-Chapter 18 Setsuna-

It took Naruto, Lee, and Tenten an extra two days to return to Konoha, due to having to escort the Daimyo's daughter as well. Ninjas didn't need to eat as often or take as many breaks as civilians did, and add on to the fact that this particular civilian had been in the 'hospitality' of a group of missing nins, who by the looks of the girl had only been given enough food and water to ensure her survival, and it would make sense that the group would have to slow their pace while heading home, even while taking turns carrying the girl.

Though, just because her appearance said these things about her, you wouldn't have ever guessed this just by talking to the girl. Throughout their conversations with Setsuna, they had learned that she had always been fascinated by the ninjas of her country, though this was her first time ever meeting one. Granted she wouldn't have preferred these circumstances but everything turned out alright in the end. Even though she had aspirations of becoming a ninja herself when she was younger, she had accepted her role as Fire Country's next leader with a smile.

She had also taken the news of her impending marriage with little to no complaints whatsoever. Then again it wasn't as if she didn't know who it was she was going to be wed to. Kanda, like her, had a certain admiration for the ninjas of his country, especially since Sabaku no Gaara had taken the reigns as Kazekage. He also had the pleasure of actually meeting a couple of the ninjas of his country, namely the Kazekage's siblings. He was initially intimidated by Kankuro, his face paint and bandaged weapons unnerving the young man, though once the blonde haired fan user caught his eye; well let's just say he wished that she wasn't already taken. She had put him down softly thought, which was not what he was expecting given what he had heard about her.

Once she had explained her own situation to her escorts she had asked them questions about themselves. Strangely enough the one she had the least amount of questions for was Naruto. Technically this was Naruto's own fault, seeing as he hadn't really done much to keep himself under the radar. Akatsuki, Orochimaru, Sound Army, and many other achievements that only furthered his acclaim in the eyes of the young woman. Tenten really impressed the young girl, though her admiration of her started when she first laid eyes on the kunoichi. That admiration only grew when she, for lack of a better term, witnessed the woman kill each and every ninja that had come to stop her from saving Setsuna in total darkness.

Lee, on the other hand, was a total enigma to the girl. She was initially wary of the ninja due to his questionable fashion choice, very pronounced eyebrows, and 'unique' haircut. Then she started to really talk to him and was somewhat shocked to find out that he not only was severely handicapped as far as ninjas go, but he somehow managed to progress to the level that rivaled, and in some cases exceeded, ninjas that did have access to their chakra. Lee himself was definitely appreciative of the attention the girl was giving him, if the sudden pep in his step whenever his turn to carry Setsuna came up was any indication, and Tenten noticed this.

"Hey Naruto, you seeing what I'm seeing?" Tenten fell back besides her blonde haired partner, while Lee took point with Setsuna riding piggyback on him.

Naruto had not allowed Lee's reactions to Setsuna's to escape him either. "Mhmm. I'm hoping he doesn't get too attached to her. Last thing we need is for Lee to fall for a woman that is practically already married."

"I know. I think we should wait and see if Lee can figure this one out on his own. Lee's a big boy, even if he doesn't dress like it. He should be able to handle this." Tenten left it at that for now, since the gates for Konoha were finally coming into view.

-Hokage's Office-

Tsunade looked at the three ninjas before her, surrounding a surprisingly well looking Setsuna that was currently seated in a chair in front of her desk. Strangely enough, the ninjas all looked even better than the person they had just saved. Considering the circumstances, she had expecting at least something. Torn clothes, rumpled hair, maybe a cut or a bruise, something. But between the three of them, not a hair was out of place. Once again, knucklehead had done it. Now for the hardest part of any mission that involved him. "I just got a message from the Daimyo, telling me that he had been contacted by the ninjas that kidnapped Setsuna. They said that due to the recently failed attempt at rescuing her, the price for her return has now been doubled, and they are asking for the same amount for the return of the ninja that they had captured as well, describing her as a brown haired ninja with her hair done up in double buns and owning a simply ridiculous amount of storage scrolls. Given that your team has returned with all original members intact, as well as with Setsuna, I have a decent idea as to what you did. Now, how did you do it?"

Tenten stood forward and addressed her leader. "When we arrived at the building, Naruto sent some clones inside the building to scout it out a bit, whilst we slept until midnight. When we woke up Naruto went over what his clones as learned and we formulated a plan, granted it was definitely not the sanest plan I had ever come up with. I split it into 2 phases.

