Original Publish Date: 19th-October-2015
A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Katie Noonan's cover of 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley; the song that I listened to throughout my writing of this chapter. Also, shout out to 'timmydara', whose reviews last night finally convinced me to get off my ass and write!
Chapter 6 – Weathered
The day reminds me of you; the night hides your truth
The earth is a voice; speaking to you
Take all this pride; and leave it behind
'Cause one day it ends; one day we die
Believe what you will; that is your right
But I choose to win; I choose to fight
To fight
- Weathered, Creed
2 Days Later, Konohagakure, Konoha Hospital
His head hurt.
As he tried to open his eyes and touch the back of his head he realized he was not in his training ground. The white walls and the smell of phenyl in the air was identified the location as the hospital. He hadn't been in the hospital since that night.
As he looked out the window the parallel to that fateful night only grew; it was a full moon, and he had trained himself practically into the ground. He shuddered as the sense of foreboding grew cancerously in his chest. He started hyperventilating and the machine next to his bed started beeping loudly, prompting a nurse to rush in and start running a diagnostic jutsu on him. The fact that there was another live human being next to him helped, as did the lack of copious amounts of blood, and he started taking deep breaths to calm himself down.
After a few moments the beeping returned to a lower volume as well as a lower frequency, and the nurse asked, "Are you all right? I can't find anything physically wrong with you."
As soon as he was sure his voice wouldn't tremble, he spoke, "Nothing's wrong. For a minute I thought…" he clamped his mouth shut. 'Idiot', he mentally berated himself, and looked away from the nurse and the pitying expression that she was undoubtedly sporting. After a few moments of silence the nurse spoke in that kind and soft tone that he absolutely despised, "You apparently slipped and hit your head during training. Luckily a passing shinobi found you and brought you to us. Thankfully the wound was minor, and you don't appear to have a concussion, so you should be fine. We're keeping you overnight for observation; you'll be free to go in the morning."
He grit his teeth and started to shake his head, but a stab of pain cut the movement short. After a moment, recalling the fuss made over him during his last visit, he bit out through clenched teeth, "Fine."
The nurse smiled, he could hear it in her voice, "Excellent. Ring the buzzer if you need anything, and someone will be over in a jiffy."
Stubbornly he didn't react to the statement at all, and only raised his head once he heard the door close behind the nurse. He kept his back ramrod straight even after she had left; members of his clan didn't slouch. He did let out a sigh as his gaze went back to the full moon outside his window. Clearly sleep was going to be a long time coming, if it came at all. His jaw twitched as he recalled the simpering pity from the nurse; it was honestly a bigger problem than just her. Everywhere he went, whether it was the grocer or his academy sensei, they all treated him like he would a delicate piece of china that was about to break. It was no use; everything led back to the fateful night.
He recalled the full moon in the sky and the unnerving silence as he stepped into the clan compound. He remembered the blood in the streets as horror overtook him. He remembered the terror at finding his parents bodies, and the utter disbelief at the fact that his brother was the one to kill them. He remembered the pain, the pain his brother inflicted on him as he remorselessly showed their murders over and over. He remembered the prophetic words his brother spoke to him before discarding him like weak trash. He remembered chasing after him and flinging kunai at him with near-lethal accuracy, knocking his hitai-ate off…
Wait, what?
He shook his head, trying to clear the false memories away, trying to ignore the pain from his headache. That had not happened. Why was he thinking that?
After all, there was no way Uchiha Itachi was crying after killing his clan, right?
Later that night, Hokage's Office, Konoha: Sarutobi Hiruzen
The progressively louder sound of the rhythmic tapping of a cane made the Sandaime Hokage aware of his impending visitor. To be honest, he was surprised that his erstwhile colleague had taken as long as he had to visit him; he was certain that the topic of this visit would be the time traveler (not that his guest knew about that).
It was already the middle of the night; but today was the day Nanashi had returned, and he was sure that the Fūinjutsu specialist would have marked the Uchiha heir. Watching through his crystal ball, he observed a hidden Nanashi knocking out the boy in the middle of a training session by carefully applying a precise blast of Fūton chakra under his foot while midair and making the boy lose his balance. He proceeded to shave off a patch of Sasuke's hair, before using a kunai and adding his own blood to a seal on the back of his head; all the while the ANBU who were guarding him were just waiting for the blond to make a wrong move. Had Nanashi done so, and killed the boy as he had requested, the ANBU were under orders to kill the nameless shinobi. Whether they would have been able to carry out those orders was another matter though; thankfully Nanashi not caused any such problems. Given the depths to which the boy would sink, installing a failsafe was a prudent precaution; what he regretted was the way the conversation with the blond had devolved into a shouting match. But this was not the time to delve into that can of worms; he would need all his wits for this meeting.
