Thankfully, with Sasuke awake to banter and take the piss out of, time seemed to flow in a lot quicker, and he was a lot less bored.
Sure, the Uchiha liked to be quiet and tried to brood as he tended to do a lot, but Daiki's boredom could not be quenched with such a thing, and as such-
He spent hours annoying Sasuke.
That too was a form of the grind.
His ability to annoy his enemies, was a vital skill.
Sasuke made for a good test dummy, being the brooding stoic guy he was, so if something got to him, it would easily get to most others.
And he kept that up right up until one of the chunin outside the door let them know that the next part of the exam was beginning.
"…Finally." Sasuke groaned in relief as they made their way through the hallways, heading towards the ground floor.
His face was currently bereft of any doodles.
…For now.
"Somebody's happy to get his fight on." Daiki noted with a grin at his side, arms crossed behind his head casually.
"No, I'm just glad I won't need to sit around and listen to your nonsense anymore." Sasuke snorted.
"Zat so?" Daiki mused, grin widening.
For that, he would make sure to time his little prank very well for maximum points.
They arrived not long later, to find that they were the last to enter, all eyes turned to them, inspecting them.
Man even Kakashi was here before them. Talk about a brass neck.
There was even a few frowns shot their way.
Well now, it seemed that they held them up a bit.
There were a few smiles as well of course, specifically from Hinata. Such a good girl.
Naruto was lucky Daiki was a bro, and it wasn't bro-like for him to pursue Hinata.
Sasuke ignored them, as was customary for the broody teen. Daiki on the other hand, just grinned.
They made their way over to the gathering of genin, taking position at the back of the crowd.
Daiki specifically, stood beside Tenten, since she and her team were at the very back.
"Yo." he greeted her.
Tenten was one of the ones that had been frowning at him.
She gave him a dry look, before turning her nose up at him and looking back towards the Hokage who stood in front of a pair of giant rock sculpture arms formed into the seal of reconciliation. Behind him, were multiple jonin and chunin, the staff of the tower, alongside the jonin sensei for all the teams who passed.
The only non leaf sensei being Baki standing away at the back. Heh, must be awkward.
'She's still mad at me.' he laughed inwardly.
She wasn't happy at all she had to put on that little simpering fan girl-esque fake personality and hype him up to get him to heal Lee.
Though he felt more like she was putting more effort up into acting like that to him rather than was actually mad at him now.
"Congratulations to all of you!" Anko's voice broke him from his thoughts and he looked to the front to see her taking position beside the Hokage, "On passing the second exam!"
She looked around the gathered genin, eyes passing over each and every single one of them. She only paused, and briefly at that when she met his eyes.
He winked.
She had no reaction and her eyes continued on.
"…So that's Gai-sensei's eternal rival, Kakashi?" Tenten murmured at his side and he looked to see the bun haired older girl looking at Kakashi admiringly, "He definitely has Gai-sense beat out on looks and cool factor at least."
"Kakashi has a tiny penis, like miniscule, even baby's have bigger ones half the time." Daiki helpfully informed her.
Kakashi visibly twitched and his head turned from where he was blandly staring forward to look into Daiki's eyes with his own singular revealed eye.
It narrowed at him.
Daiki stuck the finger up.
Kakashi flashed the finger back at him for a split second before it was hidden away again.
Tenten turned to him then and gave him an odd look, "And you know that how?" she asked.
"I've been on a few missions with him," Daiki shrugged, "He got drunk on our way back one time, started bawling like a little girl about how he was still a virgin at his age, and the closest he ever got was third base, barely, the chick he was with laughed at him apparently for how small his penis is and left him." he blatantly lied.
Uncaringly, without any guilt.
He was a shinobi after all.
And Kakashi was a prick.
Kakashi's eyebrow twitched noticeably.
Daiki's grin grew to shit eating proportions.
Tenten sighed, "So he only looks cool then?" she said, sounding disappointed, "He's just as big a weirdo as Gai-sensei?"
It was good that Tenten was so used to Gai, that this was so easy for her to believe.
"Weirder even," Daiki nodded, "He walks around reading smut constantly to get his rocks off because he's a super hyper virgin, he's given up ever getting laid, a tragic guy really."
