Chapter 4. The Snake

AN: some mentions of past one-sided SasuSaku in this chapter.

A letter, written on a crumpled piece of paper. At least ten different spelling errors have been crossed out and corrected in the margins. Someone doodled small frogs at the top.

Hey, Kaka-sensei!

How are you? Still in one piece? (I'm just asking because you're kind of bad at avoiding hospitals). Did you give Gaara the card I handed you? Did he laugh? I've been trying to make him laugh for ages now, and I still haven't succeeded.

So, Kumo is kind of a bust. Bee kept telling me it was this really cool place where people appreciated proper music, and proper jokes, but I think he was just fooling himself. They don't really seem to like his music at all, and they liked it even less when I joined Bee for a little concert. I'm thinking maybe singing isn't my strong suit…

Anyway, I heard from Sakura that you guys ran into some weird stuff back in Suna? Now, I'm all for you helping Gaara, but I just wanted to say it's only been four months. Take it easy. I will clobber you if you're not careful.

Give Sakura my love.

Uzumaki Naruto,

Future Seventh Hokage (it's never too early to practice my signature, right?)

At the edge of Wind country, the desert slowly petered out into a slightly more fertile land, where shrubs would occasionally stick up their heads and give the landscape a splash of color. The further they got, the larger and more numerous the foliage until eventually, they saw the tree line of the massive forest that spanned the border of the country.

The rest of the week in Sunagakure had passed pretty uneventfully, all things considered. As far as Sakura knew, no new clues had turned up regarding what had happened in the small settlement, although she wasn't exactly privy to all the latest news the way she was back in Konoha. According to sensei's many yawns and general recalcitrance, the meetings hadn't been particularly interesting either.

At least he seemed to get along with Gaara, which was both amusing and slightly scary, and she'd delighted in telling Naruto all about it in a letter. Between the two of them, Gaara and Kakashi had utterly exhausted Sunagakure's more recalcitrant council members. Apparently, the man who had interrupted their first meeting was now sporting bald patches from the stress of it.

By all accounts, both kages had gotten exactly what they wanted out of the meetings, too.

"Man, am I glad to be out of that dust hole!" Mitarashi Anko grinned widely and stretched her arms above her head. She marched ahead cheerfully, the first to leave the desert and enter the tree line. Unlike the others, she hadn't been particularly interested in the missing nomads, and she'd gotten bored of investigating Sunagakure within two days. Sakura suspected it had more to do with her fair skin and propensity for burning it. It didn't help that she had foregone her coat and replaced it with a crop top for most of the trip. Now, she finally dug the oversized beige coat out of her backpack and put it on again.

As for Sakura's other companions, they formed a sliding scale of grump.

Owl, unsurprisingly, was as serious as always. If she was happy at all to have left the place that had made her so visibly uncomfortable, she didn't show it. She seemed her usual self, if anything. Alert, but otherwise a blank canvas.

Kakashi-sensei was hard to read as well. He kept his hands in his pockets and his eyes were heavy-lidded with boredom. He'd been distracted all week, and often barely even heard it when someone spoke to him. He was still messing around with that scroll, but as far as Sakura knew, he had yet to open it. Whatever his dad had done to it, it had been pretty effective. Whatever it was, though, it was clearly getting to Kakashi. To be fair, Sakura would be pretty annoyed too if a piece of paper had stumped her for almost a week.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, was actively moping. Sure, he did his duty without any complaints, but there were only so many forlorn looks he could throw over his shoulder before a girl recognized heart ache. Sakura sidled up next to him as they walked and bumped his shoulder with her own. "You okay?"

He scowled. "Am I that obvious?"

"Only a little bit," she smiled cheekily. It was always fun to get the drop on him.

"It's fine. I'm used to this," he said.

"Villages before girlfriends, huh?"

"Yeah. I figured you'd get that." He raised an eyebrow.

For a moment, Sakura didn't understand what he was referring to. Then she thought, Sasuke, and almost leaving Konoha with him. How stupid she'd been.

"Oh, no-we're not-it's not like that anymore. There's too much distance," she flushed, thinking of dark eyes and pale fingers.

"Hmm. Doesn't mean you can just switch those feelings off, though, does it? " He retorted.

Still a bloody mind reader.

Now it was her turn to scowl. "That's not really any of your business. I thought we were talking about you. " And anyway, feelings tended to change after murder attempts. At some point, rationale had to overcome emotion.

