Chapter 46


"You never know what to expect when you meet your idol. They're either everything you imagined and more, or a total jerk. And then you have people who idolize others for BEING jerks, but that's another thing altogether."


"You guys look awful," Sasuke commented as they sat at another restaurant for lunch. Masaru groaned mournfully as he sank into his seat, while next to him Sakura just scowled.

"We interrupted two couples having sex," she hissed through gritted teeth, and the others winced in sympathy. Masaru just gave another low groan, slumping further in his seat. Of all his life experiences so far, that had to be the most uncomfortable. Neither couple had been particularly happy about the interruption, and the second time the man had screamed at him specifically even though Sakura had been the one to knock.

"Well, I made some progress," Shikamaru said after a beat. "One shopkeeper I talked to said one of his workers got robbed last week. He didn't have a description of the bandits though, and the worker in question is busy caring for his sick mother. It could be the guys we're looking for, or it could just be some random guys. Either way, we should probably look into it."

"I found nothing," Sasuke declared flatly. "A lot of locals have never left this town."

"Well, we found some other victims," Sakura allowed, and Masaru straightened from his slump to pull out a small stack of papers, shuffling through him.

"An old man at the White Orchid Inn said he saw a guy matching the description of the guy with the red scarf," he started, glancing at the page, "but that was two or three months ago and he can't remember where it happened. Then at the Aoi Inn," he shuffled to another page, "a fisherman reported getting jumped on the way here, but none of the bandits matched the description."

"...That's not your handwriting," Sasuke observed, squinting at the papers. "Or Sakura's."

"We know," Sakura replied tightly, and Masaru discreetly scooted his chair further from her. The local innkeepers had been far too generous with information on guests for her liking, though to be fair he had a feeling the last few had given it more out of intimidation than carelessness. Having a pink-haired girl radiate mild killing intent as she asked about the guest list in a too-calm voice probably freaked people out.

"...Troublesome," Shikamaru declared flatly, and everyone else grunted in agreement.

The rest of the afternoon passed without any significant breakthroughs. They spent most of the day just looking for more leads and talking to witnesses about recent bandit attacks, and returned to the inn around dinnertime to run into Sengawa, the writer. They took one look at his missing arm, the stump too clean and smooth to be anything but natural, and silently struck him from the suspect list.

"Anyone else get the feeling this is going to be a recurring theme?" Sakura grumbled sullenly as they mounted the stairs.

"Probably," Sasuke agreed dryly behind her. The group heaved a large sigh of frustration, and had just passed the door to room four when it opened.

"Hey, you!" Yuzu called, and the group turned to look at the redhead in mild surprise. She looked slightly different from that morning, now wearing actual clothes and a pair of glasses, though her hair still looked only half-brushed. "You're Leaf ninja, right?"

Shikamaru turned to face her fully, his eyes narrowing. "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"You should go to the Three Sparrows Bar," she replied simply. "You'll find something... interesting there." With that she slammed the door shut, leaving them to stand in silence for a long moment.

"...Does anyone else think that sounds like a trap?" Masaru asked dryly.

"She opened that door with convenient timing," Sasuke muttered, his own way of agreeing. They'd been walking pretty silently at that point, so she would have to be either listening at the door or had some other way to notice them.

Shikamaru just frowned, his eyes glinting as he analyzed the situation. "Sakura, with me," he finally said, pitching his voice low. "Sasuke, Masaru, you two follow at a distance." The others swiveled their heads to stare at him in surprise.

"Wait, seriously?" Sakura blurted, and then slapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes darted around the hallway nervously in search of potential eavesdroppers, and she lowered her voice to a hiss, "But, it could be a trap!"

"Yeah, but it's a lead," Shikamaru replied with a shrug. "And we don't exactly have anything else to go on right now." The others frowned but offered no objections, because he had a point. After determining they wouldn't protest, he continued, "Sakura, you and I have skillsets more useful for entering a trap, and we're more likely to be underestimated. We'll go in and scout the situation. Sasuke, Masaru, you two are our strongest fighters. If it is a trap, I want you guys somewhere safe but nearby so you can intervene. If we're not out in three minutes, you come in and save us."

Masaru frowned as he listened, and a glance at the others revealed they likely felt just as hesitant about the plan, but after a few moments he sighed. "Alright, fine."

