Chapter 6 – Sakura's Bed
Despite the coming morning, the bare skin at Sakura's shoulders felt cold. Even though the murky gray of the small hours of day had turned more to the palest blue in the sky, the air still made her shiver. And while she watched the stars vanish gradually from sight above, she walked along with no real determination or direction or desire.
Perhaps it wasn't the right time to leave her new old companions as they would probably return, but Sakura couldn't think of a reason to stay. They'd been swallowed up by the trees, and by their lifestyle and by the magical forces they could control that she couldn't anymore. Nothing else could have shown her how much she didn't belong with them than the feel of the cold, dew-soaked grass on her bare feet, while listening to the sounds of them vanishing into the unseen distance beyond the nearest tree branches.
As she took in the different sights, Sakura realized she'd never been to this part of Konoha before - or at least, couldn't remember being there. The trees were taller, thicker, the forest denser. Light from the shops and street lamps barely made their way through the bush to the darkened pathways and grassy slopes there that were rough and rarely tread.
However foreign everything was, and how lost she seemed, there was nowhere she had to be at that moment. There was nowhere she was expected or wanted. If she wandered the unfamiliar landscape for long enough, eventually something would catch her attention and lead her back to the meager apartment she lived in alone.
With her shoes dangling from a finger, she continued to walk slowly along the grassy land toward a single lamp. It pointed downward to some sort of rectangular rock, the silver light glinting off the top of it's shiny surface.
Something was familiar about that stone, but it hurt her head to try and understand it.
A man sat in front of the stone; his head crooked enough to be able to see it, but his shoulders slumped as if a weight was there, pressing down on him. Perhaps there was.
The light colour of his hair gave away his identity, but it wasn't in her to shout to him. Instead, Sakura continued along the grassy surrounding, each step a tiny bit quicker than the last. Three days had passed since they'd talked and it made her ache to find him there now, looking the way he did.
The morning mist was only just rising, and he was there when he could have been in bed. It meant something.
He didn't look up at her as she approached; if anything, he purposely tried not to look which perhaps said something more.
Taking a long deep breath, Sakura stopped when she reached the carved marble. The entire face of it was polished and smooth, easily reflecting her red dress and long legs. Carved names covered its surface, breaking up the mirror-like effect. Each chiseled stroke was a name wrought out forever.
So many names, they covered three sides.
She understood its nature and purpose even before her finger slid along the top lightly.
He still hadn't looked up at her.
"Its barely morning," she finally whispered, looking up at the sky to see the tip of the dull sun rising behind the trees she had just walked from. "Why are you here?"
Kakashi took a deep breath, sorry that his routine and necessary self-loathing was interrupted. But he could think of worse distractions, even then. Three days since they'd stood in the rain and she'd said she loved him.
She had no idea how hard walking away had been for him. Even now he wasn't sure it was the right choice to leave – but that was the hard part, staying the course.
"I could ask you the same thing," he replied, although his voice was raspy from a sleepless night.
"I'm just going back to that apartment from a...party, I guess. I haven't been here before so I imagined that if I just walked toward the lights, eventually I'd see something I knew." She smiled a small lift of her mouth, but nothing really happy. It didn't seem right to show happiness there; the cenotaph had that effect on people. "I've answered. Now, it's your turn," she continued.
She dropped her shoes into the gravel surrounding the stone.
Kakashi sat up, leaning his elbows on his upraised knees. He watched the light breeze move the hem of her dress gently. Even from where he sat, he could smell the smoke and whiskey mixed with Naruto's cheap cologne on her. Dark circles under her tired pale green eyes told him her night had been sleepless as well.
"I come here to think."
"Very good, that was truly vague," she said with a small breath of a laugh.
He forgot how much he liked her laugh.
"That apartment? Don't you mean home?" he corrected, watching the way her long fingers smoothed along the marble, avoiding all the names.
Sakura laughed again, but it wasn't happy. "Can you call a place you don't know home?"
Her voice was a little raspy and she slurred the odd word. Still drunk, he thought.
Kakashi slid his mask down to breath in the fresh morning air. "In time you can. You'll get used to things the way they are."
