Book 1

Awakening

Chapter 10 – Beneath the Haze

A/N: Hey! Now, since there isn't much to say this time, I'll just get right into it:

New Poll! There's a new poll up on my profile, so I'd appreciate it if you go vote now!

The poll is simply about an idea that I'd (maybe?) like to implement either by the next issue, or in the near future. I will be leaving it up for one week only. So, please, don't hesitate to vote honestly. What's being proposed? Simple:

The idea that I'm proposing I implement is somewhat of an addition to the chapter title preview idea that you may recall me implementing from Chapter 6. What it is, is a brief summary of the chapter to come, and it can be made into three different formats. If you have questions about the formats, feel free to leave them in your review, in addition to your actual review, and I'll be sure to PM you with an answer. What are the formats? See my profile to find out.

P.S.: I have not been bashing Sakura, I can assure you of that. She is merely different, and as the story progresses, you will come to find out why—I can tell you now, though, that there is a dramatic, outlandish reason.

Now, please enjoy Chapter 10.

P.S.[2]: I realize that I've been gone for about 7 months, and that a lot of you may have given up on the story, thinking that I had done so. Well, I can say that what that was wasn't a hiatus, but merely a period of decision making and distraction; needless to say, the decision has been made... so here I am! I hope you can accept that. Thank you.

"What?!" Naruto shouted; "Who are you calling a midget, you drunk fisherman!"

Tazuna, mumbling past Kakashi's greeting, turned to face Naruto once more. "Yyou!" he slurred, jamming a crooked finger at the blond ninja.

"Why you! I'll kill you!" Naruto exclaimed, charging at the seated man, arms swinging wildly. Before Naruto could make good on his promise, though, he found himself immobilized by Kakashi.

Kakashi leaned forward, whispering in the still-struggling boy's ear, "Now, now, Naruto. You cannot kill the client."

Naruto paused, his arms dropping to his sides—or as far as they could go while in the headlock. He turned his head back to his sensei, inquisitively, yet suspiciously eyeing him. "Client...?" he questioned, looking back and forth between Kakashi and the man known as 'Tazuna'; "He's our client for the mission?"

Kakashi nodded, releasing his student. "Indeed. And you'll do well to remember that the next time you feel like exploding, hmm?" Letting a deviant smirk grace his visage—though concealed by the mask—Kakashi swiftly bopped Naruto over the head.

"Ah!" cried Naruto at the sharp pain, "I got it, I got it." He carefully cradled his head in his two hands, running his fingers through the blond spikes of hair that decorated his head. "I think there's a bump..." he sulked pitifully.

Hinata, now feeling a little bit surer of the situation, carefully made her way over to Naruto, careful not to startle him, while Sasuke simply promenaded across the polished floor, sandals clacking in tune to the swell of his ego, to position himself side-by-side with Kakashi.

"So... this is my entourage, eh?" Tazuna lazily commented, looking the entire group over, but still focusing on its most prominent member. "Kakashi, right?"

The silver-haired Jōnin nodded, carefully analyzing the man sitting, whose limbs lay sprawled across and over the distribution desk centering the room, with liquor still in hand. "I presume Hokage-sama reviewed the details of the mission with you beforehand, and explained the arrangement to you. Correct?"

The old man squinted, looking through the glare that tinted his thin glasses. "Mmm," he drawled. He set his bottle down, beginning to slide it absentmindedly between poised hands. "I payed good money for a C-rank mission. I expect these brats to deliver. Can I count on you... Kakashi-san?"

The whole of Team 7 perked their ears at hearing the rank of their latest assignment, but they remained focused on the interaction between the client and their sensei, silent.

"Do not worry, Tazuna-san, we will not fail the mission. But please give us until half of the hour to prepare, as we have just returned from a brief delivery assignment." He turned to the remainder of Team 7, raising a hand to frame his chin as he spoke; "You three return to your homes and gather what you'll need for this mission,"—he turned to Sasuke, confirming his attention, before refacing the now-beaming Naruto—"and be at the northern gate within 30 minutes. Prepare for a journey of at least four days." He paused, before continuing; "Oh, and the mission hall is on recess right now, so I'll file the mission report on my own."

