Elements of War

Chapter 09
Impasse

The Avatar disengaged from the crimson eyed shinobi after they heard the roar of Azula's lightning. He turned to see a familiar black cloaked ninja facing the princess. Behind them, his old enemy, Zuko, and the unknown blond stood shakily, looking as if they were unsure of whether to attack his friend or run.

Aang decided to take the decision out of their hands. Taking advantage of Sasuke's distracted state upon seeing his detested older brother, the airbender shot toward Zuko and Naruto, wind whipping about his limbs with dangerous speed. "Back off, Zuko!" he shouted, kicking at the banished prince with gale force gusts.

"You back off," Naruto countered, defending his fallen fellow traveler. He gave the airbender a right cross, but Aang shifted his head back, dodging the blow. He then exchanged a swift set of punches with the older boy. Naruto circled around his punches so easily, but he wasn't a master of airbending for nothing. He could see the pattern behind the ninja's dodges, and simply feinted to the right to bring the boy right in the way of his right hurricane punch.

"The way you dodge…" Aang commented as Naruto rolled across the ground. "It reminds me of an air—" He was cut off as an angry shout and a wave of hot flame washed over him. He bent the current of wind around him, deflecting the flames, but he felt his skin prickle painfully with the heat of it.

Zuko charged Aang, his double bladed swords drawn. He may have sworn vengeance against Sasuke, and he may be regarded as a traitor to his nation, but this was the Avatar. If he happened to capture him in the course of accomplishing his main objective, who was to say his father wouldn't welcome him back as a hero. Besides, the rotten brat had kicked him in the face before he even attacked him. That was just uncalled for! However, he quickly found his face embedded in a black cloaked elbow, as the older Uchiha clothes lined him as an afterthought before facing his sister, who was now leaping to engage the red eyed demon.

Itachi caught Azula's wrist and flipped her about. She grasped his wrists herself, and as she landed feet first, bent backward, she shot her right foot over her left and twisted Itachi about. The Akatsuki member adjusted his stance, catching himself before losing balance. The princess's foot blossomed with cerulean light as it advanced on him, but he twisted his spine in a most unhealthy manner, dodging the flame that would have otherwise burned the flesh from his face.

Azula, however, quickly recoiled her foot and struck bluntly at Itachi's weight bearing leg, which toppled him. She moved forward to deliver a decisive blow to the falling figure, but his hands had already formed a pattern for a ninja technique which caused his body to become engulfed in flames. The princess flipped backward from the flaming Uchiha, declaring, "Hey! No fair lighting yourself on fire!"

Sasuke watched the exchange with morbid fascination. Azula wouldn't be able to beat his brother. She might be a fair match for him physically and mentally, but Itachi's sharingan eye tipped the balance in his favor. Only countering with the same eyes could balance the stage. His feet began to subconsciously draw him toward the conflict.

He had been waiting a long time for this. He would kill his brother this time. He wouldn't allow any more distractions.

Sasuke's sword crossed Zuko's centimeters before the broadsword cleaved his head. The Uchiha delivered a swift sidekick to the scarred exile. "Don't distract me," he said coldly. "Even with your hatred, you're too weak." He continued forward. "Come back for me when you've destroyed everything you hold dear."

"It's too late for that!" Zuko snarled, his memories of his uncle's beheading flashing through his mind. "You've done that for me!" He charged the Uchiha again, this time wary of his opponent's skill. The young man was honorable enough this time to look him in the eyes as he attacked him. Those damned eyes, as red as the day he'd killed the only man who'd been for him through his banishment.

Zuko's blades danced off Sasuke's with savage grace, both skillful and enraged at the same time, while the shinobi merely parried and blocked each drive with that annoying passively arrogant look his sister always graced him with when they sparred in the past. His anger drove him onward, through the pain and vertigo of the dispatched sound ninja's attack.

Finally, he broke down Sasuke's defense and delivered a quick, fatal thrust through the young man's chest. Zuko froze as he saw the shinobi's face grow pale and his gold eyes glaze over. The prince's body was slow to relax, and his emotions changed from hot anger to tense disbelief. The other man tried to speak, a strangled "N… nne" escaping his lips, blood flecking his chin. Zuko acted instantly, his offhand blade slashing through the man's throat, severing his carotid artery. He moved back as the blood began to spurt from the wound.