"They way things are… People keep saying that over and over. People I don't know. I spent all night out with some nice people who know me, but I don't really know. They tell me stories about things we did, and it really means nothing to me." Sakura turned her back on Kakashi to face the memorial, crouching in front of it, her fingertips tracing along the characters. Her voice was calm and matter-of-fact when she turned her head a little and said, "All these things I'm supposed to be a part of are meaningless to me."
Kakashi stared at the graceful cut of the muscles in her back above that red dress and below her disheveled pink hair where some come lose from her up-do to frame her neck. His eyes couldn't move from the supple perfection between those pink strands.
What she said made perfect sense to him. He could tell her that she was wrong or that it would all mean something in time, but it would feel like a lie. He just couldn't lie to her like that. She'd get the odd memory, but nothing was for sure with a head injury – even he knew that.
"How long do you usually sit here?" she asked, as she awkwardly stood, turned, and bent to slip her feet into her shoes, using a finger to ease the strap over her ankle. Then she walked slowly through the grass until her long legs were directly in front of him.
Kakashi couldn't see the memorial anymore, and found it too difficult to look anywhere else – even up at her face. Her legs were strong and smooth, the muscles tight and lean. He found it hard not to imagine them wrapped around him.
"It depends," he mumbled, admiring how her silk dress would float up with the breeze, teasing him. Goosebumps littered her skin and she shivered.
"It's cold," she hissed softly, looking up at the trees blowing angrily against the gray backdrop.
"It could be the hangover," he mumbled, thankful the wind couldn't whip down on them that hard where they were.
"I don't think I'm quite at that stage yet," she slurred again. "Still drunk, actually."
Kakashi's lip raised in a grin against his promise to himself to try and remain cold to her. He looked down at the grass between his feet to stop from expectantly staring at the bottom edge of her dress, but eventually his eye moved right back up.
Her body reacted to the cold under the silk fabric as it blew against her body, displaying every curve from where her thighs met to her tightened breasts. She was practically naked, and his mind managed to remove the fabric quite easily.
He shouldn't be looking, or letting himself remain in such a dangerous situation with her. She was drunk and he was tempted.
It wasn't the first time.
And she knew he was looking. He couldn't tear his eyes away.
Finally she moved, almost too gracefully for someone who was awash with alcohol and wearing high heels. She took a step and then carefully lifted a foot and stepped between his knees where he leaned on them, making him recline back slightly and put his hands on the grass. A glimpse of her lace black panties caught his eye before she stepped fully between his legs, making him spread them apart to accommodate her.
Then slowly, she lowered herself down until she was sitting on the grass. Her hair smelled of hairspray mixed with strawberry shampoo as she laid her head on his shoulder and curled up against him.
He shouldn't have let her. He should have shifted away and stopped her like his brain had told him to do. Her body shivered against his and she slid her feet underneath his leg on one side so that she could get closer. Thank Heaven she hadn't tried to straddle him or he'd be lost.
"This feels nice," she mumbled, pressing her forehead against his throat. "You smell so good."
"We should probably get you home," he whispered, finding his own body disagreeing as he moved to tuck her head under his chin and his arms raised from the ground to wrap around her. One slid around her bare shoulders and the other slid down around her hip, pressing into the tender flesh just above her behind.
"Mmmm," she hummed softly, tightening her grip on his vest at his hip and trying to mold herself against him.
He imagined her eyes were closed and that before long she'd pass out. The awful hangover would come next followed by the typical resentment of alcohol. Maybe she wouldn't even remember being there with him.
Her breathing deepened and he finally believed she had fallen asleep on him. Of course, now would be the natural time to pick her up and take her to her apartment, but he couldn't. For just a little while longer, he wanted to hold her, wanted to feel her body against his.
He closed his eyes and dropped his armor for just a little while.
Euphoric weightlessness greeted Sakura as she tried to open her eyes. She was still cradled in Kakashi's arms and so she was where she wanted to be. Sleep must have come as they sat by the cenotaph and he must have decided to carry her home.
Managing to look around, she was eye level with his masked chin, and when she felt a drop in their movement, her eyes widened to look around enough to know they were moving along rooftops, her stomach doing flips.
She grabbed Kakashi's collar, tightening her arms around his neck and squeezing herself as close to him as she could. She let out a small gasp.
"Almost there," he said and she could feel the vibration of his voice against her forehead as she pressed it against his throat.
Another leap, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, hoping the momentum didn't make her sick. But this time they seemed to stop dead and so she opened up her eyes again to find her apartment door was directly in front of them.
