Chapter Six: The First Chain Broken

They were not prepared.

When the ships landed all hell broke loose and the charge from the raiders raced head-on into the village. The seven defenders moved to hold their grown but the overwhelming force the raiders showed made the ninjas constantly concede their standing and move deeper and deeper into the town's inner streets. There were three jounin, two chunin, an ANBU, and Fen trying to hold off the battle-tested clan of Nords that showed little care for what had to be done to finish their job.

Fen kept himself at the front of their line, knowing exactly how the Nords fought and used that knowledge against them. However, he didn't have enough time to explain their weaknesses to the others in his group. This proved me be a deciding factor in the losing battle they faced in.

Fen sidestepped another thrust of a spear before diving into the attacker's guard, moving with a swift and precise strike he slit the throat of the raider with his left axe. He had to quickly backstep another attack, this time an axe aimed at his head that he barely dodged. He was trying hard to keep himself in the fight, but at the same time, he had to focus on his allies. Every chance he could afford he moved to assist them, well, all but except Zabuza. He seemed to understand the strategy to kill the raiders: brute force.

Fen, after cutting the arm off of the axe raider, jumped back and stood back-to-back with Zabuza. They two just gave each other a simple nod before attacking as a team. With the effort of the two of them, they were able to cleave through at a better pace. Fen ducked under the wide swing of a raider's sword, grinning as he was about to dive into the attacker with his blades but was pulled back by Zabuza just in time to avoid a spear aimed for his chest. Fen grunted as he quickly reposed himself, looking around to see him and Zabubza surrounded. This wasn't good for the two of them, and it only got worse as those carrying shields moved to the front and encircled them with spears poking out from behind their protection.

"Fuck…we let ourselves get trapped." Zabuza cursed as he got into his stance, looking around to see a crack in their defenses, but was also looking to the roofs where the others were fighting.

Haku, Yugao, and Anko were fighting back the raiders from the roof but learned fast that height advantage meant little when their enemies had their bows. Each arrow that landed caused a small explosion of fire or ice to encase where they hit, making it that much harder to find stable footing while at the same time fighting the few that made it onto the roofs with them.

Hana and Tsume were in another street, completely cut off from their group after the raiders managed to corner them in the village square. The two Inuzuka were holding their ground, but the fact is was twenty against two left them at a severe disadvantage. Tsume warned Hana that ninjutsu was practically useless against the Nords, their biology mixed with their Rune-etched armor made it impossible for anything less than A-Rank to pierce their defenses. Thankfully the Inuzuka were not known for their ninjutsu skills, but for their feral combat style with their ninken. This did help them kill a few of their foes, but it took a lot of force to make their attacks effective and tare through their armor. They, along with their ninken, were slowly running low on chakra and were unable to mortally wound the enemies. All they could do was defend and counter, and it wasn't helping them at all.

Fen was panicking now, but not of fear. He felt his anger, his rage, rising the more he realized that this was becoming an unwinnable battle. He looked around, trying to find a solution to this problem. Then his inner wolf spoke.

"Pup, they are a clan…and you are the last of your own. You are fighting them as a ninja, not as a Nord."

Fen grunted as he dodged the thrust of a spear, retaliating by snapping its head off with a swift strike of his axe. "Do you not see me fighting? What part of my style is telling you I'm taking up their pathetic magic?"

The Wolf-Gaint just sighed in his mind. "You are an idiot sometimes. You are the last of a noble clan of the Northern Realms. If these fuckers have any sense of honor in their veins, they will hear the challenge of Saemiligr En-wigh!"

The boy smacked himself mentally before he raised an axe into the air. The Nords around him stop, knowing the sign of his actions. Fen was taking a big gamble with this. He was about to reveal who he was to not just himself but the group around him. If this worked out, the worst thing to come would be Vanir knowing exactly where he was now.

"On my blood as the final heir to the Norung I, Fen Norung, son of Tala Norung and grandson to the White Wolf Rokin Norung, call for Saemiligr En-wigh!"

The raiders, even those on the roof stopped their attacks. Fen looked to his group and continued. "With my invocation of honorable combat, my people will stand down. I issue my challenge to the strongest among you. If I am to take their life, then you shall leave this village and abandon your ambition of killing Tazuna and his people. If I am to fall, you are free to claim the head of the last Norung and present it to the Vanir for whatever price you wish for it."

