A/N: Life is a complicated mess. However I have returned. This story lives again.
As the two gifted dojutsu users took their first steps toward each other Might Guy's heavy voice interrupted with a tone of great authority.
"I think you should reconsider this situation." Might said sternly and Neji, without turning his head, sighed, straightened, and the infinite depth of his soft white eyes collapsed back into a human organ.
"Yes. I apologize, Sensei This is most inauspicious.' Neji said as Sasuke blinked away his Sharingan. Kakashi gave a subtle nod that Sasuke accepted similarly wordlessly.
"I know your families have this dramatic rivalry thing going on, but let's keep a lid on it until we actually get around to the sparring part." Kakashi says with a condescending air that visibly rubs both the prickly Uchiha and the standoffish Hyuuga the wrong way. Might lets out a deep full bodied laugh that eases the tightening tension.
"Regardless! We came together today to train our bodies and our spirits! Afterall! You will be representing Konoha in the upcoming examinations!" Might Guy declares with a finger pointed to the east. Lee immediately looked pumped at the prospect of training, though Neji was turning a more speculative eye toward Team 7 now, Tenten smiled brazenly at Sakura who returned the approving smile a bit more conservatively.
"I believe my, admittedly somewhat more experienced, team may have a shot at promotion! And Hatake graciously asked me if I might be willing to bring in a more joint training atmosphere as he has been giving you a more accelerated program to prepare you for what will likely be a devilishly challenging experience. Allow our combined experience to wash over you and impart some piece of its wisdom!" Guy explained while Sasuke looked sour, Naruto had a largely blank expression, and Sakura looked intensely contemplative.
"We'll do our best! Believe it!" The heretofore uncharacteristically quiet Naruto declared presenting a big thumbs up to Might Guy who returned it enthusiastically, mirrored a moment later by Rock Lee.
"Then we shall together fan the flames of youth to great new heights and become truly splendid ninja!" The young Lee declared in a loud voice.
Kakashi had been pushing them hard, it was true, none would deny it, but the pace set by Guy and Kakashi together was ridiculous. Team 7 thought they had come a long way. Watching team Guy work together taught them a few things about stacking specializations. Neji's arm length was the most dangerous place to be. Though a close second was out from behind hard cover, Tenten displayed a skill with throwing weapons of all kinds that terrified. Not to discount Rock Lee. Rock Lee's prowess in the realm of the physical was the result of obsession, for all that everything he did was utterly guileless. There was no other way to say it.
Neji made careful use of misdirection, bushin, and false sound to always attack from unexpected angle, always moving lashing out to strike for only a moment before fading away. He was unsurpriseable, always exactly where he was needed without fail in their joint spars.
As soon as Naruto's cunning got him close to Tenten, Neji was there to force him away. When careful manipulation gave Sakura an edge on Rock Lee, Neji would appear as though summoned to even the scales. His slightest motion brought pain and ruin. With the subtle tap of his fingers limbs went dead limp or seized painfully, Chakra became as so much dry sand where before it was as wet clay, slipping away.
Neji was capable of fighting two, or even all three of them, with at least passable skill for at least a few moments. His one weakness was in constantly seeking out Uchiha Sasuke and putting them in situations where they would fight one on one.
He was marginally faster with his hands, but not the stronger. His gentle fist was crippling, but Sasuke was like a snake when his eyes were open, slithering through strikes to give nearly as good as he got. More than once one or the other had been left writhing in the dirt with the other barely on their feet and both in need of medical attention.
Prodigy against prodigy they were seemingly nearly evenly matched with the edge of experience fingering the scale toward Neji.
The same could not be said of the rest of them, Sakura and Naruto often found themselves matching against Tenten and Lee. In a fight, the latter was almost always the victor. Tenten had eyes like an eagle and aim to match. Her technique was impeccably honed from thousands of hours of practice and experimentation.
Rock Lee was fast and fought with a ferociousness that was humbling. He lacked Tenten's accuracy at range but with his nearly flawless internal technique he could, with a burst of chakra enhanced strength, hurl a Kunai so deeply into a tree it would seem to vanish. Taking a single strike from him was a mistake, and being grabbed was grounds to instantly surrender as both Naruto and Sakura learned. Even Sasuke had to play very carefully around the wide-eye'd young man whose whole persona sparked with single minded intensity.