"Key?" he asked.
"Oh," Sakura mumbled, sliding one of her tense arms from around his neck, and fumbling drunkenly with the top of her dress. She managed to slip her fingers into her thin strapless bra and retrieve the silver key from where it tucked up under her breast.
She held it up and then let her head fall back against Kakashi's shoulder. He hesitated before he set her feet on the floor, took the key, and then unlocked the door. All the while, Sakura leaned against him, held comfortably flush with his body as her silk dress slid up her legs.
When the door swung open, Kakashi bent over and picked her back up. Sakura was sure her panties were exposed now, but she didn't care.
Kakashi's body felt tense against her as he shuffled them in the door and kicked it shut; he swayed as he flipped off his shoes, and then proceeded to take her to the bedroom.
Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe the idea of him carrying her to her bed that did it, but she was turned on. She was drunk to be sure, and maybe that enabled her to give over to it completely, but she couldn't let him leave, couldn't be clumsy about it this time.
Kakashi approached her bed and paused there when he reached the side. Instead of lying her down, he let her legs go slowly so that she could put her feet on the floor. If he hadn't been holding her, she felt sure she would have teetered over on her heels.
"Sit down and I'll take your shoes off," Kakashi said, helping to steer her until the backs of her legs hit the bed side and she flopped down ungracefully, just able to stay sitting.
Kakashi crouched down at her feet, and she closed her eyes and sighed. "Do you hate me?" she asked quietly. He hadn't removed his mask.
"I don't hate you," he said sincerely.
Sakura felt the soft tickle of his fingertips on her calf just below her right knee. Long slow paths of his touch were traced down until one hand lifted and cupped her heel while the other worked at the strap.
She thought about telling him that the back of the strap would just slip off, but she loved the feeling of his touch as his fingers worked at the tiny buckle on the velvet shoe.
Instead, she leaned over on one arm lopsidedly, still keeping her eyes closed.
When the first shoe was off her foot, Kakashi's fingers went back to her left calf, sliding along slowly underneath to raise it so he could see see the buckle better. Sakura hummed her appreciation for his effort and the way his cool tips dug in just a little in the most tender parts of her leg, making her body respond in so many more places than would be expected with just a light touch there.
"We should get you into bed. You'll have a bad hangover when you wake up," he said quietly and she opened her eyes to find him still crouched at her feet, but one of his hands was on her knee. It was something so familiar and he didn't seem to notice that he'd done it.
"All right...but will you do something for me first?" she said softly, sitting up straighter and patting the bed next to her with drunken exaggeration.
"It depends," he said warily as he stood up. His dark eye swept from her legs to the bed beside her and then up to her half-closed green eyes.
"I won't bite," she said groggily, a large lopsided grin on her face.
Reluctantly, Kakashi sat down beside her and immediately Sakura leaned on him heavily.
He didn't move away like she expected. He didn't even flinch.
"I wondered if you'd give me back a memory...from your point of view." She slipped an arm around his arm and snuggled up to him tightly. She put her chin on his shoulder and when he turned his face to look at her, they were so close that their noses could almost touch.
"You might not remember it later," he breathed out, and she could tell he was feeling how near they were and how intimate the dim and silent room was around them as they sat together on her bed – just as she was.
He turned away and bowed his head, his eye full of conflict.
"Maybe not, but I've got you here now. Who knows when that will happen again. Will you just do this once for me?" she asked, rubbing her cheek a little against the soft shoulder of his dark shirt. "I promise not to ask again if you don't want me to."
"All right," he whispered, a hint of defeat in his voice. "What sort of memory?"
Sakura just lay there for a moment against the hard curve of his shoulder, feeling his warmth seep into her. His scent was so nice; whether his cologne or just his natural scent, she breathed it deeply, letting it stir up the feelings she had when he was with her.
"Are you all right? Maybe you should lie down," he said. His voice was a perfect, deep example of calmness. Even when he was upset or angry, it never raised. It could become sharp like a knife when he needed to make his point, or it was soothing like it was now.
"Not yet," she whispered. Instead she lazily shifted, enjoying the sound of her limbs moving across the blanket and the feel of how soft they were on her skin. She stood up beside the bed, and pulled her dress up enough so that she could straddle Kakashi's thigh, teetering slightly, but finding her mark in the end.