Sasuke's face began to sag, as if he had been an inflated balloon, and now the breath of life had been released, collapsing his body. Then his wrinkling face expanded and reformed. As the body fell to its back, Zuko looked in horror as Sasuke became the perfect image of the retired general, Iroh. "Uncle…" he wheezed. "Uncle!"

"How unfortunate," Sasuke said from behind him. "I had thought I could reunite you with your poor uncle, and now you've gone and killed him."

"N-no!" Zuko growled. "It's a lie… that was… you!"

"But I'm right here," Sasuke explained calmly. "And your uncle is right there. Dead."

"You killed him!" Zuko shouted angrily.

"No, I didn't," Sasuke said. "I captured him and let you believe I had killed him. But then I thought perhaps he would be a good puppet for capturing you. So I gave him my features and sent him here to retrieve you. It's unfortunate that you were so rash…"

"You're… you're a monster!" Zuko howled as he spun his blades about, advancing on his foe. He was stopped suddenly, however, when a bright flash of light and a loud roar passed inches from his head. He felt like hot pins were piercing every part of his body, and his stomach turned sour.

Itachi lowered his smoking fingers. He had redirected another lightning strike from Azula, but this time he had decided to kill two birds with one stone, in a strictly metaphorical sense. He saw that the electric pulse from the close lightning strike had disrupted Zuko's flow of energy enough to snap him out of the illusion technique his little brother had put him under.

Speaking of his little brother, he was heading in Itachi's direction. Itachi realized fighting the Fire Nation princess and Sasuke from either side would be a bit much, even for him. "Azula! Back off, he's mine."

Azula hesitated momentarily. "... W-wait, I have a score to settle, too!"

"If you interfere with my vengeance, I'll kill you," he said, shooting a hard glare at her momentarily, striking a chill down her spine.

Itachi weaved to the side of Sasuke's sword swipe, the tip drawing a shallow line across his cheek. He grabbed his little brother by the back of the hair and pushed him down, extending his other hand out and catching Zuko's blade in his hand. "Foolish little brother," he quipped. He kicked Sasuke back and pushed Zuko away.

Naruto and Aang, meanwhile, had disengaged, heaving from the exertion of their fight. Naruto had yet to land a truly solid punch on the airbender while he had been getting knocked around quite thoroughly. However, his stamina was greater than Aang's, and he was already recovering while he could see that the Avatar was still panting. He glanced over and saw Sasuke kneeling on the ground with Itachi in Zuko's face behind him.

While Aang noticed this shift in attention, when he attacked, all he met was empty air as Naruto bolted away from him. Aang followed in hot pursuit, seeing that he was going toward Itachi.

Azula also spotted Naruto coming right toward her and Sasuke. She leaped out and kicked his arm as it struck toward her, and then she punished him with a barrage of fiery fists to the gut. Sasuke, meanwhile got to his feet, his eyes piqued with annoyance. As he moved to incapacitate his nuisance of a former ally, Aang intercepted, not being one to allow even an enemy to be ambushed.

Itachi disarmed Zuko quickly, and they exchanged blows, Zuko's fists blazing with flame while the older Uchiha merely moved his strikes out of the way with a hand. His casual attitude seemed to enrage the prince more. "Why don't you fight me for real?"

"Rage blinds you," Itachi said. "Your moves are unfocused and easy to dismiss, though they are powerful." He grabbed Zuko's hand and twisted underneath his arm, bringing the boy's hand up to his ribs in an imitation of a chicken wing. He twisted up on the wrist, causing the prince to grunt in paint. "You lack hate. Hatred... is cold and focused. That is what gives your sister her power."

"I'm... not my... sister," Zuko protested.

"Shall I tell you whom it is she hates most of all?" Itachi asked. "Shall I tell you who gives her all that strength?"

The prince scoffed. "I don't really care. That's her business."

"She hates you, Prince Zuko," Itachi said. "She hates you because you are loved while she is feared."

Zuko stopped struggling and took a deep breath. "What... what are you, some kind of ninja family counselor?"

Azula raked her nails across Naruto's face, causing him to stumble backward. She pressed her attack, sapphire flames dancing from her limbs, but Naruto wasn't as brash as he was when he was young. He leaped into a dilapidated building, forcing her to pursue him. The foxy boy barreled through the building, leading Azula through several hazards—which she was clever and perceptive enough to avoid—while attacking her from a distance with wind enhanced shuriken.