"…I mean it is a bit weird, but more sad to be honest," Tenten grimaced, "I still think Gai-sensei is weirder than that, you don't deal with him and his quirks like me on a daily basis."
He noticed Sasuke was looking at him from his peripheral vision, looking completely weirded out, before glancing at Kakashi, giving the man a pitiful look.
Negative one hundred respect.
Hopefully he let Naruto and Sakura know about that little tidbit the next time he annoyed his team, and then Naruto being a loud mouth and Sakura being a bit of a gossip with Ino, would get it spread around the entirety of the leaf.
Get fucked Kakashi.
"If you say so," Daiki shrugged at the bun haired girls words, "So, I see you're talking to me again."
"I'm still mad at you." she replied flatly.
"It was just a joke." he pointed out.
"A humiliating joke," she responded, "Only Neji was privy to it, but that's enough. He's been giving me odd looks."
"Probably jealous that you acted that way for me and not him." Daiki assured her.
Tenten snorted, "Somehow I doubt that," she noted dryly, "Even taking him out of the equation, it was still humiliating, I have my pride as a kunoichi you know? And I know for a fact if you got your pride hurt you'd start punching and ask questions later."
…Well, she wasn't wrong.
She pouted at him then, "You're such a bully."
…Cute.
"I kinda am," he agreed, before laughing lightly, "Alright, how about I make it up to you? And well, lemme say first, you're a tough one, one of the best here, I don't think any less of you or anything for that little act, actually I was impressed with your acting skills." he complimented her.
"…Well, that's good to know I guess," her lips almost quirked upwards, before she smothered the smile that wanted to emerge, "And how will you go about making it up to me?"
Well, he had a few options.
"I could take you out on a date." he teasingly replied.
He was testing the waters.
"You're already going to be doing that that though." she replied with a roll of her eyes.
And he scored. She hadn't decided against them pursuing that relationship option later on.
Good, good….good.
"True, I guess you'll have to settle for just a summoning contract then," Daiki shrugged casually, "What would you prefer? A giant pack of wolves or a giant Conch that has a super tough defensive shell and can use a bunch of cool things like a genjutsu mist and big ass water jutsu?"
"Wait, what?" Tenten goggled at him, eyes flying wide open.
But before she could press for further information, Anko apparently decided it was time to move things along and that they'd had enough time to digest their passing the second exam.
"Now, the third exam will begin and Lord Hokage will be graciously taking the time to explain it all to you," she explained, "Make sure you all listen up and take all of his words to heart, you might learn something."
Old man Sandaime chuckled lightly at Anko's words, before smiling at them all, "You have all done well to make it here, each and every single one of you are fine ninja and will no doubt go far," he praised them, "Now though, the third exam is about to commence, but, before we go into the specifics of how things will progress, let me make one thing, perfectly clear, which pertains to the underlying purpose of this exam!"
He paused briefly to let his words sink in, making sure they were all listening, before continuing on, "Tell me young ones, why do suppose an examination of this nature is being jointly conducted by all of the five great nations?"
His smile turned into a faint grin, "To promote friendship among all the nations and raise the overall general level in the ninja arts," he revealed, "I will be very clear in what this means, what these series of so called examinations are all about."
Daiki noticed Tenten swallowing heavily at the mans words, and she wasn't the only one visibly reacting to the mans words.
After all, the old man was completely relaxed, his stance and smile wholly welcoming.
Yet a powerful pressure seemed to exude from him just naturally as he spoke and it was pressing down upon everyone gathered.
Daiki crossed his arms, eyebrow raising, 'He's just flowing his chakra.' he noted, he could see it clearly. The man wasn't even letting any of it escape his body, yet still, just circulating his chakra within his body caused this kind of pressure.
Such powerful chakra. It utterly dwarfed his own.
The old man could probably crush most of the genin gathered here by just flaring his chakra at them.
And to think this was him far from his prime and much weaker than he once was. Old man third was a complete monster.
'That is indeed very impressive chakra for a human.' Isobu agreed.
…The fact his Bijuu actually noted that in of itself, was impressive and telling enough. Isobu after all, still felt his own chakra capacity and strength, now in the realms of a kage, if a low level one, was pitifully small.