The door creaked open, even though it was perfectly oiled; he internally frowned at the sense of melodrama that Danzō loved to express. To be fair though, it was the only piece of personality that the old warmonger allowed himself to demonstrate publicly. As he made his way into the room the Hokage refused to turn away from the window, still looking out over the village that he had spent his lifetime serving. The moonlight gave it a soft and peaceful glow, but there was danger everywhere; especially in his own office at the moment. He was very aware of Danzō's gaze at his back, but he wasn't going to make the first move. Even a simple thing like a conversation between old colleagues could prove treacherous; he would have to watch his words very carefully.
Danzō took his time as he carefully seated himself, before, as he expected, making the first move, "I heard that you put a tracking seal on the Uchiha boy."
'I see, so that's his game' Sarutobi thought to himself. His first thought was to ask Danzō about his sources, since the only people present were the ANBU; but he would come off looking defensive. He would have to put the ball back into Danzō's court. "I did."
Shimura Danzō was no fool. During Sarutobi's first reign they had been very close professionally, he had been a regular advisor to the Hokage during the Second and Third Shinobi Wars; he had actually been in charge of the ANBU for large periods. That was where his Ne (Root) division had been born, and the successes of the early version were enough to ensure its continuance. Danzō would not have lasted as long as he had if he hadn't been extremely effective at his job. A large part of that was recognizing that he needed to have a symbiotic relationship with his friend and superior; it was something that required implicit trust between them. And throughout his first reign as the Sandaime, Sarutobi had let Danzō take care of the 'dirty' side of the business; only reining him when it became necessary. Individually, they both knew that they weren't worthy of the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama; but together they surpassed him. It had been the most effective partnership in Konoha's history, and a consequence of that was that both men knew the other like the back of their hands.
That was the reason why Danzō was intrigued. Ever since Sarutobi had returned to the seat, he had not been the force of nature as he was during his first reign. He had made sloppy decisions, decisions that cost Konoha a lot of face politically; the Hyūga affair being the most prominent. He had turned into a pacifist during his retirement, and while Konoha could coast on its laurels for a while, a stronger figure was needed. This decision, the one to mark the sole remaining Uchiha in case of a betrayal, spoke of a degree of cynicism that Sarutobi had not shown since returning. The fact that the unknown nameless shinobi with the clearly fake mission history had been the one to mark him spoke volumes about who was driving the decision. Danzō was here to find out just why Sarutobi was letting someone else call the shots.
And of course this was the one time Sarutobi had found his spine. He had not been this difficult in years, Danzō was certain that he had not shown such resolve during any time in the past few years. "That shows a remarkable amount of foresight for someone at your age."
The barb at his age was a feint; they both knew what Danzō was referring to was the fact that he was not as strong as before. "My bones may be old, but my mind remains as sharp as ever." Finally, the Hokage turned around as he made his way to the desk and sat down pointedly behind the desk, before fixing Danzō with a steely stare. "You would do well to remember that."
"So after making a few significant mistakes, you finally decide to change your tune?"
"All men make mistakes. Have you made any yourself recently? Such as disobeying orders, perhaps?" the Sandaime immediately returned the barb. Insulting the Hokage was crossing the line, even for the old warmonger.
Danzō allowed a grim smile to cross his face. "So you finally noticed. The old Sarutobi would never have taken anyone at their word, not even me; let alone get away with it for so long. What has caused you to finally wake up from your slumber, I wonder?"
"We're both too old to play that game, Danzō. Put your cards on the table."
"Who is he?"
This time it was Sarutobi who let a grim smile cross his face. "I thought that he was joking when he said nobody would find a trace of him. I imagine that you must be quite consternated to find out that this was true."
Danzō continued, ignoring Sarutobi "His appearance suggests a familial relationship to the deceased Yondaime. His chakra signature is similar to our jinchūriki, further proving that this must be the case. However I myself vetted the Hokage well before his coronation; I found no such trace of a family. Who is he? And more importantly, why do you trust him?"
