Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did it would probably be way more epic and have way more corny jokes.

erinlyon9: I figured someone would bring that up. The way I saw it is that Zabuza actually valued Haku a lot, he just couldn't show it because he wanted to keep up his image as the Demon of the Hidden Mist. The combination of Naruto and the fact that he knew he probably wouldn't make it out of that fight alive is what I think broke down the façade he had in place to prevent his true feelings from getting through.

LetsSeeIfICanDoThisToo: I agree, it does seem way too early. But they were entered into the canon Chunin Exams early too in my opinion. The time from when they graduated to when the Exams start is the same, so I think it should feel rushed. There's a reason why Team Guy waited a full year before entering, even though they were likely the strongest team from their year. As for the rest I hope you can bear with me for now. I'm still learning and as this is my first story there will probably be lots of things I can do better, and it's my goal that by the end everyone will be happy and satisfied with it.

Chapter 9: Mind Games

"When is Shikamaru getting back?" I asked for what must have been the hundredth time. The answer that I already knew was steadily growing closer.

"Sometime this evening honey, now why don't you go outside and feed the deer," my Mother said, completely ignoring the indignant look on my face.

With a sigh I headed out to fulfill my marching orders giving to me by the family general. Despite my resistance, feeding the deer gave me plenty of time to think without distraction, which was something I always appreciated. I was anxious for Shikamaru to get back from his first C-rank mission so that I could tell him about my own.

I also wanted to strategize with him for the Chunin Exams, but the wait was killing me. I sunk slowly to the ground, my back to a tree. I set the large bag of deer feed to one side and kicked my feet out. Since we had returned from our mission to the Land of Waves I hadn't had much time to myself. Either Mother was fussing over me and how much danger I'd been in, or we were training for the upcoming Chunin Exams.

So far Kakashi-sensei had made us focus on stealth and taijutsu, two things that are apparently very important in the Exams. The stealth training had been particularly interesting. I had already done quite a bit of it in the Land of Waves, and therefore had a head start on the other two. Add that to the fact that compared to Naruto and Sasuke I was incredibly sneaky already, and I was leagues above them.

We had taken to playing games of hide and seek, except in teams of two where both teams hide and seek at the same time, and we had to 'tag' each other with blunted kunai dipped in red paint. However the tag didn't count if we didn't sneak up on the other person, something that got a grumble out of Naruto when it was explained.

I grinned at the memory. Even if we were on a time sensitive schedule, being able to take breaks from D-ranks to play hide and seek was the best thing ever. Especially since I had Sasuke on my team, and going against Naruto in a stealth competition almost always guaranteed us a victory.

A quiet clopping sound accompanied by the snap of breaking twigs caused me to look up, straight into the eyes of a large buck. He dropped his gaze and looked pointedly at the bag of food. I smirked slightly and unsealed the bag. I pulled out a handful of feed and held it out to him with a flat palm. He looked at me distrustingly, before apparently deciding that the food was worth whatever I might do to him. His lips rasped at my hand as attacked the feed.

Once his stomach was satisfied, he trotted off into the trees, leaving me alone once more. I pushed myself to my feet, and dusted myself off. It would still be some hours before I could exchange stories with Shikamaru, until then I might as well get my chores done. I picked up the bag of feed and continued making my rounds.

It took a little over an hour to feed the whole herd, which left most of the day for me to find some way to entertain myself. Around noon Team 7 was scheduled to get together at our training field, but as I also had some time to spare before that I decided to head to the library.

I hadn't been to the library in quite some time, since before I spontaneously became a genin to be exact. Now that I was a ninja I had access to the genin section of the library, which dealt a lot more in ninja affairs, politics, and abilities than the basics of the civilian section. It was rather exciting to contemplate all the new things I could learn, so as soon as I managed to wriggle out of my Mother's clutches I headed over.

I completely ignored the first floor, where I had already read everything interesting, and proceeded to the second floor where all of the ninja documents were. I decided that at first I would research the Chunin Exams, since that was what we were currently preparing for.

I grabbed four large books that looked promising: two about the history of Konohagakure, one about the relationship between the elemental nations, and the last one was about chunin themselves, what they did and how to become one. There was an open chair in the corner of the room, so I claimed it and settled in for several hours of reading.

I started with the book on chunin, for it had 'How to be Promoted to Chunin' in the table of contents. I flipped to the page number 53 and started reading.

