"So, when do we leave to see the Godaime?" was the first thing that came out of Naruto's mouth after he came trotting towards the bridge to meet the rest of Team 7.
He saw Sakura looking over the bridge railing and into the water while Sasuke was staring off into the skies. And Kakashi-sensei was… Well, Kakashi sensei was always late so it didn't matter if-
"In a little bit. We have a few other things to take care of first."
…Kakashi was checking his fingernails as if it were an interesting subject. After seeing that they remained ever the same, he started brushing off his flax jacket and pants instead.
Naruto was shocked that a) Kakashi was actually on time, b) he wasn't reading that porn book of his, and c) …well, Kakashi was on time! There had to be something wrong with that.
"Oi, oi!" he yelled, pointing at the jounin. "Where's the real Kakashi-sensei? And who's the imposter?"
"Baka," Sakura placed a well-aimed downward punch to his head. "Just because he's on time doesn't mean that he's fake, even though it's highly improbably and most likely someone who is impersonating him…"
Kakashi, in the meantime, was sweatdropping. 'Thanks for the vote of confidence, guys…'
Sasuke, ignoring his other teammates for now, turned towards his instructor. "What do we have to do before we go?"
"Well, the Godaime has put in a request that we take one more member with us."
"Why? Isn't four the standard number for a team?"
Kakashi started walking, and Sasuke took that as a cue to follow.
"Yes, but you must remember that I will not be a part of your team for this mission. I will be occupied doing other things, so I will not be available all of the time. It is important that you cooperate with this last team member and follow his instructions just as you would mine."
Sasuke merely nodded in comprehension. "Aa... Sou desu ka…"
Sakura took this opportunity to leave Naruto behind. "So who will be our fourth team member?"
"Well…." Kakashi put a finger to his cheek and stalled. "Let's take a little walk and you'll see…."
In Way of Trouble
Chapter 04: "Dropping Inn on London"
By Hikagi
"YOU WANT THAT LAZY BUM TO BE OUR LAST TEAM MEMBER!"
They ended up in front of an old Go house where Asuma and his students were currently enjoying a refreshing afternoon game in the open air. Shikamaru was currently in mock concentration, hands in his usual thinking position which had often misled other shinobi into thinking it was a peculiar seal of some sort. But Naruto's outburst had momentarily caused him to lose his train of thought and the young chuunin looked up from his seat across his sensei.
"Che. How bothersome."
"Yo!" Kakashi raised a hand to greet his fellow jounin and acknowledged the other's students. Ino and Choji looked up from their idea of a Go game (which involved a contest of who could stack their pieces the higher) and returned the greeting. Asuma in turn nodded at the grey-haired man.
"What brings you here, Kakashi-san?"
"Ano, I was hoping to borrow your student for a moment," Kakashi pointed at Shikamaru. "It involves a mission sent by the Godaime." He motioned to Team 7 to stay put and they obeyed, joining their fellow genin at another table and participating in another one of Ino's Go games. This time, she was trying to see how many pieces it would take to fill up the entire board (1).
"I see…" Asuma closed his eyes and puffed his cigarette a few times, contemplating the situation. "Jaa…" he turned his attention to Shikamaru, " we can continue our match after your get back."
"Hai," the boy responded with little enthusiasm, slowly getting up from his bench before following the masked man towards a secluded area not too far away.
Asuma took this little distraction to quickly change a few black and white pieces around, tilting the odds from an unfavorable 1 – 3 to a more… satisfying… result.
"Well?" he asked as soon as they had reached a considerable distance away from prying minds and ears.
"The Hokage asked me to give you this," the jounin merely handed him a sealed scroll. Shikamaru opened it without hesitation and began reading the instructions left behind. What he read made his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"Do you mean to say that the disturbance in the Western world might as well come from the same person?"
"That is a very likely assumption. However, there is enough evidence that the disturbance is being caused by someone other than Orochimaru, though our source cannot say for sure. The old man merely said that this so-called 'dark force' had acquired a new power and ally foreign to what they were accustomed to dealing with. We just need to find out who it is and deal with the situation as quickly as possible."
The boy pondered the situation carefully, putting a great deal of thought into what rumors he had heard about the infamous traitor of the Leaf. After a considerable amount of time passed, he answered.
