"Naruto" Normal Speech

'Zeref' People's thoughts

"Acnologia" Summons/Gods/Monsters/Other being's speech

'Kurama' Summons/Gods/Monsters/Other being's thoughts

"Rasengan" Techniques/Spells/Jutsus/Terms

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Fairy Tail or any other franchise in any source of way; they belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Hiro Mashima and their respective owners

AN: This chapter had yet to be beta-read

Chapter 27

This Makes no Sense

"Are you sure you're ok?" Sasuki asked with a frown, worry obvious on her voice, her hand making soothing moves on her friends back.

"Maybe this wasn't the best mission to start…" Mito said, her voice also filled with worry, a hand on Naruto's left shoulder.

In any other situation Naruto would have tried to separate himself from her, but right now he honestly couldn't care less, he just wanted everyone to stop talking about him.

He was fine.

"Seriously? From all the things to have an issue about, this one is yours?" Shikamaru commented, honestly perplexed by the situation.

It was really something to see someone as strong as Naruto reduced to…whatever this was.

The blonde just groaned in response.

"Isn't he supposed to lead us?" Yakumo added her two cents, skepticism filling her voice. Sure she knew he was really strong but he would rather have a team leader that could at least, you know, function.

"Mah mah, I'm sure Naruto-kun will get better…soon" Kakashi continued with an awkward chuckle, not knowing what to think of the Chunin. After all something like this wasn't exactly common.

The last member of the group, being none other than Hyuga Hinata, simply looked worriedly at the blonde, wanting to do something to help him, but considering the heated glare both of his teammates were giving each other she knew that there wasn't much she could do right now.

'Just…shut up, all of you' the dragon slayer thought, and he would have said it out loud, if he was able to do something besides puking.

At least she wasn't talking. He already had a killer headache; she didn't need that nagging voice on his ears too.

"Hmph, and this are the Shinobi meant to protect us?" a voice said with so much coldness that everyone would have felt it if they weren't cold already "I hope you didn't pay much for them, Sandaju", and Naruto just knew that she was talking about him.

Seriously when one thought of such mythological creatures such as dragons you thought of raw power, and that was something that Naruto could pretty much confirm as true considering how strong the two dragons he had met so far were.

So of course a human that could use their powers could be considered strong, it was pure logic.

Now if someone could explain the blonde just in what part of the equation did motion sickness related to using a dragon's magic that would be fucking great.

The blonde just groaned again, doing his best to keep his breakfast inside his stomach. This was his first mission as a Chunin, and in theory it sounded easy enough, just to protect the famous actress Fujikaze Yukie, as she was rolling her newest film.

He honestly knew crap about her, movies never being his thing. Apparently he was the only one though, since both Mito and Yakumo were apparently big fans, while the rest of his current team had at least seen one of her films.

Now the mission itself didn't sound hard at all, and it wasn't supposed to be as this was a simple test to see how the newly promoted Chunins would act when leading a team. This meant that Shikamaru, Mito and Naruto would go on mission together, normally followed by their former graduation class, and one of them would simply be assigned as the leader of the mission.

And lucky for him Naruto had been assigned as the leader of this one, with Kakashi going with them as back-up, just in case, with Naruto having to deal with him as he would with any other Shinobi under his command.

The only way Kakashi would act by himself was if the situation became too much for them or if Naruto fucked up pretty badly.

There were only two big issues that Naruto could come up with about the mission. The first one was about the woman they were meant to protect, Fujikaze Yukie. Now the blonde didn't know how she acted on her movies as he had never seen one, but just based on how Mito reacted when she saw Yukie's behavior around her fans was enough to tell her that she acted very different on her movies.

And that itself would not be a problem if Yukie herself wasn't such a pain to protect. Heck they had to go and knock her out just to get her in the ship in the first place.

Her passing comments towards them didn't help at all, and he was glad that no one had started arguing with her or something.

And by no one he meant Sasuki.

And of course that brought him to his second problem: The boat.

Now he remembered vaguely that his sensei had warned him about transportation methods, but that had been so long ago that he had honestly forgot about it… until he started puking as soon as the ship began to move.

