Hands stuffed loosely in his pockets, Asuma sauntered down Konoha's main street, checking out what had changed. Five years wasn't a whole lot--especially if you looked at it on a cosmic scale--but dumping a demon fox (a demon fox!) on a small town went a long way to changing its architecture.

The south-side corner market was gone. He'd liked those dumplings.

Canal street was still thriving, though. And the Fujoki bakery. (Which still did the best waffles in town.) The river looked about the same. The parks never changed. The monument was about as gloomy as ever...

He glanced up, dark eyes drifting over the weathered faces of past and present rulers, and tossed off an ironic salute to the one with the beard. Morning, ya old bastard.

The wind swept down, flipping his hair into his eyes and blowing travel-dust off his clothes. He'd been home two days already, maybe it was time to think about getting a new shirt--or a haircut.

A snarl, a crash, and a litter of tableware flying across the street interrupted his vague plans. He sidestepped a fleeing civilian, watched a ballistic fork ricochet off a nearby building, and lifted an eyebrow as two howling, scuffling people flailed their way through a street-side diner's patio furniture, upsetting tables and flinging lethal killing intent around. An older male and a teenager, it looked like. Behind them, a dark tangle of flying, snapping fur suggested two dogs were doing their best to either kill each other or build up some truly fantastic foreplay.

Asuma leaned his weight thoughtfully on one hip.

Dogs, street fighting, bright red tattoos--had to be Inuzuka. And that nice cafe owner with the great curves was looking a little upset...

He flashed a broad smile at her, and slapped his hands together. Chakra shimmered briefly between his palms. Then moisture yanked right out of the air, formed itself into a tidy sheet above the scrapping dog-people, and dropped like a rock.

Which accomplished exactly nothing.

Asuma sighed, resigned himself to getting damp, and leapt over the rail before the older male did something stupid--like killing the teenager. He grabbed the bandaged kid by the collar with one hand and hauled him out from under the older male, lobbed a table at the dogs with the other hand, and met the charging Inuzuka missing one earlobe with a warning heel to the chest.

"Dude, be reasonable, you're in the middle of the stre--hey!"

The teenager had bitten him.