"Wait, you're actually agreeing?" Sakura asked, whirling to stare at him in shock. Even Sasuke seemed surprised, but Masaru just shrugged.

"Shikamaru's mission lead. And he's a Nara. He knows what he's doing." Shikamaru looked surprised at the comment and frowned slightly, but didn't comment on it. After a few moments the others hesitantly nodded their assent, and turned back to Shikamaru.

"Alright, let's go."

Five minutes later Masaru and Sasuke perched atop the roof of a two-story cafe across the road from the Three Sparrows Bar, watching Shikamaru and Sakura head through the front door. The bar in question didn't look particularly shady; the street housing it was pretty decent, not exactly wealthy but definitely not the poor part of town. A not-insignificant amount of people still milled about the street, having late dinners in nearby restaurants or doing some last-minute shopping.

All in all, not exactly the kind of area you'd expect an ambush in.

"It's been two minutes," Sasuke muttered. "One more minute, and we're going in." Masaru just nodded, his eyes shifting to red as he stared at the entrance intently. The late evening light cast a lot of shadows on the street, which made the lights inside the bar seem all that brighter and thus made it harder to see into the windows, but the Sharingan helped negate that issue. He could see Shikamaru towards the edge of one window, head turned to the side likely talking to Sakura who remained out of sight.

His shoulders suddenly stiffened, so minutely Masaru would have missed it without his Sharingan, and a glance at Sasuke revealed him to be watching just as intently. The pair had tensed and prepared to leap down when Shikamaru suddenly turned and walked back to the door, soon stepping out and giving a lazy wave. Wary now, the two Uchiha leaped to the ground and strode towards him.

"Anyone ever tell you guys the Sharingan glows in the dark?" Shikamaru remarked blandly when they got closer. "Not that good for stealth."

"Where's Sakura?" Sasuke pressed, ignoring the comment, and Shikamaru sighed.

"Oi, calm down, your girlfriend's fine," he drawled, and Sasuke physically recoiled.

"Girlfriend?" Had he been anyone else he'd probably be blushing or embarrassed, but since this was Sasuke, he just blanched and sputtered, "What—no! She's not—"

"Oh, joy, now we can tell the innkeeper you're cured," Masaru deadpanned. His cousin just turned to glare at him, his annoyance made especially intimidating with the spinning tomoe of his still-active Sharingan. Masaru just smiled pleasantly back at him, Sharingan still in place, and Sasuke flinched and quickly looked back to Shikamaru.

"What's going on in there?" he demanded, and the Nara sighed.

"This mission just got a lot more troublesome, that's what."


It went like this.

Sakura and Shikamaru entered the bar on full guard, each one secretly palming some of Sakura's poison-tipped senbon in full expectation of an ambush. But when they stepped inside, no shadowy men descended upon them from the ceilings. No shady thug waited by the door to slam and lock it behind them as a cue for everyone else to stand up. No assortment of sleazy crooks sat at either the tables or the counter, ready to leap into action.

Instead, they found a bar with an assortment of totally average civilians getting sloshed and a grizzled-looking bartender who did a double-take before blurting, "Oi, I don't care if you're ninja, I ain't serving kids here!"

Needless to say, it took all of five seconds to determine this probably wasn't some kind of ambush.

Still, probably did not count as definitely, so they proceeded into the bar cautiously, Shikamaru taking care to stay close to the window so he'd be in the Uchiha boys' line of sight while discreetly assessing the other patrons. While shinobi could disguise themselves pretty well, most of the people here looked like regular civilians. Then he heard Sakura give a small gasp, and looked at her to see her staring wide-eyed at a pair of women in the back corner.

One of the women sat half-turned and frozen, staring at them with wide eyes. The other one was slumped over a bottle of sake and seemed to be inhaling the alcoholic beverage. Shikamaru took one look at her blond hair, and the purple diamond on her forehead, and then quickly tied it to one of the photos his dad had showed him.

Against all odds, they had somehow stumbled upon Senju Tsunade.

In the present, the others followed Shikamaru inside after getting a brief background on Tsunade to find Sakura buzzing around the woman's table. Masaru winced slightly as he watched the pink-haired girl ramble on, recognizing the fan-girl gleam in her eyes. Naturally, both women looked very disoriented by her presence.

"It's like watching her with Anko," Sasuke whispered in mild horror.