'Someone just kill me already…please' the mage thought, his head out of the board while his hands were on the railing, looking extremely pail and worse to wear. He felt like shit right now, each slight movement that their ship made just made the situation even worse.

Right now he just wanted to be done with this mission and never touch a boat ever again. At least he was glad that his team seemed competent enough. He couldn't question Mito's skill or Shikamaru's intellect once he actually tried.

He didn't know much about Yakumo or Hinata, but at least with Sasuki they should have all the manpower needed just in case something happened.

Having Kakashi too was just a little bonus.

Honestly the situation could be worse, after all he honestly expected for Menma to tag along too, but apparently that had not been the case. The mage didn't have the details nor did he care, he was just glad he didn't have to deal with that, especially while being like this.

"Oi Kakashi, can't you do something about this?" Sasuki questioned, expecting someone like a Jonin to have some sort of trick for stuff like this one.

In response he just shrugged.

"I-I'm fine…" Naruto said, taking deep, slow breaths

"No you're not" Shikamaru shot back

"Here" Sandaju said as he approached the group, holding what looked like a pill towards Naruto "This should help a little bit, is what we give to our crew if they ever get sick"

Naruto could not have swallowed that pill any faster.

"Thank you…" Naruto said with a hoarse voice, still felling pretty bad but at least a little bit better "Shouldn't you be with the ice princess, though?"

At hearing his answer Sandaju just released a sad sigh, his eyes looking down in exasperation.

"Yukie-sama is not very pleased with me right now; she wanted to be left alone"

"Well that's no surprise, she was pretty much dragged here against her will" Yakumo commented, earning nods from around her, but that just made Sandaju to shake his head.

Naruto turned his eyes towards Yukie, who was right now performing alongside the rest of the people working on the movie.

He would admit it; she was one hell of an actress. If he didn't know how she acted normally he could have been easily fooled by the character she was acting like right now.

"She's awesome…" the blonde heard Mito mutter in awe, to which Yakumo and even Hinata nodded in acceptance

"It's just fake anyway, I don't see the big deal" Sasuki said with a huff, to which Kakashi simply chuckled in response.

They continue to watch the scene unfolding in front of them, Naruto doing his best to act as normal as possible, even if he still felt like crap. This lasted for almost an hour, and by the end of it even Sasuki looked interested at the performance on the actress.

However as soon as they were done with the filming of the scene Yukie walked inside the boat, probably to her room to rest, the team decided.

"I'll go keep an eye on her" Now normally Naruto wasn't one to offer for jobs like this, but considering the rest of his team he knew he was the best choice for this.

He didn't trust Mito and Yakumo to not go gaga over Yukie.

Shikamaru would be better outside, keeping an eye on everything.

Knowing Sasuki she would start an argument with Yukie over nothing, so it was best to play it safe.

And Hinata… well he had no reason for her, honestly he just wanted an excuse to go down in hope that his sickness would lessen even if it was just a little bit.

He couldn't tell them that of course.

"I'm going too" Sasuki announced as soon as Naruto moved, she too moving alongside him.

"Are you sure those two aren't going out?" Yakumo asked for what it felt like the tenth time to Shikamaru once both Naruto and Sasuki left, not noticing how Mito's eye twitched at just the thought of that.

"No" the Nara answered, his gaze not only noticing Mito's reacting, but also how Hinata would look nervous every time Yakumo asked that and relieved every time he answered.

Kami why must everything related to Naruto be a hassle?

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With the two

"So…" Sasuki started awkwardly, knowing that the subject she was going to bring up was something that the blonde wouldn't like "How are you holding with, you know…that?"

In response, and thinking that Sasuki meant his current state, he just gave her a deadpanned stare. He was even using his hand as a support by touching the wall while he walked, how did she think he was holding up?!

"I feel like shit if that's what you wanted to know" he ended up answering anyway.

"Well that's obvious" the Uchiha continued with a shake of her head "But I meant about, you know… the Yamanaka thing" she ended with a whisper, knowing that Naruto would hate it if someone heard them talking about that.

In response Naruto just groaned lightly, his right hand massaging his face, in which he could feel the cold sweat on it. Kami did he feel crappy right now, that pill had not been enough.

"Could be worse I guess… like right now for example" he responded, earning a nod of understanding and a pat on the shoulder from the girl.

