Chapter 16: Attack of The Akatsuki

Minato was hit with a moment of absurdity as he stood outside his son's bedroom door that evening. He'd faced down whole battalions in battle on his own, had to endure meetings with foreign dignitaries that were critical to maintaining peace and had even fought with the Kyuubi itself. Yet, he had never been more anxious than he was at that moment.

The truth was, Asuma's words had shaken him. He was worried about whether he had caused irreparable damage to his relationship with Naruto. Asuma's relationship with his father was an all too familiar example of a father-son relationship he wanted to avoid.

After gathering up enough courage, Minato slowly knocked on the door. The wait for a reply was agonising, as he felt the knot in his stomach pull tighter. Eventually, there was a softly spoken response.

"Yes? Who is it?"

Minato practically winced at the overly polite question. It just wasn't the Naruto he knew.

"It's me, you mind if I come in for a minute?"

Minato listened as Naruto slowly made his way towards the door, his footsteps heavy with grief. The door creaked open but Naruto walked back towards his bed before Minato could even catch a glimpse of him.

Unsure about how to approach the subject, Minato slowly circled the room, pretending to take interest in the various objects scattered about. He could see that Naruto was eyeing him nervously as well. He sighed and slowly shook his head, rightly ashamed of himself.

"I had a talk with Asuma today" Minato said.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly and he blushed a little, obviously aware of what his father was talking about. Still, he pretended to be oblivious.

"He's a good one that man" Minato continued. "Wasn't always that way though, he was a rebellious little so and so when he was about your age let me tell you. Still, the will of our village burns brightly in him now, no doubt about that. I could only hope that you'll grow up like that one day."

Naruto still seemed unresponsive to this. Deciding that he'd had enough of skirting around the issue, Minato chose to take a more direct tact.

"Naruto, listen to me" he said, bending down to his level. "I know that I've been a little distant recently, ever since it happened. I know that I should have been more present to help you through all this. I'm sorry for not doing that, really I am. But you need to know, that none of this is your fault. Not for one second have I blamed you, the thought never even crossed my mind."

"But why?" Naruto stammered. "I mean, if I hadn't gone there. If I wasn't-"

"Hey!" Minato yelled, raising his voice for the first time since entering the room. "I've already told you, none of this was your fault. Even if you wasn't there, Kakashi would have-"

His voice was caught in his throat for a second, rendering him mercifully unable to finish that sentence. He took another moment to regain his composure.

"If there's one thing you can guarantee in times like these, it's that you're going to lose people. Dealing with that is hard enough as it is, the last thing you want to do is add to it by putting the blame on your shoulders. The last thing a parent should do is leave their child to face it alone."

A small tear slowly crawled down Naruto's cheek at that point. Smiling a little, Minato dried his son's eyes.

"Seeing as both of us made the mistakes I just talked about, how about we make a deal?" Minato said. "From now on, we both change. I'll be more present and you forgive yourself. We'll get through this together."

Naruto took a moment to think things over before responding. Then, he finally let out a grin and dove on Minato, embracing him in a hug.

"Thank goodness" a voice called out from the door. "I was worried about how long this was going to go one for."

Minato looked over to see Kushina standing in the doorway, close to tears but sporting a smile.

"What are you standing over there for?" Minato called back. "Come on!"

Kushina practically skipped over to them and joined in. There was laughter, tears and, for the first time in such a long time, a genuine sense of happiness inside the home. However, at the back of his mind, Minato knew that it could not last; they were still at war after all. Yet, he didn't realise just how quickly he'd be brought back down to earth.

"What was that?" Kushina whispered, reacting to the small noise they had just heard.

"It's okay, nothing to worry about" Minato quickly assured her. "I can tell by the chakra signature that it's one of the ANBU. He's just outside right now."

Minato walked over and opened the window and was greeted by a hooded masked figure outside.

"Hello Tenzo, what can I do for you tonight?"

"Lord Hokage, I have some urgent news" Tenzo replied hastily. "Something has happened."

Minato could sense panic and grief in his voice, telling him it's urgent.

"Well, what is it?"

Tenzo hesitated before speaking after looking inside the room.

"I think it would be best if you just came with me," he finally said. "This isn't really something we can discuss here."