Before Naruto could muster his voice, Kakashi sent a playful wink at his squad, raising a hand, and, with a minute surge of chakra, vanished in a dancing swirl of leaves. A faint "Ja," could be heard, carrying on the breeze left in their sensei's stead.

Naruto could think of nothing more at the moment but to grumble. "Hmph! He always does that!" He turned to Hinata, index finger raised matter-of-factly. "I have to learn how to do that soon! Then we'll see who's winking, -ttebayo!"

Hinata merely nodded, too overwhelmed, even now, by what had just transpired.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called, "Even you have to agree that Ka—Wait, where'd he go?" Naruto asked, theatrically turning himself about, trying to seek out his missing teammate in the oddest of fashions; he turned his head, crooked his knee and bent his back, struggling to see if just maybe, Sasuke had retreated under the desk.

Tazuna slyly laughed at Naruto's display, before bursting into an unscrupulous guffaw. "Boy, you really are a joke. Blue-boy had the right idea. Ha!" he jeered, taking another swig of the liquor that was no longer in his bottle.

"What!" Naruto shouted. He felt himself rocking, and before he knew it, realized that he was falling backwards; he fell awkwardly, grasping at the air until he landed with a thud. "Dammit...!" Naruto groaned, rubbing his head as he attempted to sit up. However, he still found himself struggling, given the lack of friction between his favorite jump-suit and the (unfortunately) newly-polished floor.

In one—clumsy—motion, Tazuna twisted himself out of his awkward position in the chair, and quickly brushed between the desks, heaving his traveling bag over his shoulder. "Nothing at all, butter-cup," he replied, dropping the cap of his bottle squarely on Naruto's forehead. This was all Naruto needed to fall back against the floor, thrown off by the sudden, albeit minuscule, addition to his weight.

"Argh! Dammit!" Naruto shouted at the departing Tazuna.

As much as Hinata wanted to assist her fallen comrade, she felt, all of a sudden, more reluctant than ever to engage their... unusual client.

In leaving, Tazuna made it a point to walk by her. "Hey there, little lady," he said in passing, smiling a bit too broadly for comfort.

Even as he left her range of vision, Hinata could still feel the pungent order of plum-liquor incurring upon her olfactory, insisting that she embrace the smell. Looking quickly behind her, she subconsciously zipped her jacket up just the slightest amount more. Turning, she made her way to the still flailing Naruto, still managing to smile at his antics, despite herself.

"But it's not fair!" could be heard, sounding from somewhere within the Hokage's tower, by the veritable passerby, followed by a noticeably suppressed spasm of giggling.

Hours after the mission hall snafu, Team 7, along with their client, Tazuna, walked along a beaten path, just so far out from the village hub of Konoha. Trudging under the burden of the torrid sunbeams, they moved in silence. It was essential that they remain silent, at this point in time, as their moods were already at a volatile simmer.

As he walked Naruto's eyes whipped back and forth between their blank stare at the back of his sensei, and the strained glare he reserved for Sasuke. He unhappily observed the boy to his right, unable to purge the very thought—the very urge—from his mind, to stare, and be begotten by frustration for the simple mention of his apathetic nemesis.

'What makes him so damn special?!' Naruto thought to himself, 'Why does everything always have to go his way?!' His jaw flexed into a scowl, as he steadily glared at the Uchiha. 'I won't let him show me up this time, for sure! I won't—"

Too caught up in his pledge he found himself, in an instant, pressed face-first into the insignia marking the back of Kakashi's flak-jacket. This earned a smug 'hm' from Sasuke, to which his ears burned a bright red. "Kakasi-semsay!" Naruto trumpeted, as he struggled to detatch his lips from the leather of the jacket, "Why didn't you tell me we were stopping! I di—,"

"Sh!" Kakashi silenced him with a single hand raised signaling, at the same time, the entire group to stop, which they did, all neatly filed behind their leader. Kakashi scanned his surroundings, scrutinizing every detail of the land... Hesitating for reassurance, Kakashi began to explain himself, still speaking in a hushed tone. "You three weren't aware, but I noticed something as we were walking..."—he looked to them to see that they were focusing—"...but Tazuna-san has stopped, so in the interest of courtesy, so must we...!" he chirped.