Honestly he couldn't say that it was that bad, probably because of the fact that the couple of sessions he has have already were spent mostly in silence.

That didn't mean that the man, Yamanaka Inoichi, didn't try though. He spent most of the time either asking questions or telling him short stories about his days of youth, sometimes even about his family.

He really liked spoiling his daughter it seems.

But Naruto had mostly just kept quiet, barely even answering some of the questions that he deemed inoffensive enough. He wasn't dumb; he knew he had to play along if he wanted Minato to be satisfied.

They had played shogi once too though. That had been entertaining enough.

Zeref was a tougher opponent though.

Of course Naruto had explained the situation to Sasuki as soon as he could. It was easier than just lying to her every day, and he felt like he owed her at least that much honesty.

The girl had been pissed, to say the least, knowing how such things could impact someone's career, but especially because Sasuki saw it as some estrange way for the Hokage and his family to get a hold on Naruto.

She was also angry at herself since there was really nothing that she could do, except keeping the secret, although the fact that he had told him about it without her even needing to ask did make her somewhat happy.

"You never told me boats got you like this" Sasuki mentioned, honestly curious about that. It just felt so bizarre for Naruto to be like this, especially if the one causing it was just a ship.

"Believe me, I found out today too" the blonde groaned, earning a small smirk from Sasuki. She would be more worried if it was anything more serious, but motion sickness? Considering just how strong Naruto always looked on her eyes seeing him like this because of something like that was actually pretty funny.

She couldn't hold the chuckle for long.

"Well good to know someone is at least enjoying this" the mage said, obviously not amused.

"What? You have to admit is funny… at least from this side" she replied with a smirk.

"Whatever" the blonde ended, not really liking being teased about this. He received a small shove on his shoulder from Sasuki, which honestly almost makes him fell down with how weak he was at the moment.

The sound of knocking could be heard once both reached Yukie's room, the sound coming from Sasuki who was banging at the door.

It took a few seconds but the actress finally opened the door, looking at the two teenagers that were supposed to protect her.

She was definitely not impressed at all.

"Something you need?"

"We just came to check-" Sasuki started, but was interrupted once the actress pretty much closed the door on her face, leaving an eerie silence between the two members of Team 7.

Said silence would have been broke by Sasuki pounding at the door if Naruto hadn't moved to hold her fists as fast as he did.

"What the hell is her problem?" Sasuki hissed, trying to burn the door with only a glare.

"She was pretty much dragged here without consent" Naruto tried to explain.

"So? This is her job isn't it? She's going to have to suck it up" Sasuki replied, earning a shrug from the blonde.

It was then that both of them noticed something.

"Feeling better already? That was fast…" Sasuki commented with a surprised expression, only now realizing that Naruto wasn't hunch over in pain like before.

The blonde for his part just looked over his body, using his hands to inspect himself, pretty much as confused as the raven-haired girl, or at least he was until he realized something.

"Did the ship just stop?" he said, not feeling the slight movement that the ship sometimes made. Had they reached their destination already? No, it was way too early for that, but then why had it stopped?

It took him just a second to decide that it didn't matter to him, whatever reason they had to stop the ship could just not be worse than how he was feeling just a second ago.

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Some minutes later

'I still prefer this over the boat' the dragon slayer thought, moving quickly to avoid the tiger-like formation of ice that had almost rammed into him.

"If this is all that Konoha has then this is going to be easier than I thought" the man responsible from the attack said with a small smile, his eyes looking down on Naruto from his high point on what Naruto didn't know if it was a island or a glacier at this point.

He didn't really care either.

"Isn't this too much work to just kill one actress?" Naruto wondered, honestly not feeling that threatened right now. He knew he should be taking this fight more seriously, but he also needed more information.

He already had a feeling that Kakashi new more than he told them.

"Just an actress?" Nadare said before chuckling lightly "You really know nothing about what you got yourself into, do you?"

"Please explain it to me then"

"I rather just kill you to be honest" Nadare concluded, going through a set of hand seals as fast as possible "Hyōton: Rōga Nadare no Jutsu (Ice Release: Wolf Fang Avalanche Technique)"

"Arrogant much?" Naruto muttered, watching how what pretty much looked like an avalanche, only that the snow had the form of at least a dozens of wolf, was now coming down towards him from the upper side of the mountain.

