at the scroll, stating that their small team had received another temporary teacher. Frankly, after their last temporary teacher, he didn't want any more. The name was tickling at the back of his memory, but it wasn't ringing too many bells.

"Yo, Ebisu, here early too I see." Genma slowly meandered his way up to Ebisu. He was still slumped slightly, but from what Ebisu could tell, the wound given to Genma on their desperate flight from the forest to Konoha was mostly healed from five days ago . Ebisu fidgeted for a moment- What to say next?

His first judgment of Genma was lazy. Lazy, unmotivated, and weak.

But when they ran into the Seven Swordsman, and Gai's father had appeared, it was Genma who managed to hold the team together. Genma who told Ebisu to grab Gai and carry him out. Genma who led them in the flight away, and did his best to protect the stunned, frozen Gai and Ebisu who was too burdened with carrying Gai to fight. The desperate flight wasn't very clear in his mind.

Genma had proven himself beyond Ebisu's snap judgment. So how did one apologize for looking down on someone else?

His father wouldn't.

But Ebisu was beginning to grow beyond just his father. Gai was supposed to be lazy as well. But Gai proved to be an inexhaustible machine that kept going long after Genma and Ebisu collapsed. He took Ebisu's training schedule in hand, piled it on top of his regular training, his challenges to Kakashi and punishment after, and the teachers training. Some of the teachers had been really tough too.

"Hi… Genma. Is your chest…" Ebisu trailed off, uncertain what else to say. His visit to the hospital had been mostly shoving the get-well melon at Genma and fleeing the room crowded with siblings. "I didn't ask yesterday how you were doing."

"The doctors told me I'm mostly good. Just don't overwork myself." Genma chuckled- Ebisu winced, sure that it was pulling at the wound, "I knew then they didn't know me, because if they did they wouldn't have worried."

Ebisu was worried though, because despite how it looked, Genma wasn't lazy at all. He was just smart in figuring out the least amount of work it took to do something really well. That was a different kind of smart then Ebisu who studied scrolls and books.

Genma glanced up at the blue sky, hands tucked into his pockets. "I'm surprised I haven't seen Gai around. He came to visit me at the hospital a few times, but he never stayed long."

Ebisu glanced down the road, where Gai usually did his morning laps down. It was part of the reason Ebisu had taken to waiting there- Genma's home wasn't too far, and Gai should be passing by soon. It was better that they went as a united force to the training field then separately. The ANBU members still shadowing them waiting to cut their throats would probably be more then glad to have them in one place.

Gai appeared down the road, a small dot moving at top speed.

"Looks like the loud mouth finally got here." Ebisu remarked out loud, pretending to ignore Genma's split-second sharp look. "What's that under his arm?"

Genma squinted off in Gai's direction. "Looks like paper of some kind. Huh. Ebisu- try not to be too harsh on Gai, okay?"

Ebisu didn't do comfort, or caring very well. He didn't do any emotion other then exasperation and annoyance well. "Can't promise anything."

"I think it's good enough for now that you're willing to try," Genma murmured softly, before raising his voice to drift towards Gai, "Gai! I see you're doing well!"

"Hello there my youthful friends!" Something twanged in Ebisu's mind, telling him that Gai's tone wasn't quite normal. He ruthlessly stomped down on the thought. Gai was trying, so he wasn't going to say anything. As Gai approached, Ebisu could see dark circles beneath his eyes- they wouldn't be noticeable on a normal person, but for Gai they stood out a bit like neon lights. "I see you are ready for exercise today!"

Genma shrugged lazily, mouth moving like he was chewing on his senbon. It was missing though, Ebisu suddenly noticed. "Not so much exercising for me though. The docs told me no senbon's either- they don't want me nicking myself."

"That is too bad Genma. Are you tired? If you ever need to be carried, just say the word and I will take you anywhere, anytime! Even if you were to call me in the dead of night with no stars and moon out I would still cross all of Konoha to repay you for the favor you did for me! You as well Ebisu! Never doubt that!"

"Who would want to be carried by you anyways?" Ebisu grumbled, unable to hold himself back. "What's with the paper Gai?"

Gai frowned for a brief moment, before charging on with a brilliant smile. "They are ads for homes! It occurred to me that it is most unyouthful to stay at my traditional home, especially as Genin are expected to move to their own homes to learn the art of trap setting!"

Well… that was… partially true.

Ebisu shoved out a hand. "Here, give it over to me, and I'll circle which ones you should take a look at first. You're doing this on a genin budget right?"

"Yes, but no need to worry! I am well versed in completing tasks in a genin's budget."

