It has finally arrived! The second book of the series is here! A year and about half a month after the last chapter of A Tale of Grace was posted, I present to you all, A Spark of Hope! I truly, truly hope you all enjoy it!
PS: The surprise I promised on Twitter? Well, it's a prologue and a chapter! Hehehe, I'm so excited to see your reactions =D
Prologue: An Old Nightmare
The room was lit bright by the light of the burning candles on the table and the yellowish light bulbs on the light gray ceiling. The wooden table at the center was readied, with white plates and utensils placed upon black placemats. The glass goblets next to the plates glittered, the water inside them refracting light in different directions. The smell of freshly cooked pork chop and rice wandered around and filled the room, and so did the scent of brewed tea and bread. These all worked hand-in-hand to invite the family of three seated at the table to enjoy a hearty meal.
And yet, the little girl of light brown hair and light brown eyes sat in her chair, trying to remain calm under the heavy air around her that was burdened with uncertainty, troubled with silence, saturated with fear.
The table was silent, save for the clanging of the spoons and forks and knives on the plate and the glugging of the drinks. Her father and her mother had not yet spoken to her or to each other since the dinner started. And under no circumstance would she want to start a conversation.
As she cut her food with a knife, she glanced at the clock to her left, waiting as the second hand ticked slowly, as if each tock of the clock relished in torturing her mind and soul. Her heart skipped beats and then sank. She was anxious to leave the table as soon as she could, to escape to the relative safety of her bedroom.
But time was not on her side, she thought to herself without uttering a single word.
"How was school today?"
The little girl looked to her mother sitting in front of her across the table. "Just a usual day. Boring lessons and a little time with my friends."
She tried to keep a sincere look on her face, even though she was lying to her mother. And it seemed to work, since her mother nodded and went back to eating.
"Let me see your notebooks."
The little girl now turned to her father, who was sitting at the head of the table to her right. "Umm… which ones?"
"All of them, so I can see what you've been learning in school."
She swallowed and looked away. She had a strong feeling they wouldn't like what she had written down that day. She just knew.
"Let me see," her father ordered her in a lower, slower, sterner tone this time, "your notebooks. Don't make me repeat myself a third time."
Though hesitant, she knew she had no choice but to comply. She opened her school bag by the foot of the table, pulled out her notebook binder, and handed it to her father. But her father snatched it from her grip anyway, and he flipped through the pages of the Guidance and Reflection notebook until he got to the last page with writing.
"Notes for today," her father read aloud. "Today, I learned so much more about… sex and gender…" The little girl already noted the sudden change in the voice and demeanor of her father. It was now dismissive, filled with disgust and judgment. "Members of Unfurled, an LGBTQ awareness organization, gave a talk to the entire batch during the program today. It was entertaining, informative, and I even got to participate in some games…"
The young girl silently took a deep breath, but her hands were starting to shake and sweat. She heard her mother placing her utensils on her plate with some force, the impact of the steel on the ceramic unmistakable. She knew in her heart that they were not in any way pleased.
"I made friends with some of them members. They were happy, understanding, and fun to be around…" There was a deafening silence in the room before he continued quoting the writing on the notebook. "I wonder if I could be like them when I grow up. And I sure hope they get accepted by society much sooner."
"This school is terrible," the mother let out, her fists balled up in anger. "The teachers are leading our daughter astray! They're manipulating and indoctrinating her with heresies like this! Teaching her to accept these demonic abominations as good people? It was a mistake to enroll her there, we should have just homeschooled her!"
"No!" The child could not help but protest. "I'm actually having fun in this school! I have friends and I'm happy-"
"Should we pull her out?" Her mother asked her husband, entirely ignoring the plea of her daughter.
"No," the young girl's father replied. "That will look very bad on us. But…" He turned to his daughter. The intensity of his eyes and his features unnerved her. "Tell us what you really think about these… people…"
The girl stayed silent. She wished she could hide her face behind her long brown hair, that she could be somewhere else, anywhere but here.
"Tell us that you think they're what they really are," her father reiterated. "Faggots. Only once you say it out loud will I let you go back to your room."
"…No. I'm an ally."
Somehow, the little girl of 8 years old knew where this would lead. She knew what would happen. She knew what staying true to her beliefs, instead of caving in to her parents' desires for her, would bring.
Her father slammed his fist on the table, startling her, and just as quickly he swept his plate and glass off the table in a fury. The fragile objects shattered against the wall, spraying bits of rice and water around the room, while the metal utensils bounced around and slid on the floor.
"JUST DO IT! DO AS I SAY!"
The brunette child tried to make a run for the door on the opposite side of the table from her, but her father quickly stood up and grabbed her, stopping her from escaping. He lifted her up by her shoulders and slammed her back first against the wall. She felt her back of her head hitting the stiff concrete wall and bouncing forwards, only to strike the chin of her father.
"I'M YOUR FATHER!" He screamed in her face as he pinned her with all his weight against the wall. "YOU OBEY ME! YOU DON'T GET TO TALK BACK TO ME! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?"
She could not help but feel the totality of the fear nearly paralyzing her. She felt hopeless. She knew there was no reasoning with her parents.
She thought deeply about giving up and following their example to bring an end to her suffering.
But even as she was scared out of her mind, she still shook her head.
Without any warning, her father smacked her in the cheek, sending her to the floor.
It was no slap. It was a punch.
"SAY IT!"
The girl could taste the blood coming from the gashes where her teeth scraped the inside of her cheek. Tears were building up behind her eyes, and the pain in her cheek was stinging more and more.
"I… I said no…"
She could not bring herself to betray her conscience or compromise her morals, even though she knew her parents would in turn compromise her and her body.
Out of the corner of her eye, the girl saw her mother still sitting there on her seat, unemotional, unflinching, unmoving and unmoved. She knew that her mother didn't care if her husband hurt her. And then she heard her father fiddling around with the metal buckle of his belt. She heard the leather ripping past the belt loops that were holding it in place.
"I… I… I'd rather be more like those friendly people I met! I want to be like them, not like you!"
Her tears burst forth from her puffy reddened eyes, and after wiping them to clear her sight, she saw her father holding the leather end of the belt in one hand.
She didn't know why they treated her, their own flesh and blood, in this way. She only knew that for whatever reason, she was very, very different from her parents. She did not have her mom's blue eyes and dark red hair, or her ever-condescending voice, or her dad's blackish brown hair and matching eyes, or his skin pockmarked with the reddish bumpy patches of skin asthma.