An anger problem was never something Minato had suffered from. He was always known to be calm under pressure and cautious where appropriate. But the events of the past year had begun to take their strain on him and this all cumulated in his reaction when he reached the village wall and found out what had happened.

Everyone present simply stared in awe as Minato slammed his fist in to the wall, leaving a massive dent. It was fortunate really that, outside of Sage Mode, he didn't have too much physical strength.

"I apologise for that," Minato said, as he strained his eyes so as not to look at the body before him. "Right, what do we know so far?"

"Very little I'm afraid" Tenzo said apologetically. "Asuma was fighting two unidentified intruders around this area. Kabuto joined him in combat, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. After stabbing Asuma, it seems they were alerted to the fact that we were coming, because they quickly left over the wall."

"So you were already on your way" Minato thought out loud. "Which means you already knew of the intrusion. Why was I not alerted immediately, the barrier should have made an alarm when they strayed off the permitted path through the forest."

"That's the thing, the barrier never made a sound" Tenzo replied. "Asuma simply made a request for backup that we responded to, we had no idea about the intruders until we got here."

That was a major concern. Since he had been Hokage, Minato had placed a barrier around the forest surrounding Konoha. There were only two passages that could be passed through without triggering the barrier. The first was the heavily guarded road that ran through the village. The second was an intricate path that ran through the forest and eventually reached the wall. This path existed in case Jonin needed to leave and enter the village covertly when necessary.

"Perhaps they were able to figure out the path using a sensory type to distinguish between the chakra of the path and the rest of the barrier?" one of the ANBU offered.

"Not possible" Minato replied quickly. "The barrier has such a large array of varying levels of chakra to prevent that. There's no way even the most skilled sensor could figure out the path through that method. No, the cause of this is obvious. We have a spy amongst our Shinobi."

The very thought of it made everyone immediately feel uncomfortable, but there was no other explanation. Minato had considered the possibility that A would have sent in one of his subordinates, but there was never any way to deduce whom it could possibly be.

"So, what do we do now?"

Minato considered his options for a moment before responding to the question, but quickly realised that there was only one course of action.

"Firstly, we need to restructure the defence of the village now that it has been compromised" Minato declared. "I'm going to change the parameters for the barrier. From now on, only those with the ANBU insignia on their shoulder will be able to pass through it without triggering an alarm. Normal Jonin will have to use the main roads."

"And what about this possible informant we have amongst us?" Tenzo asked.

"Well, we only have one lead right now."

For the first time since he had arrived, Minato looked over towards Kabuto, who was sat off to the corner with a medic. Even though he looked to have only sustained minor wounds at most, he appeared to be exhausted. He was simply stating off in to nothingness, with a blank expression on his face. He at least looked like he had been affected by Asuma's death.

Yet, there had always been something off about him that Minato couldn't put his finger on. He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere almost, even though he had been in the village since he was very young. All the Jonin knew who he was, yet he doubted that any of them could call him their friend. He just didn't fit.

But, at the end of the day, he was a nice kid. He was a capable medic that put in shifts at the hospital when they needed a little help. Despite his doubts, Minato didn't want to believe that Kabuto would betray them but he had no choice but to investigate.

"Take Kabuto to the interrogation room" Minato told Tenzo. "Then contact Ibiki, I want him to find out everything he can."

"Yes sir."

"But, tell Ibiki not to be too harsh" Minato added. "Remember, until proven otherwise, he's one of our own."

"Hakkesho Kaiten!"

Sasuke shifted his weight to his right and quickly jumped to avoid the spinning ball of chakra. While in the air, he threw several Shuriken attached to wires in the hope of catching his opponent while he was spinning. Unfortunately, Neji appeared to be aware of his plan, as he deflected the Shuriken away.

"Using that rotation defence of yours again, how predictable" Sasuke said, as Neji came to a halt.

"Not quite as predictable as you being unable to get through it" Neji retorted. "But if you insist, I'll change it up a little."

Without warning, Neji ran towards Sasuke and began jabbing his fingers towards his body. Sasuke, very much aware of the damage that could be caused by the jabs, used his Sharingan to dodge every one. Then, Neji made a surprising move. Rather than aiming with his fingers, Neji thrust forward with his palm. Sasuke hopped backwards slightly to avoid it, however he still felt the full force of the blow, and was sent flying backwards.

"I thought I dodged that," Sasuke said bitterly, as he got back to his feat.

