Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies and all Naruto characters are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. This is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, a number of original characters and obscure canon characters to flesh out family trees, random chosen last names to give a number of characters surnames, and who knows what else.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Chaos

October 27, 0295 AtD, 5:57 AM
Konohagakure no Sato, Hi no Kuni

Kojimaru silently pulled on the charcoal gray, long-sleeved shirt that was part of the T and I Department's standard uniform and deftly buttoned the shirt while stepping into his shinobi sandals. The fifteen year old felt rather weird wearing the stolen clothes (Aoba had 'liberated' uniforms for both Kojimaru and Tenzou from the department's supply) since it wasn't the standard Konoha uniform or his ANBU uniform that he normally wore but he ignored that feeling. Once the last button had been fastened, he smoothed the shirt down and clipped his utility pouch to his belt before tying his hitai-ate to his forehead.

Next, Kojimaru pulled out his sealing kit and created a floating ice mirror so he could begin the annoying process of changing the color of his eyes without using his disguise seal. What made it so annoying was that he had to draw the temporary seals onto the lids of his eyes (both top and bottom) in order for them to work since they were only temporary seals instead of semi-permanent ones like the ones that normally hid his identity. Still, the hassle of drawing the seals each time he wanted to hide his eyes was far better than having Kasai bitch at him again about his unique eye color.

"Are you ready yet?" Tenzou inquired as he poked his head through the open guestroom door at Inoichi's apartment several minutes later.

"Almost, I just have to charge the seals to change the color of my eyes," Kojimaru replied as he inked in the last seal on his left eyelid and channeled a thread of chakra into the seals on both eyes to activate them. He was rewarded with his normally vibrant green eyes fading to a washed out green flecked with threads of brown and blue. He blinked a couple of times to rid himself of the strange crawling sensation the activated seals had generated before he banished the ice mirror, temporarily reactivated his usual disguise seals, and stated, "I'm ready now."

"Then let's go! We're supposed to meet Aoba around the back of the Facility by six-fifteen and it's already after six."

"It only takes us three minutes to get there from here if we use the trees," Kojimaru dryly reminded his brother even as he snagged hold of the pack holding his supplies for their 'mission' and joined Tenzou in the hallway. "There's still more than enough time for me to make breakfast and fill up my canteen."

"Breakfast is already on the table and I filled your canteen while you were getting ready."

"Then what's the rush?"

"There is no rush; you're just being a girl and taking far too long to get ready."

Kojimaru narrowed his eyes at the teasing insult before he shoved a fistful of snow into Tenzou's smirking face. He would have dumped an entire snow drift on him if it wasn't for the fact that they were in Inoichi's apartment and that Ayaka would refuse to make him taiyaki for a month for 'roughhousing' inside. And she would have immediately known it was him that had made the mess because she knew he had the Hyouton; she just didn't know that he had been one of the survivors from Orochimaru's experiments. She also didn't know about his Mokuton.

Tenzou was still snickering under his breath as the two of them reached the kitchen and Kojimaru was pretending to be annoyed with him for the girl comment. He wasn't really all that mad though; he was long used to being called the kunoichi of Team Fourteen – not that he ever appreciated being called a girl. At least he was no longer scrawny enough to be mistaken for a girl. Smithing had done wonders for his physique. Now, if only he could gain a few more inches in height so that he was no longer the shortest one in their circle of friends and family.

Breakfast was eaten without fanfare and the two teens promptly washed their dishes before they slipped out of the apartment to meet up with Aoba. They would take a short detour on the way there in order to deactivate their disguise seals (as suggested by Inoichi) before Kojimaru used his Kamen no Jutsu to make a few minor changes so that they wouldn't be recognized. The two of them would meet up with Aoba two minutes later and the eighteen year old was quick to smuggle them into the T and I Building without them resorting to using their Mokuton.

As soon as they were inside, all three teens split up. Aoba headed for the office he shared with five other Chuunin; his part in their mission was mostly over (he'd also been tasked with evaluating his coworkers responses to the 'infiltration' by Ibiki). Tenzou headed down to the holding cells where he would make it look like the current prisoners had escaped by slapping them with knock-out tags and dragging them inside of the walls for safe-keeping (it wouldn't do for the prisoners to actually escape, after all). Tenzou would also disconnect the building's security cameras on his way down. And Kojimaru was going to hit the file rooms where the public and classified files were kept.