"Who's Anko?" Masaru whispered back, and the others both turned to him with matching looks of surprise and... envy?

"It's better you don't know," Shikamaru replied flatly, and sighed. "Sakura's not gonna let us leave without trying to convince her to come back, is she?"

"Probably," Sasuke agreed dryly, and Shikamaru grumbled under his breath. Masaru just remained silent, looking at the blond woman intently. Something about her seemed oddly... familiar. But at the same time, also not? It felt weird. He didn't recognize her face exactly, like from a photo or a memory, but even so her features pulled at his memory for some reason.

While he puzzled over this, the woman appeared to get over her initial shock at being accosted by a random fangirl, her face twisting into an ugly scowl. "Beat it, brat. I'm done being a shinobi."

"But Konoha needs you!" Sakura protested. "I know they rejected your proposal before, but right now our medical program is a mess and there's no one more qualified to fix it than you!"

"I don't give a shit if there was an invasion, or how screwed up the hospital is. I have no intention of going back to Konoha, ever. And word of advice, kid, you should quit now too," she added, and Sakura recoiled as if slapped.

"Wh-what?" she stammered, her eyes wide.

"Lady Tsunade!" The other woman shot her a horrified look but Tsunade ignored her, her lips pulling back in a cold smirk as she leered at Sakura with open disdain.

"I can tell just by looking at your eyes," she began, her voice low and venomous. "You're so bright and innocent, you've spent the past twelve years living in a bubble, safe and protected from the world. Maybe you've seen some stuff, but you still haven't experienced any real loss. This career isn't meant for optimists like you. The world will tear you apart and spit you back out in pieces."

Sakura didn't respond, just stared at her wide-eyed in shock. The others stood in absolute silence, stunned by the older woman's cold and immediate dismissal; even Tsunade's companion seemed shocked by it, her mouth opening and closing a few times as she stared at her. For her part, Tsunade ignored them and just picked up her bottle to take another long chug.

The crash of it hitting the floor and shattering was more satisfying than it should have been.

Instant silence filled the bar as the other patrons turned to look at the source of the crash. "What the hell?" Tsunade snapped at Sasuke, sharply rising from her seat as she slammed her now-empty hands against the table. He'd moved so fast the others almost missed it, only able to see a blue blur zoom forward and slap it out of her hand to the floor.

"Don't you dare talk to my teammate like that," he growled, his eyes flickering red as he glared at her. Most people would at least flinch at the sight of the Sharingan, but to her credit Tsunade just glared harder, her bronze eyes flickering with rage.

"Screw off! I don't need to listen to brats!"

Sasuke's scowl darkened further, obviously not liking her tone of voice, so Masaru decided he should probably intervene. "Guys?" he cut in, stepping forward with a pleasant smile. "Can you please stop making a scene in the middle of this nice bar before we're all kicked out?" His eyes bled red as his own Sharingan activated, his pleasant smile growing even sunnier.

His heightened perception didn't miss how Sasuke flinched at his smile and Sakura blanched, or how the other woman gave a small start in her seat. However, Tsunade didn't do any of those. She just stared at him for a few seconds, her eyes widening marginally for a fraction of a second before her glare grew even harsher. "Fuck off!" she snarled, and then stomped past him to the door, her shoulder harshly bumping against him and sending him staggering to the side as she stalked past. Her companion lingered in her seat for a second, still staring at Masaru, before suddenly jumping to her feet to race after her companion.

As the pair departed Masaru blinked and let his eyes return to normal, watching them in surprise. Huh. That was... weirdly more effective than he expected.

A tense silence descended over the bar, and after a long moment the bartender loudly cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, but—"

"We get it, we're going," Shikamaru interrupted dryly, and gestured for the others to follow him. Their footsteps seemed to echo in the sudden silence that had descended over the bar, and only after they stepped outside did they hear whispers start behind them. Masaru exhaled a deep, shaky breath, and then looked at the others with a frown. Sasuke glowered at nothing with one of his most severe scowls to date, but next to him Sakura still looked shell-shocked, her face notably pale as she stared at her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and she blinked once before slowly shaking her head.

"I'm—I'm fine," she replied. "Just—surprised, I guess. I mean, I've kinda idolized her since I was a kid, so..." She trailed off and shrugged feebly, not looking at them.

"Maybe you should find a new idol then," Shikamaru commented wryly, while Sasuke's scowl deepened.