Neither of them had her light hazel brown hair, her chocolate brown eyes, her fair and unblemished skin, or her singing voice.
Everything now seemed to be in half speed for the young girl as the man raised his belt as high as his hand could reach. And then he swung it downwards like a whip, the metal buckle racing towards the top of her head.
She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable impact. She knew how it would feel.
She had felt it many times before.
*******XXXXXXX*******
Namida woke with a jolt, her body instinctively sitting up, and her high-pitched scream piercing the silence of the bedroom. Her chest heaved, and her gasps for breath came and went, shallow and fast. The warm blanket slipped down her chest and settled at her lap, allowing what little pale moonlight entering the room to illuminate her unclothed body with a dim ghostly glow.
With tears flowing down her cheeks and making their way down her neck and chest, she stared at her sweaty, quivering hands, making sure that she did not somehow get warped back to her past, back into her childhood, back into that house, back to her former adoptive parents.
She suddenly felt the warmth of arms gently tugging her into a tight embrace. "Baby, I'm here. Don't be afraid. Nobody's going to hurt you."
Without even looking, she already knew whose arms were hugging her. She knew whose voice was reassuring her. She knew whose bosom she was feeling. She knew whose warm skin it was in contact with her own. She knew who was with her.
It couldn't have been anyone else.
She turned and sobbed on her girlfriend's shoulder and chest. Her cries were muffled by Wasabi's white skin and nothing else.
"Shh… It's okay, you're not alone…" Wasabi kissed her and then looked her in the eye. "You're here, with me, in our bed, in our room, in our apartment… You're safe with me… I wouldn't let anything happen to you…"
For a few minutes, they stayed in their loving embrace, with Wasabi constantly whispering Namida sweet words of reassurance, her hand running up and down Namida's smooth back.
The sobs slowly died down into whimpers, and the whimpers died down into silence. Taking this as her cue, Wasabi asked her, "Was it your parents or about Mount Tirad? Or something else?"
"My parents," Namida answered. "It was the memory of my dad whipping me on the head with his belt buckle. I've told you about this one already, right?"
"…Yes, I remember it."
"It… It felt so real though. For a moment, I was worried that I went back in time or something, that I was stuck back with them, that I lost you and everything we have…"
"That could be the Anniversary Effect," Wasabi hypothesized. "I mean, the day you left your old home three years ago, it came around recently."
"Earlier this week, yeah."
"Maybe that's why it was so vivid?"
"You're probably right." Namida shook her head. "I still can't believe my younger self was so stupid, so naïve, to believe that they cared for me-"
"Shh… baby," Wasabi whispered. "Look at me. Don't think about it anymore. Let your mind wander off elsewhere."
She guided her beloved girlfriend to lie down on their bed, their faces only inches apart but on different pillows. "No need to remember the past. All that matters to us right now is the present and the future."
"My sweetness…" Namida gave her girlfriend of over four and a half years a weak smile. She wiped her eyes with the smooth white blanket that Wasabi had draped over both of them.
At the same time, Wasabi snaked her arm under Namida's neck, so that it served as an arm pillow.
"Speaking of anniversary effect," Namida wondered aloud, "the anniversaries for Mount Tirad and for Sumire are next week, right?"
"Hmm…" Wasabi tried to recall the exact dates. "Today is the 28th?" Namida nodded. "Okay then, July 3-7 was the Battle of Mount Tirad… Yeah, next week."
"We could have flashbacks of horrible memories… I know I will…"
"We both will…" Wasabi sighed. For a split-second, the memory of Namida being shot registered in her mind, and so did the memory of her own arms being blown off by shrapnel, only to be undone by Sumire's mysterious jutsu. That same jutsu was the one Sumire lost control of, leading to the explosion and avalanche on the Hod Pass.
She glanced at her hands and wondered how she still had them, how she got her arms reattached to her, how Sumire turned back time inside that yellowish sphere. But did not think much further about it, for she knew she would get no sure answer.
Instead, she caressed her girlfriend's hazel hair and gazed at her striking brown eyes, those beautiful eyes she loved and cherished most.
"Remember," Wasabi added with a yawn, "we'll be going with Sarada to our therapy session later today."
"After your party assembly at the university, right? So that would be in the afternoon?"
"We can leave around 2 o'clock, after I give my speech… Wait, hmm…" Wasabi realized something. "But some of the other candidates could go long, so it could be delayed a bit."
"Okay," Namida made a mental note. "I'll message Sarada once we're about to leave."
Wasabi smiled and yawned again. "We really should go back to sleep now. It's only 4 am."
"But what if I can't go back to sleep tonight?
Wasabi sighed and giggled playfully. She wrapped her free arm around Namida, pulled her close so that their naked chests were squeezing against one another, and brought her lips to Namida's. "Then I'll stay up with you."
Namida snuggled and caressed Wasabi. Her eyes were still glassy and red, but they were happy now. "I love you."
Wasabi kissed her good night. "I love you even more, my baby. Now sleep tight."
*******XXXXXXX*******
Chapter 1: Three Long Years
The light of the early afternoon sun shone in the clear blue skies above Konoha. Parents were walking and playing with their children and their pets within the green expanses of Senju Park. Many construction workers who had been on lunch break were now making their way back to their building sites at the new urban expansion zones of the city. Some teams of shinobi and kunoichi were running about and doing errands for clients, while a handful of police teams patrolled the streets to ensure order and safety.
The new marketplace was lively, bustling, and filled to the brim with all manner of goods, products, services, sellers, and buyers. Meanwhile, a memorial now stood on the filled-in crater, the ground zero of the bombing where the old marketplace once was. Its bronze plaques named and honored the hundreds of people who died in the Battle of Konoha, and offerings of flowers, candles, and incense sticks were always a familiar sight at the black base of the memorial.
Inside the office of the Hokage, three people ate burgers and ramen for lunch.
"We have five minutes of peace left before the war meeting begins," Sai noted with a sigh before drinking from his water flask.
In response, Naruto lifted his ramen bowl, which he had emptied of the noodles, vegetables, and meat, to his mouth. He slurped down the rest of the still-warm soup, and then placed the bowl back on the table. "I'm already done." He smiled and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Ahhh, Ichiraku Ramen is great, just like always."