"Quite simply, the chunin exams are war in miniature," the Sandaime continued after a moment, "The chunin exams exist to promote the villages in place of war, a tentative stop gap and agreement between each of the five great nation ninja villages to stop our loyal ninja dying en-masse during times of strife like they did for so many years. This is the friendship of we five villages."
"…That's the stupidest friendship I've heard of!" shouted out in reply.
Naruto, as expected.
Though, he wasn't the only one that seemed to be uncomfortable with the Hokage's words and the true nature of the Chunin Exams.
Quite a few voiced a similar opinion as Naruto, though, few of them had the guts to say it so loudly and proudly, challenging the words of the Hokage as the blonde did.
"Make no mistake, these exams are not just about you young ones, but the glory and honour of the shinobi villages as well," Hiruzen wasn't daunted in any single way by the whiny grumbling, "While this exam needles out any of you unfit to ascend up to the next rank, it will also more importantly showcase to many honoured guests, the ability of the villages, this includes the rulers and nobility spread around this continent, each and every single one of them will be watching you, and your actions and abilities will reflect on your home."
"What that means," he began clarifying, "Is that if any nations ninja show outstanding talent, ability and superiority the gathered nobleman's eyes will be on them and they will in turn be quick to commission the village who trained those superior fighters and talents for work, promoting the growth of their villages, conversely, if inferior ninja take the stage and make a bad showing, it will reflect poorly on the village and may lead to less work commissioned."
"So…so why then is it necessary for us to stake our lives and fight here?!" Kiba called out, stopping the Hokage from continuing.
Quite a few made muttering agreements with him.
Daiki withheld the urge to groan in annoyance. How could fucking clan kids be this fucking stupid when it came to the duties of a shinobi or kunoichi?
You know what, this was taking too fucking long.
"For fucks sake, isn't it obvious?" Daiki's words escaped his mouth before he could stop them, many eyes turned to him, all eyes in the room actually, "It's a dick measuring contest you moron, it's basically a big show to say 'Look how fucking badass our genin are, if our little wimp kids are this strong, how strong do you think our Jonin are? Come hire us, we'll beat everyone's asses for you cuz' we're the best of the best and all those other punk ass bitches can't measure up to us.'"
There was utter silence at his words, and quite a few gaped at him, mostly the other genin.
The likes of Sakura, Ino, Naruto, Kiba, Choji and such were outright goggling at him, but the ones in the know, were pretty impassive.
Which was fine, he just wanted this shit to get a move on.
Of the Jonin, only a few gave any visible reaction. Kurenai's eyebrows rose, while Asuma snorted in pure amusement, and Anko smirked widely, giving him a nod of approval.
The Sandaime gave an audible cough, breaking the silence, "Yes, while the wording was a bit crude, that is indeed what the Chunin Exams amount to," the old man agreed with him, all eyes turning back to him as he began speaking again, "The strength of a nation is derived from the strength of its ninja village which in turn draws its strength from the many shinobi and kunoichi whom call that village home and fight for its prosperity. You ask why you must fight? It is because the greatest strength of these shinobi and kunoichi only emerges in the midst of a life and death battle."
As he finished, one of the flak jack wearing shinobi standing impassively near him made his way to the front and took a knee in front of the Hokage, "Hokage-sama, if you don't mind, would you allow myself to take over the proceedings of the exam from here as its proctor?" Gekko Hayate asked.
"Very well," Sarutobi nodded, "You may proceed Hayate-kun."
"Thank you," the man kept his head bowed for a moment before standing up and turning to face everyone, displaying a pale skinned face with thick bags under his eyes, "Good to meet you all, I am Hayate and I will be the proctor of the third exam, though before that, I will need to ask something of all of you."
He made sure everyone was paying attention to him before he continued on, "You see, before the third exam begins, there will be a set of preliminary battles and whether you proceed to the true third exam or not, is dependent on you winning." he explained.
"Preliminaries!?" surprisingly the one to shout out, voice aghast was Shikamaru, "The hell, are you kidding?!"
"Hayate-san, I'm in agreement with him," he heard Sakura's voice speak up, "Why can't we all proceed to the third exam? Why do we need to take part in preliminary battles?"
