A Family Reunion? Why Yes, Yes It Is.~ [Open]

So this was a long time coming, and it was definitely needed. It had been, well, years really, since any of them had really seen each other outside of meetings regarding politics or training, and it was time to just come together and hang out for once. A sort of mini-vacation; what did the civilians call it? Staycation? Whatever; he was going to be the one to host this time around; it was just easier to use his house versus say his son's, or his daughter's, or ignoring the way the air wreaked of ozone at the Bastard's house or his daughters; or really anywhere else. They where all immune to the smell of dog by that point, especially since about half of them where dogs anyway.

Hell, he'd even cleaned up and sent the roaming packs of clan dogs back to the main compound, only his dogs and his kid's dog where floating around now; leaving plenty of room for the random other beasts that where part of the family. It was always interesting to see dragons, dogs, a kangaroo, and whatever Roku was all lounging around a backyard fire pit like it was nothing special. Good times, good times. He was outside in said backyard, a roaring fire going in the depression that was decked out in an epic seating area and open grill; organized like one of those 'grill your own meat' restaurants downtown. Awesome places, but he could do better. Hell, he'd taken Yuki and Aki out hunting and brought in fresh meat; setting it up on those awesome metal skewers along with enough seafood and vegetables to make everyone happy. He was primarily carnivorous, same as the rest of his clan, but he respected that not all people where, and he wasn't going to be a raging dick munch about that. For all the fighting him and the lightning Bastard did, they where good friends, had been for years by that point, and he and Mr Lion Fucker had been best friends for longer than either of them cared to admit, and they fought like an old married couple; which got a hell of a giggle out of the kids and Michi, when he was around. Sad that Kenta had more time to just hang out than Michi did; but that was the price that was paid for being in charge of the ANBU intelligence division; with Michi routinely gone for days on end it left the retired Kenta way to much time to just be a grumpy old man with his few drinking buddies.

It was plenty early in the day, and the invitation had been for 'whenever you show up, just make it after noon", as was his normal MO for things like this; he rather enjoyed sleeping in, and it would give whoever was on duty today a chance to get some paperwork done before sneaking away.

Oh yes. Time off was time off, and he was not about to miss a chance to just let loose and hang out with the people he actually liked. He loved his people, sure; but he was never the type to put an entire village before his actual family, and it had been way too long since they'd all gotten together outside of work. Happy times where happy; and he wanted happy times. He was all kinds of ready to just relax and talk and catch up; without the bullshit pressures of being in charge of things. Mini-vacation time; woo!~

Shiroimono had come ahead of him; he'd darted into the office for a few hours to finish some quick paperwork and she hadn't felt like going with him; so her running toward the gate was the alert that he'd arrived home. Well, his childhood home; he had his own apartment and all that now, and he loved it well enough; that didn't stop him from enjoying being here. Slipping in through the gate, he crossed the wide patch of grass separating the fence from the area that was set up for entertaining. Shiroi about knocked him clean over when she got the chance, and he had to whistle a command to calm her down; the sharp sound causing a sleeping Yuki to lift her head and start wagging her tail. Yuki and Aki where sprawled over each other in a way that made him think that Shiroi had been part of that pile a few minutes beforehand, and had only gotten up to greet him.

"Afternoon, Dad. Anyone else here yet?"

His nose told him the answer, but he felt like asking anyway; even if it wasn't needed. He flopped over onto the cushions that lined the bench that was built into the depressed seating area slash grilling spot; grabbing a good sprawl before anyone showed up and grabbing at one of the skewers of raw deer steak. He was a dog, even if he wasn't a classic Inuzuka or Ookamizuka; but he still loved his meat crying if possible. Shiroi jumped up and sprawled over him the moment he was comfortable, settling into her favorite position in the world.

Temaki had pulled some strings; and by strings she meant an elaborate kidnapping attempt. There was no way she was going to let Aella be stuck up in a stuffy hospital while the rest of the family was having a little 'staycation'. So, she had set off a little distraction that had cleared the halls of the particular floor Aella was on, made sure the medical personal and Aella's busy mother were paying more attention to it then her, and then snatched the little bugger up and 'escaped' out the window. All in all it was a good plan. Complete with a clean and clear getaway that would make anyone in her line of work envious.

Her distraction? Well that was the fuzzy giant ball of orange and red fur that was running up behind her, tongue hanging out of his mouth and looking pleased as punch with himself. Temaki grinned as she threw a sideways glance at Blast and then hopped over the fence and into the yard: Aella safely cradled in her arms. Once they were clear of the fence she set the girl down and patted her on top of her head.

”Let's not tell anyone how you got out this time, 'kay? I really don't want your mother on my butt again.”, Temaki commented with a chuckle. Blast looked between Aella and Temaki and then lowered his head with a playful whine: obviously he didn't want Aisling angry with him either. He then promptly jumped up, licked Aella's face, and wandered over to the pit: he obviously wanted food.