To become a chunin one must show the leadership and skill necessary to succeed in more difficult missions and be able to lead a mission of his/her own. The two most common ways to be promoted to chunin are either through the Chunin Exams or a field promotion. The Chunin Exams are a set of trials for chunin candidates from all villages designed and refereed by the host village. It is highly competitive and attracts all of the best genin from each village in order to show off their abilities, both to their own village and to everyone watching who might see and decide that because of their performance they want to take their business to that village. The other way, the field promotion, is up to either the village leader or someone above the candidate who has a high enough rank and reason enough to warrant the promotion. Unlike the Chunin Exams, the field promotion isn't dictated by what everyone else does, and therefore is much easier to attain. The downside and the explanation for why so many try to be promoted via the Chunin Exams is that a field promotion is much less glamorous, and takes much longer to achieve.

The text droned on and on, circumventing and reanalyzing the points previously brought up. With a sigh I looked up at the clock. I let out a small groan. It had only been ten minutes since I arrived. I cringed at how dull this information gathering quest I was on would prove, but steeled my nerves and continued.

I finally finished scouring through the four books for any data on the Chunin Exams with only fifteen minutes to spare before I was supposed to meet up with the rest of the team. I replaced the books on the shelves where I had found them and headed out of the library.

On the walk over to the training ground I went over the small amount of useful information I'd actually gathered. The Chunin Exams always had three trials, and the last was almost always one on one combat, something that was noted in particular because it was open to the public.

The other two tasks were slightly different every time, but often there was some sort of individual test followed by a team one. Even though I hadn't found anything else truly useful, what I had read had boosted my confidence, for it seemed as though the way Team 7 was set up we would have a good shot at doing well in the Exams, perhaps even making it to the third trial in front of the audience of the Kages.

I arrived at the training ground to find my two teammates waiting for me. I grinned at them and pulled out my notepad. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be here for at least another hour, and since I knew that it would happen I had prepared for all the times we would be without a teacher by grilling him and Father for everything we should learn in the week we had to train.

"Today we are going to work on taijutsu until Kakashi-sensei arrives," I said as I read off of the pad of paper. "We'll start by going 1 vs1 vs 1, and then take a short break and then have one on one matches until Kakashi-sensei arrives."

My teammates nodded and we all backed away from each other to create space. Without the need to have someone yell go, our battle royale began.

I closed the distance slowly, letting Naruto and Sasuke make the first moves. I was more of a defensive fighter than the other two were, leaving me open if I starting swinging freely right out of the gate.

Naruto went right for Sasuke, jumping at him and swinging a fist. Sasuke ducked under and backhanded him as he flew past, causing Naruto to lose his balance and go crashing into the ground.

Sasuke turned to me, mouth set in a determined line. I licked my lips nervously. Sasuke was much harder to avoid than Naruto. He didn't rush his moves, and he was much more well-rounded.

Sasuke leaned forwards, his fist coming across and I jumped to the left to avoid it. Just as I landed his leg came out of nowhere and took my feet out from under me. I groaned as my shoulder hit the rock-solid ground.

I rolled over and jumped back to my feet. Frustration from not anticipating the feint fueled my adrenaline rush. Naruto was back up and had engaged Sasuke in a pound fest.

Sasuke broke away and suddenly it was just me and Naruto alone in the middle of the field. I dropped into a defensive stance as Naruto came at me with a gleeful glint in his eyes.

I jumped back as he punched. I backpedaled and spun to the side as he kept coming forwards. Because he was so much stronger than me I wouldn't have a chance if he managed to grab hold. I had to outmaneuver him.

I backed up until I crashed into a tree, leaving me reeling. I raised my head to look past the pooling water in my eyes and watched as Naruto's fist drew back. Instinctively I ducked around the tree letting his punch hit it with a crash.

I jumped back around the side of the tree in order to take advantage of the sudden opening. I was met with Naruto's foot squarely placed in my stomach, sending me flying back several feet. I rolled along the ground until I finally came to rest well out of range.

I flopped onto my back and gasped for air, trying to intake what had just been so forcefully driven out of my lungs. As oxygen began re-circulating through my system I started feeling less like I'd just been through an air compressor.

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, my hands out behind me for support. Naruto and Sasuke were walking over to me Sasuke with a half smirk and Naruto with disgusted look on his face and crossed arms.

