"Talking"

'Thinking'

Jutsu/ Bijuu/ Summons

Flashbacks, Letters, and Setting

I don't own Naruto

Chapter 22: Mission to Wave Part 2

On the Road to Wave

Team 7 watched the demon brothers scramble off into the distance, stumbling over themselves to run away from Naruto before he changed his mind.

"Naruto-sensei, do you think it was a good idea letting them go? What if it comes back to bite us? Now they know who they're gonna be dealing with, and what we can do." Sasuke asked in concern. Team 7 had only been able to defeat them because of all of the unknowns and an element of surprise, and now the demon brothers were taking information back to the enemy.

Naruto gave him a smile of approval. "I like the way you're thinking. Information is the greatest asset in our profession, and really any other as well. That's why I always tell you guys to not show all your cards to your opponent, and to always have a few tricks or trump cards hidden up your sleeve."

"Then why did we let them go? Wouldn't it have been better if… you know… we killed them?" Sasuke asked his sensei.

Naruto chuckled a little at Sasuke's question. "Now, now. No need to be so bloodthirsty. I'm sure we'll get plenty of action down the road." Naruto told the Uchiha Genin.

"Besides, it's a gamble I'm willing to make that might make things a lot easier for us if things go as I expect."

Naruto ordered his team back into formation, as they prepared to get back on the move.

He turned around and looked Tazuna straight in the eye.

"From now on, I want you to be completely honest with us. No more lies or hiding anything from us. If anything happens to us from not having the information we need or if I find out you lied to us…" Naruto didn't need to finish that sentence. His look did it for him.

Tazuna felt his blood run cold as he gazed into Naruto's icy blue eyes that promised him pain of the likes he'd never experienced before. He gulped nervously and nodded.

"Good. I'm glad we understand each other." Naruto told Tazuna as he turned around and got back to his position at the head of their diamond escorting formation.

"Alright Team 7. Let's get this show back on the road."

The journey went on a lot more smoothly after that, and now that he saw what his protectors could do, Tazuna had a lot more faith in them, and was more relaxed and cooperative.

The whole party was in high spirits after the smooth handling of the incident, and the Genin were less stiff and a lot more confident than they were when the mission started. They kept their guard up however, now that they knew danger could strike from anywhere, at any time.

Naruto was glad he had trained his Genin properly on escort mission protocols, when he saw how professionally they handled themselves. Sure, they still continued their banter and even chatted with Tazuna to keep the trip from being boring, but he could see the vigilance in their eyes.

Hours later, the sun started to set. Naruto found a decent place to camp for the night in a small clearing in the woods nearby that would hide them from view from the road, yet was wide enough to let them see when enemies approached them, and not be taken off guard.

"Alright Team 7! We'll be camping here for the night. Hinata and Narumi will be sharing a tent, and me and Sasuke will share one as well. Tazuna-san will get his own tent."

He ordered his Genin to set up camp while he went off a little further, and began to place seals on nearby trees to give them an early warning system, and set up traps and other security measures as well.

When he came back, the tents were set up, and Sasuke had managed to start a small fire with the wood the girls managed to gather. Tazuna used his skills and tools as a builder to put together some makeshift furniture, such as a few logs that were cut and carved to serve as a table and some stools they could sit on.

"Oh my, what a nice camp!" Naruto commented as he sat down on one of the roughly carved log stools. "You'd think we were out here to camp for fun!" Naruto commented to his team as he pulled out a scroll and began to unpack some basic ingredients to make some stew for dinner.

Almost an hour later, they were seated around a large split log that was elevated on some rocks to serve as a table, enjoying Naruto's cooking

"So, we'll be arriving at a small port village, where we'll be getting a boat to ferry us over to Wave, sometime in the afternoon tomorrow." Naruto told his team as they ate. "Tazuna, do you know anybody who would be willing to ferry us?"

"Not many people sail to Wave anymore ever since Gato took over." Tazuna told Team 7. "It'll be difficult finding people who are willing to ferry us over, but I think I might know a guy." He told Naruto.

"Is this Gato guy that scary? I mean, what does he do?" Narumi asked the old man.

The other 2 Genin looked at Tazuna to hear his answer as well, as they were also wondering what was so bad about this Gato fellow.

