Normally I don't give out a disclaimer because its fairly obvious I don't own the story...if I did...why would I be writing fan fiction? Great question...and moving on. I do want to say that the Ether characters that are original, Sicerio, Lily, Cindy, and Red are mine. You can't have them. Not for a bajillion dollars.
Sicerio: Age 27 (technically 25,027)
Lily: Age 26 (technically 25,026)
Red: Age 27 (technically dead)
Cindy: Age 25 (technically 25,025)
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It was a few months later we find our favorite, or at least my favorite, characters once again at Training Ground 17. A few months had been like changing from 2 to 18 on an exponential graph. It was staggering. Lets focus in on the characters and you'll see what I mean.
The first person we find is Sai, for once in a great while without Ino trying to kill him, grope him, maim him, or hurt/please him in any way. Now he could create those...ink creatures...to stay alive for several hours. He had tried for a long time to work directly with the strings, but he seemed to lack a creative force behind it. Or at least that was the best Sicerio could explain it to him. This mattered little to our creepy Penis guy. He was more concerned with protecting Ino. Though he had no clue why he desired to do so.
The next person we find is Sakura. Having near perfect chakra control, she had managed quite well. She could flex her strings into invisible knives, or widen them into shields. She had trouble flowing much power into them however, and so focused on adding the strings into her Tsunade like style of smash 'em and bash 'em. That and Naruto's ass.
Then there was Naruto. His own chakra control had made leaps and bounds like it always seems to. He could only control three of his strings at a time though. Given with a field full of Naruto's, it still made for an impressive wiggly sight.
Though none of the Ninja's were on any sort of scale comparison with the Ethereal Users, they had a lot more experience in actual combat, sans Sicerio. They were also on their way to replacing the Sannin.
The Ethereal Users however were another story. Seeing as they still had their own war to fight they managed to climb the scales faster than the beginners could. Of course, that didn't mean they had to go. Once Sicerio had figured out to open a portal, without losing his body in the process, the Ethereal Users went to their own world, to discover a world right after Red had gone and sort of blown himself up.
It was a fond farewell...full of tears, orgies, and a visit from some other characters you've probably never heard of like Mogul, Pierre, and of course, Ender and his wife.