The group fell into a deadpan silence, with even the characteristically apathetic Sasuke's eyes narrowing in utter disbelief. Before Naruto could manage to buoy back in rancorous protest, he was (once again) interrupted by their client's ho-hum drag. "Ohh... now, I just had to pick up this little bottle cap I saw"—he turned to the Genin, motioning them forward—"...see, I collect these!" He slipped the cap into the hanging pocket of his coat; then he turned, languidly, opting to stroll on whistling a distracting tune no one really cared to remember.

Within this interim, Naruto paused. 'That was just like the one he dropped on my head...' he considered.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata offered, placing a hand on his shoulder. "W-We're moving on now..." Intuitively, she smiled at his seeming bewilderment, attempting to shine the distraction from his countenance. "Don't worry about it t-too much, alright?"

"Yeah...," he muttered. "Yeah, you're probably right, haha!" Returning to form, he dashed off, catching up with the procession. He leapt ahead, sliding slightly on the loose gravel that coated the overworn dirt path that had seemingly been stripped right down—bisecting the lush forests that fringed their verdant country. The bareness did not bode auspiciously, particularly with Kakashi.

He kept his eye firmly on the frequency of Tazuna's step, only diverting his attention to Naruto upon hearing the gnashing of gravel preceding him.

"Naruto..." Kakashi began, shifting his eyes to Tazuna's back; "you should know by now that it's rude to startle!" He then looked back to Naruto, nodding. 'Be ready,' he established, making deliberate eye-contact.

Naruto, confused at first, then acquiesced, recognizing the mode of gesture.

"So... what is it you came for?—"

"—Oh don't worry yourself, kid," Tazuna interjected; "nothing more pleasing to ease the tension than a nice drink..." Glancing back to see Naruto's befuddlement, he corrected, "...or, we could get to know each other a bit, eh?"

"Excellent idea...," Kakashi motioned, smiling beneath his mask. 'One,' he noted.

"So,"—he now gestured to the whole group, bearing the grey, wiry hedge of his body hair to the world—"you're all from Konoha originally, I take it? No travelers..."

They all nodded, including Sasuke, who stood a pace behind the bunch, shining the dingy metal of his snug arm-warmers.

"Oh..." Tazuna nodded, hiding his passive grin with a gander at the clear sky.

'Two...'

Kakashi steathily reached into his napsack, securing his fingers around an overused pair of chopsticks, he made an effort to loudly—albeit discreetly—rub the paper holder between his thumb and forefinger. He paused, then perked his eyebrow, noticing a subtle pulse in the pattern of Tazuna's motion.

'Three.'

"Alright then," Tazuna continued, "so how long have you guys been ninja for then?"

Kakashi scoffed under his breath, '...Four.'

"A-About one and a half months, s-so far, Tazuna-san," Hinata replied.

"Yup! 41 days to be exact, fisherman-guy!" Naruto chimed, beaming.

"Hoho! ... And by the way, I'm a bridge-builder, ya know...?" Tazuna retorted, pensively. He paused, coughing; then he kicked the toe of his left sandal twice against the road. "Whew... is it hot—any of you guys think it's time we... stopped." He leaned slowly to the left motioning to turn, still wiping sweat from his withered brow.

'Five,' Kakashi finished his count.

Not seconds after Kakashi concluded his thought, they were under attack. From the surrounding grove of trees, crude arrows rained down on their party, tearing through the air with a low groan.

"DOWN!" Kakashi shouted, quickly forming a quick series of handsigns. 'Damn... I wasn't prepared for something like this... GO!' Kakashi voiced to himself, whipping off the headband covering his concealed eye. 'Sharingan...'

