Epilogue
Four ninja high upon a hilltop, each wearing the insignia of a different country, but united. They are all four dragon ninja, united as one.
Each carries the mask of a hunter-nin, but they do not wear them over their faces. Instead the masks hang at their hips, over their right legs, a tribute to the one who discovered them all.
Tall and longhaired, a young man with white eyes stands before them all. He looks at his companions, one his wife, the others his dearest friends, and for a moment thinks back, and remembers, as he always does before a mission, the man who picked him up in the woods one day as he lay dying, and who set his life on its true path.
The others have their own stories, but they each can recall that face, and the presence of the ninja named Draci Xi, the dragon ninja who restored his kind to the world.
Fanfiction Postscript
It is currently 9:50 pm on June 5, 2004, and I have completed Behind Killer's Eyes (yes, the actual writing of the story was finished two weeks ago today). Frankly I don't believe it, I can't properly imagine that I just wrote four or five chapters (I can't really sort it out now) today alone, in a period of not more than eleven hours no less, and I was not writing continuously. Anyway, now that it's done, I feel like taking a moment to reflect on everything as it sits fresh in my mind. From where this story went, to some of the things that happened in it and so on, so I can at least explain to myself the origin of 176,076 words of written material, filling 296 pages of single spaced Microsoft Word document, and amassing more than a Megabyte in size. I'm not trying to brag by listing those; it just seems so ridiculously immense that it needs some quantification.
It's funny, I never originally wanted to write a Naruto fanfiction, I try to avoid fanfiction in general, since I dislike usurping the work of others and writing material within their own ideas. However, this thing began, and once it started I couldn't stop it. This is I believe the only fictional piece I've worked on since February, which is for me a staggering period to work on only one story.
This story began with something that actually never takes place within its pages. In many ways it began with the idea of Rend, which grew out of certain fights in the manga, including Kabuto's fight with Tsunade. If you could make a scalpel of chakra, why not blades, at least that was my rationalization, and I thought up the idea. Of course, I needed a ninja who could use this technique, even if only in my mind, and that slowly crystallized into the character of Draci Xi. I made him a dragon ninja because I had been recently thinking about dragons in other stuff I was doing, and suddenly I had created a ninja for the Naruto universe, even if only in my mind.
This led, of course, to Xi emerging at various points in the Naruto storyline, most particularly, I ran through a mental scenario of him standing up during the attack on the exam stadium and offering to fight beside Kakashi. Of course, being the person I am, I needed a reason for him to be there, and why he did that, even as he emerged as a very powerful character who unleashed serious killing destruction. I decided then that dragon ninja collect debt, and Xi intervened because the Leaf would owe him.
From there I learned more about this character I had created, including where he came from, the relatively unknown hidden village of lightning, who would have had reason to have a spy at the chuunin exam since none of them were participating, and some of his moves, like the lightning swords and thunder and lightning strike. I had a lot of ideas for Xi, and at about this point I was looking at FF.net and seeing the Naruto fanfiction there. Frankly I thought most of it was ridiculous, and that I could easily do better, even if I didn't want to, and Xi, of course, was the perfect vehicle for that.
Then I read manga chapter 197, and Neji died, or at least appeared to do so (I seem to have managed to finish the story before Kishimoto decides to inform his readers). Now, I have always liked Neji's character, I believe that the conflict between Neji, Hinata, and Naruto is the absolute best part of the series so far revealed, the most impacting and truly enlightening piece, with real character change that wasn't at all cheesy. I also thought, if this rend move is so complicated, Neji, with his ability to see chakra, makes the perfect candidate. And so the story was born.
Originally I had little in the way of a plan, aside from Xi saving Neji and training him as a Dragon ninja, but by the time a few chapters were written I had a lot more planned out. I don't usually do that sort of thing, but I actually went through and mapped out all the key events as I envisioned them at that point, and the countries I wanted to use. This was all based of a rudimentary understanding of what Xi's past was like and what characters I wanted. It was mostly cause and effect based, Neji needed companions so he acquired some to go to the chuunin exam, I needed a major villain so I placed that person to blame for Xi's eight years on the road, things like that. Many of those events have remained true during the whole story, such as Shiren's kidnapping and Dar's sword turning on him, but others emerged on their own, as did certain characters.
Really the characters are the most interesting part, and I'm going to go through a number of the important ones, and give my thoughts on them, how they came into the story, and how they changed.