"Sakura..." he began, but didn't stop her. He didn't even touch her.
"I won't make you do anything you don't want to do, Kakashi. I just want a memory," she said in hushed tones as she leaned forward to lay her body against his and to put her head back on his shoulder. He was so warm.
A sigh escaped him, not an impatient breath, but something liked submission – to her or to himself, she didn't care.
"You never denied we'd had a moment like this before," she whispered as she ran her hands up his biceps and then crossed her arms behind his neck.
"I won't deny it," he uttered hesitantly.
"Tell me about the first time you kissed me," she urged, sliding her clumsy fingers up the back of his neck up to the short silver hair just above the nape. With light touches and curls of her fingers, she gently tugged and played with the soft, thick strands.
Kakashi shivered minutely and it brought a smile to her lips.
"Was it early morning like it is now?" she asked, closing her eyes.
"It was night," he answered. She looked up to see his eye was closed as well. He was enjoying her touch as much as she wanted him to.
Shifting a little on his leg, which felt hard and strong between her thighs, she slid both hands to his neck just below his ears and held him. Gently, she pressed her cheek to his and spoke against the shell of his ear.
"Did you tell me to leave?"
"Yes," Kakashi said plainly, his words so quick they almost skipped over hers. He tensed under her fingers, but still did not pull away.
Allowing herself more, she let her weight fall against him, her lean body molded perfectly against his like a lover's. His hand went to the small of her back, sliding over the silk in smooth strokes. It was almost like there was nothing between his fingers and her flesh, and goosebumps rose from his touches.
"But I didn't leave, did I," she whispered as her lips touched the skin of his cheek above the fabric mask, and just below his right eye.
"No, you didn't."
"Was I drunk like I am now?" she hummed against his cheek.
"No," he whispered back, "...You were crying."
As her mouth reached his covered lips, she hesitated, teasing at them with her own, brushing against them as she spoke. "You wanted to kiss me..."
Kakashi's eye opened and he looked into hers. The pause in his reactions made her worry he'd stop her, but he didn't.
"Yes," he said softly.
So very slowly, she pressed her lips to his masked ones, feeling the tiny movement beneath of his reciprocation. It was tender and gentle and she held him there for just as long as she thought he could stand it. His arms slid around her, pulling her a little closer to his body, but not too tightly. His indecision was still there in his tense arms and stiff fingers.
Sakura slowly moved away and lay back down against his shoulder, taking a deep breath and praying silently that he wouldn't let her go for a little while longer.
"Good memory. I'll think I'll keep that one," she slurred, closing her eyes and feeling her limbs getting heavier.
She felt his fingertips sweep across her forehead to move some hair out of her eyes, but she couldn't open them anymore. Even though she wanted to look at him once more, she just couldn't.
"I'll keep it too," he said gently, and then shifted her so that she had no choice but to move.
Clumsily, she slid onto the bed from his leg and sank heavily into the duvet. It smelled clean and felt cool on her tired limbs.
The bed shifted and she felt a blanket sweep over her.
Then it shifted once more and there was complete silence.
Sakura breathed heavily as she lay awake in her bed. Her head was aching, but not from anything that would bring a fresh memory. Three times she'd been up to get sick, each time feeling monumentally better as she filled up the water glass and trudged back to her cave of blankets.
Of course, within a little while, she felt sick again and the pathetic routine was formed. At least she was able to sleep between bouts of nausea.
But something else had woken her this time though. It wasn't the feeling in her stomach, or the ache in her head.
If she were an uber ninja like everyone said she was, she would have just flown through the door and caught whoever was in her apartment, but as it stood now, all she could do was lie there and see who came through the door.
If they were there to kill her, they might be doing her a favor.
"Hey, Sakura," a voice said from behind her on the bed.
"Naruto!" she shouted, and jerked from the surprise of another person suddenly right beside her. She put her hand over her eyes for a second while she waited for her heart to slow down.
"Damn it, Naruto! What the hell are you doing in my bed?" she growled.
"Wow... You sound more and more like yourself by the day. I think this is progress," he said thoughtfully. His eyes were wide and he had a large grin.
"I think that's a natural reaction to someone showing up uninvited into your bed," she hissed, rubbing her temples.
"You're still in your dress?"