"Phase 1 was Infiltration and distraction. Lee went down one stairwell to the first basement floor where some of the ninjas were, and Naruto went down the other, disguised as a bug so he could get past the wooden boards. I, along with 2 of Naruto's clones, went down the elevator shaft to the bottom floor, where Setsuna was being held. One clone was there to open the elevator for me and then stand by for the next phase, while the second would relay to Naruto that it was time to begin. At a predetermined time we all acted as one. Lee and Naruto started the attack on the ninjas on their floor, while the clone that was still with me opened the door and allowed me to jump into the room and pick off any ninjas in the room. Once I got to Setsuna and freed her, as I had expected, some of the ninjas on the second basement floor came down to make sure that the attack wasn't just a distraction."

At this Tenten tried, and failed, to keep the proud smile from coming on her face. "After ensuring that Setsuna wouldn't be harmed, I took out every light on the floor, casting the room in total darkness, then proceeded to take out each and every ninja that had come down." She couldn't help but giggle as the Hokage's eyebrows shot up as high as she had ever seen them go. "I'll have to show it to you some time later on. Either way once the ninjas were dead, the clone came out to begin phase 2."

-3 Days Ago-

"Yep. Now on to phase 2." At Tenten's confirmation the clone dispersed itself. Two of the clones that were fighting upstairs suddenly broke from their targets and headed down the stairs. Tenten had since activated a simple lighting jutsu to illuminate the room, allowing her and Setsuna to cross the sea of bodies and weapons unharmed. The clones came down and smiled to Tenten and Setsuna, who at this point was staring in awe at the bodies that were lying on the ground around her, none of them moving. Her awed look would only intensify as the first clone transformed into Setsuna, mirroring her current appearance exactly, and seated himself in the chair. The second one tied up 'Setsuna's' arms as they had been and then transformed into Tenten, albeit a much more injured looking one than the original. Once that was done, 'Tenten' laid down on the ground with the rest of the dead ninjas while the real Tenten and Setsuna made their way back up the shaft.

Back on the top floor Naruto was silently counting down the minutes until he would call in to Tenten to see how she was doing. For this to work the way they had planned it, Naruto would have to make sure that at least one or two of his opponents was close enough to hear the conversation. Lee's job was a simple one. Keep the ninjas from overwhelming Naruto in such a confined space, as well a keep the ones that were on this floor from heading back downstairs.

Once Tenten and Setsuna were out, they headed to a predetermined location away from the building, and then simply waited for Naruto's call. "Tenten. How's the extraction going?"

Smirking to the girl that was standing next to her she cleared her throat and spoke into her communicator, doing her best impression of herself had she been critically wounded. "Nar- cough, cough. Naru….to. Lee…. Plan…. Is scrapped. Two…..must escape….now."

"WHAT? What about Setsuna?"

She had to admit, Naruto could actually be quite the actor when he wanted to be. "Too…..many. Couldn't get….her out. Must get out…..now."

With that done it was another simple waiting game, this time for Lee and Naruto to escape the base. Once they did and Naruto was sure that they weren't being followed he smiled and turned to where Tenten and Setsuna were standing. "Mission…"

"Complete."

-Present Time-

"After that we began to make our way back to Konoha and the rest is history."

Needless to say, Tsunade was impressed. "Being on Naruto's team has definitely had an interesting effect on your strategizing hasn't it?"

Tenten giggled just a bit, even as Naruto laughed out loud, seeing as he had basically told her the same thing. "What can I say? Conventional rules just get thrown out the window if Naruto is there. That's not to take away from Lee's skills either. Doubt I would have been able to pull it off without the both of them."

Tsunade nodded her head at that, suppressing a slight smile for now. "In any case, congratulations to the three of you. Now go ahead and get some rest. We will begin preparations for returning Setsu-"

"Pardon me, Hokage-sama," Tsunade was more than a little irked to be cut off like that, but was surprised that she had been interrupted by the only non ninja in the room. "But I think I know what you are about to ask, and as much as I am sure my father would love to see me safe and sound, I think it would be more important for me to get to the Wind Country as soon as possible."

At this, Tsunade had to look to Tenten, Lee, and Naruto, and seeing the confused looks on their faces turned back to Setsuna, though if she had looked a little harder she would have noticed that Tenten's face was more thoughtful than confused. "Forgive me, but did you just say you still want to go to Wind Country, even after what just happened?"

"Yes." It wasn't hard to see the determination in her eyes. "Which is why I would like to enlist the services of Konoha to escort me to the Wind Country."