Danzō was comfortable with this sort of talk. He was a blunt man; he was not half the politician that Sarutobi was. While he was adept at deciphering the hidden meanings behind somebody's words, he was not as comfortable talking that language day in and day out. He was much more at ease digging in the background, sussing out the nature of people and their secrets. Subtle interrogations were not his forte, he believed in torture as a preferred means of gathering information when the usual investigations yielded no significant results. Directly asking his subjects questions was a luxury that he rarely enjoyed.
"His identity and my reasons to trust his information is an S-ranked secret; one that is more valuable than the truth behind the Uchiha massacre."
While on the surface, the statement didn't reveal much, one thing was readily apparent. The Hokage had implied that he trusted the information provided by this 'Nanashi', not the ninja himself. Secondly, the intelligence was far more valuable than something that could lose Konoha a lot of goodwill (and by extension clients). That Sarutobi was even telling him this much was indicative of how valuable it was, and Danzō's curiosity was piqued.
As he processed this Danzō leaned back; the fact that Sarutobi trusted him even after knowing that he had disobeyed his order to disband Ne would be called heartwarming by those that believed in emotions. To him, it was a weakness to be exploited; and he proceeded to do so immediately. "What is it about?" If he couldn't know what it was, then perhaps he could find out what it was about; he could carry out his own investigations from there.
Instead of answering, Sarutobi raised his fingers in front of his head in their characteristic steeple and said, "I gave you an order two years ago. It is time you carried it out. Dismantle Ne; I will not ask again." Sarutobi was still gazing at him with that characteristic steely gaze. Danzō was more than intrigued, while Sarutobi's persona and mastery over his body language was typically flawless, he knew the old monkey well enough to realize that Sarutobi was excited about whatever he had learned; it was a genuine game-changer. Whoever this shinobi was, he had brought out the fire in Sarutobi, the fire that had been missing for years. He wondered how he could get Sarutobi to hint at what he had learned; but he knew Sarutobi well enough to understand this this one would be played close to the chest. He wondered once again how he could use the emotional goodwill that Sarutobi had towards him, and if it would get him results.
Because his only other option was Kotoamatsukami (Distinguished Heavenly Gods).
The Next Day: 4465617468
It was the day of the Konoha Annual Grand Sports Festival(!).
The participation came from the Genin teams, but festivals meant that people would come out during the evening to enjoy the atmosphere, the food and the entertainment. I was one of the revelers, even though I didn't deserve it. Why? I hadn't gone to the mission hall today, mostly because I was being a coward about facing the Hokage. I could brush it off by saying I had a late night when I came back, putting a seal on Sasuke, but that was if I could make myself go to the mission hall tomorrow. As it was, today was a training day, and I had to work hard to get back my edge; a week off had slightly dulled it.
I had made plans to meet up with Genma, with whom I had trained off and on before the tournament. Our spars made a reliable yardstick of my recovery after I had been discharged from the hospital, and I had to say that I liked the guy. I had known him for a little while back in my own time; he had taught me the basics of the Hiraishin, having learned it from my esteemed father himself. After he had been killed I had to figure out the rest myself; but I remembered that him to be a self-confident and easy going character. Getting to know him as a peer this time was almost no different, only the jokes we cracked were more age-appropriate. The Sandaime was right in saying that I needed more friends my age; even though he was a meddlesome old coot, he was right in his choice of companion for me.
I found him with his back against a lamppost and a half-smile, making eyes at a passing damsel. I shook my head as I drew near. "Still getting shot down, man-whore?" I shot good-naturedly.
His smile turned into one of amusement, "They won't be able to resist my charms for too long." He pushed off the post and fell into step beside me. "Quite a large turnout tonight."
"Yeah. It's nice to see all the civilians excited too." Particularly after what I had been through; there had been precious little to celebrate.
"I do love the way they go through the effort of dressing up. They look far more attractive this way."
"The men too?"
"Haven't we already established that my eyes are only drawn to the female form?"
"What about other parts of your anatomy?"
He smirked, "Why, are you jealous? Would you like me to proposition you too?"
Ugh, I had left myself open to that one. "…fine. You win. Now let's go eat food that isn't phallic in appearance, I'm starving."