"Don't listen to her," he ordered her briskly. "She has no idea what she's talking about. You're probably the most competent kunoichi from our class." Masaru nearly did a double-take at the statement and even Shikamaru gave a small start. Sasuke never praised or complimented others, not even Masaru, so to hear him openly compliment Sakura naturally caught them off-guard. Sakura looked just as surprised, but then her face lit up and Sasuke flinched, clearly recognizing his mistake.

However, just as quickly as the fan-girl sparkles appeared they vanished, her shoulders drooping as she offered a small, feeble smile. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun," she said, and then turned and started walking back to the hotel. The others frowned as they exchanged looks, not impressed with her sudden attitude change.

Clearly, her encounter with Tsunade had impacted her more than they thought.


The next morning, after waking up to find Sakura's room empty save for a note promising to show up for breakfast, the trio of boys went to the café and waited a good fifteen minutes before she appeared. The table shook as she slapped a colorful flyer down, sliding it into the center of the plates and silverware.

"There's a poker tournament being held here in three days," she announced briskly. "The prize is one hundred thousand ryo. I'll bet you my hitai-ate that Tsunade plans to stick around for it."

The others regarded her with varying levels of surprise before glancing at the flyer curiously. The tournament seemed to be geared more towards locals, held at a local bar, and didn't seem particularly special. One hundred thousand ryo didn't seem that glamorous as far as prizes could go—Masaru remembered seeing posters advertising prizes of up to one million ryo while passing through towns on the escort missions before the Chuunin Exams—but it would definitely catch some people's attention.

For all her skill and accomplishments as a shinobi, most civilians would probably forever know Tsunade first and foremost as the Legendary Sucker. She'd always had a notorious penchant for gambling, and after leaving Konoha she dove into her hobby head-on despite her notorious bad luck. Even though she'd almost certainly lose the tournament, it would be a safe bet to expect her to appear.

"Great, so we have to avoid her for the next three days," Masaru grumbled sullenly, sucking on a forkful of pancakes. Sakura shook her head, her eyes burning with firm resolve.

"No. We're going to get her to come back to Konoha."

The clatter of silverware falling to their plates echoed loudly in the stunned silence. "What?" Sasuke asked tightly.

"Konoha needs Tsunade more than ever," Sakura declared firmly. "I just spent two weeks volunteering at the hospital doing grunt work, and they're so overwhelmed from all the casualties from the invasion it's a miracle no one has died from neglect yet. Some of the staff there still hadn't gone home by the time my term ended, they just slept in the break room. We need to fix the system and make it more efficient, and Tsunade is the single person most equipped to fix it."

Sasuke's lips curled back in a displeased scowl. "Seriously? You heard her last night, she's not interested."

"As Leaf shinobi it's our duty to try to bring her back anyway!" she argued. "The village needs her right now more than ever! If we have even a slight chance of convincing her to come back—"

"We have a mission!" Sasuke interrupted hotly. "We need to find those bandits!"

"But that's not the primary objective!" she countered, glaring at him. "We can change the objective if something more pressing comes up!" As she spoke Masaru frowned in thought. Technically, Sakura had a point; the search for the bandits was just a way to pass the time until the merchant caravan arrived with their real objective, the mysterious tessen. He glanced at Shikamaru curiously, but the other boy had already turned his attention back to his food. Clearly he did not want to get involved just yet.

"We have at least one report of a bandit attack near here! That's more solid than trying to convince some stupid woman to come back to a village she obviously doesn't like!" Sakura scowled, crossing her arms with a huff.

"We don't have any evidence they're even the group we're looking for. And you know that we'd look much better if we convince one of the Legendary Sannin to come back home than just beating up some random bandit group!"

"She told you to stop being a shinobi!" Sasuke roared, slamming his hands onto the table with enough force to shake the plates. The others at the table flinched, acutely aware of the sudden silence that descended upon the previously bustling café at the sudden shout. For her part Sakura flinched, pain briefly flashing across her face before she quickly averted her gaze with a small frown.

"What she said last night hurt, I won't deny that," she admitted lowly, her words tight and careful. "But that doesn't change the fact that Konoha needs all the help it can get right now. All this means is that I'll just have to prove her wrong myself." Frown deepening, she turned to Shikamaru with hardened eyes. "Shikamaru, you're mission lead. It's your call."