His style was simply to overpower. He wasted little time with feints or misdirection using them only very rarely though it hardly mattered, only Sasuke was fast enough to really dodge him with any reliability. However he could not use any serious long ranged technique and had virtually no answer to genjutsu or area of effect besides attempting to outrun it.
They trained together every day. The days off had been a reprieve, to lose them taught Team 7 the meaning of exhaustion. Still, they kept up, through some miracle.
It was not all head to head; field training, survival, trapwork, information gathering, any and all skills a ninja may need. It was here, off the battlefield, Team Seven found their time to shine. It was some small consolation that Naruto's fiendish skill at trapcraft and sheer stealth was completely unmatched aside Neji's all-seeing eyes, though even he was occasionally tricked by an utterly mundane trap cleverly concealed. Sakura's sheer accumulated knowledge made her indispensable in scrounging and scavenging, information was king in infiltration and espionage. Sasuke's quick reactions and unflappable poise made his disguise and sheer capability at blending into the background through stillness a force in the quiet arts, easily taking after Sakura's needs or Naruto's keen predatory instinct.
Tenten was good at asking questions, but seemed to miss the forest for the trees occasionally, Rock Lee took physical notes with wild abandon, trying to capture every word of Naruto's winding explanations and anecdotes while trying to wrestle with Sakura's highly developed vocabulary. Even Neji payed close attention to their instruction and insight. It wasn't the smoothest of days. But at least it didn't leave them physically crippled.
Kakashi and Guy only sparingly interfered with the two teams, injecting stories or insights as needed and mostly happy to subtly guide and goad the two teams into interacting. Though they also occasionally had to do the opposite, keeping Sasuke or Neji from crippling the other and abandoning the greater point of the various drills and exercises to take another stab at each other.
At the end of two weeks of hell Team 7 arrived at their usual training ground to find that the familiar sight of Might Guy and Rock Lee were absent, and so was Kakashi. There was really nothing to do for it but wait for them.
And after the first thirty minutes Sasuke started to get restless, taking to throwing kunai at a tree, five of them, before collecting them and doing it again. It took Sakura a few repetitions to notice that he wasn't throwing the way they were taught at the academy but very deliberately throwing them in a peculiar way. She started to mimic him and was shocked at how different it felt in her hands to do it like he was. Naruto wasn't too far behind once she got started. Four Narutos joining in the impromptu group session.
Sasuke noticed he was being copied and obliged in his own way, slowing down a bit so they could pick up the nuance of it, even though he said nothing. He was working off a flawless memory after all. They had only his example. It was kind of cathartic, throwing the knife and watching five other knives hit wood around the clearing. It formed a kind of meditative repetition.
He lost easy count of his throws letting the sheer focus of attempting perfection carry him along. The six of them managed to miss out on the seventh amongst them until a hand landed on Sakura's shoulder leading her into a defensive dive and hurl the kunai in her hand at the one who touched her without making so much as a sound. Kakashi naturally caught the kunai through the ring with his finger, turning her throw into a nifty little spin.
"Sorry kids." Kakashi said drawling out his words as one of the Narutos went over to where Kakashi was standing, Sasuke hovered a short ways off, throwing the ninja knives still. Just finishing the grouping.
"I got lost on the road of life, helping a little old lady across the street you see…." he started and Sasuke scooped up and hurled a small stone at Hatake's forehead in one motion. No one was surprised when their sensei dutifully dodged with so little effort that it ruffled his silver hair as it passed.
"Skip the dramatics Sensei!" Naruto said with a theatrical shrug and a smile. "What gives?" another asked petulantly, a remark echoed by all the remaining Narutos
"Like I said, the old lady…" he started up again and Sakura groaned and flopped down from the crouch she'd settled into to a spread eagle puddle on the ground.
"Oh fine, you kids are no fun." Kakashi said rolling his eye, with a partially concealed smirk.
"Guy and his team decided that he would like to take the last weeks up to the examination for a little more individual training… and to let them relax a little before throwing them into a life and death situation.
Sakura's eyes widened a little and she lifted her head to stare at Kakashi. Sasuke spoke first though.
"Life and death? Isn't this supposed to be an advancement exam?" He asked acidically.
"There are participants from many villages, and…" Kakashi trailed off as Sasuke's frown settled into a scowl.
"Well, not everyone has the same opinion of fair play." He finished with a small smile.
"The Village Hidden in the Mist for instance, they say there's something in the water out there, because they're an unpredictable bunch at the best of times, and their internal structure is more than a little… Hmm… Bloodthirsty." The way Kakashi pronounced the word sent a shiver through Sakura who sat up.