"Well said. I'm sure to need my energy later on in the night."
I smiled in exasperated amusement. "Do you ever stop?"
"That's what my dates ask me during fun time, and in a few minutes they usually forget about the question."
"Because they leave in disgust?"
"Let's just say their minds take a trip, while they leave their bodies behind."
"…did you just confess to drugging and taking advantage of helpless women?"
He snorted, "Please. You're just jealous of my prowess. It isn't like there's a line of women after you."
I opened my mouth, no doubt to say something snappy, but instead, "Shit." I immediately turned around. "Let's go to another row."
He looked around in confusion, before he spotted an obviously on-duty Mitarashi Anko. He turned around, and I didn't need to look at him to know that he was smirking. "Oh? A lover's quarrel?"
I snorted this time. "As if. I like my balls where they are, thank you very much."
His eyes gleamed as he pressed on, "Oh? I didn't take you for the type who runs away from his battles."
"It's called a tactical retreat; I'm not going to face her while she's still mad about losing. I'm sure I will at some point, say… 10 years from now. That is one freakishly scary lady."
He chuckled. "The only part of that statement Anko would disagree with is being called a lady."
"Well, I have enough self-preservation instinct not to try and find out."
He chuckled, but let it go. We spent some time browsing through the various stalls, before I picked up a squid salad, while Genma went for a tasty looking fish-on-a-stick. I turned around a few times in paranoia, but Anko was nowhere to be seen, thank the Log. I had to say, being back in Konoha was far more enjoyable than I remembered it being, even as a ninja. Maybe it was because there was no fighting going on, but the atmosphere was calming and enjoyable. Of course, the minute I thought that, it was jinxed.
"But I can't eat anymore!" an infinitely familiar whiny voice filtered through to my ears through the sounds of the crowd. I couldn't help it; I looked around for the source of the voice and found it in one of the stalls. Naruto was sitting at the table with a massive amount of soba noodles placed in front of him; but he wasn't eating, instead he was holding his stomach with both his hands.
"But you must! If you don't experience the goodness of soba noodles, how else can I convince you that they are better than ramen! Also, you are my 100th visitor today; that means you get the two free extra special big bowls!" the owner of the stand exclaimed. He was staring at Naruto with an odd gleam in his eyes that I didn't like the look of.
"I don't think I like it. My stomach hurts. I can't eat anymore." Naruto whined piteously as he held his stomach.
"But I've worked hard to make it for you! Surely you don't want me to throw the results of my hard work down the garbage bin! Please make this humble chef happy by atleast finishing what he puts out in front of you!"
I had moved a little closer by this point. I didn't remember this sort of thing happening; but then again I didn't recall much of my childhood other than my pranks. Genma wasn't paying attention, but he had followed me; this allowed me to take a closer look at the 'dish' this chef had prepared. By the look of it, it seemed to be a noodle dish with tofu in it. Alarm bells started ringing in my head for some reason, and I stopped right in front of the stall.
"Ughhhh." Naruto groaned piteously; but he reached for his chopsticks. As soon as he picked up a piece of tofu the pieces snapped into place.
The dish was called kitsune soba.
I let loose the full force of my considerable killing intent smack in the middle of Konoha. The nearby civilians completely froze while the shinobi immediately honed on me, including Genma next to me. I jumped forward and smacked the chopsticks out of Naruto's hands and grabbed him, putting my body in between him and the motherfucker who had tried to poison him.
Genma was at my side in a flash. "Take him to the hospital, he's been poisoned." I ordered, not letting up on my killing intent. He took one look at the groaning Naruto and, upon recognizing him, immediately put together what had happened. Without saying a word he put his arm across the child's shoulders and disappeared in a shunshin.
I was stalking towards the little shit with a kunai in my hand (when had it appeared there) who had tried to fucking murder a child in the middle of Konoha when an incoming shunshin put forced me to stop lest I run into it. I didn't as much as use my peripherals to try and recognize the person who had stopped me; I was hyper-focused on the chef. A female voice spoke up, "What is going on here?"
I vaguely realized that the voice belonged to Anko, but I was too incensed to care. "This little shit just tried to poison a child. I'm going to make sure he never does anything of the sort again."
"Where is this child?" she immediately shot back.