"Rairyu no Hōkō (Lighting Dragon's Roar)" however Naruto's lighting beam was more than enough to dispatch every single one of them, causing the ice user to frown before quickly recovering, his hands moving into another set of handseals.

"Hyōton: Haryū Mōko (Ice Release: Tearing Dragon Fierce Tiger)"as before the snow around them turned into a massive sculpture of a tiger, the beast pretty much pouncing towards Naruto, said blonde not being able to stop his mind from comparing the technique to his own.

Byakko was bigger.

Just as the tiger was about to reach him the blonde jumped, his right hand charged with blue electricity while his left one was covered in a black aura. The mage twisted his body so that his legs were up just before a small black platform in the form of a circle formed itself close to his feet.

Using the platform he created Naruto launched himself towards the tiger, his fist meeting it's torso with enough force and speed to completely shatter it. He stood up from his kneeled position, flexing his right hand, looking at Nadare with a bored expression.

He might not like him, but Naruto had to admit that Kakashi's advice had been correct; pissing of your enemy was certainly a good way to make them to miss up on something.

"That's it?"he drawled out, pleased to see Nadare's right eye twitch in indignation, however the ice user wasn't able to retort as his team members suddenly joined, causing Naruto's eyes to narrow in suspicion. He had left the others fighting those two so, why where they here? Had something happened?

He actually sighed in relief one he saw them all, besides Kakashi, coming right towards him. The Jonin was probably protecting Yukie, after all he had told him to stay with her.

It was an obvious decision, this people obviously wanted to get to her, so putting the strongest one of them close to their target was the obvious choice.

"Well it looks like we'll have to settle this another day, boy" Nadare suddenly declared, his hands moving once again just a second later "Hyōton: Ikkaku Hakugei (Ice Release: One Horned White Whale)"

The name of the technique itself was already sending alarms into Naruto's head, but the sudden tremor that shook the iceberg in which they all were was more than enough to make him turn around and dash away from there, his objective being that cursed boat.

"Back to the ship!" he barked as soon as he got close enough to his teammates, which judging by how fact they reacted were already thinking of the same thing.

At least they managed to get there safely, and while he had not been impressed by his opponent at all, Naruto would give the man credit.

That was a huge ass whale.

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Later, conference room

"So she's really a princess…" the blonde muttered, thinking about what Kakashi and Sandayu had revealed to the group, popping a pill in his mouth to stop the nausea from hitting. Of course they did crap so he had to pop one every couple of minutes to not fall to his knees.

But back on track.

To think Fujikaze Yukie's real identity was that of Kazahana Koyuki, heiress of Snow Country. This information had certainly shocked the group, even though some acted s if it hadn't.

"Considering the current situation I think the mission just rose up a notch in rank…" Shikamaru drawled out, his eyes making holes in Kakashi's head "Wouldn't you say so, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Probably" Kakashi answered with a carefree smile and a shrug of his shoulders, earning glares from Sasuki, Mito and Yakumo, while Shikamaru just sighed, more than a little annoyed about the current situation.

"You knew this whole time" Naruto declared, his eyes looking straight at Kakashi "So I'm sure Hokage-sama knew too, and yet we weren't told about any of this. Why?"

"Expect the unexpected" was Kakashi's answer, an eye-smile present on his face "You can't expect every mission to go according to the plan. Clients lie all the time, situations and conditions are always changing. You never know when a D-rank mission will suddenly turn into an A-rank, so you must be always be prepared for such scenarios"

"So this was all a test?!" Sasuki asked, obviously angry, not liking to being played at like that.

"Consider it a life lesson, especially for you three" at this he swept his gaze between Shikamaru and Mito just before landing on Naruto "So, what will you do with this information, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde just closed his eyes, obviously thinking about something, another couple of pills entering his mouth. Without a doubt the mission had become riskier, but in his opinion canceling it was out of the question, especially when they were pretty close to the Snow Country.