On the other hand, Sarada was halfway through her cheeseburger. She was slowed in eating since her attention was split between enjoying her meal and thinking about meeting up later that day with Wasabi and Namida. She looked at her phone and reread some messages in her chat with Namida that morning.
We can rendezvous at the Academy if you'd like. I'll let you know once we're free here (maybe 2:30 or 3? Wasabi isn't so sure). See you later ^_^
Okay, Academy it is! I'll be there after I finish assisting Lord Seventh for the day! See you two there! =D
Sarada opened her mouth, intending to take another bite from her burger, but instead she quietly let out a long, drawn-out breath, for she had been feeling mentally exhausted over the past several weeks. The endless cycles of shadowing and observing Naruto in his day-to-day administrative duties as the Hokage, meetings with representatives from the different member states of the Shinobi Union, videoconferences with the generals of the Shinobi Union Army such as Shikamaru and Mirai, and town elders and leaders of different organizations within the Land of Fire giving inputs and opinions, have all taken their toll on her.
Worse, she had also been lacking sleep for the past week, and even when she did manage to fall asleep, it wasn't pleasant for her. Many of her dreams of late have featured Sumire, whether they were cherished memories kept deep in her mind, heart-to-heart talks they would have if Sumire was still with her, or new adventures involving just the two of them that her imagination was able to conjure up.
She knew they were only dreams, but what bothered her was how real her dreams felt, how much she was willing to suspend her disbelief in her sleep, and how possible it was for her to eventually become unable to tell fantasy from reality. She chalked it up partly to her lingering trauma from Mount Tirad and the fateful battle there nearly three years ago, and partly to her mental fatigue at the moment.
"Sarada?" She snapped out of her thoughts when Naruto asked her, "Sarada, what is it?"
"What do you mean, Lord Seventh?"
"I heard you sigh, and you look like you're deep in thought. Is everything okay?"
"I've been feeling a bit tired and burnt out recently," she admitted. "Also, we're only a few days away from the third anniversary of Mount Tirad and Rem Fortress…"
"The Battle of the Hod and Feres Passes," Sai alluded to one of the common names of the now-famous battle. "Wow, how time flies."
"Yeah, it sure does…" Naruto nodded in agreement. Turning to Sarada, he said, "For a long time now, I've wanted to visit Ame and talk to Konan and see Mount Tirad for myself, but Hokage duties and family matters always popped up. But now, I'm sure I'll be coming this time." Sarada smiled and hugged the Hokage.
"I'll be going too," Sai added. "This'll be my first official state visit to the Land of Rain." He chuckled. "Having gone there to investigate Kara years ago doesn't quite count as official."
"It'll be only my second," Naruto replied. "Anyway, we'll be going to Ame on July 6 and we'll stay at the Amekage's Beacon Tower for the night. Then the next day, we go to Spur and climb Mount Tirad for the memorial ceremony at Rem Fortress-"
There was a loud knock from the door that interrupted Naruto. "Come in!" The door opened, and in came Kakashi, Tsunade, Shizune, Temari, and a few other high-ranking jonin of Konoha, as well as Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi. Sai drank the last of his soup, and afterwards turned on the screen at the side of the room and invited Shikamaru to connect to it.
Sarada also hastily finished her burger and soda. She wiped her mouth with her handkerchief and proceeded to go around and greet everyone in the room, with the notable exception of Kurotsuchi. To say she did not have a good relationship with the Lady Tsuchikage was quite an understatement. In fact, they never really spoke, instead remaining content in ignoring each other, even while in the same room.
Sarada knew full well that it was because of what happened about six years ago, at the end of Lord Ku's Coup in the Land of Earth. It was because she had chosen to help Kirakira, still known back then as Kirara, escape instead of allowing Kurotsuchi to kill her. Not that Sarada really had any regrets for doing so, especially given how close she and Kirakira had grown over the past few years, with their regular video group calls, and with Kirakira, Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou all helping take care of Mitsuki in Ame.
Suddenly, a close-up of Shikamaru's face flickered onto the smart-television screen. "Can you hear me? Am I coming through to you?"
"Yes Shikamaru," Naruto responded. "You see and hear us too?"
After a slight delay, Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, connection's up now." He drew away from the camera as he leaned back on his chair, and so Mirai and Kitsuchi became visible on the screen to Shikamaru's left and right. "It's good to see you all again."
"Hello father," Kurotsuchi greeted Kitsuchi. "I hope you're well."
Kitsuchi smiled. "I'm at least still able to lead our troops, that's what more important."
"Hold on a second," Shikamaru said in the middle of sharing his laptop's screen and switching tabs. The TV in the Hokage Office now showed an image of detailed map of the Land of Grass, complete with up-to-date battle lines, locations and dates of previous battles, and towns and cities labeled. There was also a table beside the map that listed different statistics. "Is it blurry?"
"No," Kakashi answered, "we can see the map clearly."
"How about the statistics table?"
"A bit small, but you can zoom in and it'll be fine."
"Okay." Shikamaru did as Kakashi suggested, and then cleared his voice. "Since this war began, our casualties have been mounting. Just this past week, our casualties broke 1.5 million, with around 600,000 dead. If the latest estimates in our reports are accurate, the number of casualties on the other side is at least twice ours, the majority of them inexperienced drafted soldiers from the Land of Earth. Millions of civilians in the Land of Grass alone have also been displaced, wounded, or killed in the fighting."
Naruto shook his head, his face grim. "So much death… But to restore order and peace to our continent, Lady Kurotsuchi must be restored to power. Shogun Du Tertae and his allies, domestic and foreign, must be stopped at any and all cost…"
While Naruto and some others spoke about wanting to see Kurotsuchi back in power, Sarada disagreed vehemently, though she made sure to keep it to herself. From across the room, she secretly glared at the Lady Fourth Tsuchikage, who was taking part in the ongoing conversation.
She remembered, one by one, all of the things that Kirakira and Gengania had told her about Kurotsuchi. They included her inability to keep powerful and influential families in line, frequent alienating clashes with those same clans, the instability and power struggles behind the scenes, her red-tagging and accusing young student leaders from the National University of the Land of Earth like Gengania of subversion and sedition, the detentions and several mysterious disappearances of other activists that were critical of her, and the general opposition to her reign that led to multiple coup d'états, including the coup where Kirakira was born as an earthen fabrication, the same one where Mitsuki got involved, the same one where Kirakira and Sarada first met.