"They'll try to kill us? Why are they allowed to participate?" she asks face screwed up in disgust.
"They promised not to, and it's not like they are more than Genin themselves. So in theory they should be only about as good as you, or they'd have already made rank, right?" Kakashi answered in a way that made her frown but made Sasuke spit.
"So nobody tries to stop them." He mutters darkly.
"Oh no, they try to stop them, and if you're caught trying to kill your opponents you will at minimum fail the exam, at least here in Konoha. Not to forget the bounty you might find on yourself." Kakashi mentioned rubbing his chin. Naruto's eyes flashed between his teammates.
"So… what you're saying is…" Naruto started as Sasuke and Sakura both looked up at the boy whose face was carefully neutral.
"They'll be in a lot of trouble… If they get caught." he says slowly and Kakashi gave him a cold smile.
"Exactly, exactly that." He says pointing at Naruto. The other two chewed on that information for a bit.
"However, that's in a little bit yet. Today we have training to do!" Kakashi said clapping his hands softly, pulling attention back to himself. His eye slid across the three of them one by one.
"So I'll be nice, since you've been having it a little rougher… and give you oh... Ten... Nine…" Three pairs of eyes widened and vanished into the underbrush in roughly the same direction as the countdown continued behind them.
Three Genin stood at a remove from the gates of Konoha with their official instructions in Sasuke's hands six eyes glittering with private thoughts as Kakashi stands in front of them. Each of them, as instructed by their letter of invitation, were wearing their full field kit in their travel backpacks. He looked over the three game-faced children, lost in thought for several seconds. They probably weren't ready, but they should know what they were up against. They'd killed, been blooded, This was the next step. It didn't make it any easier.
"Well, here we are. You're as ready as you can be in so little time." Kakashi says, his back straight. He was making an admirable attempt at looking completely serious and were it not for a stifled yawn near the beginning of his little speech they may even have believed him.
"Good luck!" Kakashi says and his hands whip out of his pockets hands opening up in the air Sasuke started jumping back as soon as Kakashi's hands started to move, the other two a fraction of a second later, all three of them looked down at shock at the riot of tiny bits of meticulously shredded colored paper that had settled all over themselves.
All three of them looked down at themselves Sasuke started hissing and spitting while furiously brushing at his hair and the front of his shirt while Naruto just broke down laughing, by the time he was halfway to the ground he too threw up his arms "Good luck!" he declared through the giggles, which eventually infected Sakura who threw up her arms in solidarity. The three of them stood with their hands up in the air trying to breath while staring at the Uchiha who grumbled, turned his back on them, muttered under his breath flicked a bit off his pants and after nearly a minute of feeling five eyes boring into his back raised one arm.
"Good luck." he said with just an edge of defeat.
Walking calmly through the Konoha Forest yet again at the break of dawn there was a feeling of auspiciousness. It felt like leaving safety behind. They traveled without their Sensei for the first time. The scroll they carried had particular instructions, heading to a particular location on the map. Sakura was watching the compass and leading effortlessly.
Each had added little accents to their simple packs. Sasuke was wearing more equipment webbing than he ever had bothered with before. Easily doubling the amount of throwing weapons he'd ever carried. They'd spent their time wisely. Each of the three honing their strengths and finding new combinations. Sasuke had found that range fitted his style well. He still lacked the sheer power Tenten had brought, but he substituted it with absolutely dirty tricks. Something he'd been slowly learning from Naruto.
Naruto for his part had invested in something a little different. A short single edged blade, one part weapon, three parts tool. quicker to shape wood or dig earth than his hands alone, he came stocked for trouble. He'd learned a lot from the manuals on hunting and guerrilla warfare that stretched back into the history of the nation of fire and the Warring Clans period. Speaking of learning Sakura's kit had shifted the most. she'd strapped a tactical web and it was filled with a few things. Chief amongst them was poisons, liquid and powder, and chemical assistance.
She had been very cagey about speaking to Kakashi Sensei about it. One doesn't simply walk up to their boss and request help acquiring combat drugs. when she had finally gotten up the gumption, prepared with promises and books to explain her reasoning and thinking she had been nonplussed when Kakashi had asked for her wishlist. He'd taken her himself leaving Naruto and Sasuke to their own devices while talking with her at length. It was a strangely harrowing experience hearing Kakashi talk about the effects and making recommendations which she realized had come from experience.