"M-Maybe we could call for b-backup?" It was actually Hinata the one that spoke, her soft voice actually reaching everyone's ears, making Naruto look at her with a sharp look on his eyes. Calling for back up? Not necessarily a bad plan, especially considering the high-profile of the person they were protecting, but…

"By the time any message reaches Konoha it would be too late for any backup to get here" Shikamaru voiced out his thoughts, getting a frown from Hinata, however something suddenly clicked on the blonde's head, his eyes swiftly moving onto his fellow Chunin.

"Mito" he called, earning her and everyone else's attention "Summon a toad and make it send a message to Hokage-sama, or even Jiraiya if you have to. Tell them the situation got worse and that backup would be appreciated" especially if they were dealing with a mad dictator with probably a whole army on his side.

"Hai!" with a nod the red-head left the room, wanting more space to do the summon.

"What about those armors?" Yakumo spoke with a frown "My Genjutsus were useless against that guy because of them"

"Same here" Sasuki followed while crossing her arms over her chest "Bitch acted all high and mighty just because of that"

Ahh yes, his own opponent had something similar. An armor with the apparent ability of absorbing chakra, or at least nullifying whatever chakra based technique it touched. He saw a glint of it in action while fighting Nadare but it looked like he wasn't the only one with one of those.

"You got any ideas?" Naruto asked Shikamaru, thinking that if someone had already thought about a way to handle those things it was him.

"Well…" he started slowly, his right hand moving to scratch the back of his head "If they absorb chakra then it's safe to assume they have some sort of limit, so maybe overcharging it with enough chakra could break them, but I doubt anyone here has enough for that" he excluded the part in which he actually believed Naruto possible of such a thing, considering the techniques he had seen him doing "Taijutsu seems to work fine against it, so that would probably be our best bet"

Yakumo grimaced at hearing that, knowing that Taijutsu was her worst field, while Naruto simply nodded, also thinking of another way to just avoid those armors.

After all they might absorb chakra, but he was sure they would do nothing against magic.

"We're continuing the mission then?" Shikamaru asked for confirmation while looking at Naruto, the blonde's eyes going towards Kakashi for just a second before nodding in response.

"Thank you" Sandayu said, more than grateful that they weren't abandoned by the group.

"It's all useless anyway" suddenly a cold voice filled the room, the owner of the voice being none other than the princess herself, Koyuki, who had just entered the room alongside Mito "No one can stop Dotou, you'll only waste your time or worse, get yourself killed"

"Koyuki-sama, please don't say such a thing!" Sandaju exclaimed, looking at the woman with no little amount of sorrow "If you fight with us then I'm sure we can free our people!"

"The people of that country are none of my business" the woman snapped, glaring at the man before sweeping her gaze through everyone else "Leave, Dotou will kill you all if you stay"

"Sorry but that's not how it works, princess" Naruto said, grimacing at the fact that he had already ate every single one of the pills Sandayu had given to him. Boy he could already fill it coming "We're already here, so we might as well deal with Dotou while we're at it"

"You fool!" Koyuki spat towards the blonde, her gaze so cold it could probably burn people "Things like happy endings don't exist, facing Dotou will only get you killed!"

"I'm sure that's how it looks to you" the blonde answered, already putting a hand on Sasuki for support "I guess that's what happens when you just run away for most of your life"

Everyone looked shocked at the blonde, even Sasuki and Shikamaru; after all they didn't expect such a comment from the normally calm Chunin. Of course in Naruto's current state he couldn't care less about being nice, he felt too much like shit for that.

Besides that was something someone should have told her anyway, or at least it was in Naruto's opinion.

Koyuki just glared at the blonde before pretty much storming off, Sandayu following her swiftly.

"So… what do we do now?" Shikamaru asked, his eyes moving towards his blonde team leader, his palm meeting his face as soon as he saw that the blonde was hunching over a basket, looking even worse than when they had started the mission.

"First, get me more of those p-pills" the blonde groaned, wondering if it would be too much if he just threw himself at the ocean and walked his way towards their objective.

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Later, Snow Country

"You're really an idiot, I hope you understand that" Naruto said, walking slowly, making sure to not drop the person he was carrying on his back, said person for her part just stood quite for a few seconds, her arms around the mage's neck to make sure she didn't fall off.