Thus, Sarada did not approve of the Fourth Tsuchikage or her leadership. But compared to the former Daimyo and current Shogun of the Earth Empire, Roa Du Tertae, it was clear to her that Kurotsuchi was still the lesser of the two evils.
"If only it weren't a forced choice between the two…" Sarada closed her eyes and imagined for a while, but then her attention snapped back to the meeting.
"I would like to point something out though," Shikamaru noted. "It's something Mirai and I have been spending a great deal of our free time looking into."
"Go ahead," Naruto said. "Fire away."
Shikamaru clicked on the image on his computer, and the battle lines shifted to the west. "If you recall, the First Battle of Yuu Liberte took place from July 30 to October 8, 106 CE. As I'm sure you're all aware, we won that battle. We forced the Land of Earth First Army, mainly composed of shinobi and drafted civilians of the Shogunate, to retreat from the city."
"Drafted civilians…" Kurotsuchi shook her head. "More like Shogun Du Tertae is making my people into meat fodder."
"However," Kitsuchi took over, "not a month later, their Merikhan allies arrived in full force. The Second and Third Battles of Yuu Liberte were both far bloodier than the first, and they devastated much of the city. Those soldiers didn't rely on any chakra or jutsus, but with their technology, guns, bombs, and their own unique set of skills, they nonetheless wreaked havoc on our shinobi forces."
Shikamaru sighed and hung his head slightly. "As I've mentioned to you all before, I made the choice to retreat that October two years ago because to me, it was futile and a waste of manpower and resources to keep holding onto a city that was in almost complete ruins."
Temari reassured her husband, "We certainly don't hold that against you, honey. We trust that you made the best decision."
"She's right, Shikamaru," Naruto seconded. "You saved many more lives that would have been wasted otherwise."
"They do say that discretion is the better part of valor," Tsunade offered some words of wisdom.
"Listen," Shikamaru sighed in frustration once again. "I know I made the right decision. But ever since the fall of Yuu Liberte, we've been forced on the defensive. The Battle of Hush Fields has gone on for over a year now, and while we've entrenched ourselves here near Hush, while our frontline slowly gets pushed back, massacres like what happened at the town of Budajo a couple of months ago are happening. As long as we're on defense, as long as they keep putting us in check, and as long as most of our counterattacks keep getting repulsed, we can't effectively protect the people who still live in the towns along our defensive lines."
"Wait," Temari asked her husband, "shouldn't you order a mandatory evacuation of all civilians in Hush Fields? Can't you move them out of harm's way and have them stay in Kusa for the time being?"
"Only the Heiyakage Nakamura has that authority, and he hasn't yet given or announced any such order from his castle in Kusa. Also, the native Ainu people of Hush Fields don't want to abandon their towns, so in exchange for protecting them from the invasion, their farms provide our army and the rest of the Land of Grass with vital supplies of food. So their staying really benefits us too. It's just a matter of keeping them safe."
Kakashi wondered aloud, "But more importantly, why aren't the counterattacks working?"
"I believe the main reason why our attempts at mounting a sustained counteroffensive are failing is because our tactics are outdated. So we're still trying to come up with new and more effective counters. But as of now though, we're failing to sufficiently adapt to this new enemy, their new weaponry, and this new kind of warfare they bring with them."
Shikamaru explained further after clearing his throat, "The Merikhan troops are highly mobile and can strike fast and maneuver when necessary. Their weapons are mostly firearms and explosives, and they don't seem to have any chakra capabilities or reliance, so they can hunker down and keep shooting and pressing their advantage even while they rest. They have armored vehicles that allow them to quickly travel vast distances off-road while also firing on our shinobi and bombarding our defenses." He showed them soundless videos captured of enemy soldiers and their tendencies in combat. "The few times we successfully attacked and took back some positions were most likely us catching them off-guard with weak undefended spots in their lines, but even then they were able to quickly reinforce and prevent any further loss of ground."
Kakashi then asked, "What would you suggest to help improve the situation at the front?"
"Most of the army," the feminine voice of Mirai now spoke, "especially the veteran shinobi, they still hold firm in the tactics and strategies of old. These include massed banzai charges and the like. They believe that they're not broken, so there is no need to fix or change them, even though most of our fatalities and severe injuries are from the continued use of banzai charges and from casting jutsus out in the open against hidden snipers, machinegun fire, and artillery strikes. It's their confidence in the old way and their refusal to change with the times that is getting them and others killed."
"She's right," Shikamaru took over. "Thankfully though, a handful of younger units are embracing and adopting the use of guns, training in sharpshooting, and creating new tactics to avoid crossfire fields and being hit by enemy soldiers. They've been able to better defend some of our key positions, and they've shown that they're able to interoperate alongside traditional shinobi units."
"Taking inspiration from them, I suggest that a firearms training course be recommended during the training of our new ninja recruits, while they're still studying in the Academy. Even if firearms aren't widespread in our countries yet, even if they're not usually the primary weapons of most ninja, our shinobi and kunoichi still must be familiar with how they work and with how to maneuver around them without getting shot or killed. I also ask that military science and ninja tactics manuals be updated to include sections on facing guns and artillery, and that more in-depth medical studies on how to better treat wounds from shrapnel and bullets be done. And if possible, both local production and trade with the Land of Rain for guns and ammunition should be expanded."
"I'll lead a team to research improving medical procedures for treating ballistic trauma," Tsunade volunteered. "I'll even work alongside Orochimaru if necessary, if it will greatly benefit our shinobi, kunoichi, and the war effort." But then she sighed deeply and lamented, "Even in my retirement years, I still know no peace."
Shizune chuckled. "Don't stress yourself out too much, my lady. You know I'll assist you and the medical science teams on the research. But I doubt we can implement firearms training classes for Academy students."
"Why is that?"
"I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Shikamaru, but last week, the student council and Headmaster Iruka signed a resolution banning all guns from the premises of Konoha University. And this policy extends to the Academy since it's within the University campus."
"Such a drag…" Shikamaru groaned. "Can you ask Iruka-sensei to lift the ban, or at least make an exception for the Academy?"
"Not happening any time soon," Naruto responded. "He was pretty adamant when I talked to him about it, you know?"
"Shikamaru-sensei," Sarada decided to fill him in on the details. "A mentally ill high school student snapped in the Academy Building. He brought a gun to school and shot his classmates and other students who were passing by. Eight students died along with the shooter, and many other students and teachers were wounded."