"Shiranui Genma has taken him to the hospital. The dish is on the table. You're not going to stop me from killing this motherfucker anymore." I took a step forward, but Anko pulled out a kunai of her own and placed it in a place where men don't like to be threatened. Despite that I considered going ahead anyway; I was seeing red, and I wasn't in the mood to be reasonable.
Anko directed her comments to the chef, "Is this true? Did you try to poison a child?"
A murderously hateful expression twisted his face, "That's not a child! That's a demon in disguise! He should be killed bef-URK!" The reason for him stopping talking was the sudden appearance of a kunai in the middle of his throat; blood flew out in an arc and then continued gushing in a never ending stream as he foolishly pulled out the kunai and tried to stop the bleeding.
Anko returned to a standing position after having thrown the kunai that was previously near my nether regions. "You broke the Sandaime Hokage's Law. The punishment is death." He was still making choking noises as he futilely tried to draw breath. I stepped around Anko and crouched down near his face. I had not let up on the killing intent since I had figured out what was going on. As he finally locked eyes with me I made sure my words were slow and deliberate. "The only demon here is you; because only demons try to murder a child."
A few seconds later, he turned completely purple and stopped trying to draw breath, having drowned in his own blood. As soon as I was sure he was dead I let up my killing intent. There was an audible sigh of relief from the spectators, quite a few of whom collapsed to the ground, the adrenaline leaving their systems. I seriously considered taking off my mask just to spit at his corpse, but I had a large audience already, and I didn't want to make things worse for myself.
When I finally turned around only Anko was looking at me; the civilians were being evacuated from the vicinity by both on and off-duty shinobi. One more shinobi came along and put the poisoned dish in a plastic bag before sealing it in a scroll. I wasn't sure if it was for investigative purposes or for identifying the poison so that it could be cured; before I could ask him Anko spoke, "How did you realize that he was trying to kill the boy?"
I sneered, "He was almost force-feeding Naruto despite the fact that he was complaining about his stomach hurting. I noticed that the dish is one called kitsune soba; along with his general demeanor that was enough to realize what was going on."
Her pupil-less eyes stayed trained on me; no doubt she was verifying the veracity of my statement. Having worked in T&I she was no doubt more skilled than most at identifying the truth; in any case I was telling the truth. She seemed to reach the same conclusion and put her hands on her hips. "I will be reporting this to the top brass. Despite the fact that it was I who killed him, you were the one to disturb the peace and make a scene."
"Excuse me for trying to save a child's life." I sneered. This was ridiculous.
She shook her head, not taking her eyes off mine. She said softly, "Your reasons were valid; however, it is a law in this village that a shinobi cannot unleash their killing intent without good reason. Every such incident is investigated thoroughly. Nothing will come of it, there were witnesses, but it is a procedure that is to be followed."
I scoffed, but didn't refute her statement. The law was a sensible one, but this was clearly a special circumstance. In any case, I no longer had an excuse to avoid the Hokage tower tomorrow. "Fine. I'll show up for a slap on the wrist tomorrow. Happy?"
She looked at me for a second longer, before suddenly removing her hands from her hips and crossing them under her breasts, pushing them up. A mischievous smile came across her face as her demeanor made a complete 180 degrees. "You owe me a rematch you know" she said playfully, her eyes glittering.
I wasn't in the mood, and I wasn't shy about letting her know it either. "You lost. Accept it and move on." I started walking away. She pouted and called after me "Fine, be that way! But if I were you I would watch my back."
I just ignored her, still too pissed from the near murder attempt on my life. I vaguely recalled being in the hospital from food poisoning; I was too young to realize that it was actual poisoning. I made my way to the Hokage monument to sit on my father's head; that was an action that always calmed me down.
As I stared out over the village still lit up by the carnival lights my anger finally burned away. Somehow it felt worse when I saw it happening to someone else, even if that someone was a younger me. While I had been the subject of the stares and the occasional sneaky attempt that got past the ANBU I never actually held it against the person. Perhaps it was because I was a naïve idiot at the time; but I like to think it was because the attempts made me a stronger person.
Or maybe I just thought that all adults were dumb as hell for thinking me to be a demon.
The moon was waning; last night had been the full moon. It was only when I thought about what I had been doing last night that I realized my hypocrisy; 24 hours earlier I had been seriously considering killing another 10 year old boy for crimes which he had not committed. Sheesh. Even my own subconscious was acknowledging that the Sandaime had a point. Perhaps it was a good thing that I was going to face the old man tomorrow; it would provide me an opportunity to apologize to him.
