Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own the characters or events that appear throughout this fanfiction.

False Shadows

Chapter One

The Storm

Raindrops pattered rhythmically against the roof of my car. The groan of my windshield wipers was accompanied by the thrum of the car's tires on the asphalt road. It felt as if I had been driving for hours, when in reality it had only been twenty minutes. To my right my friend Ashley sat with her shoulders twisted so that she could talk to Rachel, who was directly behind me next to Becky. Their conversation mostly went over my head, since driving in bad weather tended to stress me out enough without more distraction added like the little cherry on top of my stress milkshake. I felt my fingers tighten around the leather steering wheel as I leaned forward and squinted, trying to see through the blasted rain. It fell in sheets and made visibility virtually nonexistent. I'd lived in Minnesota my whole life, so I should probably have been used to my state's pathetically unreliable weather, but some things are upsetting no matter where you live or what you have to deal with on a semi-regular basis.

"Elli? Hello? Anybody home?" I started and peeked to the side to see Ashley was staring at me.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning my eyes back to the road quickly. I didn't want to be caught off guard if there was a skunk in the road or something. Though the odds of there being a skunk out in that weather were not promising.

"I asked if you liked the concert or not?"

"Oh, yeah. It was great," I replied, hoping that my answer would suffice.

"That's all?" Rachel chuckled, and the noise seemed to be in close proximity to my ear. "We just saw Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin at the same concert and that's all you have to say?"

"It was great," I repeated. Leaning forward, I tried to figure out if I was actually driving on the right side of the road or not. It was sort of hard to tell, but I could see the faint yellow stripe that told me I was drifting a bit to the right. I corrected my position and tried to concentrate hard to keep my car there.

"I'm so glad they played 'Last to Know,'" Rachel said loudly. "That's my favorite Three Days Grace song."

"It was the bomb," Ashley agreed with her suave voice that rarely rose above one pitch but still carried a sort of sarcastic animation that never ceased to amuse me. I frowned slightly as I leaned forward and, with my chest almost touching the wheel, tried to see through the haze of rainfall.

"I hate bad weather," I muttered mutinously, wishing that I could banish the rainclouds with a snap of my fingers. Unfortunately I had not been gifted with superpowers that would allow me to control the amount of water dropping from the sky at that moment, so I was forced to grumble and squint and try not to veer off course and hit the cars that were speeding towards me on the opposite side of the road. Darn them.

"Me, too," Becky said. I tried to tune out the conversation my friends were having, but my selective attention had never been my best asset. It was either shut out everything or nothing, so I was stuck with listening to them talking about how rainy it was and how they could barely see. Tell me about it. I thought, wishing I could stop fuming over things beyond my control and just get home already. But unfortunately I had always been the type of girl to fret over complications, so my attempt at looking at the glass as half full ended in me mulling over the fact that I'd rather not think of analogies on my situation that had anything to do with liquids. My thoughts were tangled in alternatives to that analogy when a flash of dark color obscured my vision. I slammed on the brakes when I finally realized it was a moose—of all things—standing with its dumb face turned towards me in the middle of the freaking road. My car screeched and swerved, but there were not many places for me to go at that precise moment—seeing as how moving into oncoming traffic would be a bad idea and hitting a moose at full speed would be equally as stupid. So I did the only thing I could do; I swerved onto the shoulder of the road, not realizing that it was a pretty narrow shoulder. As we plummeted into something of a ditch, someone's scream echoed painfully in my ears, although I was pretty sure I heard Ashley make a joke about "moosen" at the same time. The car sped forwards even as I dug my foot into the brake pedal, and then another dark blotch appeared through the curtain of rain. With a sound like lightning we hit the tree and everything went black.

I couldn't feel anything. It was like I was floating in space, my body suspended in something that was… nothing. My heart was beating faintly in my chest, and I thought for a moment that I could really hear it thumping. It was the quietest sound. A peaceful sound. Time seemed to have no meaning anymore. I just floated along, and I was okay with that. I can almost remember thinking something like this is what being dead feels like. But as soon as the thought occurred to me it was gone, replaced by a thin white light that seemed to flare into color every now and again. White. Blue. Green. Pink. Grey. White. Red. The colors fluxed between different shades, rising and falling like the swells of a melodious symphony. Finally the red color surrounded me, lifting me up and carrying me through the void. I closed my eyes, but the color was still there, calling to me. I didn't know why. But I felt colder now than I had before. I was no longer at peace. I was being pulled away from that darkness that had seemed like the end. Wherever this path was leading I felt as if I did not want to follow it. But something stopped my struggles: I heard my friends' voices, first Ashley's voice and then Rachel's. They were calling to me, softly, wondering where I was. I relinquished myself to whatever force was pulling me. Letting it carry me forward, I felt the redness close around my head and suck me into a painful sort of slumber.

