Testing, one two, one two, Kage no Naruto chapter thirty six is here for your viewing pleasure at last! Finally, you shall see what happens next in this story. You can read past the cliffhangers at the end of each chapter and see what happens next! Anyway, read it, enjoy it, and review it. Now.
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NARUTO SPOILERS
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This one was a huge filler chapter. The tail the Raikage sent after Sasuke got killed, and the Raikage is going out after Sasuke with a battalion in tow. Think he's fucked? Hell no, he's Uchiha Sasuke, in the canon he can do anything and everything. Including surviving mortal wounds, cast unbreakable illusions and defeat immortal demons.
Anyway, Sasuke has 'a new power' that will be all he needs to in order to destroy Konoha. I'm not sure if it's putting out the Amaterasu flames, Susanoo, or something else we haven't seen yet but it's guaranteed to be overpowered.
On another note, the Raikage has sent official word to Konoha that he's going to take down Sasuke and asking for their information on him, and he's also calling an assembly of the five Kages to discuss a plan to deal with Akatsuki. Something tells me things are heating up.
And last but not least, Naruto is having a lot of trouble with the Sage training. He can't stop himself from moving in order to absorb the Natural Energy. Once again, his over-hyper ADD sort of character is screwing him over, thank you again Kishimoto for making the main character an ADD infested Sasuke-obsessed retard!
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END OF SPOILERS
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Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, Sasuke would have died long ago.
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Summary of last chapter
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Naruto, from his bedside, set his backup plan to kill Tsunade in motion, sending Absalom to permanently knock out the power plant that powers Konoha, and also set off some explosives to knock out the emergency power at the hospital, thus taking down Tsunade's life support.
On another note, Itachi and Kisame are heading toward Naruto's base of operations. Will they get there before Naruto moves? Will Tsunade die? Will something else happen? Read the chapter and find out!
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In Konoha
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Nobody knew what was happening. All of a sudden the lights went out, across the whole village. There were a few exceptions of course, places such as the hospital, the Hokage tower, and a few other buildings had emergency reserve power generators in case of, as Foghorn Leghorn would say, just such an emergency.
However, this did not stop the people from wondering what was going on. They didn't really mind at all, but that was simply the first reactions. Eventually people would become worried and scared, as is human nature to something extremely out of the ordinary. There would soon be dissent, desperation, fear, and more than likely violence would sprout up in various places. It was human nature and the death of the power plant had caused it. Soon, the fear and anger of the populace would break loose, and it would all be at the hands of the one who engineered the destruction of the power plant.
Fear was a very funny thing. Even a small fear, something insignificant, can seem like a deadly threat in the right circumstances, becoming something monstrous and uncontrollable. With the natural fear and the secondary factor that was even now rolling through the streets of Konoha, that natural fear would grow, doubling and redoubling, and with no explanation to explain why the lights were out, people would start to forget their carefully rational reasons why they should not be afraid in favor of panic.
Because, the fact of the matter is, no matter how advanced humans think they are, there is still that age old, primal, undeniable dread of darkness. The fear of being unable to see the danger coming. Humans like to think that they aren't afraid of the dark anymore, but if that's true, why do humans work so hard to make sure their cities are constantly lit? They cloak themselves in so much light they can barely see the stars at night.
The point being, things weren't bad now, but with the fear of darkness and the other effect of that EMP rolling through Konoha silently, night would change things. Even if things stayed normal, nightfall could get really ugly, really fast. The only question was how Konoha's government would deal with it.
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In the hospital
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The hospital staff were pretty much in panic. The power had gone out. This might not seem like much at first glance, but it was a very serious matter. Ceiling lights were not working so it would be very difficult to see for the most part, critical machines would not work, such as X-ray and diagnostic equipment, making it difficult to get accurate test results on patients.