No longer able to stay out of the debate, Shikamaru sighed and leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms as he tipped his head back. "We don't have proof the bandits are actually around here, and convincing Tsunade to return would definitely make up for it. We've got four people so it's not like we'd be short-handed if one of us left. If you think you might have a chance at getting through to her, there's no reason for me to object."

The fact he approved at all caught Masaru by surprise and Sasuke's scowl darkened even more, but Sakura just nodded. "Good. Since I have your permission I'll start now. Good luck with the bandit hunt." With a final glance at her glowering teammate, Sakura spun on her heel and stalked out, ignoring the curious gazes of the patrons she passed. A few seconds after she left Sasuke roughly shoved his chair back and stood up, visibly grinding his teeth.

"I'm going to look into more leads," he announced, and then stomped off without another word. Tense silence filled the café as the door closed behind him, but after a few moments the other diners slowly resumed conversation, their tones more hushed than before. Masaru wilted in his seat with a sigh, hanging his head.

"Troublesome," he muttered dryly, and was rewarded with a snort from his Nara commander.

"That's my line," Shikamaru deadpanned, and then sighed as he pushed his plate away. "Come on, I don't think either of us are in the mood to finish after that. Let's just get out of here."

"Time to look for more leads?" Masaru guessed as they rose and headed to the door, but the other boy just shrugged lazily, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Nah. I figure we should get to work on something actually productive." Masaru paused, looking at him curiously, but remained silent as he followed him.

It turned out that "productive" meant training, or at least Masaru trained while Shikamaru just stared at the clouds. Flames danced around his outstretched hand as he sat cross-legged in the center of the forest clearing they'd found well away from any trees, watching the flickering blaze intently. It took a lot of concentration to keep its size and shape consistent, and so far he'd been holding the special fireball for Foxfire for six minutes without it fading or shrinking. He planned to try to maintain it for a full ten minutes before taking a break.

Hardly glamorous training, but then, most training tended to be pretty tedious.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Shikamaru decided to up the difficulty by starting a conversation, forcing him to split his attention. "So, are those two always like that?"

"At each other's throats?" Masaru asked to clarify, and didn't bother looking for Shikamaru's response before shrugging the shoulder not attached to the hand currently covered in fire. "Sort of. Usually that's more Sasuke and Naruto's area, or Sakura and Naruto. Sakura doesn't really talk against Sasuke much because of the fan-girl thing." From what he'd seen Sakura might be scarily competent and usually able to control herself, but at the end of the day she still had a raging crush on his cousin that lent her a strong bias towards him.

He heard Shikamaru loudly sigh. "Figures. Ino said Sakura has a shrine to Tsunade in her room, so I guess she idolizes her enough to overpower the crush." Masaru paused at that, glancing at him curiously.

"A shrine?"

"That's how Ino described it," Shikamaru said with a lazy shrug. "I never really dug into it, for obvious reasons. Anyways, they're both stubborn so at this rate we might have to dig into the mission funds to get a room at another inn. I don't think it's a good idea for them to stay together."

Masaru just hummed noncommittally, looking back to the fire. "Is it really a good idea for us to just ignore the bandits, though?" he asked, changing the subject. "I mean, not to complain about the chance to train, and it's not our main objective, but shouldn't we be looking into leads?"

"There's no point," Shikamaru responded absently, and Masaru frowned.

"But it's the secondary objective. That's pretty important, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but the last sighting was near Hot Water Country."

Shikamaru's response sounded so casual and nonchalant it took a moment for Masaru to process it, and when he did his concentration went to hell, the fireball fizzling out with a whoosh as he whirled to stare at Shikamaru. "What." Hot Water was in the northeast. The opposite direction of their current location. "What?"

He nearly fell back in shock, yelping in alarm. "Wait, what the hell?!" he blurted. "Why are we down here then!?" Shikamaru remained unmoved by his distress, not even bothering to sit up as he kept staring at the sky.

"I don't know the full details, but the Hokage wanted you guys out of town for at least a week while taking care of some loose ends." His eyes slid towards Masaru, blank yet gleaming with scrutiny. "Apparently Gaara kept asking to meet with you specifically."