I sighed. Time-travel was a complicated business; especially when I didn't even know why I had traveled. Well, at-least tomorrow I would get to meet the old man Hokage. Then I could put in the request to assist Kiri with the rebellion; it was around the time when they should be looking for allies, if what I remembered was right. We would need all the allies we could muster against the enemy, and the sooner I managed to unite all the villages against Akatsuki the better.
I walked back to my apartment building, with vague thoughts in my head about saving Itachi from his fate. Maybe it wasn't up to me to make sure Sasuke stayed on the straight and narrow; if I could find a way to mitigate the fallout from the truth about the Uchiha massacre it would no longer be my headache. As I got ready for bed I resolved to talk to the Hokage about it when I saw him tomorrow. After a profuse apology of course.
The Next Morning: 4465617468
Early in the morning I was making my way to the Hokage tower when I was waylaid by an ANBU. "Your presence is requested in the Hokage's office" he said monotonously. I raised an eyebrow. "I'm headed there now."
"Acknowledged."
He used a genjutsu to make it appear like he had used the shunshin, but of course it didn't work on me. He stood in the same spot watching me, probably to make sure that I was doing as I said; I shook my head and made my way to the tower. That was weird. What was the need for the babysitting? Sure, I had missed work yesterday, but it wasn't like I was a flight risk or something. I shrug off the paranoia and continued walking. I could have taken to the roofs and made my way faster, but I enjoyed walking through the colourful streets and seeing happy faces around me. The ANBU babysitting me made me enjoy it a bit less, but I was determined not to let him spoil the happiness around me.
As I finally entered the tower my tail disappeared. It was quite strange, especially since the Hokage had not done anything of the sort during the last two months when I was training for the tournament. My paranoia was consistently tingling, and I finally decided to be on my guard. That sense had saved my life on many occasions, and I was damned if I let it ping unanswered. I was met on the stairwell by a creepily smiling Anko and a clearly sleep-deprived Genma. Maybe he had gotten lucky last night after all? He answered my questioning eyebrow with a smirk. Yeah, he had struck gold; lucky bastard.
My paranoia was ringing full time as we finally reached the secretary who asked us to wait. After a few minutes the door opened to emit Homura and Koharu, the other wizened crones who advised the Hokage. I bowed my head deferentially, not wanting to antagonize them this early; Genma followed my lead, but Anko deliberately ignored their presence. Ah, well. She was one to follow her own path.
Once the advisers had left the corridor the secretary finally beckoned us, "You can go in now."
I reached the door first, and I held it open for Anko, mockingly bowing my head as she came from behind me; she gave me a dirty look but entered anyway. Once Genma had also walked through I took a deep breath. 'Time to face the music.'
I steeled myself, squared my shoulders and entered the room. And immediately stopped in complete horror. My paranoia had been justified after all. My mouth went dry and my heart started hammering in my chest, and the reason was very obvious.
For sitting in the seat of the Sandaime Hokage was none other than Shimura Danzō.
Author's Note: Who saw that coming? Because I most certainly didn't! I swear! When I opened the file I thought about starting with Nanashi marking Sasuke; that somehow turned into Sasuke's viewpoint after he had been marked. Then I thought about the next scene when Nanashi gets a mission from Danzō because the Sandaime was out of the village for legitimate reasons; and that morphed into the conversation between Danzō and Hiruzen. As for the hint about Kotoamatsukami, I originally put it because I was feeling lazy about the ending for that conversation; instead the idea took root (pun intended) and now I have no idea if I should roll with it or discard it entirely. (I think it might have been inspired by Shadenight123's Introverted, so this is my shout out to him).
IMPORTANT: This is where I realized that I don't have to make the decision; instead, it's up to YOU! The reviewers! My most precious(es)! This is your chance to affect the story-line!
Do you think I should go with a story-line where Danzō hypnotizes the Sandaime and gets the whole timeline from him? Or should I leave it as an innocent reason like I originally intended?
The first option will deliciously complicate the plot; but I just know the ending. I don't yet know how we'll get there. Like I said, this will complicate it, but that would mean a longer story for you. So drop a review, and let me know your choice!