Most importantly though, the life support systems in the emergency ward would all be grinding to a halt. And the equipment in the operating rooms would be mostly non-functional. People like Jiraiya and Gai were lucky, they were only under observation as they recovered, and Jiraiya was on an IV drip which used gravity to do its job. But Tsunade on the other hand….
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In Tsunade's operation room
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Things were pretty hectic in the operation room. There were five doctors working on Tsunade, the best in the hospital, including the director of the hospital himself, Dr. Yoshimo Hisagi, who was considered one of the best doctors in the world, but still a few shades less than Tsunade.
They were in the middle of several procedures to heal Tsunade's injuries. They prioritized of course. The stomach had been sealed, and her lung re-inflated, they also managed to get the acid out of her system thanks to a medical jutsu specially made for stomach perforations. They had even managed to get her ribs roughly back into position, and were in the middle of casting them back into place when the power had gone out.
This of course negatively affected the whole thing. They had Tsunade on a respirator to keep her breathing during the operation which was definitely a necessary step to keeping her alive. Of course, when the power went out, so did the respirator. Tsunade stopped breathing and the doctors were immediately put into panic mode.
They worked quickly, and did the fastest thing to keep her breathing, CPR.
They didn't do any chest compressions mind you, for one her chest was being worked on so pressing down on it would probably be detrimental to healing her broken ribs. Secondary to that was the fact that with her… chest size, it would be kind of difficult. They didn't really need to anyway, there wasn't anything to stop her heart from beating. Just her lungs from taking in air.
They worked hard and quickly, and got her ribs back into position and sealed them there with medical jutsu. But there was still the issue of her breathing, and the damage to her system from the stomach acid. They kept one doctor doing CPR, but they had to switch off every so often. CPR was REALLY hard to keep up with for a long period of time. This also tired out the doctors, bit by bit. Ninja they may have been, but they hadn't done any fighting in over twenty years, they were a bit out of shape.
There were other possible solutions, but they were pretty much limited to a VERY old system that would probably do more harm than good that was made for patients who required surgery on their throat and couldn't be allowed to have air pass through the trachea for the surgery to go well. It involved perforating the lungs themselves and pumping air directly into them. It would do more harm than good in this situation so they were stuck with the CPR.
They worked as fast as they could as the minutes crept by. They could only be glad that they got the really dangerous stuff out of the way before the power went out, if it had gone out earlier, then Tsunade would be in some real trouble.
Still, difficulties regardless, they had managed to heal the acid damage. It wasn't difficult really, a simple Shosen would do the job of healing the damaged tissue. The surgery was pretty much done, so they sealed her up. Her cuts and other wounds had already been bandaged. All she needed was a few weeks of bed rest and she would be okay.
They had managed to solve the breathing issue as well. They had a doctor constantly on standby at her bed, feeding electrical chakra into her. The doctor who did this carefully fed it into the diaphragm, the muscle that works the lungs, forcing her to breath. It was a temporary solution until she woke up, but it would have to do for now.
But Tsunade had come dangerously close to death. If it hadn't been the best doctors who were working on her, then who knows what would have happened.
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With Naruto, two days later
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Naruto was tentatively putting weight on his formerly wounded leg. Hogback had taken off the cast and he was experimenting to make sure that his leg was fully healed. It didn't even twinge as he stood up. Not a bit of pain as he stretched it and bent the joint, twisting his leg at every possible angle to make sure that it worked correctly. He had to give Hogback credit, he did some excellent work.
Naruto frowned as he thought of the more recent news that had been delivered to him this morning. Tsunade had woken up. His assassination attempt had failed. It was common knowledge across the various countries that she was to be anointed Hokage tomorrow.
He could remember even now his response to the news when it was given to him.
'Don't bother with it. It's insignificant now that she's guaranteed to be Hokage.' And so it was.
The whole meaning behind Tsunade's death was the fact that if Konoha went without a Hokage, some other nation would declare war, almost guaranteeing Konoha's destruction. He could still kill Tsunade now if he wanted to, but it would carry some serious risks to say the least. His ace in the hole plan was just that, an ace in the hole. It would almost guarantee Tsunade's death, but it would take many others down with her.