"…Well, I don't want to say the previous two exams weren't a trying experience, but the fact of the matter is, we still have too many applicants," he replied, "As Hokage-sama explained to you all moments ago, we will have many rich and powerful guests watching you all, very busy powerful people at that, So we must not only keep the exam intense, but also fast paced and make sure that only the best of the best show off their skills."
"B-but-" Sakura sputtered.
Hayate cut her off before she could finish, "If you are worried about your promotion, don't worry, this is a chance for you to show off your abilities as well, everyone gathered here to watch will be judging your abilities as ninja to see if you are worthy of promotion or not, even if don't win or make it through to the true third exam, you still have a chance at promotion," he explained, before clapping his hands loudly, "Either way, if any of you want to drop out, now is your chance, because the preliminaries begin now!"
For a moment, a hush of silence befell the crowd of gathered genin and a majority of them looked around, waiting for someone to speak up.
Just as it looked like the moment would pass within nobody speaking up, a single hand was raised into the air.
"If it's alright, I'd like to call it quits here," one of the oldest in the crowd declared, an older teenager, more of a man really with grey hair said, "I've not shook off the injuries I received in the forest yet, and don't think I can amount to much here and now."
Surprise surprise, it was Kabuto.
'Which conveniently brings us down to eighteen genin in total.' Daiki mused. While he'd been having a laugh besmirching Kakashi's reputation, he hadn't been idle and had taken the time to count the opposition.
There were currently nineteen genin in total within the crowd, he specifically being the odd man out.
He'd wondered how things would progress on that front, if someone would get a free pass or have to fight twice or even if there would be a fight of three, a little mini battle royal.
'That's kind of disappointing.' Daiki sighed inwardly as Hayate accepted Kabuto's withdrawal from the next round.
He had actually been somewhat hoping he'd get to fight against two people at once. Unless he fought Lee using the gates or Gaara, there wasn't really anyone here that could give him a challenge or a fun fight. Fighting two at once though, like Neji and Sasuke together, might have been fun.
Naruto of course, kicked up a big fuss.
"Kabuto, what the hell!?" the blonde cried out, "What's up with you quitting? After making it all the way here too!"
"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but those guys we fought before beat the crap out of me," the older genin replied, "And ever since that scuffle with the sound ninja back at the first exam, I've been deaf in one of my ears, my balance is totally shot. There's no way I could take on any of you guys here in the state I'm in, especially in fights where killing is allowed."
"..Oh….I see." Naruto visibly bit his lip, his shoulders slumping.
"Don't mind it Naruto-kun, I'll try again next time," Kabuto laughed and pat him on the shoulder fondly, "You just do your best, I'll be rooting for you!"
Naruto perked up at his words and grinned, "Alright, just watch me then, I'll blow right through this part and be one step closer to being Hokage!" he declared happily.
As Kabuto laughed lightly and happily along with Naruto, Daiki found, he had to grit his teeth to stop from making any sound, '…This is frustrating to watch.' he thought.
Because he knew Kabuto was just toying with Naruto and manipulating him, where as Naruto was being utterly genuine and thought of the older genin as a friend who'd risked his life together with him.
He felt like he was watching Kabuto make a total fool of Naruto in front of everyone. And while he and Naruto weren't exactly close or anything, it was still beginning to piss him off.
Daiki watched as the grey haired genin turned to his teammates and had a hushed conversation.
Even now though, Kabuto was fully on guard, he wasn't showing his mouth to anyone, he'd positioned himself so that his face was partially blocked by his teammates and his arms.
A guard against lip reading, his hand blocking the sound from echoing outwards and being heard, muffling his voice.
"You guys can take it from here, especially you Yoroi, with your abilities this part should be a piece of cake," Kabuto informed, "It's the perfect opportunity for a show of real, brute strength. Considering how you resent my recent promotion over you, I'm sure you're itching for the chance to make a show."
To bad for Kabuto, the Shinkugan was not so easily fooled.
"Hmph, you may think you're our lords favourite, but don't push it you brat." Yoroi scoffed back at him.
Kabuto merely shrugged, smiling lightly at him, before turning to give Naruto a light wave goodbye, and proceed to make his way through the crowd of genin and leave the huge room behind.
"Probably a smart choice on his part, if he can't handle this, then he isn't ready to be a chunin." Tenten mused.
Daiki shrugged and didn't comment himself.