Aside from using their Mokuton to stash their 'targets' in the walls or floors in some of their initial preparations, neither teen would openly (or actively) use their Kekkei Genkai to carry out their assigned tasks. The reason for that restriction was due to the fact that their Mokuton gave them an unfair advantage that allowed them to bypass most security. And since the object of this mission was to test the current security of the facility, bypassing said security with their bloodline limits wouldn't actually help them uncover the holes in said security.

That limitation made their jobs far harder but not impossible; since they were rather good at sneaking around.

Not that Kojimaru would be doing any of said sneaking. In fact, Kojimaru boldly strode through the building as if he had every right to be there. Few people looked twice at those who both looked and acted like they belonged. It was a lesson most infiltrators were taught but few people could pull it off without considerable preparation ahead of time. Kojimaru was familiar enough with the way the T and I Dept. was run (from the two years he spent working with the department as part of Team Kage) that it took little to no effort for him to act like he belonged there.

It also helped that he knew most of the staff by name and could easily strike up a conversation with them without making them suspicious of him even if those he spoke to couldn't actually put a name to his current face. Ibiki's recent house cleaning actually made it easier to get away with the ruse since everyone assumed that all of the spies and traitors had been caught already. That was actually a mark against them; since spotting infiltrators should have been child's play to them after receiving the standard departmental training.

Each person who failed to question his presence with suspicion was discreetly tagged with a splinter that sprouted a tiny leaf the size of a lady-bug on the back of their left shoulder. Those little markers were intended to let Aoba know that those people had encountered Kojimaru and had not questioned his presence.

In between messing with the heads of Ibiki's staff, Kojimaru would slip into various offices to deliver 'important files' to various key individuals. He would also hand out stacks of memos for the Chuunin working in the building to pass out to each other. Each file and memo was actually a primed exploding paint tag that had been disguised as ordinary paperwork with his Kamen no Jutsu. All it would take to activate the tags was someone writing on them or otherwise damaging the paper thin disguise; such as someone crumpling up one of the memos.

An hour and forty-eight minutes later, Kojimaru found himself standing in the first of three file rooms. This particular file room held all of the non-classified paperwork; the stuff that was actually considered public record and accessible to civilians and shinobi alike. You still had to have a good reason to access said information but you'd only have to jump through a single hoop or two to get permission to view it. The teen took a moment to poke at the weak security seals that were intended to prevent theft before he set to work 'sabotaging' the room.

He started by simply shifting the secured file cabinets into the floor. He then unsealed ten pounds of still warm ashes and dumped a small pile where each cabinet had once sat. He also added a few melted bits of metal and charred pieces of wood to make it look more realistic. He slipped out of the room once that was done and tossed a smoke bomb into the file room before he shut the door behind him. The second file room (where some of the more restricted files that were only available for those who were Chuunin or higher were kept) was given the same treatment.

The third and final file storage room was given a little bit different treatment as that was where the classified information (the kind of stuff that was restricted to those Jounin level or higher) was kept. After checking the security seals (for any signs of tampering), Kojimaru would once again hide them in the floor before he replaced them with exact replicas that had been grown by Tenzou and given a metal appearance courtesy of Kojimaru's Kamen no Jutsu. All of the fake cabinets were then left open so that their obviously empty drawers were on display.

By the time he'd slipped out of that room, the entire building was up in arms and running around trying to do damage control after the two sabotaged file rooms had been discovered. The level of panic only doubled when the 'theft' in the last file room had been discovered and Kojimaru was quick to join in the man hunt for the culprits that had gotten into the building. Instead of actually helping though, the teen was quick to sew more discord as he instigated fights between those individuals with clashing personalities, announced false sightings, and generally made things more difficult for those trying to keep order.

He was nearly caught by Kotetsu and Izumo after twenty minutes of increasing the mayhem and Kojimaru was forced to play hide and seek from the two pranksters until he could change his face in order to throw them off. He would run into them again just a couple of minutes later but before they could even grow suspicious of him, an alarm sounded as the displacement of the prisoners had finally been discovered. Pandemonium followed in the wake of that discovery and Kojimaru slipped away before he could be pressed into a search party or caught.