"I'll do it."
Kakashi smiled. How that was possible to tell, no one knew.
"Ah. That's good news." He pointed back to the Go House. "Let's head back, shall we?" They started walking back slowly, in no hurry to rush back to their fellow teams.
"Tell me: How much do the others know of the situation?"
"As much as I had revealed to you just now."
"You're leaving something out of this, aren't you…"
"…"
He had to admit, that Nara kid was pretty insightful and sharp… (2)
Asuma greeted his subordinate as he saw them approach from a distance.
"Oi! Shikamaru! Time to finish our match! I've waited too long listening to those five argue for the past quarter of an hour or so." He pointed his thumb in the general direction towards the rest of his and Kakashi's teams. The many methods of 'Go-playing' ("or butchering," Shikamaru muttered under his breath) they had come up with totaled to an amazing fifty-two. They were coming up with a fifty-third when Shikamaru promptly sat down and sighed. Kakashi then collected his students and walked them towards the residential section of the village before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Sooooo…" Asuma dragged out the word as an invitation to elaborate on the meeting. "What was all that about?" Shikamaru just gave a snort before answering with as little effort as possible.
"Godaime. Mission." Asuma mentally groaned. He knew that already! But demanding never prompted Shikamaru to give up information, so he was resorted to coaxing it out of him.
"Aaaaaaand?"
"Che. Let's just get back to the game, old man." The chuunin had an annoyed look on his face as if he wanted to ignore the subject altogether. Asuma took the hint before raising his arms in surrender.
"Okay, okay," he said, letting his student shift his focus on other things. Shikamaru sighed.
"Where were we?" he asked, looking down at the board for the first time since he left to talk to the other jounin. Asuma smiled mischievously, assuring himself that he would win against his student for the first time ever. He leaned up from against the wall and sat a little straighter.
"Why, I believe I was leading with a 15 – 1 advantage," he simply stated, amusement in his voice kept to a minimum lest Shikamaru didn't notice it at first. He didn't. The board was looking mighty strange to the pony-tailed chuunin until he registered what his sensei had said just a minute before.
"WHAT?"
And so the older man laughed loud and clear, his voice echoing as the wind carried it past the nearby trees. He paused only when he realized that his student was not at all fazed…
"Che. You know, I can still beat you despite the odds."
A pause…
"Damn!"
A few hours later Team 7 and Shikamaru gathered with a few of their belongings in front of the Administration Office that housed all of the official and tedious occupations of the village. So far while standing outside, they could hear Tsunade's yelling from the second story.
From their viewpoint, the genin saw a flurry of papers being scattered through the window and hallways while a number of phones started ringing incessantly. Tsunade's voice once again rang clear on top of all of the noise ordering all the secretarial aides to leave her presence immediately as she announced that she had an enormous headache. A second later, a chorus of replies answered followed by many feet scurrying away from her room.
There was an occasional loud thud as bodies collided into each other, trying to escape the wrath of the woman in charge. Kakashi and the others winced in sympathy.
"Ouch. That's gotta hurt…" He walked towards the main doors, over a great many papers on the ground, and ushered the others in. "After you," he simply stated.
They walked past the chuunin guards stationed inside near the reception area. Giving a nod to the girl working there, Kakashi quickly made his way up the stairs. His subordinates kept up with his pace and soon they were all waiting in front of the Hokage's office.
Kakashi gave a knock, which was soon answered by a "come in!" from the other side of the door.
"Rough day, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked while he opened the door to Tsunade's office. She merely started rubbing her temples as if the action would soothe her headache faster.
"Clients have been calling in, new orders have been scheduled, the wagons have been delayed so shipping is taking a while, borders between the Wind Country are currently being disputed, the prime minister is having a few problems of his own and is asking us for help – which I have no idea how to deal with, a few of my scouts have claimed that Orochimaru is still a danger and he's planning something right as we speak, the Academy is having a few water leaks, residents living near Area 44 have been complaining about the bug problem again, the swamp's in a mes-"
At this point, Kakashi started to tune the older woman out, wondering if she even took the time to breathe during the whole run-on sentence. He looked to his students and they too were doing the same thing. Sasuke was staring out the window, Sakura was straightening her robe, Shikamaru looked like he was falling asleep against the wall, and Naruto was busy doing something to the door that involved a bucket and some water…
"Cut that out," the jounin whispered as he lightly punched the genin in the ribs. Naruto just scowled before he set the bucket down next to his feet. Where he had gotten the bucket and water, Kakashi didn't know.