"Yeah, I just want to make sure you don't fall for any scams. Plus knowing you, you'll pick someplace that's too small. Have you looked into the Genin Housing situation? Those moving out from their parents can get a certain amount of funding as long as they prove that they're improving, which you are, and have a good chance of becoming a Chūnin at the very least within the next six years. You should be able to do it." Ebisu stopped- had he really…

Gai's eyes were swimming with unshed tears. Genma had the silliest looking smile plastered all over his face. "A-anyways! The point is, I'll take a look over the ads and tell you which ones are under the Genin Housing act and such!"

Gai hugged him. Ebisu felt his ribs cracking in response to the overpowering squeeze. "Thank you very much Ebisu!"

"Don't thank me! It's stupid if I have a teammate who can't fight because they couldn't sleep at night because of their neighbors!" They were skirting around the real reason- mainly too many memories at the old house- but Ebisu wriggled like an eel in Gai's arms. "Now put me down!"

Gai gave him another little squeeze, vertebrae groaned in protest at the motion. Then, he released Ebisu to allow the genin to drop to the ground. "Yes! I feel most revived today! Let us go to meet our teacher! I'm sure after our mission we will have plenty of time!" They usually did at least.

"Yep, let's get going."

Gai led the way, cheerfully and loudly talking. Whatever happened two days ago between he and Kakashi had apparently put him back on his feet. Or maybe Gai was just covering it up really well. Genma would know better than him- not that he could tell Genma that he was going to rely on him for anything.

Ebisu and Genma trailed along after him, Ebisu carefully matching his step to Genma's. It was the most effective way to tell when Genma's footsteps faltered slightly. When they faltered, Ebisu counted the number of steps it took to make them falter yet again. The intervals between were slowly shortening, but Genma was doing a pretty good job of keeping up.

Gai circled back around, staring at Genma. "Genma, do you need to go back to the hospital? Ebisu and I can handle the new teacher."

"No, no, I want to see what new teacher we have." Genma grinned- "Depending on how bad he is, then I might just quietly disappear for the rest of the week."

"Ha! That is most thoughtful of you Genma! I will be sure to visit you right after the mission while covered in the fruitful endeavor of the day so that you may enjoy it for yourself!" Gai's grin was blinding in the early morning light.

Ebisu smothered a laugh before it could bubble out of his lungs.

"Don't come visiting me covered in manure Gai."

Ebisu snickered.

Genma and Gai's head whipped around to pin him with different stares. Genma was a disbelieving, you-did-not-just-laugh. Gai was a trouble-making grin of Yes-He-Did.

Ebisu schooled his face to neutrality. "Let's get going. We don't want to be late to meet our teacher."

"Genma. I'll be sure to bring Ebisu along, even if I have to carry him."

"Don't do that! Do you want to give my younger siblings the wrong idea about the noble art of the ninja? What ever would they do if they knew most of our missions are spent in manure?"

Ebisu's mouth twitched as Gai dramatically pointed a finger at Genma. "Genma, stop being so selfish and cat-like! Think of your siblings that may be going into the academy one day! You need to let them know the dirty truth!"

Ebisu made a soft noise that was almost a giggle. Bad puns were always his weakness.

Genma and Gai were staring directly at him once more. "What?" Ebisu demanded defensively.

"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you smile." Genma said slowly, thoughtfully. "Now I have to wonder- what brought it about?"

Ebisu looked away, shoved his sunglasses as far as he could up his nose and announced nervously, "We should get going! Otherwise we're really going to be late."

"Hey- do you think… Ebisu likes puns?"

Ebisu started jogging ahead. Gai easily reached out, and picked him up. Gai may have been an entire two years younger; he also had far more muscle mass. "Now, now Ebisu- it's not nice to leave us behind!"

"Wha- wait a minute! Put me down you lug-brained idiot! Put me down-"

Genma held up a kunai, casually inspecting it for dirt. "I kunai help but wonder what you're thinking, trying to hurry off like that. It's a sharp pain in my heart you know."

Ebisu's mouth twitched- he held a hand up to his mouth, embarrassed by the lack of his control. But Genma was really, really good at targeting his weakness when it came to puns. Gai's grin was like a cat that caught a canary.

They were going to be late.

It was totally worth it though, to hear Gai laugh freely. Lines that didn't belong on Gai's face were finally beginning to fade slowly. Nothing was as fine as they were pretending, but it was enough for now, Ebisu thought.

a/n: Thank you reviewers. I actually got the aftermath this time. I decided to try a different way then normal for the mourning period. Hopefully it still works.