My eyes opened slowly, though it felt as if they had not been opened for days. The stream of light that hit my irises made me wince and close them again, but it felt too good to let something in again. I tried once more, giving myself plenty of time to adapt to the bright sunlight. And that's what it was; it wasn't that green light, or the white light, or the red light that had pulled me away from my sleep. It was warm, glorious sunlight, framed by a piercing blue sky dotted with peaceful clouds. I sat up slowly, feeling as though I had been hit by a semi—not that I'd know what that actually felt like but I thought at that moment I could guess. The really weird part was that those colors weren't really gone. I didn't see them in front of me anymore, but I could feel them inside of me, almost as if they were a part of my very cells. They swirled happily through me, filling me with the energy and strength I needed to move. Sitting up slowly, I looked around me at the rich green grass and the sparkling river. The wind tasted clean and fresh, and the trees seemed to sigh happily as the breeze danced through their branches. The colors around me were bright. It was almost as if I had taken a picture and had increased the saturation and the contrast. But it wasn't such a bad sight. The world seemed to be rich and new, and I couldn't help but feel comfortable there. Even if that place was new and strange to me—not to mention it made no sense, since there was no wrecked car or road or rain or best friends to be seen—I felt as if I had always been there. Or maybe that I was always meant to be there.

I slowly got to my feet, testing the strength in my legs before relying on them completely. I was glad to find that my body was no worse for wear, even if it was a bit swore and the little lights were making it sort of hard to breathe correctly. They seemed to be like pools inside of my body, continuously circulating and sending out signals that seemed to flow through my veins. I wondered if I was suddenly feeling my nervous system working. The thought was a bit ludicrous, but at the same time it wasn't so strange. This world around me was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was brighter, more beautiful, and just more alive. I took a few steps forward and was glad to find that I had not been maimed by the car accident I'd experienced. But had that really happened? I was, after all, in a strange place with no car and no friends and no… anything. Had I died, after all? Was this place Heaven?

I soon found my answer. After walking a little ways away from the river, I saw three poles sitting comfortably in a little clearing with a little stump just before them. A boy stood before the posts, throwing something at a dark red target painted onto the central pole. Whatever he was in the process of chucking, it flashed in the sunlight and made a distinct thunk! as it embedded itself into the wooden target. From behind, I could see that the boy was wearing a bright orange jumpsuit and had blonde hair that stuck up defiantly in pretty much every conceivable direction. My head tipped to one side as I watched his fluid movements. He gave a frustrated sigh and said something loudly in a language that I did not understand at first. The little pools within me—the yellow ones, mostly—began to stir and move and slowly his speech became recognizable to me.

"…If I could just hit that darn target once!" The boy screamed, throwing up his hands and slumping down onto his butt. I watched him with a slight frown forming on my forehead. Why was he having so much trouble? I could see by the marks in the target that he had yet to hit the center mark, but was that a big deal? Playing darts out in the middle of nowhere did not seem to me to be the sort of pastime that would require absolute precision. But what the heck. I'd help the kid out. I walked a little closer but decided not to freak him out or anything by sneaking up on him—one of my many talents that got me in trouble a lot.

"Hey there," I said, and the boy's head whipped around. I choked back an exclamation of surprise when I saw his bright blue eyes and the little whisker-like markings on his face. Could it be…? I was so shocked I stood there staring, unable to say anything. The boy looked at me closely and frowned.

"What did you say?" He asked. For a second I was confused. He'd heard me, hadn't he? But then… maybe it was because I hadn't been speaking that language of his. The yellow pool welled up into my throat, filling me with a bunch of words that began to sound more and more familiar, even though I'd never spoken them before.

"I said hello," I responded, feeling a shiver run up and down my spine at the feeling of the new and yet familiar words on my tongue.