"- the Fire Lord's wife has lost her pet cat again, and my aides are a bunch of idiots!"
"Calm down Baabaa!" Naruto grumbled. "It's not like the world is coming to an end or anything!"
The room went deadly quiet. Sasuke and Shikamaru in particular were questioning Naruto's intelligence. Sakura and Kakashi wisely chose from commenting.
"Baa-" Shikamaru started, voice skeptical.
"-baa-" Sasuke followed, one eyebrow raised.
"What!" Tsunade ended up almost throwing the blond haired, blue-eyed kid out the window. Fortunately, the office desk was in her way and the angered woman settled for hammering him into the floor instead.
After Naruto peeled himself off the wooden floor, they finally started talking about the proposed mission they had just accepted.
"Ow!" Naruto mumbled under his breath. "That old hag still punches strong…"
Tsunade abruptly stopped talking.
"Naruto!" Sakura fiercely whispered into his ears. "Do you want to get beaten up again?"
Quickly coming to attention, the blond boy snapped up and tried to look as innocent as possible.
"As I was saying," Tsunade returned an icy glare before resuming her speech, "I have already given you the basics of this mission. Shikamaru will be posing as the team leader while Kakashi is working under the orders of Dumbledore-san himself. There will be an owl waiting for us with the necessary means to get to England."
As if on cue, a brown bird flew in from the opened window and landed nearby Tsunade's hand. With a "what a weird object," she relieved it from its package before sending it off with an already prepared treat and turned to the five shinobi standing in her room.
"The Headmaster assured me that he has secured an ample amount of money in the wizarding banks for you to purchase anything you might need."
The Leaf-nin nodded and gathered their belongings, preparing for their departure.
"Oh, and one last thing." They all turned to meet the Godaime's face.
"No one is to know that you come from a ninja society or that one even exists in all. Dumbledore has been very kind as to keep us a secret up until now. I suspect that the dark forces stirring in the Western world have found us out. It might be Orochimaru, it might not. All I can say is that the leader of the "dark forces" has an affinity for snakes much like our… traitor… The reason you are there to gather information is to see how much they know of us and if that knowledge can be erased if it puts the Leaf in danger."
Tsunade started wrapping up her little speech she prepared.
"Remember: you are all proud shinobi of the Hidden Village of Konoha. Do your duties well and perform them to the best of your abilities!"
With that, the portkey that was placed on the table started emitting a faint stream of chakra-like energy.
"Ten-second warning," Tsunade murmured, before ordering them to all touch the weirdly shaped boot. (3)
"This had better work," someone muttered under their breath before the team was jerked into a swirling mass of colors as the portkey transported them into another part of the world…
Tom grumbled.
Today was a boring day. He was busy wiping some of the glass mugs clean after a family of four departed their table and left for their rooms. His mood was evident as he scowled at a nearby waiter, clearly wanting something better to happen. Times weren't good anymore…
Oh sure, the sun was shining bright as ever ("Not that it was often sunny," he muttered), customers were happy, and the money was steadily flowing in, but he couldn't help but feel slightly gloomy. Nothing ever seemed exciting anymore. There were no windows to fix, no doors to replace, no new people to talk to, no random monsters crawling about, and no accidents requiring his attention. But most of all, there was no excitement in the air – no mysterious and strange things happening to keep his interest sparked. Perhaps that was because it was summer and the tourists from other countries were slowly starting to depart for their homeland, but there were other factors too.
For one, term didn't start yet, so the fresh air (and mischievous pranks) new and returning students brought with them was scarce. For another, there weren't many rumors flying about, or people interested in sharing/spreading them. Well, if you don't count the ones about You-Know-Who and The-Boy-Who-Lived. Those were common as everyday houseflies. Still, Tom couldn't help but think that there was either something wrong about the rumors being spread (because he got a pretty good impression about Harry Potter the last time he stayed at the Leaky Cauldron), or The Boy was a delusional and unstable teenager like the papers mentioned.
He scoffed.