Masaru didn't respond to that, just slumped forward and stared at the grass wide-eyed as he processed the new information. Gaara wanted to talk to him. Gaara, who'd crushed three men with his sand without batting an eye. Gaara, who scared his own siblings and wanted his cousin's blood. Gaara, who'd screamed that his mother killed Akari and laughed about love being twisted even as he turned into a monster.

"Oh," he said feebly, and lapsed into silence. After a while he heard Shikamaru sigh and finally sit up to look at him.

"I'm only telling you because at this point you're the most level-headed one on this mission, and I think you have a right to know. I have no idea what the hell went down back in the invasion, but I can piece together enough to figure out it's better for you to stay as far away from that guy as possible."

"Thanks, I guess," Masaru mumbled, and then sighed. "Some C-rank. Your first mission as chuunin and it's basically a glorified babysitting job."

Shikamaru snorted at that. "Ugh, don't even compare it to those missions. I had enough of those as a genin. The bit about the tessen is at least real, so it's not a total waste of time. The only reason I agreed to let Sakura go after Tsunade is because I know the bandits are a dead-end and getting her back would be good."

"So you agree with her?" Masaru asked softly, raising his eyes to look at Shikamaru.

"Hard not to," he replied. "Sakura was right about everything she said. I don't know why Tsunade left, but I've heard enough about her from my dad to know we'd be better off with her back in the village." Pausing, he glanced at Masaru and asked, "What about you? Are you on Sasuke's side?"

"Honestly, I don't... really have an opinion." Masaru frowned, pulling his knees to his chest. Something about the blonde woman still felt strangely familiar, but even so that didn't change the fact he didn't know anything about her. All he knew was that she seemed cold and jaded, at least by her rant to Sakura.

A tear-stained face crossed his mind, eyes red and puffy as trails of black trickled down painted cheeks and a shrill wail rang through air.

"Shinobi are no good! All you do is die and leave everyone alone!"

He grimaced and pulled his legs closer, his eyes pinching shut as his fingers dug into the fabric of his pants. No. Stop thinking about them. "How'd your first C-rank go?" he asked tightly, forcing the words out. His voice sounded strained even to his own ears, the topic change overly blatant, and he had no doubt Shikamaru noticed it. Opening one eye, he found the other boy peering at him closely, his gaze searching, but after a long moment he leaned back with a large sigh.

"Seriously?" he grumbled, scratching his head. "Man, don't get me started on it. We had to deliver this stupid ridiculously heavy box to some old temple..."

As Shikamaru unfolded the tale of his team's introduction to C-ranks Masaru slowly let himself relax, allowing the story to draw him in. It wasn't nearly as exciting and chaotic as Team Seven's adventure, but it was better than his own thoughts right now, and he let himself get immersed in it. It was something, and that alone lifted his mood somewhat.

However, any increase to his mood faded when they returned to the inn later that night and found Sasuke staring at a note from Sakura stating she'd be staying at the same inn as Tsunade.


Author's note: Sorry for the mess, this chapter was made by merging two that didn't feel particularly eventful on their own. More plot bunnies are coming together, and it looks like I'm doing the Tsunade arc. Sort of. There are a lot of twists coming up despite how short this arc is. Actually, remember the Invasion arc contest? Let's do that again! If you can predict the events of this arc, I'll feature a brief cameo of an OC designed by you! And by "brief cameo", I mean "probably appears for one chapter in Masaru's Chuunin Exams and fails/dies before getting to really do anything". On that note, Chapter 47 ends on a cliffhanger with the first MAJOR twist, and Chapter 48 has a related but equally large one, so chances are any predictions made after those chapters won't be very impressive. So you might want to make a prediction before that.

Which brings me to some bad news: I'm going to change my update schedule to every other week. This semester I'm in a game development class, and my pitch was one of the ideas selected for a class project! So excited! Since it was my idea I'm team lead, so I'm going to be pretty busy this semester. That said, I'm also getting my wisdom teeth extracted on Thursday, March 8, so the next update will be on Wednesday, March 7th.

That said, this Saturday I'll also be posting the first chapter of the Mist SI/OC fic. Kind of weird when I'm so busy, but I have a lot of muse for it and the story is a lot looser than Echoes of Light, so it's not as time-consuming to write/plot. The updates will be more sporadic than this one, but I really enjoy the main character. I'm leaning towards "I'm Not Selling Misery" for the title, taken from the song Nameless World by Skip the Use, so be on the lookout for that!