The ace in the hole plan was to unleash a savage virus upon the Konoha populace. Haruka destroyed most of the samples they had, but he and Hogback had kept the top three or four most deadly strains in a separate place that no one knew about except for them.
If he unleashed one of those terrors on Konoha, it would spread quickly, wiping out almost everybody. That wouldn't be so bad on its own, but the disease would spread, becoming an epidemic that would engulf the world. He didn't want to kill everyone, just the people in Konoha, and he decided that the plan carried far too much risk for what was now a miniscule target. He had dealt a savage blow to Konoha already with that special EMP. It would be amplified by the power source of the thing.
You see, he had no electrical affinity to produce electricity to fuel it, nor did he have the sort of reserves it would take to fuel the device. His chakra reserves were vast, but that little cube required a daunting amount of energy. So, he went to an alternate power source since any kind of electrical generator wouldn't produce enough power in years. He turned to natural chakra, Natural Energy.
There were several uses of Natural Energy, and there were even several kinds of Natural Energy in the world. There was the kind of Natural Energy that was drawn in by Jiraiya to create Sage Chakra, and it could be found anywhere in the world that didn't have any other kind. However, it could only be drawn into an individual's body with immense training, and even then it had to be drawn in carefully.
The other kinds of Natural Energy were wide and varied, that caused positive and negative effects to the places where they were located. These energy types could only be found in things called Ley-lines.
Ley-lines were pretty much pipes filled to the brim with various types of Natural Energy. They were invisible to the naked eye, and even any Doujutsu, but they could be sensed by those with the talent or training. They could be found all over the world, in various strengths and locations, and altered their locations depending on the nature of the Energy and the concentration of it. There was a decent sized Ley-line of Defensive Energy flowing through Iwa for example, which may explain the large amount of mountains in the area for example. There was also a tendency of defensive Ninjutsu to be more powerful in certain parts of Tsuchi no Kuni. There was also a pretty large Ley-line of Life Energy in the region surrounding Konoha and Kusa, resulting in a large amount of plant life and the slightly above average fertility of the women born there. But Naruto hadn't used anything like that. He had used a Ley-line of Dark Energy to fuel his device.
Dark Energy was not kind in the slightest to humanity. In fact, humans avoided the places that had a Ley-line of Dark Energy near it. They did so subconsciously, not even realizing that they were avoiding any particular place, just that they did NOT want to go there for some reason. Anyone who DID go near a Ley-line of Dark Energy would get a major case of the creeps and want to leave immediately. There were usually a fair amount of ghost stories in places with Dark Ley-lines in them as well. Most of them were probably true to some degree, hence how the tales were made originally. Dark Energy increased fear in humans, made them edgy and scared, riddled them with anxiety, and just gave them the feeling that something was indescribably wrong. Such places usually bred their own wastelands.
Naruto had fueled his device using Dark Energy, and that had spread though Konoha's populace. It was probably gone by now, but while it was there it certainly stirred them up. There were actually a few riots the first night, and several buildings were on fire, and many stores had been robbed. The Shinobi managed to get everyone to calm down though, in the end, but there was still a fair amount of property damage that would help strain Konoha's dying budget. They couldn't keep up such large expenditures forever.
Unfortunately, there had been something to help Konoha along. The Fire Daimyo.
The Lord of the land had seen Konoha's plight and had given them a sizable loan from the nations' treasury, to be repaid when they were able. Konoha would be able to rebuild, if only barely, but things were still anything but rosy for the village.
Still, Naruto did not really care. He put on his normal clothes absent mindedly, not letting the news bother him because it didn't. So Konoha would rebuild and eventually get back on its feet. It didn't matter to him. Konoha would eventually be destroyed, it was only a matter of time. So he had missed one opportunity, so what? He would live for a very long time, Kyuubi would see to that, he could afford to be patient.