Kojimaru left the building just five minutes later and met back up with Tenzou on the roof of the building next door to the T and I Facility. The two of them shared a brief smirk in response to the chaos they'd instigated before they settled in to wait out the clean-up efforts. Knowing it was going to be a few hours before Ibiki sent for them, Kojimaru broke out his canteen of tea and unsealed a pair of cups so he could share with his brother. Tenzou produced a large bag of candied walnuts a moment later and the two of them slowly worked their way through the bag of treats while sipping tea and comparing notes.

"I think the two of you gave Ibiki a heart attack," Aoba announced nearly two hours later when he joined them on the roof. "He's more than a little upset that you managed to hide his prisoners, prank almost every single person on staff, take out the security cameras without warning, steal his files, and send the entire staff into a complete and utter panic without getting caught."

"Kotetsu and Izumo almost caught me," Kojimaru admitted around a sip of tea. "I'd been manipulating some of the more abrasive Chuunin into accusing each other for losing the 'thief' I'd been 'helping' them chase down and they picked up on it. Took me a good ten minutes to shake them off of me long enough for me to change my face and slip out. If not for that close call, I probably would have stuck around a little longer just to sew a bit more confusion."

"I had a one close call while I was dealing with the security cameras," Tenzou added after he'd swallowed the handful of walnuts he'd been chewing. "The Tokubetsu Jounin on duty almost saw me switch the cords but he got distracted at the last second by one of the Chuunin working in the office with him."

"Idiots," Aoba snorted as he idly scratched at the red paint that was splattered across the left side of his face from where he'd gotten caught up in one of the exploding paint tags that someone else had triggered.

"You can say that again," Kojimaru agreed as he finished his tea and put away the cups they'd been using. "I must have spoken to at least two dozen people who never once bothered to ask me my name let alone question what I was doing running about the place without an escort. I suppose the fact that I was carrying around 'official' documents with the department's logo stamped on them might have given me enough of an appearance of legitimacy that it lulled them into complacency."

"At least you didn't walk in on a pair of Chuunin using one of the unoccupied cells for a quickie," Tenzou grumbled as he climbed to his feet. "I really could have done without seeing that."

Kojimaru tried to imagine why someone would want to have sex in a prison cell before he shook his head and decided that he was probably better off not knowing. Aoba, on the other hand, just laughed at Tenzou's misfortune. The three of them then spent another three minutes insulting various idiots before Aoba dragged the two younger teens to Ibiki's office so that they could give a verbal report on the observations they had made during their 'sabotage' mission. They would find Ibiki, the Hokage, Kasai, and Inoichi waiting for them when they arrived.

"I distinctly remember telling you to test my security; not destroy my Department," Ibiki growled at them the moment the three of them stepped into his office and closed the door behind them.

"At least we left the building standing for you," Tenzou replied with a smirk as the three of them lined up in front of Ibiki's desk where the Hokage was seated with Kasai at his back.

"Your restraint is appreciated, I'm sure," the Hokage dryly stated as he raked his gaze between the three of them. "Walk us through your unofficial mission."

Kojimaru felt an urge to squirm when he felt the weight of the Hokage's gaze land on him. This was the first time he had been in the same room with Sandaime since the day he'd learned his little stray was the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi and he couldn't help but recall how much it had hurt when the Hokage had accused him of being put on earth just to make him miserable. That accusation still stung now. And part of him wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole so that he wouldn't have to hear the Hokage repeat his accusation once the man learned about his current self control issues.

The young Tokubetsu Jounin snapped out of the small downward spiral he'd just slipped into when Tenzou brushed his fingers lightly against Kojimaru's arm just seconds after he'd started withdrawing into himself. Taking a deep breath, Kojimaru copied the gesture to silently thank his brother for keeping him grounded. His attention was then drawn to Aoba when the eighteen year old stepped forward to start their report; a habit left over from the time when both younger boys had let the older boy take the lead.