"Oh… Oh no…" Shikamaru put his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. "Shit, that's horrible."
There was a long pause before the general spoke again. "Then for now, forget about it. What about my other suggestions?"
"Updating the strategy manuals will be easy," Kakashi answered, "though we'll pour more research into it before releasing official revisions. As for expanding weapons manufacturing in our country, the economy is in recession, and so I don't think many businesses would want to expand their operations. Of course, the obvious exception to that is Akita's ninja-tech company that's been making guns in limited numbers for a few years now. Perhaps trading with the gunsmiths in the Land of Rain's Marumi City would be a better option."
"But we don't know how costly it'll be yet," Sai thought out loud. "We should ask Lord Amekage about it when we go to Ame next week…"
*******XXXXXXX*******
A cool late-afternoon breeze swept southwards across the grassy plains of the Hush Fields. It carried with it the sweet, earthy smell of freshly harvested crops, mainly wheat and rice. The gentle wind brushed against the grassy ground around a solitary hill.
The hill jutted up from green waves of grass and amber waves of wheat, rising 800 meters above the vast expanse of flat earth that stretched for kilometers in all directions.
On the hill stood a large town, the town of Hush, which lent the entire region its name. And from a house on top of the hill, two young girls looked on as the sun slowly descended far to the west. Their hair flowed with the wind that breezed into the room through the open window, the same wind that made the light-toned skin of their faces and fingers colder.
The golden hour lit the western sky and the clouds above with bright pastel shades of scarlet and orange. But the majestic sight of the sky's reddish hues were obscured near the far horizon by the smoke of fires and gas. It resembled a poisonous miasma emitted by the screams of fighting, of anguish, of hate, of death. To the two girls, it was a grim reminder of the war that was creeping closer and closer to their beloved home.
As they gazed with their identical yellow binoculars, they heard a tender female voice calling them from downstairs. "Neona, Rifana, teta en arki! Kunne ipean no!"
"Did your mom say dinner's ready?" The girl named Rifana asked her friend, Neona, who smiled and nodded.
"Close enough. 'Come here, let's eat dinner,' is the word-for-word." Neona stood up from her spot on the windowsill, walked to her door, and opened it. "Hapo", she called for her mother, "en omanan, hehehe…"
"Hey Aunt Etun! We're just watching the sunset," Rifana added, her voice loud enough so Neona's mother could hear it. "We'll be there in a few minutes, just like Neo said!"
"Ahh okay, enjoy it!" Aunt Etun replied, deciding to switch from Ainu to English to avoid giving Rifana a hard time in translating her own thoughts. "Your uncle Kamo and I will go ahead and start eating. Oh and Rifa dear, stay as long as you want. I cooked your favorite meal."
"Baked Sweet Potatoes with caramel?"
"Five of them!"
"Thanks, Aunt Etun! I've been craving that for so long!"
"No worries, dear. You're always more than welcome to have dinner with us."
"Haap, Hapo," Neona thanked her mother and gently closed her door. She returned to her window and sat beside Rifana once more. "Well, I'm glad you're learning more about our own language."
Rifana sighed. "I really want to learn to speak and write and converse using our language. I don't want to be stuck with just understanding it. But remember, my mother doesn't allow me to speak Ainu at home, after all. I can only truly practice it here, when I'm with you and your family."
It was Neona's turn to sigh. "I know."
Rifana shook her head and placed her binoculars beside her on the flat wooden windowsill. Her fair skin and brilliant amber eyes shone bright in the light of the setting sun. The caressing wind gently blasted her long, flowing, golden-brown hair behind her.
"She's so ashamed of being Ainu," she vented. "And so she pretends not to be, to be above it all. She thinks that would help us avoid prejudice. She never taught me the language or the culture or any of the traditional customs. I only learn them from you and your parents. It's because of you that I'm encouraged and inspired to learn."
"And we'll keep teaching you about our heritage," Neona assured Rifana, placing her hand on her shoulder. "You'll keep practicing on our language, bit by bit, day by day."
"And before you know it…" Neona smiled. "Ainu-itak eeranpetek."
"Hmm…" Rifana murmured, "Ainu-itak refers to our language. But eeranpetek…" Her eyes narrowed and glanced upwards. Neona knew she was trying to mentally translate it. "I'll… I'll know it?"
"Good job Rifa. Context clues will help a lot, don't worry."
"Thanks Neo. I really appreciate that you, Aunt Etun, and Uncle Kamo are all so supportive of me. I'm also glad that you can stand up to my mother when I can't. She would have literally brainwashed me by now if it weren't for your family."
"I mean, what can she do against us? Dad's the mayor of Hush, after all. Even when your mom gets angry with us, it's not like she can challenge us or anything."
"True, hehehe… Do you remember the time she got so mad at the two of us when she saw me practicing with my bows at the range? And your parents confronted her after her rant? Ughhh, she made such a scene there, in front of everyone too."
Neona made a high-pitched, mocking imitation of her best friend's mother. "You should stop using that stupid bow and instead learn to be an obedient daughter and a subservient woman, so you can be a proper lady in Kusa, marry into money, and be fucked by rich men, so I can live happily when I grow older…' I mean, that's the gist of what she said."
"Basically," Rifana groaned loudly. "She also scolded you and your parents for being a negative influence on me, for teaching me traditions and language and archery."
"And she didn't realize that my parents were right behind her until she stopped shouting and turned around." The two girls burst into mirthful giggles. "That was amazing. The look of horror on her face was priceless!"
"It really was…" Rifana turned back to the sunset. "If only mother was embarrassed like that after every time she would tell me I'll only succeed if I just forget I'm Ainu and become like the people in Kusa. As if I'm some sort of chameleon or something."
"I'm not sure even that would get it through her thick skull… Also, remember that it's Unkûr in Ainu," Neona calmly reminded. "Not Kusa."
"Right. Sorry Neo, I had an argument with mother about it before I went here. Of course, in the end I had to follow her and call it 'Kusa' just so she would move on and let me go here." Rifana grunted and shook her head. "You know how stubborn she can get."
Neona snickered and agreed. "Yeah, I'm familiar with Aunt Aiyyna. Way more than I'd like to be, sadly."
"Ugh, she thinks she has my best interests in mind. But it's not what I want for my future."
"My parents always tell your mom that she's wrong to deny our identity, but she refuses to listen."
"Which is why they always get into those arguments."