"Well, he's one of the 3 richest people on this continent. Which means he's richer than most Daimyos. On the surface, one might think he makes his money off of his shipping company, and he does indeed make a lot from it. However, he uses the company as a front to also smuggle and ship all sorts of contraband, which ranges from weapons, drugs, and even slaves, which he makes even more from." Tazuna explained, much to the shock of Team 7's Genin.

"He uses his money to hire thugs and missing nin to scare people into selling their businesses or properties, and in Wave, he bought all of the fishing and shipping companies, which were the lifeblood of our village. He uses this monopoly to charge exorbitant prices, and the inflation in our town has reduced us into bartering again. As if it wasn't bad enough that we can't make a living any more, he sends his thugs to collect what he calls "protection fees", and the thugs who come to collect take their own cut as well, leaving us impoverished. In fact, the thugs run free in our town, and do whatever they want and take whatever they want, including people. If anyone tries to fight back or protests, they're executed publicly."

The Genin were speechless. How could someone be so evil and cruel?

"That's terrible! How could anyone be so mean and… and… evil!?" Narumi yelled out in disbelief.

"The world is a terrible and dangerous place. The strong take advantage of the weak, whether it's people or villages or even nations. It's the way of this world. If you want to change this world, you'd have to be stronger than the world. That's why nothing ever changes." Naruto told his Genin.

"That's… awful…" Hinata sighed out. Is this truly the world that she lived in? Would she ever be strong enough to change her clan? She wondered if she would instead be one of the people that would be taken advantage of.

Naruto noticed the depressing atmosphere settling over everyone.

"We might not be able to change the whole world, but we can still make a difference to the people around us though. If we become strong enough, we can protect the people who are precious to us. We can make the world around us a little better if we put in the work and effort to try to make a difference." Naruto told his team in an effort to encourage them.

"That's why I work you guys so hard. You guys have so much potential, both in strength but also in position. Hinata and Sasuke will be clan head some day, and you will need power if you want to make any changes. You can't afford to be lazy. If you wanna go laze around and procrastinate, you might as well quit being a shinobi right now." Naruto told his team.

Narumi chuckled at that last statement. "Oh man, Shikamaru should have been here to hear that!"

The Konoha shinobi all laughed, while Tazuna wondered who this Shikamaru was.

"The Nara Clan might be famous for being lazy, but don't ever think they're weak. I don't always know what they're hiding behind that lazy expression of theirs, but you'd be hard pressed to catch them off guard." Naruto told his team.

"Anyway, we can talk more about that some other time. Now that we finished eating, we should get some sleep, since we'll be leaving early in the morning tomorrow. We'll take turns on sentry duty for 2 hours each. Sasuke, take the first shift. Narumi will go next, then Hinata, and I'll take the last shift."

The traveling party soon settled in for the night. Unbeknownst to the Genin, Naruto had made several shadow clones and hid them in the trees to keep an extra eye out just in case. Throughout the night, they would occasionally make some noise to see if the Genin were staying alert, and see if they would keep protocol. He wasn't sure if it was because of his speech earlier, or because of their encounter with the demon brothers earlier in the day, but Naruto was happy and proud to see his team take guard duty seriously.

Towards the end of Naruto's shift, around 5:30 in the morning, he created a shadow clone to slowly start packing and clearing the area so they could get back on the road as soon as possible.

The team soon got up, got ready for the day, and by 6:30, had a light breakfast of leftovers and were back on the road.

There were no more incidents as the team travelled that day, and they were able to make it to the small port town on the coast near Wave in good time, arriving around 3 in the afternoon, earlier than they expected.

"Let's see now… his house should be right around… here!" Tazuna directed the team to his connection in the town, and knocked on the door.

"Who is-, oh hey! It's you Tazuna! Been a while! What can I do for you?" Tazuna's friend greeted him as he opened the door.

"Hey there old friend! Good to see ya!" the two old men greeted each other. "I was wondering if you could get me a ride to Wave." Tazuna asked.

Tazuna's friend's face suddenly became serious. "You want me to take you back to that shit hole? People are clamoring to leave if anything. Besides, it's dangerous. Why would you risk the safety of both of us for a meaningless endeavor?"

Tazuna's usually drunk face showed his uncharacteristically steely resolve. "I'm Wave's last hope. If this bridge to save our village doesn't get built, our village is doomed. That's why I hired these super ninja to protect me!" Tazuna's face brightened up as he introduced his guard detail.