Tsunade observed the young woman carefully, leaning forward and locking eyes with the girl. "Do you really think this is a good idea? I promised your father that I would return you to him, and I don't want to break a promise to my Daimyo, even if it is to continue with the planned transport of you to Wind Country."

"Actually Tsunade-sama, I think this would be the best possible action we could take." Tenten, who had spent some of the conversation that took place between Tsunade and Setsuna lost in thought, spoke up drawing the attention of everyone present. "As of right now, the ninjas that kidnapped her still don't know that we have saved her and replaced her with a clone. Naruto confirmed this since he has not received the memories from those clones yet. I will admit that I had not planned on this little development, but it works in our favor. As long as they believe that they still have her we can get her there unobstructed."

"Well there goes that plan." Naruto spoke up, a grimace on his face that could be seen a mile away. "They just figured out that I left clones for them. Strange though, they only figured it out because of some other ninja that I don't remember seeing there before."

At this Setsuna's face changed to one of recognition. "Did he have really spiky green hair?"

Naruto nodded to the girl, and then frowned a bit. "That the guy that kidnapped you?"

At her nod, Tenten started to rifle through her bingo book, stopping once she found the one she had been looking for. "Is this him?" At the simultaneous nods of both Naruto and Setsuna, Tenten sighed. "Murota Shinn, Mist missing nin. Kiba and I have had a couple of run-ins with him. Never could capture him though. He is a pretty well balanced ninja though he specializes in light throwing weapons, like me, and poisons. I doubt you will be able to find the name of the poison or a cure for it, since he was kind enough to tell us that he mixes his own poisons after poisoning one of our former teammates, basically guaranteeing that there will be no cure for it." The anger in her voice could be felt throughout the room, causing Setsuna to recoil slightly. "I can't say for sure that I know his motivations behind this recent kidnapping, but if he is involved then we may be in a bit of trouble here."

Naruto nodded his head and turned back to Tsunade. "She is right. Right now it is more important that she gets to Wind Country a.s.a.p. They already know that we have her and will more than likely be heading here to try and get her again."

"Just as likely, they will be waiting at the capital for us to bring her back there. Our best bet would be to get her to her original destination immediately." Lee spoke up this time, wanting to put at least some input into this meeting.

Tsunade took in everything that was said, weighing the risks versus the rewards. Finally she spoke. "Very well. Then I will allow this mission to proceed. However, you will not head out for another day to allow Setsuna enough time to rest and recover from her kidnapping. First thing tomorrow morning, you will head out."

All three ninjas nodded their heads and Setsuna rose to her feet, bowing to the blonde Hokage. "Thank you for this, Tsunade-sama." She turned and left the room along with Tenten and Lee. Naruto, however, stayed behind.

"Hey baa-chan, you think we could get Ino and Kiba in on this mission too? I just got a killer idea."

-Outside Hokage Tower-

"If you want you can stay at my place for the night. It's not much but I do have an extra futon." Tenten led her other two companions outside the Hokage tower and automatically, living arrangements for the Daimyo's daughter. Setsuna had immediately opted to living in one of the hotels. Tenten immediately stepped in at that. Although not the worst in the world, Tenten wasn't sure if she would trust some of the hotels here in Konoha, especially if such a high profile person was staying in one of them. Besides, she wouldn't mind a little female company for the night.

"Are you sure? I don't want to feel like I am intruding on your space." It also didn't hurt Tenten's opinion of the girl that she was far too polite for Tenten to believe that she was really the Daimyo's daughter.

"Don't worry about it. My place is your place for the night."

"Then I would be happy to stay with you. But for now, I would love to have a tour of the village. I have never been inside a real ninja village before." Setsuna was now looking around their general area, taking in the sights and sounds of Konohagakure.

"That would be nice. Unfortunately, I will not be joining you. I still have some preparations to make for tomorrow, but Lee will be more than happy to show you around the village, right Lee?" She realized that she was taking a chance of this one, considering what she had seen apparently growing between the two, but she felt that, in spite of all this, Lee would be the bigger person and do the right thing. She just hoped that her trust in her teammate wouldn't be without merit.

"Hai. Setsuna-chan, shall we go?" It already wasn't looking good.

At least Setsuna managed to not look too embarrassed by the honorific change and managed a simple nod towards the oddly dressed ninja. Tenten immediately headed off to do her errands while Lee led her through the village.