"Well, I'm just glad that we've convinced you. I'd call that a win."
"Of course. I know you guys are right and mother is wrong. As your parents said, we should be proud of our heritage, of where we came from. We shouldn't shy away and be ashamed of it."
Neona breathed deeply. "We need more of our own people to go to college and become future lawyers, professors, directors, and influencers. We need to remind the world that we exist. If that doesn't happen, those foreigners in our own country will forever control our future. And given enough time, they'll eventually manage to scrub us from their history books. It'll be as if we never existed."
"Foreigners in our own country… Just like your classmates in your former school in Kusa- ah, I mean Unkûr? The ones who bullied you?"
Neona sighed heavily and lowered her head. "Yes Rifa, just like them…" Her chocolate brown hair, stretching to her shoulder blades, fluttered with a sudden gust of wind.
The light of the golden hour illuminated both of her sharp and piercing eyes, one of which was a dark brown while the other was a light purple, nearing the verge of pink, in hue. "It's been years. But I still haven't gotten past their hate. I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgiven… I have a feeling that I never will."
"You don't need to forgive. They don't deserve it."
There was a short pause as they took pictures of the sun, the shining circle whose lower segments were slowly disappearing from sight. But worried that her best friend might dwell on her past any more than needed, Rifana decided to switch tracks on their conversation. "Since we're in our last two months of community high school, have you thought more about what you'll do after we graduate? Stay and work here? College or job in the city?"
"To be totally honest, I don't know what I want to do yet. Hmm… I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger-"
"Hey! Don't invade my turf," Rifana interrupted with a chuckle. "I'll be the lawyer of this town."
"Hahaha… You're right, you're right. So being a lawyer is out of the question." Neona sighed. "I still want to help our people though, so for the past few months, I was thinking of going to college in Menas Unkûr, and maybe enroll in Civil and Environmental Engineering or Agricultural Engineering. Maybe that way, I'd be able to help Hush develop and expand, while at the same time be able to keep our beautiful environment thriving."
"Hmm, Menas Unkûr," Rifana tried to remember her geography. "The city on the southern border?"
"Yes, the one at the foot of the Mile-High mountain range. And the only big city left in the country where our people are in the clear majority."
"The origin of our people, right? Our people's first town, first city." Neona nodded and gave her friend a hi-five for remembering her history.
"But going back to what I want to do after graduating," Neona continued, "I was thinking of enrolling in a college there. But because of the way the war is going, how it's looking like it'll get here sooner rather than later, I've also been thinking about becoming a soldier to defend our home. Maybe even a spy?"
"Ohh, like a kunoichi?" Rifana asked. "Female ninjas, like the ones stationed here? Or like Elena and the other foot soldiers with the guns and grenades and the modern weapons?"
"Both actually," Neona replied with a giggle, "at least in my dreams."
From the window where the two best friends sat, they could see the personnel of the Shinobi Union First Army in and around their town. They saw shinobi and kunoichi manning improvised lookout posts on top of the two walls that encircled Hush. The lower wall, the one surrounding the entirety of the town, was made of thick spiked logs dug into the earth, while the higher wall near the top of the hill was made of grayish stone cobbled together.
They also spotted a couple of shinobi digging a shallow ditch outside the outer wall of the town. They were laying in this ditch their communication lines and field telephone cables. Still, the excavation only added to the long line of deep trenches, which looked as if it gashed the otherwise serene landscape for kilometers north and kilometers south. The defensive line, complete with raised outposts, coiled barbed wire fences, and explosive tag mines, was manned by a few hundred army personnel, some of whom stayed in their outposts while others roamed and patrolled their own unit's sectors of the trench.
Neona could only assume that the design of the defensive trench line near Hush was the same one being used in the frontlines of the war still many, many kilometers away from them to the west, given that neither she nor Rifana could see in much detail that far out. She also assumed the same for the main base camp of the Shinobi Union Army, several kilometers east of Hush, where the soldiers in reserve were stationed, where the generals and some of the other high-ranking officers were staying.
It was a year and a half ago, she recalled, that she listened in on the first meeting her father, the mayor of Hush, had with General Shikamaru Nara of the Shinobi Union First Army. In that conference inside the town hall, she heard the general explaining Hush's importance in their war effort against the invading Land of Earth Shogunate and its ally, the Gran Merikhan Empire. For one, it was a major source of fresh food for the army and for the Land of Grass as a whole, so it needed to be kept safe. But more importantly, it was in a strategic location, being on a steep and high hill overlooking a vast flatland that was otherwise undefended. It was quite heavily fortified and defensible. It would serve as a valuable reconnaissance post and forward base, where they could see much farther because of its towering height above the plains, where they could observe the enemy without the enemy observing them. It had all the elements needed to be a key strongpoint on a defensive and counteroffensive line. And he finished his explanation by saying it was now necessary to form a new defensive line at Hush, as the town of Budajo, the previous strongpoint around which the former frontline was anchored on, had fallen just the day before.
Budajo, around a hundred kilometers to the west, was the sister town of Hush inside the crater of an extinct volcano. Half of the Ainu population who lived there fled before the siege began, and some more left as the siege progressed, but the general reported that those who stayed behind were massacred once the town's defenses surrendered. The survivors of the Budajo only stayed in Hush for a few days, because it soon became clear that Hush too would be next in line to suffer the horrors of this modern war. Thus, her father urged them to move to Menas Unkûr, nestled in the mountains near the border with the Land of Rain, on the opposite side of the mountains as its twin city, Spur.
At least there, he told them, they would be far safer.
"Neo! Rifa!" Neona snapped out of reminiscing when she heard the familiar voice. "Over here!" She saw Elena, a friend of theirs in the army, waving to them from the reconnaissance outpost at the upper wall, a stone's throw away from their window. Elena's light skin and dark green uniform were almost silhouetted by the red sun behind her, though they still managed to contrast with her shoulder-length raven hair.
She and Rifana had met and befriended Elena not more than two months ago, when her platoon was first assigned to the town. Not only was Elena very friendly and understanding to them, but she could also understand their language, although she could only reply with simple sentences at most. Elena, a native of the city of Yaman in the Land of Rain, explained to them that she had self-studied it a few years ago of her own accord. This amazed Neona, for she knew of no other person who wasn't ethnically Ainu or a native speaker who would even bother to read about their language, much less learn and explore it.