Temaki just shook her head and followed him, finding a place nearby and sprawling out comfortably. ”I have brought the prisoner with me.. I already tickle tortured her.”, Temaki commented with an obviously playful grin on her face.

Aella was amused: being 'sprung' from her 'prison' in the most elaborate of methods – complete in her little bunny covered dress. It was fun, to say the least, at least up until Temaki had decided to tickle her nearly to death on their way over to Kenta's house. Still, once they were over the fence Aella stopped looking backwards. She had half expected half the medical staff to be chasing them down, but there was no one there other then Blast who was running to catch up to them and looking like he had a grand time being the distraction.

Once she was put down on the ground she was licked by Blast and simply returned the gesture by licking him back: she was five after all, and more adorable then most puppies. She watched Blast and then Temaki head over to the pit and followed behind them laughing a bit. ”That was fun, but my mommy might whoop your butt later, TemTem!”

She wandered not over towards the fire, or at least not directly, but instead over to Kenta. Upon reaching him her arms went up and she looked at him expectantly: obviously she wanted hugs and attention. ”Ken'a she tortured me! You should go beat her up. I'd do it, but she's too big.”, she said with a giggle.

"That's your answer, Hiro."

The influx of people and dogs was welcome, even if it was small for the moment. It just made the place feel better for all of them; they where pack animals after all, human or otherwise. Aki jumped up when Blast appeared, racing over to start a wrestling match with the other massive dog for the shits and giggles. Kenta'd been standing under the shade of the little porch that jutted out from the edge of the house, the rest of the yard was either shaded by the massive trees, or open to the sun; and as good as he had been feeling lately, he didn't feel like making himself sun sick too early. Then again, there where clouds sneaking in slowly but surely, he could feel the rain storms coming from the east deep in his old bones. By the time the rain got here it'd be well into the next morning, but the clouds where building ahead of the storms and helping to keep it a bit cooler than normal for this time of the year.

Reaching down, he scooped up Aella and launched into a spinning dance of sorts; allowing her to do the flying thing for a while before jumping lightly and landing comfortably on one of the large cushions in the perfect position to have her landing cushioned by his chest and allowing for sprawling cuddles and such. "Patience, little one. We'll get her later.~" Oh, the spoiling was real.

"One day, you're going to get caught doing that.~" Telepathy for the win, seriously. It was one hell of a perk of being half Kamizuki; he might not be anywhere near as strong as a normal Inuzuka, but he had some serious mental powers, and having a shared mental bond with his siblings was lovely. Not that his father hadn't taught the entire family and then some how to use telepathy, but that was beyond the point. He shoved a whimpering Shiroi off of his body; she hated it when he started moving, but he felt like sitting up, and she really could benefit from hanging out with the rest of the dog. "Shiroi, go play. You can cuddle with me later."

Clingy dog; she'd bonded with him late in his life, and long after she'd grown up out of her puppy years, so he was making up for lost time by being hyper clingy. He didn't mind, most of the time, but he wasn't going to just lay there for the entire party. "You make her sick, we're going to throw down old man." He was playing, his dad was all but immune to his mental tricks, and a metric fuckton faster than he ever could be; although he had much better endurance than Kenta did now a days. Sad, but true; and the only way he could ever last in a fight again him. Kenta was still the strongest of the pack, even retired and old and all that jazz.

"So Temaki, where's your kangaroo at? Haven't see him in a few weeks. You lock him up somewhere again?" He was joking, of course; if he really cared he'd just poke around in her mind a bit and find out; but that was rude, and he didn't do things like that to his sisters and cousins and people he cared about.

Temaki snorted as Hiroyuki's voice filled her head. ”Let them catch me~ That'd make me all the more fun.”, she was being playful at best. She wouldn't harm innocent people on purpose – though, she had a extreme dislike of all of the doctors in general. Aella didn't like their poking and prodding, and Temaki was anything if not protective of her family, especially those who young or weak to defend themselves properly. If it wasn't for Aisling and Amaya she likely would have attacked the medical staff years ago.

She then glanced over to Kenta and stuck her tongue out playfully. She knew eventually Aella would get her back for the tickle torture; likely by doing the same thing back to her. She wouldn't admit it, but Temaki was just as ticklish as her.

Her attention then shifted over to Blast as their little wrestling match was underway. To Hiroyuki she spoke with a grin, ”Eh, I'm sure he'll show up eventually; the days still young. He's been busy lately with Coen and Roku, but I didn't give him the heads up of this little get together. Jinx is likely going to stop by soon enough, too. If anyone can peel her away from that new book she has. I swear to god I don't know what the girl's face looks like anymore: all I ever see is book.”