The obvious first stop for the couple was the Hokage monument, something that Setsuna had seen on the way in, but now was getting an up close view of the mountain that presented the village with the faces of the last five leaders of the village. She was shocked to learn that Naruto actually had aspirations of having his face put on that very same mountain but was now having second thoughts about that dream. Setsuna then resolved to ensure that if he did decide to become Hokage, he would have her support and that of her father if he was still Daimyo. She probably couldn't hand him the title of course, but she could make sure that he had the backing of some powerful contacts.

Lee then led her up the path behind the mountain and up to the top, giving her a bird's eye view of the village, a sight that absolutely stunned the young woman. Lee explained to her than this made it feel like the Hokages were watching over the village every day, and that this was one of Naruto's favorite hangout spots, second only to the Ichiraku ramen stand. Of course, the mention of a ramen stand caused Setsuna to remember that she had not had a decent meal since the day she left for Wind Country and immediately asked Lee to take her there. Naturally, Lee obliged.

If one that knew Lee were watching him as he walked towards the ramen stand with Setsuna beside him, they would have noticed a dramatic change in the way the man acted around her. He actually managed to keep his voice at a level considered normal by regular people, he didn't break off into any of his tangents, and he didn't even once mention either of the words 'power', or 'youth'. For once, he was actually behaving like a regular ninja. Setsuna, of course, didn't know about Lee's true nature, but at the same time realized that he was definitely not acting in his natural way. Aside from the fact that he somehow managed to look just a bit uncomfortable now that he was alone with her, she didn't think that anyone would willingly step out of their house looking like he did without some serious personality quirks. Her immediate thought was that he was trying to act professional around her because of who she was, something she was used to seeing and, quite honestly, annoyed with. Not that she was blaming Lee for that, it was just that just because she was the Daimyo's daughter didn't mean that she wanted to be treated like royalty each and every minute of the day.

However she wouldn't get the chance to address it just yet. "Lee! It's is good to see you my youthful equal!" She didn't know exactly when the man had decided to appear, or how he had done so as quietly as he did before nearly scaring her out of her borrowed clothes. All she knew was that as soon as her ears stopped ringing she managed to turn her attention to the man, and immediately saw just where Lee got his fashion sense from.

The man that stood before her now looked just like a slightly larger, more eyebrow defined version of her current tour guide. It was strange, really, just how much the two looked alike. It was also very disconcerting to know that Lee had probably taken after this man to an extent that went beyond just appearance.

Lee, strangely, did not even look like he was going to respond to his former sensei in an equally outrageous manner and simply bowed to him. "Gai-sensei, it is good to see you too."

Obviously, this caught the older man's attention. "Lee, I thought I told you not to call me sensei before. We are now youthful equals. Both of us have attained the rank of Jounin, and you have learned everything that I have to teach you. Now it is up to you to blaze your own path towards the springtime of youth!" At the last few words Gai struck an overly exaggerated pose, music playing in the background, the sun setting on the horizon, the whole nine yards.

Setsuna, surprisingly, was attempting to hold back a giggle at the man's antics, but Lee was not joining in. "Hai, Gai sen- Gai-San."

Gai was beginning to get worried about his former pupil until he saw a possible reason for his sudden change in behavior. At this Gai gave a knowing smirk. "Ah, so you intend to spread your youthfulness to your lady friend, right Lee. Well then, I will do my absolute best to ensure that I do not embarrass you in front of her. And if I should then I shall do 500 finger push-ups with each finger while balancing on the Godaime Hokage's monument's nooooooooose!"

Lee blanched slightly, thinking that maybe he should go ahead and tell him which finger to start on, but simply managed to let out a halfhearted "Hai."

After that apparent disaster in the mind of Lee, he showed Setsuna around the rest of the village, eventually ending up at the balcony where his team had their first meeting, and began to talk about his ninja career with her. Setsuna listened intently at how the ninja academy was run, the daily life of a ninja, and even some of the missions that Lee had participated in, both with and without his original team. She was growing a little concerned when, in spite of all of his tales he had managed to avoid any subjects were directly connected to his own personality or that of his sensei. When it became clear that he would not talk about either on his own, she decided to push the issue herself. "So tell me a little about your sensei. I believe you called him Gai?"

It became quite clear that he was wary about talking about his rather eccentric former sensei, and attempted to use a simple general response. "He is a great ninja. He taught me everything that I know now. He took a kid who could not perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu, and turned him into the ninja you see before you now."

"Yes, yes, that is very interesting, but tell me more about him. I mean him as a person. I mean just by looking at him I can tell that he had a very profound influence on you."