"Oh. It sounded weird when you said it. I haven't seen you around before. What's your name?" The boy asked.

"Elli."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" At that moment, I was almost sure that I was going to faint. This can't be real. I thought.

"Nice to meet you," I said weakly, trying not to show how distressed I was. I mean, what the heck was happening? Why was I standing in the middle of this place with a kid that looked exactly like a real (if not even more realistic than real) version of the manga character I knew so well that professed to have the same name as said manga character? Confusion was pretty much taking over my mind, so I didn't even notice the two people leaping out of the trees to my left until they were almost right next to the boy.

"Who is this?" The girl asked, drawing my attention away from Naruto's face. One look at those turquoise eyes and that silly cherry blossom pink hair and I knew she was Sakura.

"This is Elli," Naruto replied.

"Who?" The boy next to Sakura cocked an eyebrow at me skeptically. I looked at him closely, trying to decide if he was the boy I thought he was. If he was…

"Elli Maclay," I repeated quietly, "And you?"

"Sasuke Uchiha," he replied. Instantly I felt as if all the little pools in my body were flaring up in a massive wave. For some reason beyond explanation, I felt the need to channel my rage through those pools. The release of emotion did calm me down, but as soon as I released my anger something dark flew from my feet with lightning-quick speed and the next thing I knew Sasuke was on the ground, Sakura was screaming "Sasuke! Sasuke," and Naruto was staring at me with huge, inquisitive eyes.

"What did you do?" He asked.

"N-nothing," I stammered. Except I think I might have killed Sasuke somehow… I looked down at the Emo Duck-butt, whose hair was disappointingly not as duck-butt-shaped as I would have liked in person, and was both relieved and infuriated to see he was okay. But this time I swallowed my emotions and kept them clear of those colored pools. The last thing I wanted was to look like some crazy assassin out to kill the last Uchiha kid or something.

"Are you crazy?" Sasuke demanded, wiping some blood away from his mouth. Man, whatever I had thrown at him with my mind, it had really hit him hard.

"Sorry, that just… happens sometimes," I said, waving my hand dismissively. Sasuke glared at me as he stood up, wiping his white shorts, which to my satisfaction now had distinct grass stains on them.

"That… that witch! Why did she do that to Sasuke?" That weird voice surprised me and caused me to turn to look at Sakura—since I recognized her accent well enough, even if I'd technically only heard it once in this world. But besides the smoldering in her eyes there were no signs she'd said anything. Did I just hear her thoughts? I wondered. Or maybe she had spoken up after all? This is just too weird.

"I've never seen you before," Sakura said tartly. I clenched my fists at my sides, realizing that I was not going to like this Sakura. She still had long hair. If anything happened to Sasuke… bring on the eye-faucets and the female dogging.

"That's because—"

"What do we have here?" Somehow I was not comforted by the voice I heard behind me. I turned slowly and saw a tall figure standing maybe about a foot away from me. Although he couldn't have been much more than four inches taller than I was (maybe three), he still seemed to loom over me like a tangible representation of impending doom.

"Um. Hi." I said, a bit mortified to find that my voice was little more than a pathetic squeak in response to the threatening atmosphere. Somehow I had not pictured that guy as being that scary. I mean, the mask sort of gave him an air of mystery, and his eye (the visible one, which was the color of slate, looked suspicious of me—which was intimidating to say the least. But everything still didn't make a lot of sense to me. Then I remembered how I had felt about him the first time I watched Naruto. I remembered my initial reaction to Kakashi Hatake. And I was… pretty darn freaked out. Even so, I had more pressing matters to worry about. "Um… you haven't happened to see two other girls around here? A blonde with a sarcastic disposition and a tall brunette with glasses and a great sense of humor?" I asked hopefully. Kakashi stared at me with his one eye, looking almost skeptical. His silver hair, which reminded me sadly of Taylor Hicks, was shorter than I thought it would be, and it seemed to be less phapoom! If you don't know what that means, think of an explosion, a big gust of wind, and a hairstyle combined into one amazing look… and that is what phapoom means. Kakashi's hair had always been the very definition of my made-up word, but it seemed that I really had to rethink my examples.

"I don't recognize you," Kakashi said matter-of-factly. "Who are you?"

"I'm Elli," I muttered, wishing people would stop asking me my name and telling me that they had never seen me before. It was getting kind of old.