"My part was actually fairly small; as Tenzou and Kojimaru's inside man, it was basically my job to get them inside of the building without getting caught and to observe the fallout once their presence had been discovered. In order to accomplish the first objective, I borrowed a pair of uniforms in their size from supply at the end of my shift yesterday and passed them over to them on the way home. I then met up with them first thing this morning and let them in the back door. Once inside, I headed to the office I share with the other interrogators and went about my usual routine while the two of them split up to hit their chosen targets."

"Roughly forty-five minutes after parting company with the others, I got hit by an explosion of paint when my partner set off one of the disguised exploding paint tags that had been distributed throughout the building. It would take another hour before the alarm was sounded though. I spent the rest of the exercise ghosting through shadows to observe my coworkers. I paid special attention to those individuals that had been marked with a small leaf since those were people that had directly interacted with Kojimaru and hadn't treated him with suspicion. After order had been restored, I was sent to fetch Kojimaru and Tenzou so they could be debriefed."

"Why wasn't the alarm sounded sooner?" Kasai inquired in an annoyed tone.

"The exploding paint tags were brushed off as being a simple prank. It wasn't until someone noticed that the storage rooms where the public information and general files were kept had been 'torched' that anyone realized that there was a security breech. Everyone then panicked when it was discovered that the classified files had been 'stolen'. The missing prisoners were discovered roughly twenty-five minutes after that and everything went to hell in a hand-basket."

"Are you implying that these two openly walked into the building, spent close to two hours walking about in plain sight, and no one questioned their presence or noticed what they were doing?" Ibiki demanded in irritation.

"Part of that was because the first thing I did was unplug the main surge for the security monitors and switch the cord out with an extension cord that was hooked up to nothing; blinding the surveillance team to what was happening throughout the building," Tenzou explained with a small smirk. "After I was finished there, I made my way to the holding cells by way of the kitchen. I didn't encounter many people once I was down in the cell block and those who saw me ignored me because I'd been 'volunteered' to deliver breakfast to the prisoners by the Chuunin on kitchen duty."

Kojimaru ducked his head and smothered the smirk that threatened to split his face when Ibiki snarled out a few colorful invectives under his breath in response to that revelation. Part of the reason why they'd shown up so early that morning was to take advantage of the meal schedule since they had learned early on during their years of training under Ibiki that few people wanted to be stuck delivering food to the prisoners. So, the Chuunin assigned to kitchen duty usually snagged the first unoccupied 'volunteer' to deliver the food instead of doing it themselves.

"Once I had access to the cells, making the prisoners vanish was a piece of cake. The fact that it was mealtime for the prisoners also meant that I didn't have to worry about getting caught in the act since the prisoners wouldn't be checked on again for at least an hour when it was time to collect their trays. And, the two Chuunin that were supposed to be supervising me during my task were far too busy having sex in one of the empty cells to notice what I was up to. I really, really didn't want or need to see that, by the way."

The reactions of the adults upon hearing about that particular security breech were rather varied. The Sandaime reached up to rub at his temples as if to stave off a headache. Inoichi palmed his face and looked to be smothering what sounded suspiciously like laughter. Ibiki growled out another string of swear words coupled with a few painful sounding threats of what he would do to the individuals in question. And Kasai's body language conveyed pure annoyance.

On the other side of Tenzou, Aoba was quietly laughing again while Tenzou was wearing a put upon expression that conveyed his displeasure over the entire incident. Kojimaru was torn between commiserating with Tenzou and joining Aoba in laughing his ass off. He could see the amusement in the situation but at the same time, he knew he would not have enjoyed walking in on two people having sex. In the end, he settled on bumping his shoulder against Tenzou's shoulder in a silent sympathy.

"Do you have anything further to add to your report?" the Sandaime asked once the adults had collected themselves.

"No, I pretty much left after stumbling on those two Chuunin messing around in the unoccupied cell."

"Where are my prisoners now?" Ibiki inquired as he glowered at Tenzou.

"Technically, they're still in their cells; I tagged them with knock-out tags, sealed their food into a scroll so it wouldn't spoil, and left them and their meals in the walls."

"How…? Aren't the cell walls made up of solid concrete?" Kasai asked with a trace of confused annoyance.

"No, each wall has a wooden frame for support set in the middle of the concrete and I can travel through concrete as easily as I can travel through rocks and dirt; I just can't stay in concrete or cement for very long."