Draci Xi: Xi is, obviously, the center of the whole story, a complex man with a haunted past that gradually became far more serious as the tale evolved. He was the dragon ninja, and was archetypical, supposed to be a thing more than an individual. He was powerful, but not invincible, and he was always unfeeling and mysterious. Xi was a really interesting character I think, a man struggling to fight back against a world that almost completely opposed him, and with the willpower to actually manage it. He interacted so well with Neji I couldn't believe it at times, mostly it's because they are in many ways very similar, but Xi remains a character I am quite proud of, someone I believe was suitable to carry his half of the protagonist role.
Hyuuga/Draci Neji: The only actual character from existing Naruto of any true importance in this story, Neji is the centerpiece of the story, and obviously, his choices influence everything. The title, Behind Killer's Eyes, represents the feelings of both him and Xi, what happens behind the eyes of a just killer, how does that person live, what sort of choices do they make, how do they reconcile themselves, and ultimately accept what they are, and in this particular case, what they have chosen to be. As I've said before I almost certainly wouldn't have used Neji at all, and probably not have written a fanfic in the first place if Neji's "death" in the manga hadn't offered me such a perfect way to do it. That was the avenue that began the long journey, from Neji's status as a troubled genin, to an extraordinary dragon ninja. I guess this is his story, and I hope I did justice to his character.
Senirai/Draci Shiren: From the beginning I wanted to have a romantic element to this story, since I cannot truly publish the fanfic, I wanted to use it as a chance to practice a real and believable fantasy romance. Shiren is the character I chose for this purpose. In many ways she proxies TenTen (both are female ranged specialists), who I did not use because it would have been difficult to rationalize and I didn't want to take another character. Creating Shiren was very hard work, since as a guy female characters are always more difficult for me than males. Doing the romance was a serious challenges as well, both in making it believable and avoiding falling into one of Naruto's great pitfalls, the marginal status of female characters. The series and manga has only two effective female characters, Tsunade and Temari, the others are constantly messing up or being beaten by male counterparts. Even Tsunade often comes off as ridiculous. I had to try to make Shiren into a strong, but not abrasive or overly aggressive character. I believe I have succeeded, which is perhaps the one thing I'm most proud of in this story. Shiren's romance with Neji seems to me appropriately adolescent, tentative, hesitant, and brought out in crises, and Shiren contributes fairly to the group, even defeating Neji in the chuunin exam, and handling herself very well when captured (originally Neji would have simply rescued her, thankfully I was able to change that).
Kabure Gosain: Of all the characters who I knew would originally be part of the story, it is perhaps Gosain who changed the most in the writing, becoming a far greater part of the story and a far better ninja than I originally envisioned. In the initial plan he failed in the final part of the chuunin exam and went home as a genin, leaving the story forever. However, his tale as a veteran ninja who had sloughed along through such hardship was very compelling to me, and his personality came into its own without me really trying, so his role expanded. He became a chuunin, and then even got his own chapters after the exam, becoming only the third character to have a chapter devoted entirely to his viewpoint. At the end of tale it's hinted that Gosain might even rise to become Raikage, something the character earned himself as I wrote him, and that I never planned. I find all of this really cool, since it means the story has life of its own.
Kataishi/Draci Dar: Dar was intended from the very start to take over for Gosain post exam and become the third dragon ninja student. However, when I was writing the story, it took a tremendous amount of time to get to the point where Dar became a part of it. I actually introduced him quite early by having him talk with Xi during the exam tournament. Dar's role was always meant to be supportive, but it was probably less than originally envisioned, but that's okay. His presence is enduring and legitimate, especially considering his late entry, and though I downplayed his personal struggle, it was essential to have him there for so many things that happened. Dar is in many ways simpler than the other characters, but this is mostly a sign of his maturity, he's just already worked much of it out.
Aburanki Kei: Of all the characters in this story, Kei is the most surprising. I picked her name randomly off a list of random Japanese names when I had to come up with all the team members for the chuunin exam. She was never really intended to do anything more than lose to Tonetero in an impressive way, yet, in that chapter between fights I inserted a relatively random event (purely because I wanted the chapter to be longer), Kei's request to Shiren that she be avenged. From there Kei became a real character. Her existence solved a real puzzle for me, in that I was able to have Shiren sort of rescue herself because Kei was present, and I think she highlights how difficult the times are for more ordinary ninja. In case you haven't guessed, I rewarded Kei at the end, mostly because I wanted to. She is the fourth dragon ninja of the platoon during the epilogue.