The elderly ferryman looked Team 7 up and down. "Fine. I can give you a ride, but you'll have to follow my rules."

"Oh don't worry about us. We're quite good at following instructions ferry-san." Naruto told the old man.

The travelers boarded the old man's rickety old boat, and started to head for Wave, slowly rowed over by the man.

The boat journey was taking longer than expected, and Narumi, who wasn't the most patient, started to get annoyed, especially since they all had to be quiet.

"Ugh! This is so slow! Why can't we just use the motor? We would have been there an hour ago!" Narumi complained to her friends.

"Shhhhh! The reason we're not using the motor is the same reason I told you guys to stay quiet! We don't want Gato's thugs to know we're coming." The old man scolded Narumi in a harsh whisper.

Naruto had tried to comply with the old man's instructions, but he began to find this tedious. This was too inefficient for his liking. He slapped on a silencing seal on the boat, forming an invisible bubble around them that blocked all the sounds from the boat.

"I've just placed a silencing seal on the boat like I should have done hours ago. No one should be able to hear anything."

The old man was stunned. "You… you can do something like that?"

Naruto just gave him a grin in response. "Anyway, now that we got that figured out, let's figure out how to get there faster."

The old ferryman went over to turn on the motor, but Naruto cut him off.

"Allow me. Everyone hold on tight! Futon: Toppa! (Wind Release: Breakthrough)" Naruto used his wind jutsu to propel the boat faster than the old man had ever gone on his boat before, and the boat even skipped over the surface of the water at certain points. The passengers held on for their lives.

In a matter of a few minutes, they had reached Wave, and Team 7 and their client left the old ferryman bewildered as he rowed back home.

"Should have done that from the beginning." Narumi whispered to Sasuke and Hinata, and Sasuke nodded in agreement.

On Wave, on the Road to Tazuna's House

Team 7 and Tazuna made their way towards Tazuna's house, their accommodation for the duration of the mission.

Meanwhile, 2 pairs of eyes were hidden in the branches of some trees at a distance, watching the 5 travelers, as they looked for the right timing for an ambush.

Naruto sensed 2 chakra signatures from some trees which were at a distance, but didn't turn his head or do anything that let anyone know he had detected enemies. He instead subtly directed his killing intent towards the larger and more dangerous feeling chakra signature.

The older shinobi in hiding had his hand raised, ready to signal his junior partner to release the rabbit for the kawarimi. He suddenly felt the dangerous killing intent directed at him, and his body froze, as he felt a bit of fear that he hadn't felt in a long time.

The younger shinobi waited for the signal as their target came close to the ambush point, but it wasn't coming.

"Zabuza-sama? Should I release the rabbit?" the junior shinobi asked.

Zabuza put his arm back down as he contemplated the demon brothers' warning. Was this fox of Konoha referring to the Fox ANBU of Konoha? Could the blonde man leading the party be Fox of the legendary ANBU team known outside of Konoha as the Ghost Squad?

"Zabuza-sama?" Zabuza's accomplice asked once again for confirmation.

Zabuza shook his head. "We'll observe them more and gather more information before we strike. Let's get out of here, Haku."

Haku looked at Zabuza, slightly surprised. Haku had never seen Zabuza back out of a fight before. However, it was Zabuza's call to make, so the two silently pulled out of the ambush.

Naruto sensed the 2 chakra signatures get further and further away.

His Genin looked at him strangely when they saw him break out into a smirk out of nowhere.

'Heh. Smart move, Zabuza.' Naruto thought to himself.

Tazuna's House

Tazuna knocked on the door of his house, and was answered by a woman's voice.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Tsunami! Tazuna! I'm back from Konoha!" Tazuna replied back.

The door opened, revealing a fairly pretty black haired woman who appeared to be in her early 30s. "Otou-san! You've returned!" Tsunami greeted her father with a hug.

"Yup! All thanks to these super ninja that I've hired from Konoha! They're gonna protect me and the workers while we build the bridge!" Tazuna told his daughter.

"Thank you for bringing my father back home safely. Please, come inside. You're just in time for dinner." Tsunami invited Team 7 inside.

"Let me cook a little more food. I wasn't expecting guests. Please, take a seat and get comfortable." Tsunami told her guests.

"You can put your stuff… where are your things?" Tsunami asked, wondering where all their luggage was.

"Ah, don't worry Tsunami-san, we've got all our things sealed up in our storage scrolls!" Naruto told Tsunami.