Sasuke, meanwhile, fought blade to staff against the Avatar. The fight was as expected from their last encounter. The Avatar was much faster than he, and he was forced to strain his sharingan eyes to predict his blows in time to counter. His genjutsu wouldn't help as the boy had proven the ability to break illusions, and it would be doubly ineffective in such close quarters combat.

When the Uchiha tried to make a thrust for Aang's shoulder, the boy's swift response disarmed Sasuke, and he found himself being blown away from his sword by a powerful gust. The Avatar then tossed away his weapon and stood between the shinobi and his sword. "If you want it, you'll have to come through me."

"No problem," Sasuke said. "You may be faster than me, but you're still predictable." He charged the boy. The Avatar was still an airbender at heart, and he could not simply stand there to be knocked over. It wasn't in his nature. Even if he had learned some waterbending techniques, at best he might simply toss Sasuke, and the shinobi was prepared in that eventuality.

Aang stomped into a horse stance, and a boulder ripped out of the earth. He struck the stone and it hurtled toward Sasuke. In shock, the shinobi rolled to the side. He had not expected the boy to have learned earthbending.

"How…?" he asked.

The Avatar didn't respond, but instead moved his arms to the side, creating a wave of earth that surrounded and overwhelmed the young man. He burst from the dirt a moment later and belted a series of conflagrations, around which the boy slithered before leaping to engage the ninja hand to hand.

Itachi brought the Fire Nation prince to his knees with a knee to the gut. He lowered himself to his own right knee and grasped Zuko's chin in a potent grasp. He forced the young man to look into his eyes. "Your uncle…" he began.

Zuko spat angrily at Itachi. "Don't mention my uncle. Trash like you isn't worthy!"

The Uchiha ignored Zuko's defiance and continued. "He's alive, Zuko. He's waiting for you in the Fire Nation."

"What?" Zuko asked incredulously. "He's… alive…"

"My brother cast an illusion on you to make you believe he had killed your uncle. He ensured that you would come after him, and thus would be all the easier to capture," Itachi explained. "But he has escaped from his captors and is now in hiding in the Fire Nation."

"How… how do you know this?" Zuko asked, still skeptical.

The Uchiha released the prince. "I am a shinobi," he said. "I know many things."

"You think I'll accept that?" Zuko asked. "I know about you. You're a part of a criminal organization!"

Itachi smirked at that. "You are a criminal and a traitor to your nation. How different are we?"

"I never killed my family," Zuko retorted.

"You may have to," Itachi responded. "They want to kill you."

Naruto, meanwhile had been caught by the distressing damsel in red. She had blown him out of the front of a building and was now punishing him with a furious barrage of azure missiles. Out in the open and dazed, the shinobi had little recourse. His only long range techniques were airbending, and the princess was rather good at defending his amateur air blasts.

The Fire Princess was rather perturbed, however, that no matter how many of her blasts struck the ninja would not go down. In fact, it almost seemed as if his burns were healing right in front of her eyes, but perhaps that was just a trick of the light and smoke. The blond was male, so would naturally have more stamina... though that hadn't helped any of her other opponents.

Naruto broke free of the firestorm and created more clones. They shielded him as he attempted to blitz toward the princess. He attacked with shuriken along the way, forcing the girl to defend, leaping and flipping about like her acrobatic friend.

Naruto's clones converged on Azula, a few gathering around Naruto as a spinning sphere of raw force coalesced in his hands. The bubble grew larger and larger until it had become the size of a kickball. Naruto's cadre of clones closed the gap between themselves and Azula, striking at her.

Azula was agile and ruthless in her dispatching of the weaker shadow clones. Sharp claws raked at them, blazing fire scorched them, and the sickening sound of crackling bone barked in the dry air as she twisted their limbs in unnatural directions. She finished off the last one just in time to turn to see the true Naruto barreling toward her, his arm outstretched and swirling chakra energy flying centimeters from his palm.

The shinobi gasped as the girl's hands grasped the wrist of his striking arm. She spun underneath his arm, twisting it around and driving his hand into his ribcage. The oudama rasengan dug into his side, and he grunted in pain as he felt one o his ribs snap.