"I suppose that's something you can also do?" Kasai demanded as he turned his gaze on Kojimaru.

"Aa, if I have to, I can but I really don't like doing it."

"And the reason why I'm only just now hearing about that particular little trick of yours?"

"We told you we could pass through the walls years ago," Tenzou pointed out. "That was one of the first things we told you we could do."

Kasai was not impressed with that borderline smart-mouthed answer but he didn't bother verbalizing another complaint since Tenzou's reply had been accurate. It wasn't like it was their fault that Kasai hadn't asked them to clarify what types of walls they could travel through. It should have been quite obvious that they could pass through cement and concrete in any case because some of the walls within the ANBU Headquarters were made up of cement or solid stone; that was especially true on the lower levels.

"Now that that little mystery has been cleared up, Kojimaru-kun; please give us your report," the Sandaime instructed as soon as it became clear that there were no further questions regarding Tenzou's report or their abilities.

Kojimaru automatically nodded in compliance before he began, "After Aoba let us inside, I spent my first hour and a half wandering through the building mingling with everyone else as I delivered disguised exploding paint tags to key personnel and tricked a couple of Chuunin into helping me pass out additional disguised tags to everyone else. Once I had finished that, I made my way to the file rooms and dropped all of the existing file cabinets through the floor before I made it look like I torched the public information and restricted files and that I'd stolen all of the classified files."

"I had just finished setting up my 'theft' when my 'sabotage' in the other two file rooms had been discovered and I lent a hand to help search for the culprit. I also managed to start more than a few fights until Kotetsu and Izumo began to get suspicious of me. It took me several minutes to ditch the two of them before I could change my disguise and slip out of the building unchallenged about the same time as the prisoner alarm went off. Any one I talked to who didn't question my being here was tagged with a splinter and leaf."

"What was the purpose of the exploding paint tags?" Ibiki inquired as soon as Kojimaru finished speaking. "Did you pull a prank just to cause a little misdirection?"

"Assassination," Kojimaru corrected without a trace of humor for the seeming prank. "Imagine that I'd used standard exploding tags instead of the paint tags. I may have used my Mokuton to disguise the tags as paperwork but it would not be that hard to replicate that feat by slipping a primed tag between two sheets of paper or wrapping one up in a report scroll. The amount of chakra given off by either tag prior to detonation is negligible; making them rather easy to mistake for a security seal."

"Kuso, you could have taken out the entire department and dropped the building in one fell swoop; no one escaped your paint tags," Inoichi blurted out in shock as he gestured to the splashes of red paint that decorated his pants and the red speckles that decorated the sleeve of Ibiki's favorite trench coat.

"What possessed you to do mock assassinations?" the Sandaime asked in a neutral tone.

"Ibiki-san asked us to test his department's security and we wanted to be thorough after we'd unknowingly set him up to discover the sabotage being done to the holding cells with a prank. Someone is just as likely to send an assassin after Ibiki-san or those key people that help him run this department as they are to send new people to infiltrate it; especially once word gets out that he recently did a little house cleaning. It's the same reason why we also went after the prisoners instead of just looking to 'steal' information."

"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy throwing the entire department into chaos," Kasai drawled in an exasperated tone.

"I wasn't going to," Kojimaru replied with a smirk. "It was the most fun I've had in days." The smirk slid off of his face a moment later as he added, "I actually managed to get a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep last night thanks to all of the last minute planning and preparations."

The atmosphere in the room immediately grew heavy in response to Kojimaru's reference to his current problem with controlling his temper and the nightmares he'd been dealing with ever since the suppression seal blocking his anger at Orochimaru had been removed. The fact that none of the adults showed any signs of confusion over his reference was a clear indication that everyone present knew exactly what he was talking about and Kojimaru struggled not to curl in on himself in shame in response to so many people being aware of what he saw as his personal failures.

The feel of Tenzou's hand closing around his wrist immediately grounded Kojimaru and the troubled teen took a couple of deep breathes to center himself once more before he flashed his brother a tight smile. Tenzou smiled back at him and gave his wrist a squeeze before he let go. Aoba reached across Tenzou's back to lightly slap Kojimaru on the shoulder a split second later and Kojimaru offered their older brother a small, appreciative smile for his added support. A heartbeat later, Kojimaru remembered that Aoba had been given the next two days off and he near burst with excitement at the prospect of spending some real quality time with the older teen.