He already knew after all, that cunt was as strong as a Jonin before he was a teenager.
And was perhaps the person currently the closest in the world right now, to actually being in a place to achieve Tenten's dream of being just like Tsunade. The guy after all, was the best medic nin in the world right now after the busty blonde Senju.
"Alright, seems like nobody else is going to pull out, good, makes things simple," Hayate mused aloud, "There's eighteen of you left, that means there's going to be nine bouts of one on one battles, and the victors of those matches will proceed on to the real third exam, and as explained before, this will be no holds barred combat, each pair will fight until one side is either unconscious, admits defeat or dies."
A few shivered noticeably at the emphasis he put on the word 'dies', the weight of what was going down really dawning on them.
Daiki was just getting tired of all the repetition, how many times did they have to hammer it in that they could die here?
He'd been prepared to kill for the village and possibly die, had died even since he left the academy. The whole point of being a shinobi or kunoichi was fighting and killing for the village.
Anybody who didn't get that, didn't deserve to be here. People could whine and make all the heartfelt speeches they wanted, but as things were right now, this world ran on that logic.
Killing and death were as common as breathing.
Hayate reached into his supply pouch then and withdrew a small device, looking like a remote.
He pressed something on it, and then there was an audible grinding noise as the wall behind the two huge stone fists slid up to reveal a large dark screen.
"This electronic score board I've brought out will display the matches," Hayate explained, "At the start of every round, we will display the names of both combatants competing against each other, once the two are displayed, everyone else should make their way up to the railings above."
He pressed another button on the remote and the screen lit up. A moment later, letters appeared on the screen, though shifting and changing at rapid speeds.
Until a second later, they stopped and displayed two names.
Akado Yoroi vs Uzumaki Naruto.
There was silence again for a moment, before-
"Woohoo!" Naruto cheered, pumping his fist into the air, "I get to go first!" he hollered in celebrating.
"…Yeah," Hayate shrugged, "Alright, beyond the two listed, can everyone else head up to the platforms above?" he asked.
Daiki shrugged and did just that, he simply turned and jumped up through the air and landed above.
He got quite a few stares, before everyone began following his lead. Moments later, the Hokage and the staff were at the very end of the rooms platforms, where as, the konoha genin and their jonin sensei joined Daiki.
…And the sand trio made their way up to the opposite side, their sensei Baki joining them.
The only ones left standing below were Hayate, Naruto and an older genin, easily in his twenties wearing full purple, his headband attached to a bandana, a piece of cloth covering his lower face and a pair of dark shades hiding his eyes.
As it turned out, the ones to land nearest Daiki, was Team eight, Kiba, Shinoi, Hinata and their sensei, Kurenai.
"Naruto's up first, huh?" Kiba noted, leaning over the railing beside Daiki a grin on his face, "This should be quick."
"You're not wrong," Daiki agreed, "This is a complete mis-match, Naruto will dominate this fight."
Kiba blinked, "…What?" he asked, taken aback.
"You seem sure of that," Kurenai input, raising an eyebrow at him, "Yet from all I've seen of Naruto, he's one of the least impressive here."
Ah Kurenai, once again proving that specializing was a horrible move and being wrong as always.
'You'd think you'd have learned by now after what happened last time.' he used the jutsu Fu taught him to direct his message straight into her head.
Kurenai twitched.
Hayate called for the beginning of the match.
"Do you really think Naruto-kun will win?" Hinata spoke up at his side before he could have fun poking at Kurenai.
"Just watch," Daiki shrugged, "Something tells me this match will be over quickly."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the match began in earnest. Naruto burst forward in a rapid sprint, rushing towards Yoroi.
The shades wearing traitor was quick to respond with a volley of shuriken, which Naruto hastily deflected with a drawn kunai.
It kept him back long enough though for Yoroi to make a few hand seals, a visible aura of chakra forming around his hands
'Hmmm.' Daiki observed with interest. With his ability to see chakra clearly and his heightened analytical abilities with the Shinkugan, he was able to just what the man was doing for his technique.
The chakra over his hands, connected to his tenketsu within his hands, seemed to be working almost like a vacuum.
'So he basically just slurps up chakra like a vacuum cleaner.' he mused. He already had his chakra absorption seal, but learning that technique might not be a bad idea either.