Raikage: The Raikage has no name, which caused me some trouble since he was always referred to by title ('the' or no 'the'). His not having a name is quite deliberate, since he's supposed to be just another soldier. His character did pretty much exactly what I wanted it to, and he's more of a literary device than a person in many ways, but he got his licks in, and he helped expand upon Gosain's character, which is perhaps more important. Raikage resonates the Lightning village I tried to create, a village that, along with the picture of Stone Village and Waterfall Village, added to the Naruto world as a whole.
Now then, how about the villains:
For most of the course of this story there is no distinctive antagonist, no specific enemy, and though I was dropping hints throughout, the true identity of the enemies doesn't emerge until after the chuunin exam. I used the Akatsuki because spawning up additional s-ranked criminals would be ridiculous (the world can only contain so many before stability becomes unreasonable), and I figure that Naruto won't be able to cover them all.
Tonetero: The mad grass ninja is definitely my Gaara, except he's totally irredeemable. While exactly how he is created isn't something I've decided, I just like the idea of a ninja covered in thorns who wields them against his enemies. Shiren got to kill him early on, but I was able to bring him back from the dead (something I think really ought to happen to more fantasy villains, considering its ease in a fantasy world) and make him entirely more villainous. I suppose I wouldn't be able to call myself 'Mechalich' if I didn't stick the undead in somewhere. Anyway, Tonetero is not a very deep villain, he's more of an obstacle, and that's not really the best, but it seems to work out anyway.
Mehize Kizen: The Akatsuki from sand really didn't come into being until minutes before I was writing the chapter in which he showed up. I think I wanted him to be a waterfall ninja for a while, but then picked sand randomly. He's really a weak antagonist and I'm not very proud of him, his most significant action is probably resurrecting Tonetero. Neji and company defeats him quite easily. However, I just couldn't do much with him, by the time I created him I was too eager to get to the Dark Storm.
The Dark Storm: Ah, the superbitch, the villain I thought up long ago and who evolved into something I hope was appropriately evil. She needs to be, having killed two Raikages, started two civil wars, and killed all of Xi's former comrades. I had her planned from the very first references to a She much earlier in the story. The Dark Storm is somewhat insane, but she's serious enough to converse with her opponents and cause them to question their actions. Her political schemes mostly happen without her present, but I thought they were pretty decent. This villain was very deliberately a woman, I decided on that before I knew anything else about her. Again, this was mostly because I feel Naruto needs more powerful female characters, and I wanted to portray an evil woman who wasn't a seductress. It's her existence that truly tests Xi and reveals again the true purpose of the Dragon ninja, she also places the entire story within a larger context in the Naruto world, which I envision as the Akatsuki gradually trying to destroy all the strong nations so they can seize rulership from the remnants. The fights with her aren't as cool written as I imagined them (I don't think they possibly could have been) but I tried desperately to make them work.
So, in the final analysis I'm generally happy with how this story worked out, it could be a whole lot better, but it's meant to be a fun action/adventure, not a truly serious work. Some of the characters really surprised me and turned out really well, some not so much, but I think the story fits well into the Naruto universe and that's what I was hoping for.
My especial thanks to all my readers, and particularly those people who reviewed this story, notably: Silver Dragonfly, Night-Owl123, orlha, Daniel of Lorien, hattuteline, Uchiha Kumiko, Do as Infinity, X2Darklord, and all others who took a moment to review. It wasn't a lot of people, but considering how many of the conventions of Naruto fanfiction this tale breaks I can understand. Thanks for sticking with me.
There will not be a sequel to this story, I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone. Likewise, don't expect anymore fanfiction (Naruto or otherwise) from me in the near future. Honestly though, even if I wanted to there's nowhere to go at the end of the story, the dragon ninja are just too powerful (think about how Itachi and Kisame might fair against them for a second and you'll get the idea) so I couldn't write anything reasonable. However, for anyone who liked this story and is interested in something else by me, I have a novel that's also about ninja set in my own universe. It's called The Diamond Swords, and while shorter than this tale, is probably at least ten times better (I'm quite serious). It's not online so that maybe I can someday publish it, but anyone who's interested should email (tolashlyahoo.com) me and I'll send you a copy. Otherwise, I'm online in various places regularly, and I use the same name everywhere, so I'm not difficult to track down.