The raiders started to murmur, the ring of shields and spears backing away before lowering their weapons. Hana, Tsume, Zabuza, Haku, Yugao, and Anko jumped down to stand behind Fen. They looked around them confused. Zabuza was the first to speak up.

"What the hell did you do to make them stop and why didn't you do it in the first place?"

Fen turned to look at him and the others. "I called for Saemiligr En-wigh. Honorable combat. Those with status in a clan can call this challenge to another who wishes to attack them or their village. And the reason I didn't do so, in the beginning, is that it's a big gamble even if I win or lose."

This made the swordsman ninja even more curious, but Hana beat him to the next question as they waited for the raiders' response to the challenge. "How is it a gamble, Fen?"

The Nord sighed, looking over to the crowd in front of him as they started to part, making way for someone coming through. "Because if I lose, I die and they will continue their job. This means they will likely continue their raid and kill the village and attempt to kill you all in the process. If I win, they have to leave the village and abandon their goals here. However, I had to reveal my name, and the fact I'm defending a village of the Elemental Nations will spread like wildfire in the North. My enemies will know roughly where I am, and that will only cause more problems in the end. So either way, I will lose something here."

The group of ninjas looked at him and now understood what he put on the line. He was hiding in the Elemental Nations for some reason. They all wondered the reason why, though Tsume and Hana had a rough idea after the night at his camp.

Hana looked at Fen with a higher sense of admiration for the Nord boy. He was indeed selfless. He was willing to end it all here or live with the looming threat of his enemies knowing where he is just to defend this place he held no ties to. It honestly made her heart flutter more for him.

Tsume was in the same boat, but she knew she was already liking this boy from the beginning. He was not afraid to fight, even if it was overwhelming odds, to do what he thought was right. In honesty, he would make a fine leader of any clan, which only made her more interested in her own emotions towards him.

Yugao, Anko, Haku, and Zabuza were just stunned at the sheer balls this kid was showing by tossing everything on the table while knowing full well he was not going to come out of this battle without something costing him. Fen was truly brave, and that sent a sort of awe over them. Why weren't all Nords like this?

Soon enough the crowd in front of them parted, revealing two men. One man wore the typical garb of a Warleader. He wore the metal skull cap that his most of his face, but left his long beard and lips exposed. The shield was rather unique and Fen could tell why. Just by looking at it, he could tell it was made of Raven Wood, the tree found in the regions of Asgard in the Northern Realms. He knew that he would likely be who he face. Or at least he thought so til he looked over the second man.

The second man instantly made both Fen and Fenrir's anger boil to a higher level. The skull of a wolf that adorned his head was too big for the typical wolf that dwelled all over the Northern Realms. It had to be the disgraced head of one of Fenrir's brood. The cloak the man wore only further cemented that fact, as the fur of one of the Wolf-Giant kin was coated with the residual mana of such a wolf. Then, the final piece that drove the anger so high was the weapon the man held.

"Sa Vargr Heima Ox (The Wolf Home Axe)…"

The man snickered under the wolf skull he wore, waving the axe at Fen like one would show a friendly hello. But Fen knew it was anything but. The man walked forward, giving a slight bow to the boy across from him.

"Ah, glad to see that the ever so righteous Fen of the Wolves remembers the axe. Tell me, does it hurt to see one of your family's precious heirlooms in the hands of an outsider of the clan?"

It took everything in Fen's body to control the rage threatening to overtake him. He just give the most hate-fueled glare he could muster toward the man. "You dare disrespect the makers of that axe by wearing the body of the creatures it was meant to help?!"

The man just shrugged, letting out a villainous chuckle as he swirled the blade around. "Indeed I do. Like anyone cares for the ancestors of that pathetic, traitorous clan anymore. Do you know what's funny? I used this very same axe to kill the wolf I'm wearing. The stupid creature thought I was a friend since I held it. The look of betrayal on its face was priceless."

The vile raider laughed harder now, and some of his allies around him joined in. The jokes and mockings of Fen's clan rang out for the others to hear. Hana looked at Fen, seeing him gripping his axes tightly. And that's when she saw it. Both axes, though different, had two similar traits. One was the fact both had depictions of chains along the shafts. The second trait was the engravings of both heads showed wolves. Was that man really using a weapon that belonged to Fen's clan?