At the very least, it wouldn't hurt.
From what he saw though, the rate of absorption, or rather the strength of the vacuum effect, seemed to be dependent on the chakra capacity of the user.
Yoroi didn't seem all that impressive chakra wise.
'I wonder, could I apply it to my whole body rather than just my hands.' Daiki mused as Naruto, seeing the technique, quickly formed a very familiar hand seal.
A split moment later, a huge puff of smoke erupted around him, before he burst out of it, four more Naruto's rushing beside him.
"A few measly clones? Wrong choice of move kid!" Yoroi barked a laugh and rushed forward to meet Naruto and his clones.
Two clones reached him first and Yoroi narrowly slid between a pair of punches aimed for each side of his face, his palms touching the shoulders of the clones.
Only for nothing to happen.
Yoroi paused in shock, "What's with this stupid amount of chakra?!" he gaped.
He obviously expected the clones to dispel from having the chakra drained. And to his credit, if it were really any normal person, the amount of chakra drained even from those light touches would have fucked the clones over.
…Too bad he was up against the worst match up for a chakra absorber.
The two clones didn't miss their chance and grasped his arms, locking him tight in place.
And thus he was unable to dodge as the other two clones reached him, one went low, sliding forward and kicking his ankles from beneath him, while the other uppercutter the man in the chin, at the same time the clones holding him let go.
He went straight up, a grunt of pain erupting from his mouth.
The real Naruto came in quick for the finish, jumping off the back off the clone that landed the uppercut, he shot up into the air just slightly above Yoroi and clasped both hands together.
Then he brought them down in a powerful hammer blow.
Yoroi shot down like a bullet, slamming into the ground hard enough to crater it and just lay there, not a sound coming from him.
He was completely unconscious from that quick three part combo.
"…Akado Yoroi is unable to continue, Uzumaki Naruto is the winner." Hayate declared after a moment.
Silence.
"Oh yeah!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air and cheered as his clones erupted into smoke and dispelled.
He wasn't at all bothered by the silence and the various people now gaping.
"…What the hell…" Kiba goggled.
"Told you." Daiki shrugged, shooting a smirk back at Kurenai.
Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
"Wooh, way to go Naruto!" Sakura cheered loudly.
"Yeah woo!" Naruto pumped both hands into the air, displaying piece signs with both, a smug smile on his face, "First match and first win, I'm the man!"
He probably would have stayed there celebrating if not for Hayate ushering him up above and medic nin carrying a stretcher appearing in a shunshin to carry away Yoroi.
"…Naruto-kun has come a long way." Hinata noted, a pleased smile on her face as she watched him ascend up the stairs.
The blonde cockily swaggered his way over to Team Seven, walking right passed Team Eight and Daiki, he only paused briefly to grin at Daiki challengingly before continuing on.
'What?' Daiki blinked.
…Shouldn't Hinata have tried to give him some medicinal cream right about now? Sure he didn't take any hits in that fight, but he was still looking pretty trussed up from his time in the forest, even if any external wounds had long since been healed.
He looked at the Hyuga girl who returned his gaze, smiling gently at him. His brows furrowed and she gave him an odd look.
"I wonder who's next." he played it off, musing with a shrug.
He didn't have to wait long to see, because Hayate was already in the process of choosing the next match up.
He wasn't at all expecting the names that appeared.
Yurei Daiki vs Yamanaka Ino.
"Oh c'mon are you kidding me!?" Ino's voice shouted in disbelief from along the platform.
And here we are back again, this time with the big three to the two, thirty fa fa five!
And so the prelims officially begin. In the mean time, we get to see the mentality of the genin are more or less the same as canon at this point, you can check the manga if you don't believe me. Daiki uses his time wisely to besmirch Kakashi's name and spread some rumours about him and Naruto steps up to bat for the fight round against Mr. Sucky Sucky Handsy boi and clobbers him silly. And to end the chapter off, we get to see Daiki's opponent in the second round, poor poor Ino-chan. But yeah I used a randomizer to decide on the fights, two of them were the most surprising of all to me. Anyway, up to chapter 41 on the Pa-atreon and passed the prelims officially now, thank fuck for that, now I just need this fucking cold to piss off, it's stubbornly clinging on like a gold digging ex.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.