Thanks for reading Behind Killer's Eyes,
-Daniel Kinicki, Mechalich
Four ninja high upon a hilltop, each wearing the insignia of a different country, but united. They are all four dragon ninja, united as one.
Each carries the mask of a hunter-nin, but they do not wear them over their faces. Instead the masks hang at their hips, over their right legs, a tribute to the one who discovered them all.
Tall and longhaired, a young man with white eyes stands before them all. He looks at his companions, one his wife, the others his dearest friends, and for a moment thinks back, and remembers, as he always does before a mission, the man who picked him up in the woods one day as he lay dying, and who set his life on its true path.
The others have their own stories, but they each can recall that face, and the presence of the ninja named Draci Xi, the dragon ninja who restored his kind to the world.
Fanfiction Postscript
It is currently 9:50 pm on June 5, 2004, and I have completed Behind Killer's Eyes (yes, the actual writing of the story was finished two weeks ago today). Frankly I don't believe it, I can't properly imagine that I just wrote four or five chapters (I can't really sort it out now) today alone, in a period of not more than eleven hours no less, and I was not writing continuously. Anyway, now that it's done, I feel like taking a moment to reflect on everything as it sits fresh in my mind. From where this story went, to some of the things that happened in it and so on, so I can at least explain to myself the origin of 176,076 words of written material, filling 296 pages of single spaced Microsoft Word document, and amassing more than a Megabyte in size. I'm not trying to brag by listing those; it just seems so ridiculously immense that it needs some quantification.
It's funny, I never originally wanted to write a Naruto fanfiction, I try to avoid fanfiction in general, since I dislike usurping the work of others and writing material within their own ideas. However, this thing began, and once it started I couldn't stop it. This is I believe the only fictional piece I've worked on since February, which is for me a staggering period to work on only one story.
This story began with something that actually never takes place within its pages. In many ways it began with the idea of Rend, which grew out of certain fights in the manga, including Kabuto's fight with Tsunade. If you could make a scalpel of chakra, why not blades, at least that was my rationalization, and I thought up the idea. Of course, I needed a ninja who could use this technique, even if only in my mind, and that slowly crystallized into the character of Draci Xi. I made him a dragon ninja because I had been recently thinking about dragons in other stuff I was doing, and suddenly I had created a ninja for the Naruto universe, even if only in my mind.
This led, of course, to Xi emerging at various points in the Naruto storyline, most particularly, I ran through a mental scenario of him standing up during the attack on the exam stadium and offering to fight beside Kakashi. Of course, being the person I am, I needed a reason for him to be there, and why he did that, even as he emerged as a very powerful character who unleashed serious killing destruction. I decided then that dragon ninja collect debt, and Xi intervened because the Leaf would owe him.
From there I learned more about this character I had created, including where he came from, the relatively unknown hidden village of lightning, who would have had reason to have a spy at the chuunin exam since none of them were participating, and some of his moves, like the lightning swords and thunder and lightning strike. I had a lot of ideas for Xi, and at about this point I was looking at FF.net and seeing the Naruto fanfiction there. Frankly I thought most of it was ridiculous, and that I could easily do better, even if I didn't want to, and Xi, of course, was the perfect vehicle for that.
Then I read manga chapter 197, and Neji died, or at least appeared to do so (I seem to have managed to finish the story before Kishimoto decides to inform his readers). Now, I have always liked Neji's character, I believe that the conflict between Neji, Hinata, and Naruto is the absolute best part of the series so far revealed, the most impacting and truly enlightening piece, with real character change that wasn't at all cheesy. I also thought, if this rend move is so complicated, Neji, with his ability to see chakra, makes the perfect candidate. And so the story was born.
Originally I had little in the way of a plan, aside from Xi saving Neji and training him as a Dragon ninja, but by the time a few chapters were written I had a lot more planned out. I don't usually do that sort of thing, but I actually went through and mapped out all the key events as I envisioned them at that point, and the countries I wanted to use. This was all based of a rudimentary understanding of what Xi's past was like and what characters I wanted. It was mostly cause and effect based, Neji needed companions so he acquired some to go to the chuunin exam, I needed a major villain so I placed that person to blame for Xi's eight years on the road, things like that. Many of those events have remained true during the whole story, such as Shiren's kidnapping and Dar's sword turning on him, but others emerged on their own, as did certain characters.
Really the characters are the most interesting part, and I'm going to go through a number of the important ones, and give my thoughts on them, how they came into the story, and how they changed.