Stimulants, depressants, euphorics, and even emetics the man had thoughts on them all and it lead to nearly a week of lessons from the man as she slowly and carefully experimented herself. It had driven her ever deeper into the medical text section of the library, well past where she probably should have gone. However long ago she had fostered a good relationship with the archivists. learning ever more what to do and more importantly why. Her eyes were open, and she felt like a walking pharmacy striding with a new kind of confidence through the trees.
"Just a ways further." She said confidently, Sasuke was beside her. His eyes were on the woods around them with their early morning noises surrounding them. Naruto walked behind them with his hands behind his head humming a jaunty little tune. It was almost comfortable, just a little walk with his team, the calm before the storm. Sasuke let himself breath deep and loosen his tight muscles. He was excited, for all he refused to let it be seen outside. Naruto wore his excitement nakedly, his tune upbeat his steps bouncing. Sakura seemed calm but her pace was just slightly faster than her usual walking pace. She did a fine job of hiding it in focus on her task but it was there for her too. Sasuke allowed himself a small smirk. Through the back of his head he heard the humming stop.
"Neh, what's got the bastard in such a good mood?" Naruto asked lightly, Sasuke's smile evaporated then he let out a small snort.
"You can't pretend you're not excited, alley cat." He says and Naruto lets out a bright laugh.
"Nope! Not pretending not to be, ice cube!" he says with a big giggling grin, his eyes sharp like cerulean flint.
"If you're not excited I don't understand you." Sakura says smiling as she checks the carefully folded map. Ahead there is a break in the trees, just a slow parting to reveal something odd, a tiny ghost town, buildings side by side, many shapes and sizes but completely empty of people. Walking into the clearing it is quite large, though not lacking for green space.
"Hn." Sasuke comments his eyes roving slowly past the freshly painted walls and dirt roads.
"Hn." Naruto responds with a faint pop. Sasuke turns his head to look at the slippery menace to find himself looking at an exaggerated version of his own face. Sauske spends a moment looking at his face on Naruto's body. Staring back into his black eyes something slowly starts to smolder the deeper he looks and he breaks eye contact, turning his back on the fool who lets out a soft chuckle as the illusion vanishes in a soft flush of smoke.
"Where do you think we need to be?" Sasuke asks looking around. Naruto frowns and Sakura leaps up onto a rooftop from a stand with a tiny swirl of chakra to push her. Sasuke watches her go while Naruto looks around instead. Sakura cranes her neck looking around from the rooftop, then carefully walks down the side of the building.
"There's a building with a big banner that says 'Examination' so I think it's a pretty sure bet that's where we need to be." she says pointing while speaking softly. Naruto steps up and the three of them start off in close formation. Afterall, the warning of their sensei was still ringing in Sasuke's mind.
The building itself was like an office building, two floors, and extremely non-distinct. The three of them walked at a sedate pace, slowing down as they approached the building. The feeling pushed out from Naruto, his pace slowed just a bit, a tiny hesitation. It stood out starkly to Sasuke and Sakura, the familiarity of listening to someone walk around for weeks it's something one gets used to. As they walked to the front door of the building the windows were clean glass and a paper had been stuck to the door, it read "Examinees second door on left."
"Lazy." Sakura mutters, getting a giggle from Naruto and the slightest huff from Sasuke.
"Well, at least we found the right place!" Naruto opined too loudly. The other two shared a glance and a sigh, but Sasuke pulled open the door as Sakura stowed her orienteering gear and stepped inside. Inside the main hallway there was a Konoha ninja with a clipboard and a subtle frown, more bored than angry, he glanced up and his hand started moving down the page.
"Invitation?" He asks, writing on the paper before Sasuke even offered it up, three quick slashes and he juggled the pen into his hand holding the clipboard, placed the scroll on his clipboard and unfurled the first few inches with the seal of the Hokage's office on it, seeing the seal he rolled it back up and tossed it casually back to Sasuke who caught it without taking his eyes off of the older ninja. The three genin waited patiently as the man made a few more notes then looked up t them.
"What are you waiting for, did you miss the sign?" the ninja grumbled pointing with his pen over his shoulder up the hall. Naruto's face was flat, Sasuke managed to look offended, so it fell to Sakura to smile, nod and start walking. The other two looked like they wanted to start something, shared a glance and finally resolved to follow Sakura's lead. It would do them no good to start fighting with proctors before the exam got off the ground. Walking down the hallway the three of them walked past the first door and to the second, a featureless wooden door that looked roughly sanded.