He grinned lightly. "What goes around comes around."

She gave him a light shove. If all else failed, violence always worked. It was a great way to change the subject. "So what do you think happened in that settlement?" She asked, once he'd picked himself up again. She was actually quite interested in picking his brain; if you did have one of the world's cleverest people around, you might as well make use of it.

He shrugged. "Ransoming. Abduction. Maybe they just left. I don't know, but it seems shady. It's not actually our business, though, even if we are allies. We went to Suna for politics and diplomacy, not a mission."

"Even so… If we are allies, shouldn't we help?"

"We're still rebuilding back home, and vetting our elite, ANBU, to make sure their allegiance isn't with Fox. I mean, that's why the ANBU commander didn't join us on this trip. You know he wanted to," Shikamaru drawled.

That was true; usually, Yamato-taichou preferred to join Kakashi on his outings, especially after what had happened the last time. Hell, even before then. He seemed to have gotten it into his mind that his first priority was to control whatever damage Kakashi-sensei managed to wreak. Knowing sensei, it wasn't entirely unjustified. This time, though, Yamato'd been so busy that he hadn't even asked.

"If anything, I'm surprised Kakashi-sensei didn't want us to stay for longer," she said thoughtfully. "He doesn't talk about it, but he's obviously feeling cooped up staying in the village all the time."

Not that he looked particularly happy in Suna.

Kakashi'd gone so pale when Ebizou had mentioned his father. After that, he'd been less eager to explore the village, or even leave his room. Why? She knew a little about his father from what he had told the team after Fox's death, but it had been one of the the topics he'd been the most uncomfortable talking about- Hatake Sakumo, and Nohara Rin.

Sakura personally suspected Kakashi had had an easier time talking about Obito and Minato because Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke had already seen parts of his history with them during the war. That would make it easier to talk about, right? Because they already knew part of it?

Had, in fact, had it thrown in their faces in the form of Obito himself, vengeful and dangerous. And later, that same angry man had helped them save the world. Without that final redemption, she was pretty sure sensei would never have spoken of his old friend again.

It was strange to think of Kakashi as someone who could feel ashamed, when he usually walked around with porn in front of his nose, but it was the only thing that made sense.

It made her a little sad. For all that team 7 had hurt her, at least they were all still alive and mostly intact- just short of two arms and one eye. That was a lot better than Tenten could say in regards to her team. None of them had been the same after poor Neji had died. Despite everything, team seven had gotten lucky.

She couldn't imagine all of them being dead. Her parents, Naruto and Sasuke, even Kakashi-sensei... Would she have gone mad, if they'd all died? Or would she have become reclusive and eccentric, always happy to stay on the sidelines…

Great. That just made her feel more sad. It helped a little to look up and see Kakashi-sensei reading one of his stupid books, stooped over and looking a little silly with his mask and his hair. Still just good old Kakashi-sensei, despite everything.

At her side, Shikamaru shrugged. They paused briefly near a tree, and watched as Kakashi walked further out of hearing range. "I only ever knew Kakashi as your teacher, before Akatsuki, but the fact that he was ANBU is pretty much common knowledge. That, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out he probably started young. That's what they did with prodigies back in the day. I'd feel cooped up too, if I'd been out in the field all my life. It's why he likes mysteries so much these days."

"Mysteries?"

"You know. Fox, or the disappeared villagers."

"I doubt he enjoyed Fox."

Shikamaru shook his head. "That's the thing. I think part of him did. Not the poisoning, but the thrill of it all. Like being in battle again."

They were briefly quiet as they digested this.

Eventually, Shikamaru shrugged. "It's okay if he's restless, but it shouldn't affect his choices. Not when his choices influence all of us."

Sakura frowned, feeling uncomfortable. She started to walk again, wanting to catch up with the others. "Sensei can be reckless, but he's not stupid," she countered weekly.

"No one would ever call him stupid," Shikamaru said, picking up his pace as well. "He just has a habit of treating everything like missions."

Perhaps a quarter of an hour later, they approached one of wind country's border towns. It was one of the smaller settlements, looking more like a fortress than a village, all stone walls and disused guard towers. It was probably a remnant from the second great ninja war, when Suna had needed extra protection along its eastern borders.