"Why do you keep dragging me back…?" Koyuki asked, not even bothering to raise her head from the blonde's back.

"Well someone has to, and this is my mission after all" he answered, his eyes looking around in the tunnel they were moving through "Besides that, well, I guess I don't like the fact that you keep trying to run away from your problems"

"Don't talk as if you understood!" she snapped, tightening her hold on the blonde's neck, almost as if she was about to choke him.

"Maybe I don't…" Naruto answered, not really bothered by her actions "but again, that doesn't change the fact that this is my mission, so if you keep running away I'll just keep chasing you around. Simple enough, right?"

However the blonde got no answer, as the sudden sound of machinery filled the tunnel, forcing Naruto to turn around, both his and Koyuki's eyes widening like plates as soon as they saw what was coming towards them.

"Fuck" he cursed under his breath, moving into a sprint towards the opposite direction of the train that was going directly at them. Seriously it wasn't enough that he got sick when on a boat, but now a train wanted to kill him?

"We're not going to make it!" Koyuki suddenly said, almost as if she was already expecting death.

"Well no with that attitude" the blonde answered, moving as fast as he could "Would it kill you to have some faith?"

At least he was able to prove her wrong, as they were able to escape the tunnel just before the train reached them, both of them now on the side of the railroad, huffing a little bit while Koyuki tried her beast to calm herself down. They were both alive still, and the blonde was about to comment on it, but a sudden voice just threw that out of the window.

Said voice pretty much paralyzed Koyuki, the voice alone being more than enough to bring her the worst memories of her life, while Naruto simply narrowed his eyes at the sight of a man that definitely fit the description of their target.

"Glad to see you again, my dear niece"

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Later, Dotou's blimp

"I did not think of this one properly…" the blonde muttered, already on his knees as his right hand rubbed his stomach, feeling like crap even though he hadn't even started a fight.

It sounded like a good enough plan. Get into the blimp, rescue Koyuki and then get out of there as quick as possible, and who knows? With enough luck he might get to deal with Dotou in the meantime.

But all of that was ruined the moment he put a foot on the blimp. He had been more than ready for some sort of confrontation, but instead he was now on the ground, his whole body asking him to give up.

The reason? You guessed it, the blimp had defeated him.

And now he had to deal with a smug Dotou, a shocked Koyuki and a perplexed Nadare.

"So this is the kid that got you so many problems, Nadare?" Dotou asked, barely able to hide his amusement at how pathetic Naruto looked right now.

"I apologize, Dotou-sama" Nadare answered, having no idea what was happening to the kid.

"Hm, not that it matters. Deal with him now" Dotou ordered, receiving a swift nod from the ice user.

"Wait!" suddenly it was Koyuki who yelled, moving to shield Naruto with her body "I'll cooperate but please leave him be, he has nothing to do with this!" she pleaded, not wanting anyone else to die for her.

Sandayu's dead was still fresh on her mind.

"I don't need you protecting me, that's my job" Naruto groaned as he slowly stood up, just to meet the floor again, making him grunt in frustration, his body just didn't have the strength to do anything.

"Hm, very well" Dotou actually nodded, pulling Koyuki away by her wrist "consider this a late birthday gift. See? Aren't I a great uncle?" he continued with a twisted smile just before looking at Nadare and giving him a signal with his head.

The last thing Naruto saw was Koyuki being dragged away and Nadare putting some weird device on his chest. He didn't know what it was, and he honestly didn't care, his reason for passing out not being related to the device at all.

Fuck motion sickness.

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Well at least it didn't take me a whole month to update again, that's something.

Now as I think it was obvious with this chapter I'm not taking this arc very seriously, and that's because this is just a means to an end.

I want to clarify something that has been asked a lot. When I started this fic Fairy Tail was just ending the Tartarus arc, so for this fic I'm only using everything that happened until that arc as base. I might cherry pick some of the stuff that happens later, but I can't use it all as that would force me to re-write a lot of stuff, which I think no one would like (I know I wouldn't).

But hey at least the plot is finally moving.

I probably sound like a broken record by now, but I still want to thank you all. This story has (somehow) passed the 1 million views mark. That, for me, is simply incredible so truly thank you for the support.

Next Chapter: Black flames of spring