"He jumped me," said Naruto, the anger evident in his voice as he hooked a thumb at Sasuke.

"Yeah, that's how fights work," I said with a weak chuckle. "You two go first, I'm going to need another minute." Sasuke raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as he turned back towards the clearing, following Naruto who was already there and bouncing up and down in anticipation.

I looked up at the sky, letting my head loll to the side. After all this time I still wasn't even close to as good as the others. Even the small amount of progress I had made wouldn't be enough to go up against the strongest Chunin in the Elemental Nations.

The three of us combined had barely been able to escape the fake hunter-nin from the Land of Waves. How could we ever survive against the best of the best, and without the advantage of numbers that we had had in every single matchup thus far.

The only thing we had going for us was that our teamwork and the chemistry of our strengths and weaknesses allowed us to work together almost seamlessly. But other than Sasuke, who was the top of the class, neither Naruto nor I was anything particularly special. Naruto had been the bottom of the class, and had only passed because of the issue with Mizuki and the scroll. I had been brought up from the class below, and was technically supposed to be a class even lower. The only reason I had been allowed to join in the first place was because they were one candidate short, and I already knew everything because of Shikamaru.

There was absolutely no feasible way we could succeed, especially considering the ridiculously high death rates in recent exams. Everything I had read on the subject had been either useless or too broad to be much help. The only thing that was certain was the danger. It was brought up in every article I had read, and the medical reports from past exams confirmed it.

"You don't have to enter if you don't want too," a soft voice breathed in my ear. I slowly turned my head to look up at my sensei.

"You're early," I said unenthusiastically, even as I tried to muster as much shock into my voice as possible.

"Me? Oh I just happened to be in the neighborhood. I still have to go check up on this cloud, see. There's a really good view of it way far away from here and I wanted to see how it's doing today," he said aimlessly, his eyes twinkling all the while.

I shrugged, letting him know his excuse meant absolutely nothing to me. "But I do have to compete. Otherwise Naruto and Sasuke will be disqualified."

Kakashi-sensei gave me a sharp look. "I see you've been doing some reading," he said with an even voice. I didn't bother to reply and went back to gazing up at the sky. We both already knew the answer.

"If you don't think you can do it but you want to help your teammates, then you could participate until there's nothing but individual competitions left. Of course, as your sensei I can't confirm or deny if there will be or what order," said Kakashi-sensei. "And lastly, just know that if I didn't think that all three of you were ready for this, then I wouldn't have nominated you for it."

I looked down at my feet. Sensei was right, if I wasn't up to it, the least I could do was help my teammates get as far along as possible until they didn't need me anymore. I felt a large hand drop onto my head in a sort of comfortable yet awkward way. It gave me a few quick pats and was then removed. When I looked up again I was once more alone.

I pushed myself to my feet and made my way back to the clearing. I got there just in time to see Naruto go face first into the dirt. He sat up spitting out grass, and I grinned wryly. Since Sasuke was the winner I would have to go against him first, which I wasn't exactly looking forward to. We eyed each other down as we waited for Naruto to leave the designated fighting space.

When we were clear I moved in quickly. If I couldn't achieve a quick victory Sasuke's greater constitution and strength would prove the difference. I ducked under a quick jab I swung my leg around, but he jumped back to avoid it. I came right back at him, dodging to the right to avoid a punch and leaping over the kick that followed.

I landed right behind him and aimed a quick punch to the back of the head, but he spun around and blocked it, grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards him. I grimaced. It was all or nothing now. As he pulled me I suddenly dove towards him. Surprise showed on his face as my body crashed into his and we both went down. I tried to pin him, but he threw me off.

I rolled several feet and came up on one knee, breathing heavily. I could see the beads of perspiration dripping down Sasuke's face. He was bent over with his hands on his thighs. I looked up at the sun. It was almost time for Kakashi-sensei to arrive.

"Naruto," I called out, "let's have our match now. Kakashi-sensei will be here soon."

Before I had even finished the thought Naruto was in front of me, his face a mask of determination. This time I stayed back and let my opponent come to me. Naruto always moved fast, eager to start the clash as soon as possible. Even though he was rested, it was much easier facing Naruto. Because his rush was something you could count on, it was easy to avoid it and tip him over with a well-timed trip, which is exactly what I did.

