Izuna:

"You sure you're all right?" Cassandra asked me from the passenger seat of the car which Keith was driving.

I snivelled and dried my nose.

"Come on, tell me", Cassandra said.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Izuna, we've been friends for almost eight years. I know you well enough to understand there's something you want to say."

"Oh..." I said.

"Come on, spit it out, kid," Keith, who was eight years older than me and Cassandra, who also was his wife, said. He was very fatherly and easy to like.

"Could I..." I took a deep breath. "Could you drive past some some sort of drive-through and buy me a milkshake? Please?"

I happily slurped the salted caramel milkshake in the backseat of police car thirty-four.

"You feel better?" Cassandra teased.

"Oh, shut up!"

We arrived at the house, and it looked like an absolute dream. It was a large, white wooden villa with a red roof tiles and a big garden. As we parked the car in the driveway, the children were already standing at the fence, eagerly looking at the sirens and whooping as Keith played with the sound of them.

I stepped out of the car, my half-drunk milkshake still in hand.

I heard the cheers and happy shouts of the children, and they waved to us like mad. We waved back, and I felt a warmth surge through my body and to my heart. You're aging, old man, I told myself. I had never been affected by the presence of children before, but now... Had Emil wanted children when he was my age? He would've been a great father. What a waste... I wonder if we could have started a-

Stop it!! Goddamn it, stop it! He's dead!

I took a slurp of milkshake to prevent the tears building up behind my eyes from falling.

We went past a pond with koi-fish to the fence, and was let in by the man who must be Ali.

"Welcome! Thank you so much for visiting us. The children haven't talked about anything else all week!"

We were given a tour around the house, and it was magnificent. Some of the older teenagers politely stood up from their desks in their rooms where they'd been studying and said hi. We went to the kitchen where we talked a bit about our work to Ali and two other workers there, as well as the older children. The younger ones went to play with a fourth worker. The workers told us about the house and we listened intently.

"Thank you for this", I said. "There is no shortage of drug crimes I this city. A place like this is much needed." I turned to the older children that had sat down with us, having coffee. "I'm sorry this happened to you."

"You shouldn't thank us", Ali said. "It's all on the owner. He's a good man. He comes here twice a week, studying with them or playing. The children love him." He winked, and I could see the two teenage girls whisper together and snigger, blushing. My, my... "He's actually here today, you want to meet him?He said he would like to meet you."

"Oh, please!" I said. I was curious since he seemed to shun media.

Ali took me, Keith and Cassandra through the house to a room in the back. Cassandra and Keith walked I front, and I could hear them speaking lowly and sniggering. It caused my heart to clench; I was so happy for them, but at the same time, they had something I started to yearn for desperately which caused me to feel a little jealous.

"We run completely on funds and money from the owner. We do not profit from this in any way. On weekends, we have volunteers here, usually teenagers aspiring to become med students. Looks good on the CV. But I can see they love to be here."

Through a doorway, I saw a vast, white room furnished with desks open up. It was facing the back of the house, and floor-to-ceiling windows went through all of one side, creating an absolutely gorgeous view to the garden. A glass door led to a beautiful, glassed-in veranda that was cosily furnished, as was the room itself. In one corner of the room, there was a table, and there sat a boy of about ten, practicing multiplication. A much larger figure sat next to him, back to us, clad in a checked, blue flannel shirt and black jeans, gray hair frizzy. I saw he was leaning his chin in his hand, elbow on the table, and was pointing to something in the kid's maths book.

"Sir!"

The man turned round.

The chock on his face was extreme.

His face went from soft and relaxed, to completely dumbstruck.

His white skin became ashen, and he gaped.

"Umm...Sir?" Ali said.

"Izuna?" was all the man could say.

But it was nothing compared to my reaction.

I dropped my milkshake to the floor so it spilled all over the birch floor.

Then, I sunk down my knees.

The man was Tobirama.

The man was Tobirama Senju.