She didn't have any idea what he was talking about, but she just smiled and nodded politely and went back to the kitchen to make food for 5 more people.

Roughly half an hour later, the food was ready, and everyone gathered around the table to eat.

"Inari! Come down for dinner!" Tsunami called out as she took her seat.

The boy in question came down soon, and looked at the guests with a cold gaze. Narumi could sense the unease and negative emotions coming off from the boy, but stayed quiet.

They all began to eat, and the team from Konoha was surprised at how delicious the food was. Everyone had a good time talking and getting to know each other. Everyone but Inari.

He looked at everyone chatting happily, as if nothing was wrong, and began to get angry. Who did these people think they were? And where did they think they were? Showing up out of nowhere and acting like they haven't got a worry in their life, and everything was fine outside.

'None of them even know what it's like to face real loss. I bet they all come from happy families where everything is just dandy.' Inari angrily thought to himself.

He couldn't take it anymore. "Shut up!"

Everyone went quiet and turned to look at him.

"All of you acting like nothing's wrong, smiling and laughing as if you don't have a single worry in the world! It's disgusting! People are out here suffering! What would you Konoha people know anything about that anyway? You guys come from one of the big villages where I bet everything is fine. I bet you guys all have families with no problems, and everyone gets along just fine. You guys don't know anything!" the boy yelled out.

"Inari! These people are here to help us! They're trying to help us save the village!" Tsunami scolded Inari.

"What's the point? Gato has an army behind him. They're just gonna die anyway." Inari stated.

"Inari!" Tsunami yelled out, trying to scold him.

"Everyone dies. Whether you die in a fight, die of old age, or die by public execution." Naruto interjected.

"But all I know is I'd rather die protecting what's important to me, rather than live pathetically, complaining about how terrible the world is while not doing anything about it, like a whiney little brat."

Inari was stunned at Naruto's response. No one had talked to him like that before.

"All your whining is giving me a headache, so why don't you shut up and go to your room and complain under your blanket, where all the people who want to hear your complaints will be?" Naruto told Inari in a cold voice, and Inari ran back to his room in tears.

"Onii-chan!" Narumi punched her brother in the shoulder. "You didn't have to be so mean!"

"Fine. I'm sorry Tsunami-san. I suppose I was a little harsh on the boy. I just didn't appreciate him talking to us disrespectfully, while knowing nothing about us. I'll apologize to him tomorrow." Naruto told Tsunami as he scratched the back of his head.

"It's alright. I can't say he didn't have it coming. He used to be a bright and happy boy, but he's changed ever since Gato had my husband Kaiza executed publicly for standing up to him." Tsunami told her guests sadly.

Naruto felt bad when he heard that.

"Ah. Shoot. Sorry about that. I'm not always the best when it comes to people." Naruto told Tsunami. "I'll try to patch things up tomorrow when he's calmed down."

"I-I'll go talk to him, sensei." Hinata volunteered surprisingly. She hated seeing people get hurt like that, and she felt bad for the young boy.

Hinata headed upstairs, and knocked on Inari's room.

"C-can I come in, Inari-kun?" Hinata asked politely.

"No! Go away!" was the answer to her question.

"Alright. I'll s-sit outside then." Hinata said softly as she hugged her knees and sat against the door.

"I h-hope you don't take what my sensei said too harshly. H-he's actually a very k-kind person usually."

"He's a jerk! He would never understand what it's like to lose a parent and live like this!" Inari yelled out from his bed.

"You're wr-wrong Inari-kun. He would understand better than anyone. He and Narumi-chan are s-siblings, and their parents were k-killed on the day Narumi was born. Sensei had to r-raise Narumi by himself ever since he was 8 years old." Hinata explained.

Inari was shocked. He was 8 years old right now! He couldn't imagine raising a baby by himself. He couldn't even take care of himself!

"You know, our lives aren't p-perfect. Most of Sasuke-kun's family was killed in a s-single night. My mother also d-died giving birth to my sister." A tear rolled down her cheek as she remembered her mother.

The door opened up, and Inari came out looking a little calmer than before.

Hinata gave him a smile. "My s-sensei's a big believer of taking r-responsibility. He didn't say it in the k-kindest way, but I'm sure he w-wanted to tell you not to give up."

Inari stared at the floor silently, but Hinata knew he heard what she said. She gave a him another smile and headed back down. "G-good night Inari-kun. Hope you f-feel better tomorrow."