A sigh escaped her while she lifted the blankets and looked at the red silk, crumpled and twisted around her waist. "Yeah," she mumbled. Haven't had the energy to change yet.
She let her head fall back on the pillow and closed her eyes again, thankful that it seemed her hangover had finally died down a little. Silence stretched between them and for a moment, she almost fell asleep again.
"Hey...I'm sorry," he mumbled, turning on his back beside her. "We were about a half-mile in when Sasuke realized we left you there by yourself. We hurried back, but when we got there, you were gone."
She could hear the apology in his voice and how bothered he was by it.
"It's fine," she whispered.
"Sakura, we looked for you everywhere. We must have only been gone for about fifteen minutes. We figured you didn't know how to get home and would be just wandering so it was all out drunken panic. We looked for you for two hours." He fidgeted and picked at a callous on his hand.
"Two hours?" she echoed.
"Well, we were all worried. Then drunk Sasuke gets the brainwave to check and see if you got home. I peeked in your window and saw that you were curled up in bed. It was really insensitive for us to just leave you like that. Not great for your first outing with us, huh? I'd use being drunk as an excuse...but it's really not."
"I said it's fine, Naruto. I did have a good time, but I did feel a little lost when you left," she mumbled, pulling the blanket up over her mouth to spare him her vomit-tinged morning breath.
"It's a tradition. Well...not really a tradition but we've always had a run to the guard tower and back when we all get together in the training grounds. Everything seemed just like it always was and we forgot. I wouldn't blame you if you were angry."
"Listen. I got home just fine and everything is okay. You don't have to feel guilty," she said softly as she turned over and curled up tighter in the blanket while facing him.
"Well, if it's any consolation, Sasuke couldn't stop getting sick and Kiba passed out on the top of Hokage tower. The old lady is going to have his hide," he snickered and then took a deep breath.
Sakura laughed softly and watched Naruto close his eyes. She closed her eyes as well, feeling her body give up any tenseness she was still holding. Again, she almost fell asleep.
"Listen," he said happily – a little too forcedly. "If you're up to it, I need to take you somewhere. I have someone I want you to meet."
With a slow rub of her temples, Sakura tested the waters for the headache and concluded that she could probably get by with a couple of aspirins and some more water.
"All right. Just give me a few minutes to shower," she mumbled as she flipped her blanket off and moaned. It was so hard to get out of bed. "Why the hell are you so lively?"
"Just lucky I guess," Naruto winked and used his foot to nudge her behind toward the edge of the bed.
"Why didn't you go bug someone else?" she hissed, rolling onto her feet and whimpering a little while rubbing her head.
"Are you kidding? They've all got hangovers."
Sakura turned to look at him, glaring daggers.
"Wow, you are so like yourself it's scary."
Smelling like shampoo, soap, toothpaste and some sweet perfume, Sakura felt monumentally better. Nothing made a hangover withdraw like water and being clean. There was no skip in her step, but at least she could keep her eyes open and not get sick.
Once again, Naruto took her to the grassy clearing where they'd meditated. She'd opted for a red sweatshirt and black jogging pants as opposed to a dress. Even her running shoes felt so good on her feet, she swore she'd never wear heels again.
She played with the hood strings as they walked quietly, enjoying the fine change in weather.
The wetness was dried up and the sun peeked out from behind fast-moving, fluffy clouds, tinged with gray. The sun felt good, but the air was cool from the thunderstorms of the recent days. Her hair blew around a little, so she pulled up her hood and rubbed the fleece lining against her cheek with a cold hand.
When they reached the back of the clearing, a man stood there.
Sakura's steps slowed and she felt hesitant about approaching him. His eyes were just like Hinata's. Long brown hair lay on his shoulders and down his back, and he was tall. If she hadn't felt so much trepidation at meeting him, Sakura might have said he was extremely attractive. His loose clothing didn't look like regular Jounin wear, but then again, Sasuke seemed to have designer uniforms so why not this guy?
"Sakura, this is Neji," Naruto announced proudly. "Neji...you know Sakura.
"Hi," Sakura practically whispered, tucking her hands into the large front pocket of the sweatshirt.
"I was sorry to hear of your situation," Neji said smoothly in luscious deep tones. Sakura liked the sound of his velvety voice, but still felt a little wary of him. But if Naruto trusted him, that would have to be good enough.
"Thank you...Neji," she said a little louder.