Naruto secured his trench coat around his shoulders, securing it with a clasp near the collar, and donned his normal hat, adding a solid three inches to his already impressive height. What worried him was that he hadn't stopped growing yet. He was fourteen and six feet tall. He hadn't hit the points where people really start to grow. He had asked Hogback about it and it turned out that, if he kept growing at this rate, he would be at least seven feet tall before he stopped growing. At least. That just wasn't normal.
It turned out that it was actually Kyuubi's doing. She had altered his body a bit to make him grow at an accelerated rate. When he asked her why as he left the cave, she simply replied 'I like tall men' He just had the idea that this couldn't possibly end well.
Naruto left the cave and used his Kage Hokou to travel elsewhere, to the north. That was where the new hideout Kyuubi had in mind was located.
According to Kyuubi it was well defended. It was on a decent sized, uncharted island in the middle of Lake Tokiha. The lake was quite large, extending for several dozen miles in every direction from the center. The lake was positioned north of Hi no Kuni, right on the border of Mori no Kuni, and Oto no Kuni. (1)
The lake had a single river flowing from it that led West, through Oto no Kuni, and eventually South into Hi no Kuni. It was this river that went through the Valley of the End.
According to Kyuubi, the island was surrounded by stone reefs that made it almost impossible to travel to via boat unless you knew the EXACT path to take. It was anything but safe. There was one other factor that led Naruto to consider this spot. It was smack dab on top of one of the largest Ley-lines of Dark Energy in the world. Hence why it was uncharted. Humanity found the island long ago, and had even started a town at one point, but it was eventually abandoned. Someone with some intelligence in the government realized that the island was dangerous somehow and invested some effort to having the island removed from the records, believing that the island was less of a temptation to the younger generation if they weren't aware of its existence, hence no maps showed where it was. This was several hundred years ago, when the Elemental Countries were first being formed.
It was the definition of 'Hidden', especially with the large banks of mist that tended to congregate near the center of the lake and the dangerous creatures that were said to live under the surface. Another possible manifestation of the Dark Energy Ley-line.
It took Naruto two days to travel from Hi no Kuni's Northern border, the closest place he had ever been to the location of the new hideout, to the place itself. The water did not bother him in the slightest. He had the feeling that anything that lived in there would be dangerous, so he simply flew. He manifested his shadow and changed it to his will, forming great bat-like wings that allowed him to take flight above the black water of the lake. He could swear that he saw several large ripples of movement under the surface.
He pierced through the banks of thick fog that engulfed the center of the lake and eyed the island below. It took him about five seconds to realize that the place was perfect for his purposes. He flew down to the island and after an hour of exploring, headed home to prepare everyone to move.
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In Naruto's Cave
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Everyone was frantically getting everything ready to go. Clean the various rooms, make sure everything is where you want it to be and so on. Why do you ask? They were moving again. Naruto simply appeared and told everyone to prepare to go. Hence, everyone was scrambling to get ready to move. Moving a large distance was a shaky ride to say the least. Several people could swear that things had vanished in the last trip.
Still though, they were ready by the time Naruto specified, and he moved the cave system using the Dai Kage Hokou, same as last time. Only difference this time was, they were leaving a chunk of it behind. The room closest to the cave entrance. That room had been rigged with dozens of traps to take care of anyone who might come snooping around in search of clues of their whereabouts.
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Central Island, Lake Tokiha
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When the horrible whirling sensation of the transfer came to an end, everyone looked around a bit. They all gathered in the dining room before the move, so they were still in the familiar caves, so they waited for Naruto to come back and then they all went exploring. Well, most of them did, Naruto already knew what to expect.
The group left the cave, and emerged in a large room with four stone walls. There was a stone staircase heading up to a door.
Everyone looked at Naruto and he made a motion toward a door. Everyone carefully went up the stairs and opened the wooden door.