Fen spoke through his seething anger, trying hard to contain himself before he ruined the one chance for this to end in his favor. "I…issued my challenge. Who among you will answer it, Volsung?"

Before the man that insulted and mocked Fen could speak the Warleader beside him stepped forward. "I am Knud Volsung, Jarl of my clan. I accept the challenge but will have my brother take my place in battle. It only seems fitting."

Knud turned his head and nodded to his brother. The wolf-cloaked man cackled with a joy only a few madmen could have before he stepped forward. "I presume we will be doing this by tradition? What weapon will you choose, bastard of Norung?"

The taunt didn't get the reaction the man was hoping for. Instead, Fen just showed the twin axes. The man snickered, noticing the axes now that he looked closely.

"Ah, Sa Vargr Geisa Oxs (The Wolf Rage Axes). I wondered where the second precious weapon of the Norung went. Did mommy send them with you before Odin killed her?"

Again Fen did his best to ignore the taunt, nodding his head. "I accept the traditional rules, but I wish to raise my challenge. I wager my axes in this fight, and I would ask you to do the same."

The man thought about it for a second, tapping his finger to his chin in thought. "Hmm…I agree with this. However, I ask we fight with no armor upon our chests. No runes either. Only pure strength and skill."

Fen nodded, docking his axes in their holsters as he started to take off his tunic. The man did the same, tossing the wolf skull aside like junk before removing the fur cloak and armor. Soon both men stood against each other, their toned, muscles, and scarred frames exposed to the cold winds of the air before taking weapons back in hand.

Knud, once the two seemed to be ready, nodded to the agreement. He sighed, waving his hand in the air before bringing it down to start the fight.

The two Nords ran at each other at intense speeds, making the Nords around them and the ninja blink at their speed. The clanging of metal against metal was rigging out as Fen and the man's strikes looked like blurs as they stroked.

Neither was giving the other a chance to gain an advantage, each one reflecting the other before being parried back. The battle was intense for those who watched, even more so for Hana and the others. Hana was holding onto her mother's arm tightly, trying to keep up with their movements as fear was slowly gripping her heart. She, along with the others, thought that Fen could handle this man on his terms, but it was clear to them that despite how strong Fen was he was not the strongest there.

Eventually, Fen made the mistake of raising his axes to block a downward slash of the man's axe. The man snickered, stopping his strike mid-swing before swinging himself around and striking Fen against his head with the upper shaft of the axe he held. Fen was sent flying a few feet, the ringing in his head intense as he jumped aside to narrowly dodge another heavy strike down at his place.

The young man got back on his feet, feeling the blood seeping from the abrasion of the shaft left on his left temple. He was slightly dazed, but it was enough for the man to take advantage of the situation. Fen was now purely on the defensive, barely dodging attacks and weakly parrying others. As the assault continued the blade of Vargr Heima Ox kept nipping into his flesh. The cuts weren't profound, but they were enough to start having his body painted in his blood.

Fen grunted as another block of the axe resulted in him being kicked away. He tossed and crashed against the ground for a few feet before hitting a stop. His twin axes were away from him, and he was now panting heavily as he looked up at the man. The man in turn snickered, bringing his axe up as he prepared to bring it down on the defenseless boy under him.

"It is a shame, you know? You would think the bastard son of your pathetic clan that striked down Odin himself would have put up a better fight. The death of the All-Father by your hands must have been nothing more than a fluke. And, before I send you to Helheim with your whore mother, I want you to know that I, Brandt Volsung, avenged the great Aesir!"

He moved his axe down, and as he did Fen just accepted his fate. He was exhausted, his blood loss catching up to him, and he had no weapon to protect him. This was going to be the end for him, he just felt it. He smiled at the thought of death and hoped that he would be remembered as the man who chose to take a stand when others wouldn't.

However, his inner wolf had other plans.

"Fen, it's time. Our souls are bonded. You need to unleash your rage. Let it course in you…I will fuel your body with my mana, I will heal your wounds. But you must unshackle the rage within you!"

Fen didn't even hesitate. And in the split of a second, the boy raised his hand and caught the axe's shaft mid-swing. Brandt blinked, seeing the man catch the axe quicker than he could react. Then, everything went to Helheim.