Azula threw the young man to the ground, and he rolled across the dirt. She fired fierce fuchsia flashes of flame after the foxy fellow. Explosions rocked Naruto as he rolled to his knees, and then he saw the princess leap into the air, her entire body twisting and thrusting into a strike with all the force and heat of a volcanic eruption.

Azula, sweating profusely from the exertion, waited for the smoke to clear, attentive for any movement as she panted heavily. The dark soot began to clear in the air, and she could see a red glow within. The shinobi crouched within the glow, his skin burned and clothes in tatters. However, before her eyes, it seemed as if his burns were healing, leaving fresh, healthy skin. And... Were those fangs?

"Who interrupts a guy in the middle of his finishing move?" the shinobi complained as he stood. His demon fox cloak had enveloped him just in time, and he could already feel his strength increasing, even as he could see his opponent's was beginning to wane. He began to walk toward her, a lopsided grin on his face. "Alright... you ready for the final round?"

Not far away, Sasuke's body was covered in the marks of the heaven's seal. His curse powered speed had allowed him to punish the Avatar, but Aang's skills were quite good, as well. He was bruised and bleeding, finding himself on the receiving end of a strike more often than he'd like.

Aang eventually put some distance between him and the ninja. He maneuvered himself toward his discarded staff and unsheathed its glider. He leaped over Sasuke's head and airbended himself high into the air.

Sasuke leaped at the Avatar, but a strong gust from Aang's lungs blew him back. He snarled and began to run along the ground. He shot fireballs from his fingers, forcing Aang to zig zag over the rooftops.

Azula dodged Naruto's attack, but found herself tossed aside by his red aura, as if it had a mind of its own. She launched attack after attack, but he shrugged them off, unaffected by the heat, and barely slowed by the kinetic force. The young princess began to feel panic tighten in her gut. This guy could not be human.

Aang swooped over Azula and Naruto, still focused on dodging Sasuke's attacks. The fire princess spotted him and flipped into the air, landing on the Avatar's back. She jerked his shoulders askew, steering him away from the demon container.

As Sasuke passed nearby Naruto, meanwhile, the shinobi shot his arm out. His former teammate saw this and veered away, but the whip of the fox's chakra arm caught him on the neck, clothes lining him into the ground. Naruto looked down at Sasuke, his single chakra tail twitching as more energy bubbled around the base of the tail, growing in to a second.

"We didn't finish before," he said.

The Uchiha looked over his former friend, panting heavily. However, his curse mark was also growing, darkening his whole skin. "You're right."

Azula leaped off Aang as he began to spin about, and she landed roughly on the ground. Shaking her head, she turned about to see Zuko and Itachi nearby. They didn't seem to be fighting, but instead were having a conversation, heated from Zuko's end, but calm and patient from the eldest Uchiha's.

The princess forgot about the Avatar for the moment. She still had a score to settle with Itachi. She leaped for him, fingers blazing. The two young men noticed her approach, and faced her shoulder to shoulder.

Naruto crossed arms with Sasuke, and their limbs blurred with demonic speed. The fox cloak, Sasuke found, was still hard to predict, it acting as an extra pair of arms against which his two were too occupied to defend. Therefore, after a few jarring attacks, the Uchiha sprouted his hand shaped wings, using them to act as an extra pair of shield arms.

The fox ninja still tore into the other shinobi with ferocity, but Sasuke was fighting back. Electricity coursed through the snake apprentice's body in a defensive maneuver. Naruto fell back slightly, and Uchiha went on the offensive, using his wide array of fire and snake jutsu.

Aang glided back toward the fighting ninja and dove at Sasuke from behind. He struck the winged boy in the neck, knocking him off balance. He rolled along the ground and came back up to his knees to see Naruto and Aang ganging up on him.

I might be able to handle one or the other, he thought, but both would certainly destroy me like this. He looked into Naruto's fox eyes. His sharingan bore into the boy's spirit. There, he saw Naruto's soul encased in the nine-tail's chakra.

"I can see, now. This is the source of your power," Sasuke said.

"Impressive that you've become able to see me, here inside Naruto," the nine tailed fox said. "Such would be the power of that accursed sharingan and your forsaken bloodline."