The door led out to a hallway that extended to the left for about fifty feet before you came to a turn, and it still continued on beyond that. Everything was made of the same dark stone.
It only took a few minutes of exploration to realize that this was all one gigantic building. There was furniture in many of the rooms, fine wooden furniture, crystal chandeliers; it was quite the set up. They eventually found the rather large front door, and made their way outside. They walked forward and turned around to see the entire building. It was a large castle.
Everyone was shocked to see such a structure. Naruto strode out of the building after everyone else, taking in their shocked expressions before he explained. "Yes, we are not the first people to be here. This castle was made centuries ago by demons entering this world. It was made as a safe haven for demons, and demonic forces. The first inhabitants of the Elemental Countries created a town here that was later abandoned, the island left uncharted afterwards. The demons of the time thought that the fact that humans despised this place would mean that they would go undisturbed here, hence the castle. The town still stands reasonably intact, despite being beyond ancient. This castle was made to protect and shelter demons and dark forces that needed safety from the forces of light. I think it is perfect for us."
The people amassed before him listened carefully, but didn't take their eyes off of the great stone structure before them. The castle was extremely large by their standards. Several hundred yards per side, and at least five stories tall. All made of the same kind of stone, in uniformly sized bricks of the hard material. There were windows every so often, and several towers near the top rose in the sky.
Naruto was a bit vexed at Kyuubi for not remembering the place sooner, but she had never been there before. She just heard about it from a rumor, not even sure if it were true. But, she remembered and they were there now, so he didn't really care that much.
Naruto was brought from his musings as the group were walking away from the building, toward a staircase of stone that led down the slope. "Where are you all going?" He yelled to them.
Temari turned back and yelled "We're going to check out the town, if it's there!" Then turned back and hurried down the old steps.
Naruto shrugged. In his opinion, the old town wasn't that impressive, but he had other things to do anyway. He turned to go back inside. He would have to get the zombies to move everyone's possessions into their new rooms. They would live in caves no more!
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With everyone else
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Everyone was traveling carefully down the steps. They had to be careful of their footing, since the stairs were so old. Anko once slipped on a loose stone for instance.
The stairs ended upon a jut of land that held very little except a fallen lighthouse. It might have been a fifty foot tower at one point, but it looked like it was broken off about halfway up, like it was snapped off from a giant's huge hand. The stones that once made up the lighthouse were scattered around on the ground. One of the sides of the structure had also fallen away, revealing the inside that was as round and empty as a rifle barrel. A shack formed of stones from the fallen lighthouse had also been built nearby, leaning against the exposed stone of the slope. There were usually strange stories about such places, but as they looked upon the grey stones, they got the impression that someone had to survive a dark encounter before they could start a story about it.
There was very little there, so they just moved on.
Eventually they came to the town. It was an old, business town that was built around an old cannery near the center of the settlement, a long building that was falling to pieces at the end of an old street. The whole place looked like it was relying on the fish of the lake to bring in income. It was modest, and wooden piers in various states of serious disrepair graced the shore. The group split up to search on their own.
Perona wandered between the buildings, but her mind was on something else. She didn't know what it was about this place, but it creeped her out. It was like she could feel something there. Like she was not just on haunted ground, but on serious, major league haunted ground, the kind of place that had never bowed its head to the advance of progress and civilization, to science and reason, that had no more regard for those children of human intellect than it had for their progenitors, for the ancient people that it had killed or driven away long ago.
The island seemed almost alive, aware of her presence in a way that she couldn't really tangibly define- aware of it and sullenly, spitefully hostile to it. The whole place creeped her out beyond imagination.
Across the island, the others were having similar thoughts, especially Anko and Temari, who were the most human of them all.
They all met up again quite quickly and decided to head back to the castle. It wouldn't provide relief from the creepy feeling that they were getting, but at least there they had a virtual army ready and waiting.