The ground around the two dueling Nords erupted in a flame of black and crimson. The axe gripped in Fen's hand stayed nestled there as Brandt tried desperately to get him to let go. However the fires were growing intense, and Brandt could feel his mana/chakra being sapped from his very bones. He had to let go of his axe, jumping back ten feet as the flames rose before turning into a raging inferno around the boy.

Inside the flames, Fen's body changed. His hair grew longer, the braids' ties ripping apart as the hair coursed down his back and melded into his skin like fur. His entire back was now covered in his golden fur, his arms growing thicker with muscle and his legs soon following suit which cause the leather pants he wore to rip to shreds underneath his knees. He grew a few inches, going from six feet to nearly seven. His chest expanded, giving off a more toned, muscle-bound form while etchings of Runes burned into his skin. When his body finished changing the tailbone of his spine grew longer and out of his body til a tail of a wolf was present. With the final change done the fires of rage withdrew back into Fen, where the flames encased his arms and legs like burning arm and leg guards.

Fen turned his gaze back to Brandt, taking a single step forward that made the ground have the slightest of tremors. Brandt, along with all around them, watched as Fen showed his true power.

"W-what…what are you?!" He screamed out as he got back on his feet, now defenseless as the axe he held was firmly in Fen's grasp. The now half-wolf Fen looked at Brandt, the fires of anger and hate raging within his darkened blue irises.

"We are the will of the wilds, the herald of the Wolves." Fen spoke, his voice turning back to his deep, sinister tone. As he spoke, the voice of another could be heard under each of Fen's words. "In the name of our kin, and for those who you fell without honor, we deem your execution be by my hand!"

With those last words spoken Fen charged forward with a renewed vigor. He did not seem to grow faster, but with each step, the cracking of the cement under him spread like a spider's web. He was stronger, and that was clear to Brandt when he failed to avoid a flame-charged fist to his stomach. The strike sent him flying backward, rolling, and crashing hard into the ground where he left a small crater.

The once cocky Brandt hurried to his feet to find a solution out of this, but before he could fully stand he felt Fen grab his leg. He shuddered and screamed out when he was flung over Fen's shoulder like a rag doll, smashing into the ground where his nose cracked open and blood spewed from the gushing wound. He had little time to even think of moving before the hand still on his leg tossed him back over to be pummeled into the ground. And this kept happening over, and over, and over again til eventually the strain from the constant force caused the next toss over the shoulder to rip Brandt's leg off at the hip.

Brandt screamed out in pain as he was flung across the ground and skidded to a halt at the feet of Knud. The brother looked down at his own family, the bloody mess he saw reminded him of the battles against the Norung during Ragnarok. The utter display of raw, untouched rage made it impossible for him to move, or let alone speak, to Brandt as the near-dead Nord reached up for Knud's hand. But even as he looked for the embrace of his brother the hand of his assailant on his neck reminded him that he was not going to get help.

All while this was happening Hana, Tsume, Zabuza, and the others watched on in a mixture of thoughts and emotions. Like the others, Hana and Tsume could feel the immense pressure of Fen's killing intent even if it wasn't directed toward them. But unlike the others, who were mostly filled with a sense of dread looking at the rampaging Fen, they felt an aura of command from the wolf-Nord hybrid. He was what most Inuzuka dreamt of being, one with the canines. Granted, he was one with the wolf-giant, but the fusion of man and wolf was just appealing to them. Though, as strong of an appeal as it was, the two couldn't help but realize what this was.

"He…is using Fenrir's chakra. He really is like the others we heard of." Hana whispered, but was loud enough for Zabuza and the others to hear. Tsume looked to her daughter, a bit annoyed that she leaked something Fen told them in confidence so openly.

Anko and Yugao looked at Hana, confused looks on their faces as they took a second to look away from the brutal display of rampage Fen was showing. "Like the others? And who is Fenrir?"

Tsume groaned as she realized she couldn't lie about this, not now since Hana let it slip. "Fen is like a jinchuriki. He had a powerful wolf named Fenrir sealed inside him, and what we are seeing now is what I think is him letting Fenrir's chakra flow into him."

Zabuza blinked a few times at this revelation, looking back to Fen as he had Brandt laying on the ground taking blow after blow of his fists. "It took a good portion of my strength to cleave through those bastards, and he is just punching them and making that guy scream in pain. Does using that wolf's chakra really make him that much stronger..?"