"Well, it would appear this isn't the first time you've gazed into eyes such as these... which would make you... the nine tailed demon fox, no doubt."

"Eyes with such power and a spirit more sinister than my own," the fox went on. "Not at all unlike what I saw in a certain Madara Uchiha."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" Sasuke touched the bubble of chakra that held Naruto, and it burst, freeing the young man from its grasp. The Uchiha turned toward the kyuubi. "Don't interfere, fox."

"Unbelievable. To think that you could even suppress my power," the demon growled, his chakra receding into its cage. "I may not see you again, but I warn you. Don't kill Naruto... you'll end up regretting it."

Naruto's demon cloak receded back into his body. He felt the sudden drop in speed, strength, and stamina immediately. He had been fighting hard this whole time, and now his fatigue was catching up to him. "I won't give up!" he asserted, continuing his assault on Sasuke.

Aang joined him, both working together to keep Sasuke off balance. Both knew that he was the biggest threat of the three of them, and, as they had no personal grief against each other, aside from being friends with enemies of the other, they had little problem teaming up.

Besides, Aang thought, this kid seemed to be an airbender. He had thought he was the last, but with this guy was the possibility that the Air Nomad culture could return. It wouldn't hurt to become allies.

In spite of the fact that he was outnumbered, Sasuke was now more swift and powerful than the two other fighters. He held them off rather effectively. His chidori nagashi created an electrical field around him when they came in for close combat, and his sharingan saw their longer range techniques coming in time to dodge.

Azula attacked relentlessly and efficiently, driving away both her brother and Itachi. She was more interested in the Uchiha than her brother, of course, and launched lethal strikes against him. Itachi deflected the flames, but this girl was skilled, precise, and, above all, focused on nothing less than the utter destruction of her enemy.

The fire princess found her face jammed into the dirt, the back of her head throbbing with pain. She lifted her head out of the ground and shook off the pain, looking up to find a blue garbed guy with a ponytail—scratch that, she thought, it was more like a wolftail... rather more dashing than something like a ponytail—catching a boomerang. Perhaps she had been a bit too focused.

"Alright, boomerang!" Sokka cheered. "Hey, Itachi, haven't seen you around..." He looked over at the exiled fire prince. "Hey, what are you doing here, jerk?"

Zuko scowled for a moment, but then noticed his sister rising to her feet and preparing a lightning strike. "Hey!" he shouts as she thrust her fingers toward Sokka. Itachi was already in motion. He knocked Sokka out of the way as Azula fired, and he absorbed the lightning strike, though had little time to redirect effectively.

"Augh!" Itachi grunted in pain. He fell to the ground, shaking slightly. "That was rather devious," he admitted. He stood and smirked, holding his burning side, but otherwise seemingly unaffected. He leaped toward Azula, Sokka and Zuko following suit, and they began to drive the girl back.

Meanwhile, Sasuke continued to engage Aang and Naruto, and they leaped from place to place in a frenetic long range battle. Sasuke's boot splashed into a puddle of water as he paused for a moment to spit fireballs at his pursuers. He then felt an icy chill run up his leg. Looking down, he saw that he was suddenly trapped by ice that had enveloped his leg from the puddle.

A barrage of water fangs suddenly collided with him, sending him crashing through the wall of a dilapidated building. He saw that girl the Avatar traveled with and the sharkfaced partner of his brother's join Aang and Naruto. He was probably in trouble, now. He began to make a tactical retreat.

Azula had decided on much the same, and she and her shinobi subordinate began to close the distance between them. The two studied their opponents back-to-back. They were surrounded on all sides, and both concluded there was no way they could fight their way out.

"Well, look at this," Azula said. "Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done." She raised her hands in surrender. "I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."

"It's Ji-rai-ya!" A voice suddenly cut through the tense atmosphere. "Itachi managed to incapacitate me for awhile, but nothing stops the great sage of Myouboku mountain for long."

Zuko and Naruto glanced at the old man who had just appeared upon a giant toad. Within that glance, both boys found themselves being flung back as Azula shot a jet of blue flame into Naruto's chest and Sasuke unleashed a summoned snake from his sleeve that sunk its teeth into Zuko's arm.