Thus, Neona had a feeling that Elena, in her younger years, also had access to a great and likely expensive education. She probably had access to many resources as well, such as the Ainu dictionaries and translated writings that she used to learn, things that she couldn't imagine being common or cheap in her country.
"Her family must be rich," Neona imagined as she and Rifana waved back to Elena. "How's it going?"
"I have to report to the lieutenant in a bit. But before I go, are you two joining us again tomorrow afternoon? While some of my platoon do their drills, we can practice some chakra control and weapons training again?"
Rifana replied, "For sure! We'll be there!"
Neona agreed. "I'll ask mother to cook for us again!"
"Yes please! Your mother's cooking was so delicious last time! We'll pick up from where we left off last time. See you tomorrow!"
"See you," they said, and afterwards Elena scurried down the stairs from the wall and out of sight.
As the last of the reddened sun descended below the far horizon, Neona quoted a passage from an old book she read years ago. "The world is changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is now lost, for none still live who remember it. One thing left unchanged is humankind, for even after all this time, above all else they still desire power."
*******XXXXXXX*******
The meeting concluded within the hour it began. The smart TV was turned off after Shikamaru ended the video call on his end, and everyone had left the room except for Naruto, Sarada, and Sai.
"Today's war briefing done." Naruto checked it off his daily schedule. He glanced to the right side of his table. "Now onto going through three stacks of reports and organizing them."
"We'll breeze through that quickly," Sarada smiled and pulled up her seat at the table. "We've handled ten stacks in two hours before."
"True, the workload isn't that bad today," Naruto chuckled and cracked his knuckles. "Which means Sai and I can handle this. You can go meet up with Wasabi and Namida now, you know?"
Sarada stopped in her tracks, her mouth left hanging open in surprise. "Wait, what?"
"You three have a session today, right?"
"I mean, yes, we're going to Miss Saito today."
"I don't want your sessions to be rushed, like what sometimes happens when you stay and assist me here for too long, you know?"
Sarada insisted, "But Lord Seventh, it's not even two o'clock yet. I can stay until we finish this."
"We were going to end early today anyway. Remember, we have dinner at my house tonight. And besides, you're pretty tired right now, you said so yourself a while ago. Please Sarada, relax, spend more time with your friends, and enjoy the rest of your day off."
"Are you really sure?"
"Of course, we can handle the rest ourselves," Sai assured her. "We don't want you to run yourself ragged. We want you to enjoy too."
"But in exchange," Naruto made sure to point out, "promise me you won't forget to go tonight, okay?"
Sarada smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Hehehe, that's a promise. Seven o'clock, right?"
"Yes! Oh, and tell Wasabi and Namida I said hi!"
"I will! Thank you, Lord Seventh and Sai-sensei! See you later!"
Sarada left the room, closing the door behind her, and made her way down the grand staircase of the Hokage Mansion. While she descended the white stone steps outside to street level, she typed a message to Namida.
I'm out early! I'm heading there now. Just tell me where exactly we'll meet up ^_^
She pressed the button on the screen to send it, and then kept her phone in her pocket and walked towards Konoha University, which was a kilometer and a half away at the base of the Hokage Rock. She recalled from much previous experience that it was usually a fifteen-minute walk.
As Sarada walked along the busy street, she didn't pay attention to the heat of the afternoon sun or the small puffy clouds that flowed along above her, nor did she pay much attention to the many people she passed by. Instead, her thoughts turned to the dinner party later that night, the one that Naruto had told her and her friends about.
"I'm excited to see everyone again," she thought to herself. "I miss them… I miss the old days, back when we were all still together… Everyone now has different lives…"
She began to reflect on just how much things had changed for her and for everyone else over the course of the past couple of years.
Sarada herself had been spending much of almost three years learning under Naruto, assisting and aiding him as his apparent eventual successor. However, the situation both inside the country and outside of it has grown much more complicated, especially because of the Fifth Great Ninja War dragging on into its third year with no end in sight, and so Sarada has gotten more easily stressed. It felt to her like she had less energy than before, like she oftentimes felt numb and deflated, and that she was often exhausted by the time she came home, but at the same time she still found it hard to bring herself to fall asleep.
This is why she enjoyed her therapy sessions every other Friday at Miss Saito's apartment. There, she could vent out her accumulated stress, her problems and her burnout. There, she could talk about her recurring vivid dreams, the ones where Sumire appeared, the ones that she had roughly once every week or two. And there, Sarada, Namida, and Wasabi would be able to unwind and catch up for a short while.
Meanwhile, Wasabi was pouring herself into her medical studies and her position on the university-wide student council, along with Gengania and Panga and their other friends from Iwa who were now studying in Konoha. Namida was now an online personality as well as a singer, having followed through with Sumire's request of transforming her writings into songs.
Sarada then tried to remember how her other friends were doing. She recalled that Shikadai, Inojin, and Chocho, along with Moegi-sensei, were still active and doing missions together. Inojin and Himawari were still together, and Himawari was in her final year studying in the Academy alongside her team and Ryogi before their graduation exam and obtaining their genin ranks. Denki now worked at the Physics Wing of the University, while Iwabe was now a contractor.
From time to time, she would also see Enko, Hako, and her doll Tokenagi around, and they would hang out and talk for a bit when they did, but those opportunities were not as frequent as Sarada would have hoped. And she had neither seen nor heard from Houki in a long time, not since two years ago when he came along to the first anniversary of Mount Tirad to honor his lost teammate Renga and his substitute sensei Shizuka. Even Sai wasn't able to keep in touch with him much anymore, although he noted that he had volunteered to train with Orochimaru, similar to how Namida volunteered to learn more about the rare Sound Style she was adept at.
Both her father and Boruto were still on their journey, and nobody knew when they would return. Konohamaru married Hanabi a year prior, and they officially moved into their own house together. And Mitsuki was living and lying low in Ame now.
To Sarada's knowledge, he was fitting in and having fun with Kirakira, Velvet, Eleanor, and Magilou. The five of them would often chat on video calls with Sarada whenever they had the free time, even if it was late at night, which perhaps contributed somewhat to Sarada's difficulty sleeping.
They told her a few months ago that the Amekage Yahikonan was now allowing them, Team KVEMM, to go on riskier missions as long as they remained within the Land of Rain, a precaution to ensure that Mitsuki wouldn't be sighted by Orochimaru's many possible associates outside the country. Sarada remembered asking how sure the Sixth Amekage was that Orochimaru did not have any spies in his country, to which Velvet replied that he was very sure, based on secret intel passed to him from Naruto and Sai regarding Orochimaru's known contacts. No one on that long list was known to be inside the nation's borders.