Kakashi observed the neglected walls with vague curiosity, noticing the crumbling mortar and cracked stone. The fortress's current inhabitants obviously didn't do much to maintain the fortifications, but judging by the small, colorful block of shoebox sized apartments that rose up just beyond the wall they were certainly happy to be there.

That said, there couldn't be more than fifty people living in the old fortress.

"Temari told me about this place," Shikamaru said. "They're war refugees. Their town was overrun by white Zetsu's. The survivors ended up settling here, with Suna's aid. They used to have a patrol come by every week, until the refugees figured it out for themselves. Apparently, it's becoming quite popular marketplace."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as they passed by the open gate. There was no one to be seen. "Doesn't look very lively…"

He'd barely finished speaking when the door of one of the apartments burst open and a teenage boy came running out, screaming for their help. "Hey! Over here! We were attacked!"

After that, there wasn't a lot of time to think. Kakashi gave Sakura and Anko permission to investigate the fortress with a single nod. He stayed behind with Shikamaru and Owl, and let himself be guided into the village by the boy.

"How long ago was this?" He asked.

"Early this morning," the boy said. He had by now recognized their headbands, and seemed a little shy; officially, he was supposed to ask Suna for help, not Konoha. "One moment everything was fine, and the next these strangers were doing… Something. I don't understand what they were doing."

Around them, the village was slowly coming to life; people were starting to appear from doorways and windows, and carefully began to approach them.

The boy swayed suddenly, and sank down onto a nearby low wall. He cradled his head in his hands. "I felt so strange…"

Owl crouched next to him and placed her hand on his forehead to check his temperature. The boy flinched away from her mask at first, but once she quietly explained she wanted to check him for a concussion he gave in. A few checks later, and she was slowly shaking her head. "No concussion. Did you eat or drink anything unusual?"

"No, no. I just felt like I couldn't breathe, or move. It didn't stop until those men had left. I couldn't keep standing properly, so I didn't see what they were doing."

"We all felt it. It was… Terrifying," a slightly older girl said. She had the same thick eyebrows and tan skin as the boy, leaving little doubt that she was his sister. She sat next to him and wrapped an arm around him.

Kakashi and Shikamaru exchanged a look.

Sakura joined them a moment later. "The south seems clear. Anko took the North-"

"Over here!"

Speak of the devil. Anko was a blur of tan and purple as she suddenly raced towards the eastern exit. She blew her chakra up as large and intimidating as she could, a sure sign she was on the hunt.

"She's chasing someone," Owl, their sensor, confirmed half a second later, "Jonin-level, and fast."

Kakashi's heart did a funny little dance that it really shouldn't have done after the number of battles he had fought in his life. He was actually getting excited. He felt all the more grateful for his mask, because it neatly hid his smile as he chased after Anko. Somewhere behind him, he heard Shikamaru curse.

They were out of the settlement in no time flat – it really was little more than a fortress, converted into a small – raced back into the woods.

It only took Kakashi a few controlled breaths to get his heart rate back to a normal rate. He couldn't lose his head over the prospect of a single battle, like some over-excitable genin. Just because he wasn't used to going between fights for so long…

It occurred to him that all of these were entirely inappropriate thoughts to be having during a potentially dangerous chase. He tried not to laugh.

With another burst of chakra, he caught up to Anko and got his first look at their prey. White hair with a blue sheen, pale skin, purple clothes underneath a heavy cloak... This was one of Sasuke's bunch, Sui... something. Suimaru? Suigetsu.

The young man looked over his shoulder and cursed; five shinobi in pursuit, most of them obviously jonin-level or above from their chakra levels? He had to know he wouldn't be able to get away. He tried, though: with a barely imperceptible flash of chakra, his body shifted from bone and flesh into water, allowing him to slip through the trees at a much greater speed.

Mind made up, Kakashi picked a summoning scroll from his belt. A flash of chakra later, and four shiny steel rods arrowed after Suigetsu, burying themselves in the earth in a tight square around him. They crackled again, still infused with Kakashi's chakra, and then Suigetsu ran into an invisible wall.

"Raiton: Gokusotsu!"

(Lightning style: prison guards; hell's tormenting devils)

The lightning barrier crackled with blinding intensity, throwing Suigetsu onto his back. Faint purple chakra formed a cube around Suigetsu as Kakashi's chakra took hold, following the lines of the steel rods. The cube shimmered once, and then turned nearly invisible; only the occasional spark running across its surface betrayed its presence.