"Well done Shikai, and for you Naruto, you must remember not to always rush in like that," said Kakashi-sensei, who had just arrived. "Today I think we'll do something boring."

"Something boring!" exclaimed Naruto, the despair in his voice causing me to let out a snort of laughter. Sasuke looked at me with obvious disappointment, as though I had somehow failed him.

"What? No. That's not what I said," Kakashi-sensei replied in apparent confusion.

"Yes you did, I heard you," Naruto yelled in outrage.

"Are you sure? I think you ought to go see a doctor Naruto, you don't look well. So as I said before we're going to do something different today," he paused and looked pointedly at Naruto, who looked away and turned up his nose. "Eh hem, something different, right. We're going to go over some strategies that you might be able to use if the circumstances are right." I looked up eagerly, coming back out of dreams of having a sensei that was actually helpful and taught you useful things and not just hide and go seek.

"If you see someone way stronger than you, you probably shouldn't fight them," Kakashi-sensei went on knowingly. I dropped my head into my hands. Honestly, what had I been expecting?

"If you see someone you don't know, assume they are as strong as if not stronger than you until proven otherwise."

"What if we see someone we know? What do we do then?" Naruto asked with his hand raised. It was probably the first time he had ever raised his hand to ask a question I thought with a smirk.

"Personally, I always like to say 'Hello' and give them a smile. You could also wave to them," our sensei said with a straight face.

"…and then I jumped up and said I had to do something important and ran away as fast as I could," I explained, my face heating up at the end.

I looked up at the sound of laughter. Ino had her both hands over her mouth and was shaking violently. I looked away in disgust.

When she finally calmed down Ino reached over and put a hand on my shoulder. "It can't be that bad. Look at my team, Shikamaru doesn't want to do anything, and Asuma-sensei has to bribe Choji with barbeque whenever he wants him to do something.

"I guess so," I replied unenthusiastically. I looked around the hospital waiting room, where we were sitting alone, except for the grouchy old nurse manning the front desk. "How did Shikamaru get hurt again? I thought you were just delivering a letter to the people one town over?"

Now it was Ino's turn to go slightly pink. "Well," she started hesitantly, "we did that. While we were in the town a farmer started talking to us as we were walking. He was in his cart, and the road got really narrow so we all were bunched up tight. Choji, Shikamaru, and I had been walking up front, but we had to make room for the horses, so there wasn't really much room and it felt like, I mean I thought," her face turned even redder and she withdrew her hand from my shoulder and turned away. "Anyways I pushed him really hard and he fell down in front of the horses."

I stared at her. I could only see one side of her face because she was adamantly keeping her gaze straight ahead. I wracked my brain trying to think of anything that would warrant that sort of reaction, but I came up blank.

The thought was driven out of my head for at that exact moment a young nurse, barely older than us, came in and said we could see Shikamaru. When we entered the room he looked up from his bed, where he had been propped up with several pillows. He was covered in bandages, but still had an amused look on his face.

"Bad news Ino, it looks like you're going to have to try a little harder to kill me," Shikamaru said. Ino's face, which had just regained its normal tanned look, went right back to bright red. She stammered an apology and promptly sprinted out of the room.

I stared at the door where she had just exited while Shikamaru roared with laughter. This was quite possible the weirdest day of my life.

"So how was your C-rank," my older brother asked after I sat down in the chair by his bed. So I recounted the story to him. He listened intently, nodding as I went along. He only interjected once, at the part where we tried to take on Zabuza alone.

"Are you stupid?" he had said. "Were you trying to get yourself and the others killed?" I hadn't had any response to that, and just went on with the story. When I finished he told me about his, which had been a lot less exciting. Apparently it was only supposed to take two days, but it got stretched into a week because they had a world class barbeque restaurant that Choji wanted to try, and then when Shikamaru got hurt they had to take him to the clinic in the village in case it was something serious.

"Have Mother and Father been by yet?" I asked suddenly.

He gave a quick nod. "They came by as soon as we got in. Father couldn't stay long because he had a meeting, and Mother wouldn't leave so they threw her out after three hours in here. There reasoning was that 'no one can get healthy with all of that yelling and pampering'." He grinned at the memory.

It did sound like Mother. Yelling and pampering, the two things she did best. Then another thought hit me. "What about the Chunin Exams? They start tomorrow. Will you be able to participate?"