Suddenly, while she passed by an alleyway, she heard something that brought her walking and reminiscing to a full stop.
"Going back to the earlier topic, I'd say the only good thing about Kakei Day is the part about no classes for us."
"What the fuck are we even celebrating that for? Girl was a fucking loser. She doesn't deserve shit."
"She's not a real heroine. The Hokage and his followers say, 'Ohh, Sumire Kakei is a war hero, ohh!' Why? Because she got herself killed? I like people who weren't captured or killed."
"You're right, Jiggy, it's complete and utter bullshit. They're pushing her as a heroine for political reasons, just to make themselves look better."
Sarada stood near the entrance of the dark, dirty alley, her eyes narrowing and unblinking, her hands clenching and shaking. She peeked around the corner into the darkness of the narrow path and saw around ten men gathering in the narrow path and speaking in not-so-hushed voices.
"Not to mention, if she survived and was still around today, she would have killed us all anyway. She was just doing a long play to fool everyone into trusting her, but we're not being fooled, are we?"
"Yes, for sure. That Shigaraki bitch was a terrorist. Good riddance! Literally any man with a working brain would think like we do. I just can't understand why so many people think so highly of her, when she almost killed us all. They're mentally retarded!"
"Even the Hokage."
"Definitely. This Hokage was an idiot to forgive her. And he is so stupid to keep putting her on a pedestal she does not deserve one bit. Gadon and the Fascist Fist are right. He should resign immediately. Otherwise, he should be removed from office."
Sarada's blood was now boiling. She had heard enough of them slandering both Sumire and Naruto, two people she loved dearly and held in high regard.
So she rounded the corner, entered the alley, and asked them, "Why does it look like you enjoy speaking ill of Lord Seventh and a dead heroine?"
The men turned towards her. Their faces contorted in surprise and then their bodies were paralyzed by shock. Nobody spoke, so Sarada continued, "I assure you, Lord Seventh knows much better than all of you, not the other way around. And Sumire, this person you're making fun of? She was my best friend. So if you're ungrateful enough to mock her, even though she gave her life for all of us, then I dare you: Do it to my face."
As she was speaking, she took the opportunity to take a closer look at the boys. She recognized two of them, the one named Jiggy and the person to his right, as the same people who once threw rocks and blades at Sumire's face after her identity was leaked to the public. Incidentally, after they missed Sumire entirely, Sarada remembered picking up the same stones they threw and was able to hit both of them easily. And judging by how they looked stared back at her, it was clear to her that they remembered her too.
The men whispered to each other, and finally the person beside Jiggy laughed and stepped towards Sarada. "But Sarada, you're so much better than Sumire ever was," he said with an obvious hint of sarcasm in his inflection. "You don't need to deny it and stoop down to her level by defending her."
"This is not about me versus her, that's irrelevant-"
"Jack's right." Jiggy patted his longtime friend on the shoulder. "And more importantly, why should we care about her death? She was a horrible, evil human being. Terrorist. Murderer. Traitor. Liar. Bitch. Scummy bitch. I can't understand her motives, nor do I want to bother."
"No, you're just an ignorant, apathetic ass," Sarada thought to herself.
Jack agreed and added, "Sumire was just as evil as Kawaki, and he betrayed us."
"Trust me…" Jiggy, with a smug smile on his face, stepped right in front of Sarada. "We're all better off that she's dead."
Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Sarada dared Jiggy. "Say that again."
Jiggy tried to one-up her. "I'm happy she's in hell."
The second those words left Jiggy's mouth, Sarada activated her two Sharingan eyes and punched him in the face. Jiggy flew backwards and knocked into his friends behind him, as a bowling ball would smash into pins.
"You motherfucker!" Some of the boys got up and charged towards her all at once, hoping to swarm her and overpower her with sheer numbers.
However, Sarada stepped to the side and dodged, catching the one closest to her off-guard. She pushed him along with one hand, redirecting him past her and sending him crashing headfirst into a solid steel garbage bin. She then parried punches from five different assailants who tried to surround her, and she was able to stagger each of them and fend them off with strikes of her elbows and knees and the back of her fists. Now sensing that the man who hit the bin was rising up to his feet behind her, she immediately hit him with a hammering heel-kick to his groin, nailing him right on his balls. Afterwards, she grabbed him, threw him over her head, and slammed his head like a spiked into the ground. The cut on his forehead smeared the dirty alley floor with a messy crimson line. And as he was writhed in pain on all fours, she kicked his face as hard as she could, knocking him out and bloodying his nose and mouth.
While Jiggy, Jack, and the others carried their unconscious friend and fled out the other end of the alley, Sarada pulled out her kunai from her pocket and pointed it towards them. "If I ever hear you little shits talking about Lord Seventh or Sumire again, I swear I'll kill y-"
Just then, Sarada felt a warm hand grasping her wrist and gently pushing it down, interrupting her warning and preventing her from chasing them or doing anything more to them. She glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes opened as wide as they possibly could.
Of all the people it could have been.
She saw bright yellow hair, deep blue irises, an unmistakable face, the scratched headband, and a scar over his right eye. Unless it was a very powerful genjutsu, like the one Kirakira possessed, it couldn't possibly have been anybody else.
"Boruto…"
You guys have no idea how much I've missed this!
I really want to hear what you thought about it, and what you think will happen in the later chapters of this book! Feel free to leave comments or reviews, kudos or favorites, subscriptions or follows! ^_^
You can also follow me on Twitter LawlessSophie7 =D
What did you think of Namida's nightmare? The reveal of her own traumatic past? Sarada and the Tsuchikage? The war council? Neona and Rifana, the two young girls living in the town of Hush near the battlefield? The Sumire haters? And the return of none other than the blonde protagonist himself! ^_^
PS: Because of thesis and a rough semester, I might not be able to consistently upload every week. It might get stretched out to weeks between uploads. I'll try my best to write and upload as close to weekly as I can, but no promises =(
Trivia: "The world is changed. I see it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is now lost, for none still live who remember it. One thing left unchanged is humankind, for even after all this time, above all else they still desire power..." (said by Neona Pirka in the Ainu/Hush subchapter) is itself based off a Lord of the Rings quote! ;)