The first charge wouldn't be too bad; just something to startle the boy. Each successive charge would be worse.

"..The hell?" Suigetsu watched as the wall of chakra shimmered out of existence, visible only by the faint ripple in the air. He looked back over his shoulder, where Kakashi and his team were closing in. Kakashi slowed down to a jog.

Suigetsu bared his teeth in a snarl and threw himself to the left- slamming right into the next wall of his chakra prison. Another flash of lightning, and Suigetsu was once again on the floor.

"The fuck?" Wizened by the experience, Suigetsu created a water clone with the kind of ease and speed that came with being born in Kiri. The clone turned to Kakashi's direction as Suigetsu tried to go up. Two more flashes of light. The clone bursted, and Suigetsu cursed loudly as he was reacquainted with electric shocks to the system.

The cube's ceiling was the hardest to maintain, but definitely worth it.

Kakashi lowered himself onto a nearby branch, letting one leg dangle and folding the other underneath him. "Well. This is awkward," he said.

Suigetsu was still cursing. Fortunately, he was clever enough not to try turning his body into liquid to escape his jail cell. That was potentially lethal.

"Nice," Anko grinned appreciatively as she caught sight of the square chakra prison.

"So that's what you wanted those blades for?" Sakura asked, observing the prison with keen eyes.

"-DAMN IT, I'm not your enemy-"

"Yup! Pretty useful, right?" Kakashi smiled lightly, ignoring his prisoner. "Makes it a little easier to shape the prison."

"-jus' let me go already, you rotten old-"

"Still though, the name is a bit much," Shikamaru said dryly.

"I don't know, I kind of like it," Anko said, to no one's surprise.

"Artistic freedom," Kakashi shrugged. "Now, let's find out what one of Orochimaru's old lackeys is doing here, shall we?"

That caught Suigetsu's attention. He froze and pivoted slowly on his foot to face them. For a moment, he just looked at them, tilting his head a little as he took them in. "I don't work for him anymore. You're Sasuke's old teammate, right? You're the Sixth, you should already know this..."

Kakashi shrugged. He did know, but he could let the boy sweat little bit longer. "It seems to me you're a long way from home. Didn't you return to Kiri?"

He didn't, if Mei was to be believed. They'd all kept tabs on Sasuke's little group.

"As if. I wasn't in Kiri at all, I was in-" Suigetsu closed his mouth abruptly.

Well, at least he wasn't trying to lie.

"Yes?"

"It's none of your business!"

"Not with Sasuke, then?" Shikamaru drawled, taking up position next to Kakashi.

Suigetsu threw him a nasty glare. "Obviously. You don't see him around anywhere, do you?"

"Then the question remains why you are here. Not on holiday, I suppose?" Kakashi said. With a twist of his fingers, the prison grew smaller, forcing Suigetsu down to his knees.

"Geez- give me a break here!" Suigetsu cried out, jerking involuntarily at prison wall's proximity. One side of his body had already liquefied in instinctive response. "What are you doing here, anyway? Aren't you the Hokage? Shouldn't you be in Konoha?"

"Sorry, but you're not exactly in a position to be asking questions," Kakashi said.

Suigetsu stared back. After a moment, he averted his gaze. "All right, all right. Yes, I was in the sound village, but it's not like I'm on their side, you know? After all the shit that snake bastard put me through? If I'm on anyone side, it Sasuke's."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. At his side, Shikamaru seemed to come to the same conclusion. "Did he send you here?"

Sakura twitched.

Suigetsu scowled. "He didn't tell you? We're… Investigatin'. The old snake is making a move again."

The group was quiet as it digested that. Anko had lost her cheer altogether, looking pale and drawn.

Orochimaru had been eerily quiet since the war, drawing little attention to himself after he had slunk off (before any of the Kage had recovered enough to capture him). Ever since, they had tolerated the snake's continued existence for only two reasons: one, he'd saved Sasuke's life. Two (much more important than reason number one, since most of the other Kage's couldn't care less whether Sasuke lived or died), they'd seen hide nor hair of him in years.

Thanks for the heads-up, Sasuke. Preaching teamwork to that boy hadn't done much good.

Kakashi waited another moment, and then dropped down from the tree. Hands in his pockets, he strolled towards the chakra prison. "Explain."