Draci Xi: Xi is, obviously, the center of the whole story, a complex man with a haunted past that gradually became far more serious as the tale evolved. He was the dragon ninja, and was archetypical, supposed to be a thing more than an individual. He was powerful, but not invincible, and he was always unfeeling and mysterious. Xi was a really interesting character I think, a man struggling to fight back against a world that almost completely opposed him, and with the willpower to actually manage it. He interacted so well with Neji I couldn't believe it at times, mostly it's because they are in many ways very similar, but Xi remains a character I am quite proud of, someone I believe was suitable to carry his half of the protagonist role.
Hyuuga/Draci Neji: The only actual character from existing Naruto of any true importance in this story, Neji is the centerpiece of the story, and obviously, his choices influence everything. The title, Behind Killer's Eyes, represents the feelings of both him and Xi, what happens behind the eyes of a just killer, how does that person live, what sort of choices do they make, how do they reconcile themselves, and ultimately accept what they are, and in this particular case, what they have chosen to be. As I've said before I almost certainly wouldn't have used Neji at all, and probably not have written a fanfic in the first place if Neji's "death" in the manga hadn't offered me such a perfect way to do it. That was the avenue that began the long journey, from Neji's status as a troubled genin, to an extraordinary dragon ninja. I guess this is his story, and I hope I did justice to his character.
Senirai/Draci Shiren: From the beginning I wanted to have a romantic element to this story, since I cannot truly publish the fanfic, I wanted to use it as a chance to practice a real and believable fantasy romance. Shiren is the character I chose for this purpose. In many ways she proxies TenTen (both are female ranged specialists), who I did not use because it would have been difficult to rationalize and I didn't want to take another character. Creating Shiren was very hard work, since as a guy female characters are always more difficult for me than males. Doing the romance was a serious challenges as well, both in making it believable and avoiding falling into one of Naruto's great pitfalls, the marginal status of female characters. The series and manga has only two effective female characters, Tsunade and Temari, the others are constantly messing up or being beaten by male counterparts. Even Tsunade often comes off as ridiculous. I had to try to make Shiren into a strong, but not abrasive or overly aggressive character. I believe I have succeeded, which is perhaps the one thing I'm most proud of in this story. Shiren's romance with Neji seems to me appropriately adolescent, tentative, hesitant, and brought out in crises, and Shiren contributes fairly to the group, even defeating Neji in the chuunin exam, and handling herself very well when captured (originally Neji would have simply rescued her, thankfully I was able to change that).
Kabure Gosain: Of all the characters who I knew would originally be part of the story, it is perhaps Gosain who changed the most in the writing, becoming a far greater part of the story and a far better ninja than I originally envisioned. In the initial plan he failed in the final part of the chuunin exam and went home as a genin, leaving the story forever. However, his tale as a veteran ninja who had sloughed along through such hardship was very compelling to me, and his personality came into its own without me really trying, so his role expanded. He became a chuunin, and then even got his own chapters after the exam, becoming only the third character to have a chapter devoted entirely to his viewpoint. At the end of tale it's hinted that Gosain might even rise to become Raikage, something the character earned himself as I wrote him, and that I never planned. I find all of this really cool, since it means the story has life of its own.
Kataishi/Draci Dar: Dar was intended from the very start to take over for Gosain post exam and become the third dragon ninja student. However, when I was writing the story, it took a tremendous amount of time to get to the point where Dar became a part of it. I actually introduced him quite early by having him talk with Xi during the exam tournament. Dar's role was always meant to be supportive, but it was probably less than originally envisioned, but that's okay. His presence is enduring and legitimate, especially considering his late entry, and though I downplayed his personal struggle, it was essential to have him there for so many things that happened. Dar is in many ways simpler than the other characters, but this is mostly a sign of his maturity, he's just already worked much of it out.
Aburanki Kei: Of all the characters in this story, Kei is the most surprising. I picked her name randomly off a list of random Japanese names when I had to come up with all the team members for the chuunin exam. She was never really intended to do anything more than lose to Tonetero in an impressive way, yet, in that chapter between fights I inserted a relatively random event (purely because I wanted the chapter to be longer), Kei's request to Shiren that she be avenged. From there Kei became a real character. Her existence solved a real puzzle for me, in that I was able to have Shiren sort of rescue herself because Kei was present, and I think she highlights how difficult the times are for more ordinary ninja. In case you haven't guessed, I rewarded Kei at the end, mostly because I wanted to. She is the fourth dragon ninja of the platoon during the epilogue.