Lee shifted a bit, looking away from her. At that moment, Setsuna realized just why he was acting so weird all the sudden. Internally she was laughing out loud. "You know, I found his introduction and antics to be quite entertaining."

Her simple compliment had the desired effect. "Really?" His eyes were now back to her.

"Of course. I especially enjoyed him proclaiming that he would, oh what did he say again? 'Do 500 finger pushups with each finger while balancing on the Godaime Hokage's monument's nose.' Oh wait, I'm sorry. I believe he said 'nooooooooooose!'"

Lee gave a slight chuckle at that. "Yeah, it's something he taught me to help train myself. No matter what I do I always promise to train myself even harder. That way, even if I should fail my task I get stronger because of it."

"Oh? When was the last time you made such a promise?" He was now leaning forward, looking straight at him.

"… I promised my teammate, Tenten, that I would do my best to make her proud of me for this mission to save you. And If I failed I would do 300 laps around Konoha." A moment of silence. "On my hands." One more moment. "….Backwards."

Setsuna wasn't entirely sure whether she should be impressed, intrigued, or afraid for this man's sanity. Just from the small tour she had gotten from him she could tell that Konoha was big, thanks largely in part to the training areas. Just running around the village once would be a trying experience. Adding on another 299 times to that was just crazy. And to do it on your hands while going backwards? It was no wonder she started laughing at him. Once she managed to get control of her lungs again she spoke. "Wow, that has got to be the best thing I have ever heard. Are all ninja's like that?"

It was strange really. Lee had been so afraid that the girl would be either scared off by his personality quirks that the minute she started laughing he had wondered if he had done anything wrong. But once he saw that she was sincerely amused by his antics, he began to loosen up and enjoy himself around her more. "Not exactly, though most of them tend to develop certain quirks about them. Naruto's first sensei, for example, has a serious tardiness problem. He always shows up 2-3 hours late for every appointment he goes to, even if he is the one who sets them."

Setsuna was now openly laughing, barely able to control her own breathing. This fired Lee up even more. "Even better, one of Naruto's former classmates, Nara Shikamaru, is considered a true strategical genius by most everyone in Konoha, and even quite a few out of it, yet he is also the laziest ninja in the village. If given the choice between a million ryo to do a D class mission, and 100 ryo to lay back and watch clouds, I have no doubt in my mind that he would expend all of his youthful energy watching the clouds." He didn't even notice that he was started to let his personality show a little more. He was on a roll, if Setsuna's laughing form was any indication.

"But if you want to see someone who takes their quirk to an extreme, you have to look no further than Naruto himself. Remember how I told you about Ichiraku's ramen stand being one of his favorite places? That is because the man is a ramen addict. I once saw him start a ramen eating contest. One person would sit down and try to out eat him, and if they lost the got up and the next person sat down and tried to do the same. He went through about 15 ninjas before finally having to stop. I don't remember the exact amount of bowls he ate but I can tell you that the price for all that ramen would have been enough to feed a family of four for about 2 months."

At this Setsuna had to hold her hands up in surrender to keep Lee from saying something that would probably cause her to burst an internal organ. Once she calmed down a bit, which took quite a while, she looked back up at her tour guide. "I noticed that most of your stories seem to revolve around Naruto. What is he to you?"

"He is my eternal rival. We compete in just about everything. Sparring, racing, missions, anything and everything. Like me, he was also a dropout for his class, graduating at the bottom of the barrel. And like me, he managed to work his way up and become quite possibly the strongest ninja in the village."

"I see." A sudden yawn overtook her, causing Lee to finally notice that the sun was starting to retreat behind the horizon.

"I think we will have to call it a day here. We have an early day tomorrow, and we will need all the energy we can get."

Setsuna reluctantly nodded her head at this, and followed Lee back down to street level, letting him lead the way towards Tenten's house. Lee immediately tensed up when Setsuna came up beside him, intertwining her right arm with his left.

Lee's arm would not move an inch all the way to Tenten's place, nor would the blush that suddenly overtook his face leave.

Once there, he knocked on his former teammate's door and waited a good 3 seconds before she opened it. "Ah there you are. I assume you had a good time today?"

"Yes I did. Lee-san is an excellent guide. I saw the sights, enjoyed myself, and he even made sure that I was fed properly. I wish you could have joined us Tenten-san."

Tenten smiled and cleared the way. "Well come on in. Give me a moment though; I have something I need to talk to Lee about."