"You did, but lets just say it was a different type of attack" Neji grinned. "I'm not all about taijutsu you know."

"Neither am I" Sasuke responded, as he made hand seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

As Sasuke expected, Neji blocked the flames by using his rotation again. However, he had one more technique left to try out.

"Chidori Nagashi!"

Waves of lightning shot out of Sasuke's body, accompanied by the usual screech of birds. The attack collided with the still spinning sphere and quickly wrapped around it, causing an immediate reduction in speed. Within seconds, Neji had stopped spinning completely, and was forced to his knees.

"I can barely move," he stammered. "All right, you win this one Sasuke. Now help me up will you?"

Sasuke helped Neji to walk back from the training area to the main camp. He was thankful for the slow pace of the walk, as it gave him a chance to give his aching muscles a little rest.

"I hope that we don't get attacked or anything, or else we won't be much help," Neji laughed.

"Just go to the medic tent, they'll heal you quickly enough" Sasuke said blandly.

"Erm, yeah I guess" Neji replied awkwardly. "That technique of yours was amazing, I never would have thought that you could channel Chidori like that."

"Kakashi told me how to practice at it, so I did. Nothing else to it."

Sasuke knew what Neji was trying to do, but he didn't really feel like talking. He appreciated the help in training, but he wasn't in the mood for anything else. He hadn't felt like socialising with anyone since it had happened. He spent his days either training or sitting alone in his tent.

"You need me to take you to the medics tent then?" Sasuke asked.

"No thanks, I think I'm regaining my mobility, I can probably walk on my own now" Neji said, as he took his arm off Sasuke's shoulder. "If you needed to talk-"

"Yeah I know, thanks" Sasuke interjected, just wanting to get back to the solitude of his tent. "I'll see you around."

Sasuke could feel Neji's sympathetic stare glaring at the back of his head. In fact, he could feel the same from everyone else in the camp whenever they walked past him. He tried to convince himself that he didn't care about it, that they're sympathy was irrelevant. But that wasn't true. Deep down, he wanted to scream at them, tell them to leave him alone and worry about their own problems. He'd have done it as well, if he weren't aware that it would only make things much worse.

"I cannot believe this!"

Usually, Sasuke could ignore the arguments between his father and his brother. But, this time, things were different. His father wasn't even trying to keep his voice down as he normally would. Interested in what could have caused it, Sasuke slowly made his way over to the medical tent, the source of the noise. He stood just outside and listened in.

"What would you have had me do?" Itachi snapped. "Just take no action? Let them die?"

"You could have used a simple Katon" Fugaku roared. "You didn't have to-"

"A Katon wouldn't have worked" Itachi replied. "It was a very delicate trap, I needed something more precise in order to avoid harming them as well. Amaterasu-"

"Is a highly dangerous technique!" Fugaku screamed. "Every time you use it, your eyes are damaged. This isn't the first time you've unnecessarily used your Mangekyo on a mission. This isn't the first time you've ended up in the medic tent because you can barely see."

"My eyes will recover" Itachi said. "And how I choose to use them is my decision. They are my eyes!"

"Those eyes belong to the clan as much as they belong to you!" Fugaku yelled. "They are supposed to be used to help the clan!"

"I've already told you, I don't care about the clan!" Itachi said, finally raising his voice in retaliation. "Or did you really forget?"

Itachi's taunt hung in the air, adding to the tension. Suddenly, Sasuke heard movement and he quickly moved out of the way. A second later his father stormed out of the tent, his face furious.

"You can come in now" Itachi called out.

Sasuke instantly knew that he was talking to him. He wasn't even surprised any more; his brother had always been able to tell.

"How long did you know" Sasuke asked, as he walked in.

"I heard you walking over" Itachi replied from his bed, where he lay with his hands covering his eyes. "I guess my temporarily impaired eyesight improved my hearing or something."

Looking at Itachi lying there felt strange to Sasuke. His invincible older brother, the prodigy of the clan, was reduced to something so helpless looking.

"Come here Sasuke," he croaked.

Sasuke went and sat to the chair to Itachi's right. He noticed that it was still cool when he sat down; clearly his father hadn't been sitting there earlier.

"There's a reason that I let you listen in on that," he said. "There's something else you need to see as well."