Aella giggled with glee as she was spun; far too excited and happy to even feel the smallest hint of sick. She sprawled comfortably on Kenta's lap after he sat on one of the cushions, still giggling away. When Temaki stuck her tongue out she returned the gesture. ”Not very scary, TemTem!”

Then, as she heard that Jinx was coming she gasped and clapped her hands happily: given that Jinx was closer to her age it was always nice to see her – not that she minded hanging out with the older members of the family of course. She was also excited to hear that Karu, Coen, and Roku might be showing up as well. ”Yay! More family!”

-----

”So... who thought it was a good idea to sneak my little girl out of the hospital this time, hm?”, suddenly came Aisling's voice. Her voice was stern, but it didn't match the amusing glint in her eyes nor the smile she was trying very hard to suppress behind a straight face as she made her presence known by walking into the yard.

The closer she got the more her smile surfaced, as well as a little chuckle. ”Don't worry, Aella.. you don't have to go back. I cleared it; so long you remain with a member of the family at all times you don't have to go back. You just need to keep close so someone has an eye on you, though. Kay?” She neared Temaki and promptly messed with her already messy hair before taking a seat next to her and elbowing her playfully in the ribs. ”Just so you know... next time you need to hide that smell of explosives... I was able to follow it the whole way here.”, she said with a wicked grin.

------

Aella, meanwhile, was grinning from ear to ear at the news that she didn't have to go back. It meant of course, without her mother actually saying the words, that she was getting better. Better enough to be at home, or at the home of one of her many family members. She clapped her hands excitedly and then hugged the nearest person in her excitement: Kenta. She was far too excited to put her emotions into words, and instead just seemed to radiate pure happiness.

At least you see her. As long as I've known her father, the only time you see him is when he's in the hospital, stuffing his face, about to light someone on fire, or in the middle of a cloud of flying debris. That Uchiha fixation problem runs strong in them." Not a bad thing, really; just a little annoying sometimes. At least with little Jinx she was doing something that would benefit her highly in the years to come; she was a brilliant little child and only getting smarter as the days passed. They needed brains like that, to balance out the brute strength that was far more common in the ninja ranks.

Speaking of tickling... he started doing just that to the little pup he was holding; he was going to keep Aella so happy that her body wouldn't have the chance to start feeling sick; she had so little time to just be a kid, and he knew how absolutely horrible it was to lose your childhood to things you couldn't do anything about; he'd spent plenty of his childhood in the hospital deathly ill, so he could understand her need to just play and be normal, and it made his almost fervent need to spoil her rotten excusable. Almost. He still got called on it sometimes, but meh, alpha's prerogative.

"You know that if we break her out she's not leaving our sight. Come, sit and hang out. We all needed the vacation, hence this. If we get lucky we might even score a lion showing up. I know he got the message, so he might just remember before we run out of meet and booze and tea."

"Sounds like him. That boy does not know how to relax. Then again, I shouldn't talk; I can be just as bad." Oh well, if he showed, he showed; if not, it wasn't a huge problem. He'd hunt him down eventually anyway, he needed to work out a new diet for Shiroi, she was starting to put on weight weirdly, and he knew she wasn't pregnant; so he wanted to get it under control before it became a problem. She was hyper and active enough as it was, so there was no reason for her to be gaining weight like that. Given Karukaya was one of the best vets in the village... yeah, it was good he was family now.

"I've told her about the explosive smell for years; but she's so nose-blind to it by now that she'd never notice it. Hell, the only reason any of us smell it is because we spend just enough time off doing our own stuff to not totally acclimate to it. Even dogs get nose-blind after awhile, contrary to popular belief." He reached for a pile of the meat and vegetable skewers, tossing them onto the grill plate that was covering the roaring flame so that they'd start cooking. Might as well get that going, since his dad was being a grandpa and not paying any attention anymore.

Temaki nodded to Hiroyuki: she couldn't help but agree. She felt that Karukaya definitely worked too hard – though if she was honest she was no better. She'd be gone days on end if she could get away with it, but as it was she'd likely be hunted down and dragged back if she tried. Work could definitely be a distraction.

She then snorted at their comment about her natural scent. ”I can't help it if I smell awesome. Besides, that was still an awesome breakout no matter how you put it.”, she said as she reached over and ruffled Aisling's white hair. Playful Temaki was definitely playful; but she would behave herself, mostly, for now.

”So, I'm surprised they actually let you out of the hospital, or did you escape too?”, she asked Aisling with a sly grin.

Her eyes then darkend at the mention of actually getting to see Jinx. She didn't comment on it – she wouldn't ruin the spirit of this little get together – but had Jinx' mother had anything to say about it that wouldn't happen. Still, it was a thought Temaki was able to shrug off fast enoough as she heard Aella's happy giggling. ”Tickle her too much she might explode.”