Setsuna nodded and turned back to Lee. "Thank you for showing me around Lee-san. I really appreciate it." She smiled up at him before turning away and walking into Tenten's house.

Lee nodded his head as she turned and then faced his former teammate, recognizing the look on her face. She closed the door, he began speaking. "I know, Tenten-san. I shouldn't get too attached to her. Never mind the fact that she is practically royalty, she is to be married soon, which is supposed to cement an alliance between the Daimyo's of Wind and Fire. I understand that I should not allow myself to grow feelings for someone that, ultimately, I cannot have." He spoke almost as if he was reciting something he had written down beforehand.

Tenten's face softened up just a bit at his speech. "And yet, you already have."

Lee looked down, his posture suddenly relaxed. "I can't help it. I mean, it's not that I am desperate for attention or love. It just kinda happened. I tried, I really tried to not fall for her, but I failed." Sighing, he then stood straight, locking eyes with her. "As punishment for my failure I will run to the top of the tallest tree in Konoha 500 times on my hands!"

Tenten sighed. Just like him. "I don't want you to punish yourself. For one we have a very important mission tomorrow. The last thing I need is for you to exhaust yourself. But you need to make sure you understand where the line is being drawn. I'm not saying that you suddenly up and leave her, but make sure that you understand that it is just not going to happen. Yes you can be friends and yes you two can still chat, but understand that we cannot mess this up." She sighed, wishing that she could compound this next statement with a little bit of personal experience, help her to drive this point home. "Sometimes, we have to sacrifice our own happiness in order for the greater good to be achieved."

To say that Lee was just a bit dejected at this would be an understatement. However he did manage to nod to her before stating, "I understand. Thank you, Tenten-san. I will see you tomorrow morning at the front gate." With that Lee turned and walked off.

Tenten pondered his answer for a moment, hoping that this would not affect his performance tomorrow, or his opinion of her after this mission was over. In spite of everything Lee was still one of her closest friends, and she didn't want to lose that. Sighing, she turned and opened her front door heading back into the house, though she would be surprised to find Setsuna waiting for her at her door. "Setsuna-san?"

"I heard everything." She sighed and turned to head for Tenten's living room. "I didn't mean to cause any of this."

"You didn't." Tenten attempted to reassure the young woman that it wasn't her fault. "I mean, I can kind of understand where he is coming from, but I just needed him to understand that while he may have feelings for you, he cannot act on those feelings. It's cruel, I know, but that is our way of life."

"I understand that." She sat down and faced the window, watching as the last of the sun's rays disappeared from the sky. "Like I said before, I had to give up on my aspirations of possibly becoming a ninja myself. I am my father's only living relative, the only one that can take up the mantle of Daimyo when his time is over. I may or may not like that fact, but no matter what I think of the situation, the fact remains that there is nothing I can do but accept it. The same with this marriage. While it is fortunate that I really do like Kanda-kun, I realize that even had I not, it wouldn't matter. If the country as a whole would benefit from it then I would gladly sacrifice my own happiness for their sake. And yet…"

"And yet?" Tenten tensed a bit at the girl's words, unsure of whether or not she would like what would come out of her mouth next.

Setsuna sighed and turned towards Tenten, who was more than a little shocked to see a few tears stream down her face. "And yet, I cannot deny that if I had the choice, I would choose Lee-san over Kanda-kun in an instant."

Tenten froze at those words. This was not good.

-End Chapter 18-

Damn. Has it really been that long since I have done anything on this site? I'm slacking, I know, but you would be too if you were in my situation. I won't get into my situation because, well, let's just say that the people in charge do not appreciate certain information being distributed to people who don't need to know.

On an interesting note, I was checking through my email a few weeks back and I just happen to notice a Favorite Story alert in my inbox. Not so interesting considering that I usually get about 5-6 of them a week, and definitely not as interesting as reviews, but the pen name caught my attention. One EroSlackerMicha. An author whose stories I have actually read. And enjoyed. It caught my attention so much that I actually started to seriously think about this next chapter. Not to say that I wasn't before. I just could find pull anything out of my head and put it on screen.

I have a couple of ideas for where I want this to go next. For now though I will wait until I get some feedback for this chapter. After all, the reader is who I need to entertain, not myself.

Also, I for some reason am only just not noticing that my chapter count is fucked up. Apparentely somewhere along the line I managed to end up with 2 Chapter 15s. I will attempt to have this fixed asap.

Until then, R&R&have a nice day.