Itachi lifted his fingers from his eyes and looked towards Sasuke. The sight was horrifying. Blood was still gathered around the lid of the right eye and his usual black eyes were a far lighter shade of grey. It was as if their light had gone out.

"Don't worry, it'll get better after rest" Itachi assured him. "But, there's one thing you need to understand. You need to understand the curse of the Mangekyo Sharingan."

It was a strangely cold morning. Or maybe the cold wasn't so strange, after all Shikamaru wasn't used to being up before the sunrise. Although, he supposed that it didn't really matter. He was too numb to feel it anyway. Which probably went for all the other Shinobi that were lined up at the village gate. They'd all expected to be returning to their outpost with Asuma, and were all aware they were one short.

"Hey Shikamaru" Naruto yawned, as he walked out of the darkness and towards the front gate.

"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked him.

"Thought I'd come to see you off" Naruto shrugged. "I heard that your Dad was away on a mission, so I thought that someone should be here."

Shikamaru couldn't help but feel jealous of Naruto at that moment. Not because he got to stay in the village while he had to leave. It was the way he could be so positive despite everything that had happened. It wasn't that Naruto wasn't upset about Asuma's death; it was just that he could still function normally. He guessed that getting over Kakashi's death just days before helped.

"I appreciate it" Shikamaru muttered. "I know how hard it is for you to drag yourself out of bed after all."

Naruto flashed his almost trademark smile and scratched the back of his head.

"So erm, who's going to, erm-"

"Replace Asuma? If you mean as commander of the outpost, then I don't know" Shikamaru mumbled. "Probably one of the other senior Jonin that are already there. As for his physical replacement, well we're waiting for him right now."

He put his hands in his pockets and instinctively placed his fingers around the cool metallic shape in there. He hadn't left it out of his sight during the last few days and its presence was comforting for him.

"Make sure you talk to Hinata when you get there" Naruto said. "I know she's upset that she couldn't come back for the funeral."

"Yeah, I know" Shikamaru replied, even though the last thing he wanted to do was talk about it more. Especially with someone who he knew was going to be emotional. He just didn't know how to handle that.

"So what are you going to be doing now?" Shikamaru asked, trying to change the subject.

"I don't know exactly," Naruto said. "Dad said something about more specialised training, but I don't know what he means. Guess I'll just have to wait and see. I just hope that I get to use these."

Naruto pulled out a pair of oddly shaped knives from his pouch.

"Are they Asuma's?"

"Yeah, Kurenai Sensei gave me them yesterday" Naruto grinned. "They're a little heavier than mine and not as easy to use but-"

"They were his" Shikamaru finished his sentence. "Well it's good that your gift will prove so useful to you. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with a lighter."

The small talk was good; it helped calm his nerves. However, that didn't last long as some of his fellow Shinobi behind him perked up at the arrival of a final person.

"Here he is" one of them shouted. "Alright everyone, prepare to get moving!"

Shikamaru recognised the man instantly and noted that he was walking straight towards him.

"Kabuto? What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.

"I was chosen to replace Asuma," he said. "It was all a bit last minute but we organised it. Apparently they needed another medic up there anyway, so here I am."

Shikamaru couldn't believe the insensitivity of it all. It was bad enough that Kabuto had to witness Asuma's death, but to be his replacement as well? It was basically a daily reminder of what had happened, of his own powerlessness to stop it. Even though he could see the sense behind it, for once Shikamaru disagreed with the logical decision.

"Hey Shikamaru, could I speak with you a minute?"

Shikamaru had been afraid of that happening, again. Kabuto had been seeking him out for the past few days trying to have a word with him. He'd already spoken with Naruto and Kurenai, probably to apologise or something. Shikamaru didn't really want to here it so he'd avoided him. He had hoped he'd get away with it, but it appeared that was no longer possible.

"Maybe a little later, the company is heading out" Shikamaru said, as he noticed the group start to march out of the gate. "We need to get going now."

"All right" Kabuto frowned, not hiding his disappointment. "I'll talk to you when we get there then."

"Can't wait" Shikamaru replied sarcastically, as Kabuto walked away. "Well Naruto, guess I'm off."

"Don't worry, you'll be back before you know it" Naruto grinned. "Then you'll see my awesome new power!"