The Hokage clearing his throat put a damper on his enthusiasm as it abruptly reminded him of where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. A blush spread across his face when he returned his attention to Konoha's leader and saw the small amused smile on the man's face.

"Is there anything else any of you would like to add? No? Then I believe that I shall take my leave," the Sandaime announced as he climbed to his feet. As the Hokage passed by the three teens, he reached out and patted Kojimaru's head, Tenzou's shoulder, and Aoba's arm as he murmured, "Good work, gentlemen."

It wasn't until the door swung shut behind the man that Kojimaru realized the only reason why he'd been given a head pat was because he was the shortest of the trio; standing a head shorter than Tenzou and nearly a foot shorter than Aoba. He was half tempted to prank the Hokage in response but decided against it in the end when he realized that the best revenge would be to grow taller than the Hokage so he couldn't pat him on the head any more. Of course, in order for that to happen, his body would need to cooperate and actually grow.

Shaking off the odd silliness of the direction his thoughts had taken, Kojimaru refocused on Ibiki as the scarred Jounin moved to reclaim his desk now that the Hokage was no longer borrowing it. As he walked by the three teens, Kojimaru absently noticed something odd about Ibiki's trench coat. It only took him a couple of seconds to realize that the red paint from the paint tags wasn't the only thing marring the not quite black coat and Kojimaru was smirking at the man by the time he'd taken his seat behind the desk.

"What are you smiling about, gaki?" Ibiki gruffly demanded the moment he caught sight of the smirk on the teen's face.

"You have cat hairs on your trench coat," Kojimaru slyly pointed out.

"My brother's new cat has no sense of personal boundaries," Ibiki stoically explained in a rather stiff tone.

"So that's where that calico kitten ended up after you refused to hand her back to us the other day," Tenzou laughingly crowed as he shared a smirk with Kojimaru.

"I never said my brother's cat was a calico."

"You also didn't say it wasn't," Aoba blandly countered; suppressed laughter making his voice sound rather strangled.

Ibiki glowered at all three teens but didn't say another single word about the kitten; something that only confirmed that the intimidating man had taken said kitten home with him. Kojimaru was more than a little amused that the man who could make hardened shinobi quake in their sandals with just a look had a soft spot for small animals. And to think, Kojimaru (and both of his brothers) used to be utterly intimidated by Ibiki.

"You, go put my prisoners back where they belong," Ibiki snapped as he pointed at Tenzou when their amusement managed to get under his skin before he swung his finger at Aoba next. "You, go fix my security cameras!" His finger landed on Kojimaru last. "And you, go put my files back so I can have the individual security seals tested after your stunt. Once all three of you are finished, report to Inoichi so he can view your memories of the evaluation."

"Hai, Ibiki-san!" all three teens chorused.

Tenzou immediately sank into the floor in order to take the quickest route to the holding cells while Kojimaru chose instead to tag along after Aoba as his earlier excitement over the chance to spend some quality time with the older teen returned full force. As they stepped through the door, Kojimaru couldn't resist ribbing Ibiki one last time about the kitten he'd kept as he grinningly commented, "You know, Birdbrain, I never pegged your boss as a cat person; I was so certain he'd be more of a grumpy bear person."

The sound of an ink well shattering against the door as it closed behind them set both teens to laughing as they headed for the surveillance room to fix the cameras. And if Aoba realized that Kojimaru was purposefully procrastinating on returning the displaced filing cabinets back to where they belonged in order to put off seeing Inoichi, he wisely kept his opinion on the matter to himself. In fact, Aoba happily distracted the fifteen year old with amusing anecdotes about his coworkers to keep the younger boy from brooding while they carried out their assigned tasks together.

Translations: Japanese to English

Aa – yes
Ano – um/uh/er
Chikushou – damn/damn it
Gaki – brat
Hai – yes
Kuso – swear word

10-18-16: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes, reworded a few sections so that they made more sense, and removed unnecessary author's notes.