Hana and Tsume had no answer to that, they knew very little about Fenrir outside of what he told them and what Hana knew from legends. Yugao gulped seeing Fen toss Brandt into the air before kicking him in the gut across the arena.

"So much power…does the Hokage know about him? About what he has inside him?"

Anko spoke up next, trying hard not to shiver at the sight of primal rage before her. "I don't know, but I'm glad he isn't aiming that rage toward us. Is he…is he on our side, Hana?"

The younger Inuzuka looked to her friend, unsure how to answer her question. She thought Fen was truly a friend of the Leaf after talking to him a few days before. But now, with him disobeying orders from his team's commander to protect another country, she wasn't too sure.

The conversation was cut short when Fen roared out, making the foundation they stood on shake as he grabbed Brandt by his head, the hand almost able to fit the entire skull in its grip. Fen turned to face Knud who, along with his entire force, looked in horror as Fen placed his other hand on Brandt's torso.

"We will speak this warning once, Knud of the Volsung. The Land of Waves is not to be touched by your filthy hands again. You have forsaken the honor you had in the name of riches. We want you to watch now, as we show you what will happen the next time your pathetic clan steps ANYWHERE in our territory again!"

Slowly Brandt felt his spine shifting as Fen's hand kept a tight grip on his chest while the hand that held his head started to pull. Brandt's eyes wondered and his lips pleaded for mercy as he started to feel the tendons in his neck snap and tear from the brute strength yanking his spine out of his body. His screams echoed out into the village as all went silent to witness the penalty of crossing Fen's graces again.

After a few more seconds of the screams filling the air, Fen thought it was enough and, with one final pull, ripped Brandt's spine out of his body with his head still attached. He tossed the disgraced Nord's body on the ground before walking towards Knud with Brandt's head and spine dripping blood and spinal fluid. He made Knud look him in the eyes, the anger and rage within them doing their job of searing the sight into his mind before he clenched his fist and crushed the head of Brandt into much and splintered skull fragments.

"You will leave this land, and you will abandon your brother's corpse here to be eaten by the crows. You will also tell me where that spineless whelp Gato is. Do you understand, Knud?"

Knud just nodded as he watched the mushed gunk of his brother's head slip through the fingers of Fen. Brandt was the strongest of their clan, the strongest of his own family. He was winning but he made the mistake of antagonizing Fen and letting his rage build. But of course, no one knew the price of Fen growing angry like that. Not until now.

He took a deep, shaky breath as he signaled his men to return to the ships. He looked back up at Fen, gulping as he spoke. "G-Gato is hiding in an abandoned village one day north of here. You can't miss it."

Fen nodded, shaking his hand of Brandt's leftover brain matter before slowly walking backward. He didn't let his gaze leave Knud til he saw the man get on his ship and soon after set sail. When the ships were far enough away Fen finally felt the after-effects of his transformation. He fell onto his knees, holding his chest with a clenched fist while the other helped keep him standing up.

"Fenrir…what is happening to me?"

The Wolf-Gaint had to think for a moment before speaking "My guess is that, even though our souls are bounded deeper, your body is not properly prepared to hold this out without having enough rage to fuel it."

"So, am I dying then?"

"No, but you are taking severe backlash staying in this state. I'm separating the connection now. You will recover, but I don't know how long it will take."

Fen just nodded, closing his eyes as he fell face first onto the ground as his body started to steam. The steam dissolved the changes, turning him back to normal as the runes, fur, muscles, and height he gained disappeared.

When he fell to the ground Hana ran to him, sliding on her knees as she got to his side and flipped him over to see if there were any wounds on him. To her shock, there was not a single scratch on him, not even the cuts from before his transformation. However, even without the physical signs, she could tell Fen was not in good shape. His breathing was shallow, his body trembling, and when her hand met his forehead he had a major fever. She turned to the others, giving them the look of desperation as he felt him starting to cough.

She looked down at him, eyes growing wide as she saw blood coming from his coughing fit. She turned him on his side, trying hard to do what she could to help him. The other ninja made their way to Fen, Haku coming to his side as he started to look him over. Thankfully Haku had a decent understanding of herbology and medicinal practices and asked Zabuza to take him to the nearest bed while she worked on some elixirs from her satchel.