Naruto rubbed his hands together happily. "Sakura, Neji has a special ability. He can see chakra and he can direct it through a person's body by hitting tenketsu - little junctions in the chakra highway. He just needs to poke you and maybe he can get your chakra going."
"It's not that simple," Neji said evenly.
Sakura's tired green eyes went from one to the other.
"Just give her a poke, Neji. Come on, work your magic," Naruto pleaded impatiently.
Neji's shoulders dropped a little, and Sakura could see the annoyance in his face. Did Naruto always get his way with everyone?
Slowly, Neji raised two fingers and touched Sakura's shoulder. "Poke," he said coolly.
"Damn it, Hyuuga," Naruto growled.
Sakura couldn't help but stifle a laugh. Neji's cool facade also cracked a little as one of the corners of his mouth lifted.
"Thank you anyway," Sakura said with a little relief at not being poked in the proper way that Neji was supposed to do it. The fact that he could hit things inside her body was a little freakish, even after all the things she'd seen in the hospital with fixing people using body energy.
"Don't be alarmed," Neji said quickly as they ignored Naruto stomping around and grumbling to himself. "This will just look strange but I won't hurt you."
Sakura gasped to see disjointed lines around his eyes that seemed to puff up with something under the skin; it even seemed to puff inside his iris'. It was frightening but so hard to look away from at the same time.
"You have a tiny shard of hard chakra in your brain. If we can release it, perhaps you might recover some memories. I don't understand enough about the brain to know if this is stopping your memory, but we might as well try since we were dragged out here."
"Uh...what are you going to do?" she asked, her voice strained and small.
"I'm going to hit some tenketsu and hope that the change in pressure in your chakra highway might loosen the shard. I can't think of anything else to try. I've never seen this before and realistically, this may not even be the problem."
"I don't think that is a good idea," she said quietly, preparing to shuffle away from him, her hands coming out of her pockets.
"It won't hurt," he said smoothly, taking a step closer to Sakura and slipping one hand around to the back of her neck to hold her still while his fingertips, alight with some blue energy, tapped just below her collarbone. Her hood fell down over his hand and she shook in his hold.
It happened so fast. She struggled a little against him at first, but when the touches did nothing but give a tingling aftereffect, she stood still and let him continue.
"That's good," he said quietly.
His fingers moved so quickly across her chest and twice around her abdomen, touching and tapping rapidly. And then he stopped, sliding his hand from her neck but keeping it near in case some sort of unexpected thing happened.
Unfortunately, for Sakura, it did.
A flash happened behind her eyes and she hissed with the sudden pain. She was on the ground, but didn't feel the fall. Hands were on her neck, her hands and her waist, but she couldn't tell whose was whose.
Then the memories came. They were longer, more intense.
She and Naruto were looking up at Sasuke in some sort of ruin. She was nervous, anxious, desperate. Naruto and Sasuke looked so much younger, just teens. Then Sasuke was gone, and she cried with Naruto. The sadness was encompassing.
And then another came. Sasuke again. But he was in her bed, he was older so it was recent, and he was slowly taking her clothes off as he kissed her throat.
And then the last. Kakashi was staring at her. They were in some large room filled with people and she was wearing the black kimono, he a blue yukata. He looked nervous, just as she felt.
And finally, she could see the grass and hear Naruto's voice shouting her name anxiously.
"Calm down, Naruto. She's coming out of it," Neji's voice said.
Sakura breathed through the last of it and let her body release the strained muscles that tightened automatically when it happened. This time, she felt ill and worried she might vomit on their shoes.
"Did you get your memories back?" Naruto asked her hurriedly, too excited.
"Just a few," Sakura managed and she tried to stand, aided by Neji.
"A piece of the chakra shard disintegrated. The cast off could have stimulated a piece of your brain to give you a memory," Neji said smoothly, releasing her to stand on her own. "It could just be coincidence."
She nodded a little and then looked at the nervous blond, scratching his cheek and looking a little defeated
"Naruto," she said plainly, thinking about what her memories brought her. "We need to talk about a couple of things."
She would ask Kakashi about the black kimono, but what she was most troubled by was that Sasuke had been in her bed.
Thanks again for all the wonderful comments. More questions...sorry. I hope to have the next out within the week. Thanks for reading. Thanks to tsukashi for the read through.