The Daily Prophet was known for printing a biased account for anything famous (or infamous) that has ever happened. Sometimes for the heck of it, he'd go into the Muggle world just to see if they had any accurate leads compared to the wizarding press.
Breaking from his train of thought, he set down the polished glass mug and picked another one up.
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
You know what? Maybe he'd get another job elsewhere closer to all the action…
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
Yeah. At Hogsmeade, perhaps? At least it'd have visitors all year round…
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
Merlin! The repetition was getting to him!
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, fog the glass, shine.
Patience, patience!
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
There was more than one reason as to why Tom was known as a simple man. He didn't ask too many questions when it came to strange and interesting topics. He had an almost one-tracked mind, sophisticated topics often flew over the top of his head and…
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shine.
If things didn't happen soon, he was going to blow up!
Wipe, shine.
Wipe, shi-
BOOM!
…Which was why the simple-mindedness in Tom rejoiced when there was a loud explosion in his inn and a great hole in the ground when other managers would have been furious for the damage caused to their property.
Thank Merlin! Something happened at last!
Tom peered over his counter as he heard voices filtering up from below.
"Everybody alright?" he asked, hoping that no one was hurt. He was met with a few voices, none of which seemed to be in any language he understood.
"Why the hell are we in a ditch, Kakashi-sensei?"
"I believe you are sitting on my arm, Naruto-kun."
"GET YOUR BACK OFF MY FACE, NARUTO!"
"Che. How bothersome."
"Dobe. Your incessant yelling is not going to help us get out of this mess any faster."
O-kaaaay… Maybe asking Merlin for a distraction wasn't the greatest idea…
At this moment, one of the room-service ladies working at the Leaky Caldron walked in from her afternoon check-up, carrying a bag of laundry to be done. She looked at Tom then the hole in the floor, and knowing Tom's personality, shrugged the whole ordeal off as something normal and not out of the ordinary. Another lady walked into the room, saw the hole in the floor, looked up at Tom, then, seeing his gleeful expression and the nonchalant look on the room-service lady's face, shook her head and walked right back out muttering something indistinguishable.
Tom sighed. Just his luck! Things always seemed to happen at the wrong moment. Women! They never barge in on you when you're at your most charming, groomed, witty, and sane state. This was why he was stuck in an inn working with a bunch of old crabs day-in and day-out!
Waaaaait… Wasn't it just a second ago that he wished for a distraction?
He made his way around the counter, past the tables, towards the hole and peered down… What he met surprised him.
There was a group of four – no – five (he had mistaken an orange outfit for a large duffel bag) oddly dressed people arguing amongst themselves in a curious fashion. Well, you couldn't really say they were arguing… Two of them – a blond and a pink-haired girl – were yelling at each other while the rest were trying to ignore them…
"Naruto, you baka! You were the one who panicked and sent out your chakra in a form of attack!"
"Who said I panicked! I thought an enemy was nearby!"
"But look at what you did! We're stuck in an impossibly large ditch in the middle of nowhere, and we have no idea if we're at the right place!"
"Hey! I said it wasn't my fault!
And they kept volleying back and forth while Tom scratched his head, wondering if they knew they were stuck in the middle of his inn. The gray-haired man off to the side seemed to have noticed him and looked up, acknowledging the innkeeper.
"Yo," he said, lifting his hand in a form of greeting. "Could you, by any chance, point us to The Leaky Cauldron? We seem to have gotten lost and fallen into this pit."
This apparently caused the two bickering teenagers to stop fighting altogether.
"Hey! You never told us you could speak English!"
"Senseeeeei! Please get us out of here before this jerk annoys us any further!"
"Jerk! Who said I'm a jerk?"
"Me, dobe."
"Yeah. I could point you to the Leaky Cauldron – you're in it. Or, should I say, under it?" Tom pointed to the hole they were stuck in. "It seems like you blew up the floor just now."
"Ah, I see. Sorry for the mess – first time using a transcontinental portkey. I'm afraid one of the students were unaccustomed to the side affects of using a transportation device."
Tom chuckled.
"That's fine. A bit o' accidental magic never hurt nobody. Well, at least not that I know of…" He looked down at the people again. "You need any help getting out? I've got a few spare rope ladders down the hall incase something like this ever happened."