Raikage: The Raikage has no name, which caused me some trouble since he was always referred to by title ('the' or no 'the'). His not having a name is quite deliberate, since he's supposed to be just another soldier. His character did pretty much exactly what I wanted it to, and he's more of a literary device than a person in many ways, but he got his licks in, and he helped expand upon Gosain's character, which is perhaps more important. Raikage resonates the Lightning village I tried to create, a village that, along with the picture of Stone Village and Waterfall Village, added to the Naruto world as a whole.
Now then, how about the villains:
For most of the course of this story there is no distinctive antagonist, no specific enemy, and though I was dropping hints throughout, the true identity of the enemies doesn't emerge until after the chuunin exam. I used the Akatsuki because spawning up additional s-ranked criminals would be ridiculous (the world can only contain so many before stability becomes unreasonable), and I figure that Naruto won't be able to cover them all.
Tonetero: The mad grass ninja is definitely my Gaara, except he's totally irredeemable. While exactly how he is created isn't something I've decided, I just like the idea of a ninja covered in thorns who wields them against his enemies. Shiren got to kill him early on, but I was able to bring him back from the dead (something I think really ought to happen to more fantasy villains, considering its ease in a fantasy world) and make him entirely more villainous. I suppose I wouldn't be able to call myself 'Mechalich' if I didn't stick the undead in somewhere. Anyway, Tonetero is not a very deep villain, he's more of an obstacle, and that's not really the best, but it seems to work out anyway.
Mehize Kizen: The Akatsuki from sand really didn't come into being until minutes before I was writing the chapter in which he showed up. I think I wanted him to be a waterfall ninja for a while, but then picked sand randomly. He's really a weak antagonist and I'm not very proud of him, his most significant action is probably resurrecting Tonetero. Neji and company defeats him quite easily. However, I just couldn't do much with him, by the time I created him I was too eager to get to the Dark Storm.
The Dark Storm: Ah, the superbitch, the villain I thought up long ago and who evolved into something I hope was appropriately evil. She needs to be, having killed two Raikages, started two civil wars, and killed all of Xi's former comrades. I had her planned from the very first references to a She much earlier in the story. The Dark Storm is somewhat insane, but she's serious enough to converse with her opponents and cause them to question their actions. Her political schemes mostly happen without her present, but I thought they were pretty decent. This villain was very deliberately a woman, I decided on that before I knew anything else about her. Again, this was mostly because I feel Naruto needs more powerful female characters, and I wanted to portray an evil woman who wasn't a seductress. It's her existence that truly tests Xi and reveals again the true purpose of the Dragon ninja, she also places the entire story within a larger context in the Naruto world, which I envision as the Akatsuki gradually trying to destroy all the strong nations so they can seize rulership from the remnants. The fights with her aren't as cool written as I imagined them (I don't think they possibly could have been) but I tried desperately to make them work.
So, in the final analysis I'm generally happy with how this story worked out, it could be a whole lot better, but it's meant to be a fun action/adventure, not a truly serious work. Some of the characters really surprised me and turned out really well, some not so much, but I think the story fits well into the Naruto universe and that's what I was hoping for.
My especial thanks to all my readers, and particularly those people who reviewed this story, notably: Silver Dragonfly, Night-Owl123, orlha, Daniel of Lorien, hattuteline, Uchiha Kumiko, Do as Infinity, X2Darklord, and all others who took a moment to review. It wasn't a lot of people, but considering how many of the conventions of Naruto fanfiction this tale breaks I can understand. Thanks for sticking with me.
There will not be a sequel to this story, I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone. Likewise, don't expect anymore fanfiction (Naruto or otherwise) from me in the near future. Honestly though, even if I wanted to there's nowhere to go at the end of the story, the dragon ninja are just too powerful (think about how Itachi and Kisame might fair against them for a second and you'll get the idea) so I couldn't write anything reasonable. However, for anyone who liked this story and is interested in something else by me, I have a novel that's also about ninja set in my own universe. It's called The Diamond Swords, and while shorter than this tale, is probably at least ten times better (I'm quite serious). It's not online so that maybe I can someday publish it, but anyone who's interested should email (tolashlyahoo.com) me and I'll send you a copy. Otherwise, I'm online in various places regularly, and I use the same name everywhere, so I'm not difficult to track down.
Thanks for reading Behind Killer's Eyes,
-Daniel Kinicki, Mechalich