"Where are you from?" Kakashi demanded. I was about to say "Minnesota" when I realized this answer would make absolutely no sense to him. So… I improvised.

"The Land Hidden in the Lakes," I said finally, plastering a fake smile on my face, "It's a small village, and so no one's really heard of it. There was a pretty big flood and I sort of got swept away and wound up here." Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly. I could tell by the tense silence that everyone was feeling as uncomfortable as I was.

"Come with me," he said finally, grabbing me by the wrist and dragging me along. I glanced back at Sasuke and gave him one of those "I'm watching out for you, bucko" hand signs, only with my added third-eye-finger since I do so enjoy confusing people. I saw that my gesture had the desired effect, but as soon as I started to feel a sense of triumph Kakashi dragged me into the woods and out of his Team's sight. I am not exaggerating when I say that he tugged me all the way to the front of the village. My wrist was pretty sore by the time we got there. That guy with the spiky hair and the bandages across his nose—I could never remember his name, since he was sort of obscure—was sitting at the desk shuffling through some papers. He looked up and caught sight of us.

"Hey, Kakashi. What's up?"

"This girl was wandering around the training area." The guy looked at me and then down at the papers he'd been organizing.

"Name?" He asked. I swallowed, feeling the pain in my wrist and knowing this was not going to end well.

"E-Elli Maclay," I said nervously. The guy looked over the lists, and I could see the frown coming long before it formed. He looked up at me and I wish I could magically make my name appear on that dumb sheet of paper.

"You're not on my list."

"I wouldn't expect so," I said at last, "I'm not sure what happened exactly but one second I was dead or something and the next thing I know I'm waking up in the middle of this village. But I know; now it's time to see the interrogators. All I can say in my defense is that you really don't want someone in my head. A person could get lost in there for twenty years at the very least." I tapped my noggin, as if to emphasize my point. The two ninja stared at me.

"So you're not going to tell us outright how you got in here?" Kakashi asked me.

"I would, except I don't even know how this all happened. One moment I was on my merry way through ye olde Land of Ten Thousand Lakes and the next thing I know I'm here. Honestly, it's that simple. If you had lie detectors you could tell that I'm telling the truth, but unfortunately you're stuck somewhere in-between the modern and the feudal era." I did one of those typical face-palms, emphasizing the point that this place is not the one that I would have chosen to land smack in the middle of.

"Most of what you say doesn't make sense," the ninja-with-spiky-hair-and-an-apparently-terminally-injured-nose kindly pointed out. Wow. I had just thought a sarcastic thought. That was a rare gift for me.

"As I said, you really don't want someone in my head. I promise you they will be scarred for life. But, whatever. You'll only throw the balance of this world into absolute chaos by opening Pandora's box and all that. Be my guest." They continued to stare at me, and I sort of wished that whole "hearing minds" thing was turned on at this moment, because I'd really like to know what they were thinking. Yeah. That would be helpful.

"I'll take her to Ibiki," Kakashi sighed at last, "At least he can figure out what's going on with her weird way of speaking."

"I take offense!" I exclaimed hotly, tossing my hair over my shoulder and putting my hands on my hips. They stared at me again in that weird, zoned-out sort of way. The silence made me uncomfortable so I added, "And furthermore I shall go with you to thy uncle's." I don't think my Shakespearen reference made any sense to the ninjas either. I heard the bandaged guy tell Kakashi to watch me carefully and then we were on our way to the Hokage's building. Kakashi led me past Ichiraku Ramen, which made me stop for a moment and stare in amazement. Kakashi was looming again though so I couldn't really take it in fully. We got to the Hokage's building without much fuss. He took me into a dimly lit room and told me to sit in the chair while he presumably fetched Ibiki. I obeyed and plopped down with a heavy sigh. Fishing through the pocket of my tinted Miss Me jeans, I pulled out my cell phone and clicked my tongue in surprise when I saw I had reception—more reception than I usually had in the bunker dorm room I lived in. How does that even work? I decided not to question it too much. It could end up being something as simple as whatever force had pulled me here was powering my cell phone—but whatever it was, it was helpful at this moment so I was going to take advantage of its cooperation. Fishing through my contacts, I decided to try calling Ashley first. I lifted the phone to my ear and was aggrieved to find that I got the voicemail almost immediately. Great! Why'd you turn your dumb phone off, Ashley? With a heavy sigh I tried calling Rachel's number, but the ringing didn't seem to want to stop so I figured she was out of range. I wonder if they were tossed into this place too? This is so weird. I figured Becky's phone would already be off, so I didn't bother to try and call it. I slipped my phone into my pocket and crossed my arms over my chest, just in time too because a second later Ibiki entered the room.