The entire time Hana and Tsume were at Zabuza's side as he carried Fen to the nearest house, which was ironically Tazuna's. He kicked the door open and went upstairs where he found the same bed he had been staying in and laid him down. Haku followed soon after, getting to work treating the fever that was quickly taking over Fen. The cough would have to wait for now, and she told the others as much. Hana sat at his side, a hand on his own as she looked at the boy that risked it all just to do what was right. She felt it was an unfair trick of fate to make him suffer like this after everything he did.

Outside the house, Yugao and Anko were keeping a look out while Zabuza left to tell the villagers it was safe to come back. The two were trying to figure out everything that happened, and how it happened. This was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission, that turned into a protection mission, and after that, they learned that the one they were supposed to originally retrieve was some sort of different version of a jinchuriki.

"Anko, we really need to report this to Lord Hokage. This isn't something we can sit on just because Hana asked us to. He could be a real threat to the village."

Anko looked over to Yugao, the look of conflict on her face clear for Yugao to see. "I know that Yugao, but at the same time what if doing so makes Fen not trust Hana or the Leaf? What if he decides to abandon the village and just move to Wave completely?"

"What if he did? All that transformation did was give him some ungodly level of strength, nothing more than that. He didn't get faster, and we don't know if it increased anything outside of raw physical power."

"Exactly, we don't know. What we do know is that Nords already have crazy strong resistance to ninjutsu and even some genjutsu. What if that transformation only amplified his resistance? He would be a walking juggernaut that no one outside of ebing a kenjutsu or taijutsu master could take down!"

This was a point Yugao didn't consider. The truth was they knew little to nothing about Fen or why he was even fighting for the Leaf. The situation had so many unknowns and she was prepared to let that all out just for the sake of the village's security. Which wasn't a bad thing, but acting too rashly might end up biting them in the ass in the long rung.

"The best thing we can do is wait for him to wake up and talk to him about these things directly before relaying anything to the Hokage or even the council."

Yugao just nodded to Anko's advice, taking a deep breath as she looked out towards the bloody mess that is Brandt on the stone ground a few yards away. "We should clean that up before the villagers get back…"

(Author's Notes)

Hello everyone, sorry for the very late chapter update. I'll be upfront and say that this chapter has been scrapped and rewritten several times over the last few days and that's the main reason why it took so long to upload. I was fighting with myself on what to make Fen/Naruto's transformation look like and what it should do. But, I settled with this iteration of the chapter over the others. That being said, I am still not the proudest of it.

With the transformation, it was hard to even think of what to make it with its first stage of being unlocked. Should it be a full on werewolf form off the bat? Should it just be a minor power boost? I kept asking myself questions like that while trying to design the Rage Mode that you saw in this chapter. In the end, I decided on a system for the transformation and everything that will come down the line with it as Fen grows and cultivates it.

Now, instead of it just being "Oh, he's a jinchuriki and can just force Fenrir to give him chakra" I wanted it to be a true partnership over anything else. And of course, to make it unique, the transformation requires a fuel source: rage. I'll be honest and say now that I got this idea solely from GoW's Spartan Rage mechanic and I am unashamed of it. The shit is badass.

Lastly, I wanted to respond to some reviews since seeing them always encourages me to do more!

To wolfofanarchy: Thank you for the support, my friend! Yes, I have watched the Kingdom before but I don't think I watched the last season. And I want to play AC Valhalla, but my PS4 isn't properly working atm so it's hard to do anything with it. And I agree on the proofreading, and on top of me looking it over, I'll be having a friend of mine double checking with me. And yeah, autocorrect sucks. I downloaded Grammarly in the hopes it would help me out, but it isn't doing much compared to what I had before haha.

To dreadix: Yeah, there is a good piece of character bashing. I agree that I should cut it back a bit, but I personally can not stand Sasuke and Sakura. Every since the OG Naruto show I hated them both. Even in Shippuden, I kept that hate. But to each their own I suppose.

To Ryuujin96: thank you for the support, I am glad to see you are enjoying it! I hope I continue to deliver more chapters that meet your expectations!

To raelarial1: Yeah, this version of Ragnarok is completely different from the real-world depiction of it. But so are Fenrir, the Aesir, the Nords, and so on. I am drawing inspiration from real-world mythology but not following it dot to dot.

That is all for today my friends, and thank everyone for reviewing, favoriting, and following this fanfiction. It is a major boost in confidence to continue it!

Til the next chapter,

Vermillion Clover