Naruto smiled from a window as he watched them all return. He knew what they had to be feeling, the feeling that all humans got near a Dark Energy Ley-line, but he didn't get that feeling at all. In fact, he felt quite at home. He knew though, that he was safe here, and he also knew that his own powers would grow as he stayed near the Dark Ley-line. This was the perfect base of operations for him.
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With Tsunade, one day later
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Tsunade was in her new office, the office of the Hokage. She couldn't believe everything that had happened in the last few days. She agreed to become Hokage, she fought Orochimaru, Shizune died, and scarcely an hour after she was inaugurated she was doing paperwork. She only got one break from it all and that was when the Council badgered her into doing something medical, in this case, healing Uchiha Sasuke.
She had no idea how the idiot had done that much damage to his leg, and it wasn't exactly easy, but she healed his leg in the end. HE should be waking up any minute now.
Tsunade sighed as she signed off on another form, glancing at a picture of her deceased pupil. She could remember to this day how she had helped her get over her fear of blood, even though it wasn't intentional.
It had been a year or so after they had left Konoha together. They had been camping in the woods and Tsunade had gone to get wood for a fire. She heard a scream and rushed back immediately.
She had found a large, bear of a man standing over Shizune. He was more than likely one of the bandits that tended to swarm in such regions.
Normally, Tsunade would have taken care of him easily enough if not for one fact, he was bleeding from his right forearm. Shizune had put her newly learned ninja skills to work and surprised the man when she drew a kunai, plunging it into the man's forearm.
Tsunade instantly froze. She hated herself for doing so, but she couldn't bring herself to move her muscles. She kept seeing them again and again, Nawaki, dead, Dan, dead. She couldn't bring herself to protect Shizune and she hated herself for it.
The man hadn't noticed her as he trudged forward toward Shizune, a sword in hand. Shizune was barely twelve at the time and was only beginning to learn the way of a Ninja. She wasn't anywhere near ready to put her skills to the test in actual combat yet. She had lost her one kunai and she was defenseless.
Shizune spotted Tsunade and yelled "Tsunade-sama! Help me!"
The man raised his sword for the death blow. Shizune covered her head with her arms, too scared to move.
Shizune's words back then sparked a fire in Tsunade, she had lost others, but she couldn't let this man take Shizune from her. She wouldn't, COULDN'T, lose another important person. What was blood anyway? A read liquid full of water, oxygen, and cells. Why should she be afraid of it?
She overcame her fear of blood and knocked the bandit through a tree. She overcame her fear of blood that day, and it was all thanks to Shizune.
Tsunade looked at the picture of her apprentice and though 'Shizune, I'm so sorry that I failed you. But I can promise you this.' She finished the sake bottle and crushed it in her hand 'I can promise you that I WILL avenge you. That creature, that beast man and his master, will pay. I swear it.'
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With Sasuke
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Sasuke was awake in his hospital bed, and staring at his hands as he thought 'Is this all I am capable of, AM I THIS WEAK!?' (2)
Sasuke looked away from his hands in disgust, unable to believe that he had progressed so little in so long. It was pathetic. He had to find a way to get stronger, and fast. He would never defeat Itachi otherwise.
Then he remembered that man from the forest, Orochimaru. He promised him power if he came for it. Sasuke smiled a small, cold little smile. He would go to this Orochimaru, he would become strong, he would defeat Itachi and he would defeat HIM.
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(1) This means 'Land of Forests' if I'm not mistaken
(2) Yes, Sasuke you ARE that weak
Okay, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter. If you hadn't guessed yet, the Sasuke retrieval arc will be happening soon, and that means that Tayuya will soon appear! Also, I hope you guys enjoyed my description of Naruto's new place of residence. Sorry for the lack of action and the lack of Akatsuki updates, but I at least explained why Tsunade isn't afraid of blood.
Anyway, that's about all I've got to say, so until next time I'll leave you wondering what happens next and how I update so damn fast.
Until the next update,
Artful Lounger