Suigetsu's purple eyes looked at him suspiciously, trying to read him. Kakashi kept his body relaxed, not wanting to give anything away. He considered increasing the strength of the prison for a moment, to give Suigetsu some real incentive to talk, but from the stubborn set of the young man's eyes he could tell it wouldn't work. Like most good shinobi, Suigetsu wouldn't talk just to avoid a bit of pain.

Luck favored them. Or maybe it was his connection to Sasuke. Either way, Suigetsu reluctantly nodded. "Okay, so, you know how Karin went off to live in your village? And Sasuke started traveling again? Me and Juugo thought the best place for us to be would be somewhere we could keep an eye on everything. And that place is Sound village."

He spread his hands a little. As a gesture of goodwill, Kakashi let up on some of the chakra pressure. The chakra prison grew slightly larger, the walls slightly less aggressive.

"So the thing is, Orochimaru's not around much in Sound. He's technically the leader," Suigetsu explained, "but he doesn't do an awful lot of leading. It's his favorites that do most of the governing and assigning missions. Orochimaru is too busy with his own things. Which seemed pretty great, but then people started to go missing."

"I knew it, I knew it!" Anko hissed. "He's behind-"

Kakashi raised a hand, and Anko stopped talking. Her temper would often get the better of her, but he wouldn't let her spill any vital information. He threw a look over his shoulder, and saw embarrassment written all over her face. She probably would've stopped talking even if he hadn't given her a signal. It was bad luck to have her here, of all people. The snake always made it personal for her.

"So you started to investigate," Kakashi prompted.

Suigetsu nodded. "Yeah, we did. We told Sasuke too, so he also went looking around. He's in Grass country right now."

"And you're all the way over here. You think Orochimaru's reach could be that great?" Shikamaru asked.

Suigetsu snorted derisively. "You don't?"

"Do you think he's taking these people himself? Or is he using sound shinobi?" Kakashi asked.

Suigetsu shrugged. "I don't know. We don't see him much, he might as well be running around the continent for all we know. It's not as though he can't disguise himself."

Or steal a body, if the situation called for it. Just thinking about it made the hairs on the back of Kakashi's neck stand up. He remembered another time, another place-the cold cellar, the darkness lurking just behind the pillars surrounding them, and the full force of Orochimaru's killing intent bearing down on him.

Well. That had been a long time ago. A lot had happened since then.

Kakashi hummed thoughtfully to himself. He couldn't use any of his usual dogs, but… There were other options to get a message out. Cutting his thumb open on a knife, he separated some chakra from what he was using for the prison technique, and channeled it into a summoning. A moment later, a lean, pale Greyhound appeared before him. He hadn't used her in years.

He took a file from one of his pockets and popped open the top. Familiar with the procedure, the dog immediately put her nose to it and started sniffing. "Miki, I need you to find Uchiha Sasuke. Tell him I found his fish, and want to know what the old snake is up to. Go as quick as you can." Kakashi said.

Miki nodded, and turned tail. Kakashi watched her long gait- she was as quick as ever.

"His fish? His fish?" Suigetsu squeaked indignantly.

From behind him, Kakashi could hear Shikamaru mutter, "should I be worried he has people's scent markers in his pocket?" Which was answered by Sakura's, "don't worry, he's always weird like this."

"I'm electing to ignore that," Kakashi said. ("Ears like a bat!")

"So, those experiments?" Kakashi continued, "we're on the same side here, Suigetsu. We're none of us friends of Orochimaru."

"Yeah, but we're not exactly allies either, are we?" Suigetsu said sullenly.

"We're all on Sasuke's side, though," Sakura said gently.

"And definitely anti-snake," Anko added. She had turned up her collar, hiding her curse Mark from view. She hadn't done that for two years at least. Kakashi made a note to ask her later whether it was paining her.

Suigetsu looked from one to the other with something like disbelief. "How on earth did someone like Sasuke end up with allies?" He snickered softly to himself. "If you've got more of those fancy dogs, though, we can keep each other up to date. You tell me what you know, I tell you what I know."

Kakashi had no idea just how loyal Suigetsu really was to Sasuke; would it hold up against interrogation, if Orochimaru captured him? There was no way Kakashi could justify a complete exchange of information, particularly not since he was a Kage and Suigetsu a former enemy.

"Or you could be my informant, and send me what you find," he said, coldly enough to make his team straighten up, "and in return I'll let you go."

The walls of the chakra prison lit up briefly, and hummed with killing intent.