"Of course I can. These bandages make it look worse than it is, I'll just be sore for a few days, but it shouldn't affect anything more than that." I smiled tiredly. It wouldn't be the same if Shikamaru wasn't there.

I must have dozed off at one point, because the next thing I knew Shikamaru was shaking me awake, saying "They just cleared me, we have to go now if we want to stop by the house and pick up whatever we think we'll need."

I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Then it hit me. It was today. The Chunin Exams. Suddenly I was awake and ready to go. Together we rushed out the door and set off for the Nara compound. People stared at us as we raced past. It was easily the fastest that they'd ever seen us move for anything.

We nearly broke the door, throwing it open in our rush to get our stuff together. Yelling a quick 'Hello' to our parents we leapt up the stairs and went into our room. I quickly changed and got together a small bag with ration bars and the few soldier pills that I had. I restocked my weapons pouch and refastened it to my leg. I strapped on my arm guards and grabbed my small bag, slinging it over my shoulder.

Together we made our way back outside and to the academy, where we were supposed to meet for the first exam. When we got there our teams were both waiting for us at the doors. Shikamaru and I turned our heads to look at each other simultaneously. Then we both nodded and went our separate ways.

"Hey guys," I greeted my two teammates. Without a word we turned and headed into the academy. We were supposed to meet in room 301, which was on the third floor. For some reason when we arrived on the second floor, everyone was clustered around a room whose sign said that it was room 301. I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked back at the sign. Then I saw it. It was so obvious I almost laughed.

"Genjutsu," I whispered to Naruto, who also had his face scrunched up in confusion. I looked up at the sound of fighting. A boy and girl with leaf village headbands had been pushed down at the front of the crowd.

Sasuke stepped forward between the boy and girl and two boys that were blocking the entrance to the fake room 301. I stopped beside him with Naruto flanking his other side.

"Stop messing with everyone, we all know it's a genjutsu," Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest. I dispelled the genjutsu, snapping my fingers at the same time for dramatic effect. I didn't bother to look back at everyone as we continued walking down the hall like nothing had happened.

A voice stopped Sasuke in his tracks. "You're Sasuke Uchiha?" said a boy with long brown hair and the large white eyes of the Hyuuga Clan.

Sasuke turned around with a glare, "You're supposed to give your own name before asking for someone else's."

We walked on in silence. It was broken when we entered a large room, by a voice calling a challenge. I looked at the clock, and then at the challenger clad all in green.

"We really don't have time for this," I said turning to look at my team.

Sasuke was already charging forwards. "Then I'll beat him quickly."

He was right about one thing. It was certainly quick. The fight took less than five minutes, but Sasuke wasn't the victor. Not even close. The look he gave us afterwards was clue enough that this would be one of those things that would never be talked about again.

After he charged he was immediately kicked back by the green guy, whose name was apparently Rock Lee. Lee waited for Sasuke to stand back up before he continued his barrage. I watched in increased fascination as even Sasuke's newly awoken sharingan didn't help at all. To top it all off the fight ended with a turtle, whom Naruto was convinced was Lee's sensei, telling Lee off. And to make it even better, an adult man with Lee's same outfit, pudding bowl haircut, and caterpillar eyebrows, showed up and told us he was stronger than Kakashi-sensei. At that point I was pinching myself trying to wake up from this nightmare.

When we finally reached room 301 it was already very full. I was quite surprised that there were so many people there. Team 10 came over first, quickly followed by Team 8. Naruto and Sasuke went over to talk to Kiba, while I stuck with my old friends.

"Are you three ready for this?" I asked with a grin.

Ino shook her head. "I wouldn't be ready even if we'd been ninja for five years already."

"Same," added Choji, his hands empty of the usual chip bag. He noticed me looking and said, "Mom wouldn't let me bring any food. She said it would distract me from the test. I told her that if I was hungry then I wouldn't be able to pay attention, but she wouldn't buy it."

I laughed along with everyone else. It was nice to be able to hang out with them again. Everything was so much easier when we didn't have a care in the world, and could just meet up and talk for hours.

Something of that wistful thinking must have shown on my face, for Shikamaru immediately asked Ino when they were getting their next delivery of flowers. They usually received them every two weeks, but this time the delivery service had gotten backed up, so they hadn't been able to make the delivery. I tried to stay interested in the conversation, but my mind kept drifting.