The man looked around then shook his head. "No, I think we're fine. I should be out in a second…" (4)
POOF!
The man reappeared beside Tom carrying a small traveling case with what he assumed to be his clothes. Now that they were on the same floor, Tom noticed that the stranger was wearing a facemask and a green vest. Surely it was a bit too warm to be wearing more clothes than necessary! The man hardly seemed to notice Tom's starring, but was instead crouching at the edge of the hole and calling his fellow… er, companions…
"You four need to get out by yourselves. I'll be checking in with the manager and get a few rooms to ourselves. Meet me by the time I get the room keys or you'll be sleeping on the ground."
With that, Kakashi turned to go to the check-in counter. Tom had a funny look on his face.
"Eh? Don't you want to help them out?" he asked, pointing back to the hole. The stranger looked at Tom and shrugged it off.
"Nah. They should be able to do it themselves."
"Hmm… But they're mighty young to know how to Appara-"
The sound of three poofs! filled the room.
"Okay. Never mind…"
Then after a few seconds…
"Hey! Where's that blond kid?" As if to answer his question, Tom heard a loud unintelligible voice yelling from the bottom of the pit.
"DAMMIT! GET ME A ROPE OR SOMETHING! I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO THAT STUPID 'POOF!' THING YET! GET ME A ROPE, I TELL YOU!"
The pink-haired girl sighed in exasperation before spinning on her heels to yell something back at the blond. Though he had no clue what they were saying, it was obvious that she was berating the boy.
Tom started to say, "I'll go get the rope then," when he heard the boy yelling again to what seemed like no one in particular.
"FINE THEN! IF NO ONE WILL HELP ME OUT, THEN I'LL JUST DO IT MYSELF! KAGE-BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"
A bunch of replicas of the blond boy appeared out of nowhere and started helping the original guy up by stacking on top of one another. One of the other boys – the one with earrings and a ponytail – who had recently been quiet, spoke up.
"So much for being discreet."
The boy with bangs looked slightly annoyed. When he spoke, his voice reflected his mood and set Tom on an edge. He didn't know that young teenagers were capable of exhibiting so much malice in their words.
"Baka! We weren't supposed to show-off our jutsu like that! No one's supposed to know that we're not wizards!"
The blond kid managed to pull himself up and there was another loud 'poof!' as twenty or so clones disappeared into a pile of smoke.
"Neat little trick there, chap," Tom congratulated, patting the kid on the back, which nearly sent him tumbling back into the pit.
"Hey! Watch it old man!"
The gray-haired man shrugged his shoulders before saying to himself, "Looks like no one sleeps on the floor tonight." He straightened himself up before extending a hand toward the other man. "Hello. I'm Kakashi."
"Tom," he said, returning a hand while smiling from ear to ear.
Approximately thirty minutes later, Sakura sighed in relief as she sank into her bed. It was a pretty decent room with two poster beds that overlooked the rest of London. So far, she didn't have to share it with anybody, and that was good news. Being stuck with four guys certainly didn't suit her very much. Now if only she could figure out a way to remove the language barrier…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at her door.
"Sakura-chan," came Kakashi's voice from the other side of the wood.
"Hai," she answered. "It's open."
Kakashi opened the door and pointed down the hall. "I'll be out for just a little bit, so be sure to stay in the inn. We'll go get your school supplies tomorrow, so don't venture off too far."
With that, he vanished, leaving the young kunoichi pondering what in the world her sensei was up to this time…
"Oi, OI!" A blur of orange shot straight into her room. "Where's the old man!" he demanded, looking about for any traces of his teacher. Sakura did what came natural to her when she saw something invading her territory without her permission. She threw.
Or it was more accurate to say, she threw something – the nearest object that was available to her. Which, fortunately for Naruto, wasn't a bunch of shuriken or kunai (she kept those in her side pouch). No, what was currently in her hands was a book she borrowed from Tom with Kakashi's help. A big, very heavy book. It landed with a thud after bouncing off of Naruto.
"GAH! Are you trying to kill me?"
She huffed.
"How long did it take you to figure that out?"
'Serves you right!'
Naruto scowled, rubbing the back of his head. He was sure there was a big welt forming already where the book had hit him.
"I just wanted to know where the old man went," he frowned, trying to make her feel guilty for the pain she caused him. Sakura just turned her nose away.