Suigetsu met his eyes again. Sweat dripped from his forehead. "You're a cold bastard too, aren't you?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrows briefly in acknowledgment. "I can be."

Suigetsu calculated his odds. Then he nodded. "Okay. But only because Sasuke trusts you. Don't go thinking I'm Konoha now."

Kakashi let his stern expression melt away into a bright smile. "I wouldn't dream of it." With that, he finally released the prison jutsu. His chest ached faintly in response, as it often had since he was poisoned, but it was merely a faint echo compared to what it had felt like a few months earlier.

Suigetsu slowly got up out of his crouch, and reached out with his hands to touch the air around him. When he was certain the prison was truly gone, he tilted his chin up at them. "Who's to say I won't just run away, and never tell you anything again?"

"The fact that you're asking that question at all. That, and you want Orochimaru stopped just as much as we do. It's not as though he did you any favors, during your stay there."

It was a guess, but Kakashi's suspicion was confirmed by Suigetsu's flinch. Yet another one of Orochimaru's experiments, just like Tenzou, Anko, and the rest of Sasuke's ragtag band of misfits. They liked to act tough, but no one could shake off the effects of childhood abuse like it was nothing. Not for the first time, Kakashi was glad he had never fallen into Orochimaru's hands as a boy.

Suigetsu huffed in annoyance. "Fine. But I want to know where the old bastard is at. No way I'm sticking around to find out what he does to traitors."

If Orochimaru really was involved, things could get ugly. Which meant Gaara needed to be warned.

"One last question. These disappearances, where were they taking place? And how often?" Kakashi asked.

Suigetsu reluctantly picked a scroll from his pouch. He tossed it at Kakashi. "This is a map of the locations. The dates are written next to them. Guess I can tell you taught Sasuke-he was thinking along the same lines. You want to look for patterns, right?"

So the kid wasn't as stupid as he looked. "Something like that. Thank you." Kakashi smiled again as he pocketed the map. "It just goes to show how valuable a nice stroll through the forest can be; before you know it, you've picked up a new informant."

Sakura snickered. Suigetsu scowled again. "Alright, I'm off. You're even more annoying than he is. And remember, you didn't get it from me! I don't want him after me!"

"Don't we all?" Anko muttered as they watched Suigetsu disappear into the woods again. "We should've guessed he'd be behind this. It's exactly what he would do."

"Is it, though?" Sakura asked. "I mean, I know he has a history of kidnapping people, but entire settlements? And so close to a major village? Would he really be that sloppy? Besides, we don't even know if this attack was related to the Ashihara's disappearance. "

Exactly. Kakashi gave her a little smile. "Even so, we can't pretend it's not a possibility. And if he is active again, we'll have to act on it. He's hurt too many people already. If it's not him, we've got a new problem on our hands. Owl, Sakura, I want you two investigate the village and its surroundings further. Send me regular reports. The rest of you go back with me to Sunagakure."

Yuugao tilted her head forward, and although he couldn't see her face, Kakashi had a strong suspicion she was smiling. "Are we going on a hunt, sir?"

"Heck of a hunt," Shikamaru said.

"It won't be easy, if it even is him," Sakura said. "No one even knows where his current base lies."

"It'll be worth it, though," Anko said. As she spoke, she drew her collar aside to show the irritated skin around her curse mark. "It'll be worth it."

Naruto,

Return to Konoha posthaste. I'm sorry to cut your vacation short, but I need someone back home capable of taking on a potential S-rank threat. Will let you know more soon.

Kakashi.

AN:

What do you think? Is it really Orochimaru, or a fake? Could he really make such an obvious mistake?

Next chapter, Sakura gets into a fight and Kakashi gets to flex his political muscles. Troublesome…

So, a couple of people have commented on the relative lack of reviews on both this story and its prequel. All I can say is that it's entirely out of my hands, and I'm already pretty happy with what I do get. That said, please do tell people about my stories, or share them online! If you don't feel comfortable doing so, please don't, but if you don't mind and want to help me gain some awareness for the stories, I would really appreciate it :) comments are the best kind of writing fuel, and the more the merrier!

I also wanted to say I'm still taking prompts for missing scenes from Uneasy lies the Head. Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see! (Aside from Kakashi telling his students about his past, because I've already received that request a couple of times). These missing scenes will be posted in the missing scenes story you can find in my profile (currently titled nighttime talks).