When Hinata came back down, Narumi elbowed Naruto in the stomach. "Geez nii-chan. You have Hinata-chan cleaning up after your mess now?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, causing Hinata and Sasuke to laugh.

Over the next few days, Team 7 fell into the schedule of protecting Tazuna and his builders as they worked on the bridge, starting from 8 to 5.

From 5pm until dinner, and sometimes after dinner, they would train, working on their elemental mastery and chakra control and building their reserves. Naruto also had them spar every day in order to keep them sharp.

Zabuza spied on them during the day, trying to learn more about them after hearing how the demon brothers were defeated by mere Genin, but when he tried to spy on their training, he would find himself on the other side of a barrier that Naruto had put up to protect their privacy.

He had heard rumors that Fox had been skilled with seals, and when he saw one of the intricate sealing tags that were used to erect the barrier, he knew that Naruto was Fox.

'Shit! This couldn't get any worse!' Zabuza thought to himself as he slammed his fists on the table back in his hideout. 'If the rumors are correct, he's supposed to be an S-rank ninja, who is skilled in all of the ninja arts.'

Haku watched Zabuza with concern. Who was Fox that it would bother him so much? Ever since the demon brothers came back he had been more brooding than usual.

Meanwhile, a certain blonde Jonin of Konoha was doing some reconnaissance of his own. After seeing the deplorable state of Wave that even exceeded what he expected, he decided something needed to be done. Gato needed to go.

The Genin of Team 7 were left alone for the night when Naruto left, and were eating dinner after training.

Inari had been watching them train for some time now, climbing trees with their feet, trying to light a lightbulb with their hands, and other strange exercises. The only thing that made sense to him was the sparring, and even that didn't give him much to believe in.

He was in his bed thinking about what Hinata had told him a few nights ago, and that reminded him of how Kaiza, a hero who had previously saved their village from flooding, stood up to Gato for his village.

He remembered how hopeless he felt when he saw his hero get his arms lopped off in public, and hung in the village square, only to have his corpse tossed unceremoniously in an unmarked grave at sea.

It was all for nothing. His death changed nothing. He was angry when he thought about how these foreigners just came to his village, thinking they could make a difference. What made them so special? Because they do that strange training? Did they think they were better than Kaiza?

He heard laughter downstairs, and it made him mad again.

When he went downstairs, he saw the 3 Genin laughing and talking about their training.

"You guys think you can just waltz in here and think you'll make all the difference in the world? You think those strange exercises will help you? Why do you try so hard anyway!?" Inari yelled at the 3 Genin.

"We're training hard so we can help ya! We're trying to help save this village!" Narumi yelled back.

"You think you're so special, don't you. Like you're some kind of hero or something. Let me tell you, heroes are stupid. They think their sacrifice means something, but at the end of the day, nothing changes, and their sacrifices are meaningless!" Inari fired back.

"You take that back! The world would be a much worse place if there were no heroes!" Narumi said defensively, thinking about her parents' legacy.

"Whatever! All heroes do is die anyway, leaving their families to fend for themselves! They're selfish and stupid! Nobody remembers them after they die anyway!" Inari stormed off back to his room after that.

Narumi was furious. She stormed out the house.

Hinata frowned. Did her talk with Inari completely fail in making him sympathize with them?

Sasuke ran out after Narumi, concerned about what she was going to do.

Narumi had stormed off quite a distance into the surrounding woods. She needed to get away for a second.

She pulled out her sword and began going through her sword katas to blow off some steam.

When Sasuke found Narumi, she was swinging her sword angrily.

"Narumi! What the heck! What's wrong? Why did you let a little boy get in your head like that?" Sasuke asked.

"It's just… that kid! Ugh! He's so infuriating! Acts like a know it all when he actually doesn't know anything! And since he's the client's family, I can't bop him in the head or anything!" Narumi screamed out in frustration.

"It was his comments on heroes that set you off, wasn't it? Why does that bother you so much?" Sasuke asked Narumi.

"Because! Because… I don't know. I guess it's because it felt like he made it sound like my parents sacrificed themselves in vain. Because they died, Naruto nii-chan has to sacrifice for me. He has no life outside of work, and his only real friend in the village right now is Izumi nee-chan." Narumi poured out her thoughts to her closest friend.