"What?" I looked around in surprise.

"We were just saying that it's awfully kind of you to listen to all of Ino's troubles like that," Shikamaru said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Ahh…" I trailed off, not knowing what to say. I still had no idea what was going on. Luckily, I was saved by the examiners entering the room.

Everyone stopped talking and went to the seats they had been assigned to. I looked up at the board where the proctor had written the rules. We had to answer 10 questions, and each wrong answer would be -1 point, and each time we were caught cheating we would lose 2 points. If we were caught 5 times our whole team would be disqualified. Lastly the 10th and final question wouldn't be given out until only 15 minutes remained in the exam.

This was the absolute best test for my team. If I could figure out the answers I could have Naruto and Sasuke write them down using shadow possession.

I looked down at my test. The first question was breaking a code, I thought about it for a minute, before I decided on my method. It took me only five minutes to solve. I looked up to locate Naruto and Sasuke. Sasuke was off to my left, one row ahead, while Naruto was three rows in front of me and only slightly to my left.

The only difficulty would be getting my shadow to them without touching anyone else or attracting attention. The desks. If I used the shadows of the desks I should be able to get to them both while avoiding everyone else. I smiled down at my paper. I grabbed my pencil and stretched my arms way back. When both Naruto and Sasuke were doing the same, I wrote down the answer and boxed it. Then moved my pencil to the top of the paper and lightly wrote, 'I'll get the answers for you two, don't worry'.

The others were rather difficult, but only the last one stumped me. It said 'If an enemy ninja is running past you at what angle would you need to lead him by in order to hit him with a kunai in terms of V(velocity), if a) the enemy ninja is 20 yards away and if b) the enemy ninja is 57 yards away.'

There wasn't much time remaining, and if we wanted a perfect score then I had to act fast. Ignoring my ego, I looked around the room for Ino, who I knew would have all of the answers. As luck would have it, she was just behind me to the right.

With my shadow possession I had her pick up her pencil, which she had likely set down some time ago, and write 'Can you give me the last answer? Please :)'.

Less than a minute later I had the last answer and relayed it to Naruto and Sasuke. Relieved, I slumped down in my chair, content to give my brain a rest for the remaining five minutes before the 10th question.

"No it's time to give out the 10th and final question," the proctor said in his deep and serious voice. "However, I must warn you that anyone who gets this question wrong will be banned from ever taking part in the Chunin Exams again. Those of you who wish to may leave now."

Several teams left the arena, but none of them were people I knew. I was confident that Naruto and Sasuke both had faith in me if they couldn't answer it themselves, and I wasn't surprised when neither raised their hands.

I was eager to find out what this last question was. If it was even harder than the last one then we might be in trouble.

"Everyone else is staying? Good, well in that case, you all pass. Congratulations."

I sat still. Everyone else was screaming in excitement. Then I realized that it was just Naruto screaming. I peered at him where he was now standing in front of me. He just didn't get the whole 'don't make a big impression' thing did he. Then I grinned. We had done it. We had proven that we belonged in the Chunin Exams.

Author's Note: Heeeeeeey everyone. No, I didn't die, why would you even say that? Because I told you I would post again in one week and then didn't post for two months? What kind of answer is that? But in all seriousness, I'm sorry about that. I've been really busy recently, those of you who have done college applications before know what I mean. I hope y'all are still interested in reading this.

After the last chapter a bunch of you said it was a little rushed, and that's true, it was. Hopefully since I took four times the amount of time I usually take this one feels better. I certainly think that it's better, but maybe I'm just biased.

Yesterday I was finally able to sit down with my brother and work out all of the plot holes in the story based on what I want to change. This chapter and the following 4 or 5, basically until the end of the Chunin Exams arc, will be the end of where I just follow canon with small changes. You'll see soon what I mean. Obviously I'm still going to do some of it, because it's unavoidable and Shikai being alive wouldn't have changed it, but a lot will be different and I have several arcs planned out that I can't wait to write now.

Last but no least before I leave y'all alone, updates are going to be irregular until February at the earliest due to my college applications. Sorry about that, but if I could change it and give myself more time I would.

Answer: My favorite class is far and away computer science. I really enjoy the fact that everything is logic based and yet it's still a challenge.

Question: What is your dream job?

TBC