"So you're Elli Maclay?" He asked all formal-like. I tipped my head to the side, contemplating whether or not the giant gash across his face was an improvement to his rugged not-so-good looks.

"Yep, that's me. I actually have an ID somewhere." I fished around in the pocket of my simple grey jacket and pulled out my school ID. Holding it out to him, I smiled slightly when he frowned at it as if he'd never seen a school ID before. He probably hadn't.

"What does it say?" He asked.

"My name, my age, my height, my weight as of last September, my home state, my institute of higher learning…" I rambled, counting on my fingers as I listed them.

"What language is it written in?" Ibiki inquired.

"English," I replied, but I noticed that my little pool of assimilating language wasn't really cooperating and Ibiki apparently didn't understand even the name of the language on my ID card.

"Well, it's my native tongue. You apparently don't know it." I sighed, thinking that this only added to my problems. Unless… What if my memories…? "Look, why don't you just let me show you the last few hours of my memory? That way you can see I'm not here to kill you all or anything and you'll also not find out some horrible things about… stuff. Does that sound good?"

"Horrible things?" Ibiki asked skeptically. "What could you know that would be horrible?" Here it was. The moment where I had to decide what I was going to do about my knowledge of this world and the people in it. I sighed and leaned forward, trying to think.

"Look," I said, "You know about… kekkei genkais. Some people from my village could see other worlds. I saw parts of this world. Things that happened here, things that are happening now, and things that haven't even happened yet. If you found out those things that could ruin the balance of this world. You have to understand… I can't show you what I've seen. That would put us all in danger." I met his stare and saw that he was deciding whether or not to believe me.

"Show me what happened to you, then," he said. "But I warn you, I can tell when you're tampering with memories so don't try." With a slight nod, I leaned back and let him do his weird "connecting of the minds" thing. Closing my eyes, I went back to earlier that day. I saw my friends' faces as they climbed into the car beside me. I saw the concert, with the music thrumming through the air. And I saw again that long road absorbed by the rain. There was the moose, the tree, and the darkness. Then I could see myself waking up in the Naruto world, with no clue where I was or why. I pulled out of my memories and Ibiki let me. He stood over me, staring down into my face for a long time. Then he turned away.

"That world you come from," he murmured. "It's… different."

"Very," I agreed.

"How did you get here, then?" This question didn't seem to be aimed at me. I stared at Ibiki helplessly, wondering if he could figure out what was going on—I had no clue. A dark look flashed across his features and he turned to me. "It could be that you were summoned here."

"Summoned? Do you mean someone signed a blood contract to pull me out of my world? Is that even possible?"

"It may be," Ibiki sighed. "But it would be a very advanced Jutsu. Most likely a forbidden one."

"Why would someone want me?"

"Perhaps for the knowledge you say you possess of this world," Ibiki suggested. That thought kept me silent. I considered the idea that maybe someone brought me here because I knew what was going to happen. But who would do that? Orochimaru? I wouldn't put it past him. That Madara imposter guy who used to be Toby? Also possible. But what was the truth? How could they know about me? Or did something go wrong? They probably didn't summon me from smack dab in the middle of the Leaf Village, after all. The questions were filling my mind, making me feel as if someone had stuffed my cranium full of Jell-O or something. The kind with little bits of fruit in it. Man was I hungry… Finally I sighed and shook my head.

"Maybe," I said. "But they probably picked the worst possible person if they're looking for that information, because I hate the guts of any person trying to do harm here. I'd sooner have them roast me over a stake than tell them anything that could put any of the villages in danger." My speech was probably very smart considering the circumstances, but as was typical with my personality I really wasn't thinking about anything but the honest truth at the time. If Orochimaru or Toby or someone else… if they were trying to get information from me, well, they'd have to hit the road because I wouldn't tell them. Not in a million years.

"You said you can see the past…" Ibiki murmured. I thought about the question carefully, since I had an inkling that I knew where he might be going with it.