"Oops," Jiraiya said. "Okay, let's get some toad oil pumping, buddy," he told his toad. He lit the stream of oil aflame as it shot toward the two attackers. Aang, Itachi, Kisame, and Katara joined his attack, and smoke and flame surrounded the two. When it subsided, they had disappeared.

- - -

"Well, Sasuke kun, it's good that I happened along when I did."

"Thank you, Lord Orochimaru," Sasuke said to the pale ninja master who sat in the throne before him. "I hadn't known of the trap door there. We might have had much more trouble had you not activated it when you did."

"It seems Kisame knocked out your comrades with a combination of some sort of mild poison and concussive force," the snake ninja continued. "Don't worry, I brought them with me."

"You have my thanks," Azula said. "Tell me, did my uncle make it back to prison safely?"

Orochimaru frowned. "I delivered him, but it seems your prison system is lacking. He escaped with the help of a... certain agent."

Azula scowled. "This won't do at all. My brother and the Avatar are both still uncaptured and now that old fool is loose again."

"I wouldn't worry about that for now," Orochimaru assured her. "He has not left the Fire Nation. For now, we have common goals. We both want the Avatar subdued, and capturing your brother... well, that's probably not going to be an issue."

"What do you mean by that?" Azula asked.

"Those snakes Sasuke kun summoned," Orochimaru explained, "are venomous. They probably won't kill him, but the venom was specially created and recently injected into their venom sacs to attack the nervous system in such a fashion as to paralyze its victim. In a few days, unless he is treated by a very skilled expert in medicine, the effects will be permanent."

The fire princess very nearly choked. "That... sounds truly horrible. I'm almost appalled."

"My apologies," Sasuke said to her. "I wasn't aware that their poison had been replaced..."

"Don't worry about it," Azula said. "I said I was just 'almost appalled.'"

- - -

"Take this message to Konoha," Jiraiya told the little toad he had summoned. "As quickly as possible. Tsunade must see this."

"You got it, boss," the messenger toad said. He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, back to whence he came in a faraway mountain range in the Fire Nation. Jiraiya sighed and looked back at Zuko. He was feverish and didn't seem able to move.

When the two attackers had disappeared, Jiraiya had immediately gone after Zuko, scooping him up and removing the snakes. By the time he went after Naruto, he was gone. As was Itachi and the others.

"Eesh..." Jiraiya sighed. "I hope the kid doesn't do anything too dumb."

- - -

Naruto felt a cool, pleasant feeling on his chest. Energy seemed to flow into him, invigorating him. His eyes cracked open, revealing the blurry image of a face. "I think he's waking up," the face said in a ringing voice.

"Nn..." he groaned. "S-Sakura...?" He reached out for the figure in front of him, and his hands pressed against soft flesh. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again, baby..."

"Hands off!" the figure screeched, and Naruto found his face slapped with a liquid whip. "Huh? Wha?" His eyes cleared and he saw a dusky complexioned water tribe girl glaring at him with angry blue eyes. "Oh... sorry, thought you were someone else."

Sokka's eye twitched as he patted his club in his palm. "So... this 'Sakura' girl would've been okay with you groping her?"

"Nah," Naruto said. "In fact, she'd have hit me a lot harder. It's probably a good thing I was mistaken." He grinned foxily. "But it would have been worth it..."

"Tell me, Naruto," Itachi suddenly interrupted. "Where did you get this scroll?" He removed a rolled up parchment from Naruto's jacket, which he had clutched in his other hand.

"Itachi!" Naruto growled, his mood souring. "I got nothing to say to you!" He looked over to see the younger bald boy with blue tattoos at the head of the beast on which the rode. "Actually... it's for you... airbender... guy."

"For me?" Aang asked, curiously. "You don't even know me. Why do you have something for me?" He took the scroll from Itachi and read it. "Who's 'guru Pathik?'"

"He helped me learn airbending," Naruto said. "He was friends with a guy who knew you... named Gyatso. He said he needed to teach you how to control your Avatar thing."

The airbender considered this. "Monk Gyatso..." He turned to the others. "I... I have to go see him."

"Sounds fun... but first we have to go somewhere important. Somewhere in the desert," Kisame said.

"Yes," Itachi said. "Very important business."

"Okay," Aang said. "The guru's apparently waited a hundred years already. I guess he can wait a little longer."

"That's awesome," Naruto said. "So... can you let me go, now?"

"No," they all said in unison.