Sakura reached out and pulled open the door to meet nearly forty pairs of baleful eyes. It is a rather sharp shock when something like that happens, not just misgiving but honest-to-gods killing intent radiating from the room Sakura almost closed the door again if Sasuke hadn't walked through the door, hands in his pocket, smooth as cold water. This gave Sakura the strength to soldier through, setting her face and weathering the psychic storm of displeasure. Naruto barely even registered, hoving over her shoulder but he seemed as unaffected as Sasuke.
She felt a tiny surge of jealousy at her teammates at that moment. How could they so easily brush off this skin crawling feeling? A moment's consideration provided an answer in Naruto's case. She'd been around him long enough to notice how he was commonly treated. He was vaccinated against hostility, it was even part of her pet theory about the bad vibe that followed the blonde child around like a cloak. Even now people subtly edged away more than a simple abundance of caution would permit as it put them closer to others who might be more of a threat. The room had a great many tables, and chairs though few were willing to sit in them. Scanning the room every great ninja village was represented by at least two people. The other genin stood in loose groups unlike the nearly shoulder to shoulder Team 7 was maintaining. Of them there were only four other groups that really looked like a team from their stance and standing. A group of older Konoha ninja, perhaps a few years their senior. Sakura recognized them in the way one might recognize someone who lives off the same bus stop. Team Gai, Naturally could not be missed. The three of them sitting against a wall, watching the room in their particular way.
Then to the foreigners, Sakura didn't recognize one of the groups having monopolized three chairs and put them back to back the one she could see had what looked to be a musical quarter note on his Hitai-ite, she didn't know of any nation that used that as their marker, they must have almost literally just arisen in the last year for their existence to not be that unknown. Yet here they were, at an invitation only event. The three of them were odd looking. A young woman with a cocky look to her face, assured. Her hair is long and straight and lustrous. Sakura feels a distant stab of envy as the girl sits with her hands in her lap in her armored clothing utterly still. The second wore sleeveless clothes with heavy wristbands, an usual decision but Sakura caught a glimpse of some bit of metal in the palm of his hand as he brushed at his hair and scratched his nose. The final member of the team was wrapped head to toe in furs and linens. One of his arms wearing a massive bracer with strange holes set in it. All together a very strange team even amongst the careful masks and respirators of Grass and Mist they stood out as unusual.
The others that stood out as a team were three who wore the Hitai-ite of Sunagakure, Allies, of a stripe. Konoha and Suna were allies in the loosest sense. Konoha was their nearest neighbor and genuinely the smallest of the so called 'great' villages. So small that the entire nation had fallen upon hard times when the Daimyo of the nation of Sands had lost a war and blamed the hidden village. Konoha had interceded providing supplies and logistical support in the internecine conflict. As a matter of honor they accepted an alliance of sorts though their pride was burned as a result. The team was three people, much like theirs. A statuesque blonde woman in a partial bodysuit and a linen wrap. With what looked for all the world like a giant fan. A wind nature without doubt, Sakura nodded to herself. Beside her were two shorter boys. One in Theatrical makeup with a fuzzy bundle on his back and fingers that would not stop twitching hither and tither, much like his eyes. The last though was the most striking. The shortest by far he sat on the ground staring at a space somewhere just past his knees. He seemed catatonic and the other two hovered but careful to maintain a few feet of distance at all times. Neither of his teammates so much as looked at him. He stared lamely his eyes half closed, deep dark bruise-like marks surrounding his eyes, his skin looked dingy and rough. His hair stuck up at strange angles and strapped to his back was a tremendous calabash gourd.
As Sakura tried to make heads or tails of the half asleep youth she was startled from her theory craftby a subtle, growing wrongness just over her shoulder. The eerie feeling that followed Naruto around was like a background noise. She had been around him so long she forgot about it. But when it suddenly intensified she noticed it all again. The feeling brought back a cold clammy feeling to her, like deep clinging mist and running water, like blood and haze. She could almost see Wave every time she blinked. That same intensity of appetite for blood. She couldn't make her head turn to look at Naruto for fear of drawing his attention. She was firmly rooted and certain others were too, looking around wildly or frozen stock still. Only one zeroed in. The boy with the gourd turned his head slowly like it resisted his every effort at movement and though she was not the one he was looking at she was shocked by the brilliant greenish gold that shone in the eyes of the boy. A deep smoldering darkness like sentient ink staring out from a well. She felt Naruto slide backward and the tension faded bit by bit as the red haired boy's head slowly ground back to looking at the ground but there was a new tightness, an awareness about him that had not been there before. As though he had awakened from his stupor in some small way.
