Tsume had gotten there just in time to see Ibiki break up the fight. She paused under the tree, Tori stopping beside her. They’d both caught the sudden rise in voices, the peak of anger-scent over everything else, but it seemed they weren’t needed.

Tsume crossed her arms over her chest, watching intently, while Tori leaned against the tree.

In the water, Ibiki was getting splashed by Kiba on one side and Hana on the other, kids flailing around to align themselves with whichever child they liked best. Hana laughed and swam a little ways away under the liquid onslaught, but Kiba shoved his way closer, bellowing at the other kids, trying to organize them by sheer volume.

“Remind you of someone?” Tori said wryly.

Tsume looked at her older sister, then followed Tori’s gaze down to the creek. Kiba was clinging to one of Ibiki’s arms, attempting to hold it still — which wasn’t remotely working — and shouting, “Splash him now! Splash him now!” Two thirds of the Inuzuka children — older and younger than Kiba both — were doing their best to follow his wild and reckless command.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tsume said, and stifled the urge to grin when she heard Tori snort.

At least Ibiki was playing nicely. Playing dirty — chakra surged through the water, a small wave rising up and falling over the crowd — but nicely. She relaxed a little more, watching him.

“Come on.” Tori tugged at her. “Join them or leave them. They’re fine.”

Tsume hesitated. Upstream, a few adults had joined in, two Inuzuka — a man and a woman — bounced small children, while Yasuo ran interference for kids big enough to swim on their own, but not not big enough to join in the water fight. They did look like they were having fun.

Then she glanced back at Ibiki, hugely tall, shoulders promising that someday he’d be a monster of a man, though stripped down to his jeans he still carried the lankiness of youth. “No,” she said slowly. “I’ll go with you.”

“You really don’t like him, do you?” Tori walked away, shifting the baby in her arms.

Tsume made a non-committal noise.

“Any reason why?”

“He’s in T&I.” Surely that was reason enough.

Tori only rolled her eyes. “And you’re a tracker and an assassin. Yasuo led a unit and killed off dozens in the last war. Mother tore out several throats.”

Tsume gave her sister a dark look and didn’t answer. Behind her, though, children were still squealing with delight and she could hear Ibiki’s laughter. She relaxed a little more.