Shikamaru gave a weak smile to the joke. With nothing left to say, he gave Naruto a nod and turned around, joining the rest of the group. As he walked away, he didn't turn back once, he couldn't bare to. It would make the fact that he was leaving everything he knew all too real.

"Kisame, it's making that noise again."

"I told you already Deidera, you'll just have to ignore it."

Deidera didn't see how that was possible. Not only did it sound like it some kind of monster but it also moved around on Kisame's back, its handle flying around. It was times like that when Deidera realised that he somewhat missed Sasori's cold silence.

"It's so hot!" Deidera moaned. "I feel like we've been walking through this desert for weeks."

"Do you ever do anything but complain?" Kisame snapped. "I used to think Sasori was exaggerating about you as well."

"Yeah well, I don't really care what that fake says about me anyway" Deidera hit back. "I don't understand why we couldn't just fly there using my bird, we'd have got this done much quicker."

"What? You don't think such a creature suddenly appearing in the skies during wartime wouldn't attract suspicion? You're more delusional than I thought" Kisame laughed.

Deidera decided not to rise to it as they continued on. He was focused on his art show he was about to give.

"We're nearly there, are you ready Deidera?" Kisame asked.

"That's a stupid question, I'm always ready when it comes to my art" Deidera replied. "I could go right now if I wanted to."

"And completely ruin the plan in the process" Kisame said. "You know you have to wait until sunset."

"Yeah I know, wait until the visibility is at its worst blah blah" Deidera muttered. "We wouldn't have to go through all this trouble if Sasori's man hadn't gone and got himself killed in the war."

"That can't be helped" Kisame sighed. "We knew there was a possibility of that happening but it was a risk we had to take. We couldn't afford releasing the jutsu too early and have him get caught out."

Kisame suddenly stopped and put his arm out, which brought Deidera to a halt along with him.

"This is as far as we go," he declared. "Any closer and we'll be spotted. We just need to lay low here for a while until we can strike."

Deidera didn't like the idea of sitting around in the middle of the desert for hours with Kisame as company, but he knew he had no choice. Reluctantly, he sat on the ground.

"Hey I thought we were being met here by-"

"I already told you, he got here earlier than us," Kisame said. "Besides, he's only the backup. If everything goes well, we won't even need him. And it better go to plan, I'd rather not see that creepy bastard if I can help it."

For once, Deidera agreed with his temporary partner. Out of all of the Akatsuki, that man was most certainly the most disturbing and least trustworthy of them all.

After a few hours, the sun finally began to dip beyond the horizon, leaving very little visibility. It was finally time for him to begin. He started by placing his hand in to his right pouch and let the clay slip in to the mouth within his palm. He bit down with a satisfying squelch, as he poured his chakra in to the soft clay.

"Disgusting" Kisame said, as he eyed Deidera suspiciously. "I never liked your jutsu from the day we recruited you."

"Just another fool who can't appreciate art, aren't you Kisame?" Deidera said, as he finished his creation. "Now, you just sit back and watch, see if you can't learn a few things."

Within a second, the small model bird in Deidera's hand expanded to become a giant hawk big enough for Deidera to fit on the back of. He did just that and slowly crept up in to the air.

"I guess I'll see you in there" Deidera said, as he gave a mock salute before racing forward.

It took a matter of seconds before he was flying directly above Sunagakure. It was the first time he had seen the village and he was particularly impressed with its architecture. He admired the way it blended in with its surroundings so well; one of the few villages that actually did that.

"That means it might actually be worth destroying," he thought. "So, let's get on with it then. Some C1 to start with, just to draw them out."

He indiscriminately dropped spider like creatures as he flew around the village and delighted in watching them explode as they made contact. He could hear screams of women and children as he did so, he could hear their panic.

"Seems my warm up got a good review!" he joked out loud. "Now, lets see if there's an official response."

The response came quickly, as arrows soon littered the sky. Deidera couldn't help but laugh at this meek attempt.

"A few arrows with paper bombs on the end? Talk about underestimating me" he muttered. "I'll have this dealt with quickly enough."

He took particular delight in watching the giant bows be destroyed one after another. If he looked with his microscope over his eye, he could see the individual Shinobi be flung around; some of them were even dismembered.

Deidera felt a strong breeze shoot past his left ear, which alerted him to the coming danger. Without looking, he instinctively moved towards the ground, dodging a wall of sand in the process. He then flew in a more erratic fashion to prevent whatever was pursuing him from catching up. However, the sand kept right up with him.