Sakura finally made herself turn back only to see Naruto frowning just slightly, looking toward Sasuke who was looking back at him. They both spared her a glance before the attention returned to a blonde who made a slight shake of his head and looked down and away. Sasuke spoke in barely a whisper. "Soon, then." he said and Naruto looked to her before looking back at the ground. His mouth formed a thin line of deep consideration before nodding once "Soon." he agreed.
It was nearly fifteen minutes before something of interest happened. Six more people drifted in as ones and twos. Before the door opened and someone much older than anyone else in the room accompanied by two older ninja in sharp all black, each of them wearing a small badge that read 'Proctor' while carrying a box each.
"Good morning, applicants." The man said. Stoney silence reigned in the room. He was taller than many ninja and his face was deeply scarred. Worse though than any mark on his face was the way his eyes seemed to cut to the bone like the coldest winter squall, or the eyes of some apex predator. Sakura tried to shrug off the feeling as the man took several minutes to simply scan the crowd.
"I am Morino Ibiki, and I will be proctor of the first examination. Each of you possesses a scroll with an invitation to be here. You will trade that scroll for these." He said motioning to the side, where one of the proctors held up a manilla envelope.
"They have been randomized and you will be required to follow the instructions within. This first exam will last five days. You will have the rest of today to prepare. The examination begins at dawn tomorrow." Ibiki said. The man said and proceed to stand between the two proctors as each team walked up to take their envelope and retreat. It was a slow process. It gave Sakura a better lay of the arrayed forces.
There were a few teams of the three, but most of the groups were only a pair, three were even there alone, without any support seemingly. If she hadn't read about it it would be more shocking. Konoha was often derided for their seeming softness and 'weakness' of focusing on teamwork and interdependence rather than the skill of a single well-rounded operative. The apprentice system still in use in most of the world had borne out powerful fruit. Legends standing above the crowds such as the three Thunders of Kumo, or the Seven Swordsman of Mist. Konoha's Sanin being the exception. Or, they were.
Before too long Team 7 found themselves accepting their folders and retreating into the room. Naruto picked at the seal impatiently while Sasuke gave his little more than a cursory glance. Sakura held the folder to her chest thumb playing with the corner occasionally as she looked around at the rest of the room.
It felt like hours but really was only a few minutes later that the last of the folders had been distributed. Ibiki raised a hand.
"I see you all have wisely decided against opening the envelope in the presence of your competition. Allow me to explain this exercise. You have one hundred points right now each of you. There are three rules for this examination. Do not attack another team, this is strictly forbidden minus one hundred points. Leaving the testing area will result in immediate failure, stay within the outer markings of the testing village minus one hundred points for taking even one step outside. And finally, Failure to complete your mission objective will cost you half your remaining points. The passing grade is forty points. Your individual objectives will be in your envelope as well as further clarification. I will remain in this room as will my two assistants for two hours. If you have any pertinent questions, you may ask them at a cost of one point each. You are dismissed."
A/N: This chapter is the result of a lot of work on my part which I am not sure has been reflected in this end product. I Did not like the First Test of the chunin exams. It was too schoolyard for me, and with the characters all being portrayed as somewhat older I thought a more advanced test might be in order. Each of the characters is probably a little more versatile and quite a bit more ready to fight. This is where we truly diverge. Events will have little resemblance to the canon from here on.
As always I thank those of you who took the time to read my story, your attention is a gift I deeply appreciate. To those who take the time to review I want to thank you even more. I am trying to grow as an author and best way to do that is through criticism. So if you do not normally review but see something I could improve or something you really like or do not like to see please do tell or I will never know.
That said: thank you Zabzab for your continued input, I hope you continue to enjoy. The moment with Naruto in the mirror will come up again later, I hope.
To Phoenixx Rising, I hope it is.
To RedSoleil, Might Guy is a joke in the main series. He has such potential that is left entirely untapped. So I repositioned him and changed his form to match his soul more cleanly. He will show up again.
To Naru285: thank you for the compliment, I hope I continue to deliver to your satisfaction.
Thank you for your time.