Aisling frowned as her hair was ruffled and stared daggers at Temaki: playfully. The pair would likely end up rough housing and playfully fighting before the day was out with the way things were going. ”Actually, if you must know they booted me out. They were tired of seeing my face.”, Aisling responded as she reached over to poked Temaki on the nose.


Aella giggled as she was tickled, squirming and wiggling as she got red in the face. ”No, no, no! No, no, no! Don't tickle me!”, she said amidst all of the giggling. She then looked over to Temaki and gasped. ”I don't want to explode! Explosions are loud!”

Jinx had been positioned on the roof for a minute or two, simply listening to the playful banter of some of her family. She had been feeling down lately, in a pretty bad mood, but just listening to them brought a smile to her face. Aella was giggling up a storm thanks to Kenta tickling her – and the fact that she was out of the hospital was enough to be excited about, Temaki and Aisling were likely going to end up fighting sooner or later given the playful tension building among them, and chances were her father and several others were going to arrive too.

Jinx stood up, book still in front of her face, and jumped off of the roof. She landed in a crouch on the grass, not missing a beat when it came to reading her book, and stood up. She crossed the grass slowly, reading and then glancing up every so often so that she didn't fall or trip over someone. ”I'm here...”, she muttered to announce her arrival.

She glanced over to Aella, kind of half expecting to be tackled. As it was Frost and Zoe who had been lurking nearby since Aisling arrived, came barreling towards her.

"Tickle monster doesn't like being tickled? Since when?~" He kept up the tickle assault for a bit longer before giving her a break and flicking his wrist in that way that caused a new toy to appear from inside of his sleeves. He was going to keep up the spoiling as much as he could until it was time to do other things. "Well, if tickles are out of the question, then go practice your aim using this.~" It was a little water gun, those 'cheap' looking ones that some of the kids used; however this one had a bit of secret to it. He'd had a special water seal placed inside the reservoir of it, which caused it to constantly refill at a faster rate that it emptied, meaning that it never ran out of ammo, and was always at a good pressure. The perfect thing to play with, around a bunch of water dogs.

Ah, more family; even better. The more that appeared, the happier his grumpy old butt got. "Jinx dear, we need to trade books later. I raided the library for some goodies the other day; and I think you still have my copy of Fundamentals of Ninjutsu."

"Awesome is a relative term.~" He was being playful more than anything, he wasn't a massive dick like his father was, but he could do the playful rubbing just as well as anyone else could. "I'm surprised they took so long to kick any of us out this time." It was a pretty valid statement too, they where all specialists in their various fields, and tended to be the ones putting in way too much time into their work when left to their own devices.

Seeing his father handing out water guns made him worry a bit; now it wasn't that big of a deal to be firing water around this group, even the non-water masters where used to being soaking wet all the time; but he sensed... a lot of sore eyeballs later. Aimed or not, the way luck was, someone was gunna get hit in the eye if water guns where fired. Law of averages dictated it. "So... you better have a mountain of water balloons hidden, or a lake we can dick around in, cause I don't plan on retaliating to a toy gun with an actual water gun."

Temaki playfully rolled her eyes at Hiroyuki and then turned her attention onto Kenta as he tickled Aella. The sound of her giggling was infectious, and it brought a smile onto Temaki's face. That was, until she saw the water gun that Kenta produced for the child: things were definitely going to get wet. This caused a more evil of a grin to spread across Temaki's face: she didn't mind water, but Jinx likely would considering her face was still in a book.

”Jinx, you might want to start running down.. between the dogs about to tackle you and Aella you're going to be in for a world of slobber and water.”, Temaki called out playfully.

Aella giggled as she was tickled more and then squealed with delight at the water gun. A mischievous grin spread across her face as she took it and hopped lightly off of Kenta's lap. She glanced towards Jinx who was reading a book and looked to about to be tackled by Frost and Zoe, then to Temaki, her mother, and finally Hiroyuki. And then, very slowly, her attention shifted to the dogs. Giggling to herself she took off running, aiming at any and anything fuzz covered! She fired while giggling up a storm. ”Gonna getcho!”

Aisling watched, laughing to see how happy and excited that Aella was. She was glad to see her daughter have a chance to let loose and just have fun – she definitely needed a break. All of that time in the hospital wasn't fair to her, so it was good that she got to be a child for a while.

Jinx looked up from her book once more to Frost and Zoe. Thankfully, they didn't try and tackle her and instead just circled around her, licking at every and anything they could reach. Giggling up a storm she covered her face with the book and shook her head. ”Mercy! Mercy! No more doggy kisses!” Of course, this didn't work quite as quickly – though Frost and Zoe did let up after a moment or two.

She then turned her attention over to Kenta, dodged the dogs that had all but surrounded her, and wandered over. She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the book he had mentioned, with a grin. ”I remembered as I was leaving, actually. Else I woulda been here sooner.”