"How persistent" he thought. "Hopefully a few of these will slow it down."

With no time to look, he threw a small bunch of C1 over his shoulder. After hearing the explosion, he quickly took to the air. Thankfully, the sand didn't immediately follow.

"Oh, I see. That isn't sand at all," Deidera said, as he inspected the substance from above. "Gold dust it is then. I'm honoured, I never would have thought I'd face the Kazekage this soon."

"Who the hell is this guy?" the Kazekage wondered, as he looked at the man above him. "Why has he just attacked us? He doesn't look like anyone from Kumo or Iwa. Is there another force that we're unaware of?"

He didn't have much chance to reflect on that as he noticed another wave of explosives head his way. He didn't have much difficulty in protecting himself; a mere movement of his hand caused the gold dust to come to his aid.

"I need to take him alive. It's the only way I'll be able to get any answers out of him. Firstly, I have to get him off that damn bird."

Thinking tactically, he split up his dust. He sent another large section to directly chase his opponent. Just like last time, he duck and dived his way to avoid the dust. However, what he didn't realise was that he was being lead to a certain area of the village by the dust.

Eventually, the bird flew to the edge of the village. There, the Kazekage raised his hand and brought the rest of his dust up from the ground. He got a direct hit and knocked his opponent off the bird.

"Now all I have to do is catch him with the dust and he's mine."

Not for the first time, things didn't go to plan. Before he could be grabbed, a huge creature suddenly emerged out of nowhere. It was at least four times as big as what he was using before.

"Is that a dragon?" came a voice from behind.

The Kazekage spun around to see one of his most faithful subordinates stood there, his face filled with horror.

"Ibiki, thank you for coming. Is Gaara in position?" the Kazekage asked.

"Yes sir, he's standing by and waiting further instruction" Ibiki replied nervously.

"Good, then give him the signal immediately" he ordered. "I don't like the look of that thing so I want to take him out as quickly as possible."

Ibiki nodded before sending a blue flair in to the air. Within a second, a wave of sand arose from the right hand side of the village and flew straight for the enemy. This seemed to surprise him and he naturally tried to fly the opposite direction, where he was met by the Kazekage's gold dust.

"Got you now."

Rather, they would have got him if a giant wave of water hadn't appeared out of the blue to knock back Gaara's sand, allowing the blonde man to escape.

"Water? Where could that have come from?" Ibiki yelled.

"Obviously a knew enemy, quickly find a group of ANBU to go and assist Gaara" he screamed back. "His sand is wet now, his defence won't be anywhere near as quick."

A quick glance to his right confirmed this fear, as Gaara took to the air. He obviously wanted to avoid relying on his defence, which was now much more vulnerable.

"I'd be focusing your attention on me if I were you!" the man shouted down.

The Kazekage looked up to see a large object screaming towards him at frightening pace. He slapped his hands together in order to bring up a wall of dust, but it was not as effective as he had hoped. The object exploded, destroying the roof of the Kage building where he was standing, and dumping him on the ground.

"Damn it!" he yelled, as he got back to his feet.

He saw the mouth of the dragon expand and realised that it was about to send another attack. Fortunately, he had time to gather his dust and put up a better defence.

"Lets see him get through this with that jutsu."

Just before firing, the dragon spun its head to the right. Stunned, the Kazekage quickly understood what his plan was.

"He's aiming for Gaara instead! Shit, I already gathered up my dust as well, I won't be able to use as much to protect him! That bastard, that was his plan all along."

He prepared to swing his arm in order to send the dust to Gaara's aid, when something burst out from the shadows. It latched on to his hand and pierced the skin, instantly making it numb.

"A snake! But how?" he wondered, as he lost feeling in his legs. "Poison? No, not a time like this."

He could feel his consciousness slipping as his vision became blurred. One of the last things he saw was the missile being fired at his unsuspecting son.

"Gaara…. No…."

Sorry (again). I've had to work a lot more shifts than I had planned at work and it's been incredibly hot here, which makes sitting down at a computer for long periods difficult. Still, I was able to get this out. I won't make any promises about the next chapter, but I'll be as quick as I can. I don't intend for the waits to be the month long things that they have been recently.

Next Chapter: Rescue