"Maybe if they decided to be more selfish and only care about their family… if only they didn't decide to be heroes… then I would have been able to meet them… then maybe I wouldn't be such a burden to nii-chan and he could be happy…"

Sasuke was surprised at Narumi's inner feelings. She usually portrayed herself as a happy go lucky person, who was passionate, showing anger and happiness in extremes. However, he hadn't known she had been harboring these kinds of thoughts deep inside.

"D-don't be stupid Narumi! Naruto nii-san doesn't think of you as a burden! And if your parents didn't sacrifice themselves, the whole village would have been destroyed! Everyone in Konoha owes your parents!" Sasuke said in order to make Narumi feel better.

"But what does that mean for the people they left behind? Everyone says they're heroes, but really, nothing is done for their families! They're basically forgotten! What's the point of trying so hard to help people, if in the end, they end up forgetting about you?" Narumi asked.

Sasuke didn't really know how to respond, as he had never given the matter much thought.

"To be honest, I'm not sure." Sasuke admitted. "But I don't think they, or any hero, does what they do for recognition anyway. How the people react to their act of heroism doesn't really matter."

"Then what matters?" Narumi asked.

Sasuke thought about it for a second. "I'm not sure but I guess they do what they think is right. Anyone who is willing to risk their lives to do what they think is right, no matter how difficult of a choice they have to make, deserves to be respected if you ask me." Sasuke said ironically, not knowing that was exactly what the person he hated the most did.

"Besides, who cares what a dumb little kid thinks? Forget about him. If you ask me, heroes are awesome."

"You think so? How come?" Narumi asked, curious to hear what he thought.

"… don't tell him, but my biggest hero is actually your brother. He fought against my traitorous brother and almost got killed trying to save me and my mother. If heroes didn't exist, then neither would me or my mom. Or anyone in my clan."

Narumi was surprised. She had never thought about it that way.

"It doesn't matter if they get remembered or not, but their actions affect the lives of the people they helped forever. And that's pretty cool if you ask me." Sasuke stated.

"Anyway I'm gonna head back in. I forgot to grab my jacket, and I'm not swinging around a huge chunk of metal to warm me up." Sasuke headed back in afterwards.

Narumi's mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts and it was giving her a headache. She wasn't the one for much philosophical thinking anyway. She decided to continue her extra bit of training to clear her head.

She formed a few shadow clones, and had them throw rocks at her, as she tried to dodge it or parry it with her blade.

She trained late into the night until exhaustion kicked in. She decided to catch her breath under a tree, but she soon dozed off to sleep.

*Author's Note*

And that's the latest chapter of the Jinchuuriki's Brother!

It wasn't the most action packed chapter, but I thought it was important to show what the characters are thinking, and expand on their interactions to reveal what they are like.

The next chapter will have more action!

Anyway, I've read your comments, and I think most people agree that having different pairings might be ok for Naruto. I'll take into consideration the votes that have been made so far, and try to use those characters if possible. Once I made that decision, the story sort of started to write itself in my head so now I have a basic outline for the parts in between, since I already have an ending I thought of. I think I'll end the votes for Naruto now. Thank you everyone who voted! I appreciate all of your opinions and thoughts.

On the other hand, Narumi is gonna be paired with just one person. At least that's what I'm thinking at this stage of the story. She won't be paired until a little later, so I'll keep the votes up for now.

I kept Haku's sex ambiguous for now, and tried to avoid any pronouns in this chapter, if you haven't noticed lol. I haven't decided what to do with Haku yet.

Anyway, with that being said, here are the votes for Narumi's pairings.

Sasuke 56

Shino 11

Shikamaru 36

Gaara 36

Haku 48

Kiba 1

any other suggestions?

I'm starting to wonder if I wrote Sasuke too much as a brother figure… *gasp!* could it be… the dreaded... Brother Zone? The legendary next level of the friend zone?

Man, if I decided he was too much of a bro to get with Narumi and removed him, then decided to make Haku a girl and remove her from the list as well, I'd be removing the top 2. I'd be a real asshole and this vote would really have no point. Yet, I am considering this very thing… *sigh* decisions decisions… not always so easy writing this story and trying to please everyone. The devil is in the details.

Let me know what you guys think by leaving a review or comment, or feel free to send me a PM if you have any suggestions or questions as well!

Thanks for reading the latest chapter, and I hope you guys all stay safe and have a great day!

Until next time!