"He just stepped out. Didn't say where."
"ARGH! I'm gonna get that closed-book pervert the minute he gets back!" he hollered into the ceiling.
"Not if we tie you up and chain you to the bed first," Shikamaru grumbled, stepping into the room with his arms crossed. Not too far behind, Sasuke followed equally as annoyed.
"But I don't want to be stuck in the same room as him!" Naruto whined.
"Then I'll switch rooms with you," Sasuke said, agitation evident. "Just stop making so much noise!" The other two nodded in agreement.
"Fine, fine," Naruto waved his hand. "Just don't get your pretty head worried. I'll shut up for now." He left the room still massaging his head. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this peculiar behavior.
"Just what did you throw at him?"
Sakura pointed to the book on the floor. Sasuke took a look at it before smiling wryly.
"You threw a ten pound weight a distance of five meters at a fellow teammate's head?" Shikamaru asked. "What were you trying to do woman – kill him?" (5)
It was at this point Sasuke left the room saying, "Better move my stuff before the idiot starts complaining again." Shikamaru stopped wondering how on earth Team 7 had survived the past few months without tearing themselves to shreds. It was a miracle that Naruto lived as long as he did with all the mischief he had been getting into.
"That man had better not be getting himself into trouble," he muttered before also leaving Sakura's room.
Little was it known that at that very moment, the aforementioned jounin was strolling along a very quiet road in Little Whinging, Surrey, passing by a little play park as the sun started setting and the streetlights flickered on…
To Be Continued…
Author's Notes:
1. Basically, Ino and Choji don't know how to play Go (and neither do I), so they are trying to find other uses for a Go board and a couple of black and white pieces of stone… Lol. Ino and the "Fifty-three ways to butcher a Go game!"
2. Shikamaru thinks that Kakashi's hiding something from them (which he has right to believe so). The genin weren't told about Harry Potter's background, only that he was their client. So they have no idea what kind of a person they're protecting. They also don't know his name or the fact that he is linked to the "dark force" they are trying to spy upon. Nothing ever slips past our Shikamaru! By the way, whenever I refer to 'Team 7' or 'the genin', I'm including Shikamaru in the description even though he doesn't belong in either category. It'd be too much of a hassle to address him separately each time.
3. I totally made that up. Portkeys don't come with a ten-second warning, but I thought it'd be nice and considerate of Dumbledore to do that for them…
4. Tom thinks that the Leaf-nin are just foreign wizards, so he sees all these ninja skills being pulled off and just attributes them to magic. Question: does anyone know if Tom knows how to use magic? I don't know if he's a squib or not… (looks around, shifty eyed)
5. Lol. Shikamaru's outburst was nearly the same as Naruto's. Ten pounds is a lot to throw. Five meters is a very far distance to throw it using only one arm (believe me, I tried using my sister's backpack. Well, that doesn't count – I'm a weakling). One of those super-human instances you don't get to see a lot when Sakura is caught by surprise. Oh, and sorry about the measuring system clash. I don't know how to convert between the metric and English systems as of yet (either that, or I forgot because I'm not taking a science class this year). You also don't find a lot of ten-pound books everywhere.
Parings: Not doing any for the time being. I repeat, NONE! I am a horrible romance/angst writer if you haven't noticed (see I Am Not Alone for reference), so I don't want to scare people away by writing fluff for the time being.
Houses: I kinda already know which house to put each person. It's not what you'd normally expect, so I won't be surprised if there are a few flames in my inbox when I post that chapter up. I repeat, HOUSE SORTINGS WILL NOT BE AS EXPECTED. But hey, I'm going to try to make it as reasonable as possible, so bear with me.
Inconsistent Information: I don't have a beta reader other than my siblings (and they're younger than me by a good many years, so I don't know how valid that would be). I don't have access to any of the manga or the anime of Naruto, and the Harry Potter books/movies are out of my reach… T.T – so excuse all my mistakes or point them out to me nicely please…
Length: If you want the chapters longer or shorter, please tell me. The longer it is, the more time it takes (but I'll end up procrastinating so it'll take long in either case). I'll try not to rush chapters too much, being that that tends to me writing myself into a corner…
Yatsuka Hikagi
October 19, 2004