"Yeah," I said finally. "I can see some parts of the past. Snippets, mostly."

"Will you show me?" Ibiki's voice was skeptical, or so I thought. I guess he believed the crossing of the worlds thing, and the summoning theory wasn't too far-fetched. But I would have to prove that he couldn't just go waltzing around in my memories like he owned them. I tried to focus on some bits of the past—anything, really. Then I allowed Ibiki to enter my mind again. I went through different characters' pasts, mostly. I thought of them on my computer screen, flitting around in a way that memories might. I saw Kakashi as a kid stooping over Obito, and I saw the Fourth Hokage and Kushina sacrificing themselves for Naruto, and I saw Naruto as a new Genin, how he and his team passed Kakashi's test. When we pulled out of my memories I could see that Ibiki was a little disturbed.

"I didn't understand what they were saying," he murmured quietly.

"Most of my visions were in my own language," I explained. "You wouldn't understand it, naturally. I didn't understand yours at first. But… there's a sort of something… a pool of color, maybe… that helped me." I frowned, trying to think of what the pools could be.

"There's no chakra in your world," Ibiki said. True enough, I thought with an inward sigh. "But you have chakra pools now. Perhaps the colored pools you speak of are your chakra points?" I had chakra points? Since when? But then I thought of the colors and how channeling my emotions through them had triggered that weird reaction. Could that have really been a jutsu of some kind? Well, probably not. It wasn't really controlled, so it was more of a spontaneous burst of… chakra energy. Or something.

"I think my body must not be used to that," I whispered. "That's why everything feels so strange…" I stared down at my hands and frowned. But what was going to happen now? Ibiki doubtless knew that I was no spy. He had seen my world, however small his glimpse had been. Maybe he just assumed I came from the other land across the sea or whatever. It didn't matter to me. It was my friends I was concerned about now. Where were they? Were they okay? Worry gnawed at my stomach, making me feel kind of sick. What if we were all trapped here forever? What would happen then?

"Well," Ibiki said with a deep sigh, "I will take you to the Hokage and he will decide what to do with you." I glanced up at the ninja with my eyebrows raised. The Hokage? Seriously? I was about to ask if she was in a good mood when I remembered Tsunade wasn't the Hokage. It's the Third… I was awed by the thought of meeting the Third Hokage, since he was pretty much a legend. I mean, Tsunade was just plain scary but she was also pretty laughable at times. But the Third… he was a hero.

And he was probably going to die soon.

The thought hit me in the gut like a ton of bricks. Have you ever known a secret that you knew would save someone pain if you told it to them? Well, if you have, you'd know what I was feeling at that precise moment. What if I could stop his death by telling him about the invasion? But would that be… I don't know… right? And wouldn't I mess things up? That always happens with spoilers! It would be wiser, probably, to leave it alone. But it wouldn't be easy. Keeping such a secret to myself made me so agitated I actually got a little sick.

Ibiki took me upstairs, out of the dark, depressing interrogation rooms. I stood outside the Hokage's office as he went in. Most teenagers aren't all that good at waiting, and I'm not saying I'm terrific at it or anything, but I could be patient when I needed to be. I sat down with my back against the far wall and my face towards the huge doors of the Hokage's office. I suddenly wondered where the Hokage lived exactly. I couldn't remember if I'd ever figured that out, or if I'd simply forgotten it. Leaning my head back against the wall, I wondered what would happen to me now. Ibiki knew, probably, that I wasn't lying about where I came from. But that didn't answer the question of how I got into the village or what exactly I was doing there. I wished at that moment that I knew the answer. If I couldn't go home, couldn't seem my friends, I at least wanted to know why. There had to be some reason. Things never just happen. There has to be a reason. I comforted myself by thinking that I might be able to meet some of my favorite fictional characters in the flesh. True, most of the ones I'd met so far were nothing like I'd imagined they would be, but at least I could say I'd met them. The door opened suddenly and I glanced up sharply to see Ibiki standing over me. My stomach was already churning before Ibiki even spoke.

"The Hokage will see you now."

Author's Note:

Thanks, everyone, for your support! I'm much happier with this introduction to the story. This story will certainly be more serious than Tale of a Shadow, but I hope that will turn out to be a good thing :) Let me know what you think! :D