"Doton: Tsutsumi Douryuu-heki!" He intoned in an instant, inducing the soil beneath them to give way, dragging them all several meters down, before launching up into a flowing soil and gravel fusion wall that quickly enveloped them in a miniature dome.

From inside, the arrows could be heard pelting the earth structure, but none could so much as penetrate.

"What the hell was that?!" snarled Sasuke, jumping to his feet, in the limited way that he could with low wall. He whipped his head towards Kakashi; "Well?!"

Taking in a steady breath, Kakashi regarded Sasuke. "We're under attack," he said, plainly.

"Tsk," Sasuke muttered. "Whatever, I'm ready." He ran his hands along the seams of his pants, bracing himself as he sought his on-hand weaponry.

Just as Sasuke was beginning to speak again, Kakashi silenced him with a raised hand. He looked to all of them, confirming that they could now too hear the voices faintly emanating from without.

"Hinata," he said, quietly.

She nodded. 'Byakugan,' she thought, wincing under the pressure of her unseen spectators. All at once, her vision stretched to map the topography of the land, quickly focusing to define chakra bodies. "Four to the left, seven to the right, and 3 in hind-guard: there are fourteen of them total, all approaching in a unilateral fan," she reported, her eyes shifting between the approaching enemy she forced her voice to a careful whisper.

Kakashi closed his eyes to think, his nails digging into the glove covering his clenched hand.

"They're advancing quickly, now," Hinata urged, reflexively bowing her head slightly in assent.

"Tch," came Sasuke. He began to stand, tense and sick of waiting, ready to dispense with the pretense of worry. "I can—"

"Ah! Kakashi-sensei! 'Formation O'!" Naruto jumped forward, adjusting himself into the proper stance, eagerly brandishing his grin. "This'll do it, for sure!"

Kakashi nodded in relief; leaning forward, he placed his hand against Naruto's shoulder, smiling. "Good thinking, Naruto." He turned back, now regarding the other half of their squad. "You two, guard Tazuna-san... and Hinata, keep us informed of any changes during the fight—we need your eyes."

He maintained eye-contact, waiting for the response that to his joy, came delightfully promptly.

"Yes, sensei," she affirmed; she repositioned herself in a rudimentary stance, eyes acute, backing the shaking bridge-builder against the comforting dirt of their temporary shelter. "I-It'll be okay, Tazuna-san," she assured, offering him a meaningful smile.

"Wh-Whatever y-y-you say, s-s-sist-ter..." he snuck through teeth that chattered at his supposed terror.

Sasuke shook his head, baring his teeth at some unknown apparition. "Pft," he groaned.

Satisfied with the positioning of his team, Kakashi began parting the Inu seal he had single-handedly formed, with a grimace at the sweat bearing down on his rapidly tiring brow. 'Now or never,' he reasoned. Looking one last time to the poised Naruto he smiled. "NOW!" he shouted, dropping the protective dome all at once; he then caught it with the residual chakra, catapulting the soil remnants to either side of them, providing the initial distraction they needed.

Naruto burst into action, shouting, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In an explosive plume of smoke, five chakra renderings of Naruto appeared, already knowing exactly what their objective was. "On my mark, guys!" Forward they went, filing in order; they leapt over one another's shoulders, each managing enough hang-time to allow the next to launch themself even higher, until the original Naruto made his way to the very top. "Go!" On his order, the second to the last clone, yielded directly below Naruto, grabbed him by his ankles, mustering a sharp spin, and launched him straight forward toward their aggressors. "Yah!" called Naruto, retrieving a kunai-knife from his sleeve, he raised his knee before him, grinning in anticipation.

But the clones were not done. All landing uniformly, side by side, they quickly hopped atop each other's shoulders, forming slanted a pyramid, they hastily flung a single kunai each in the direction of their summoner, detracting from the ability of the opponent to retaliate against Naruto's hasty slash. Further, they extinguished themselves, creating an on-the-fly smokescreen, to direct attention away from Kakashi who, by now, was in position.

The three attackers at the rear of the fan hesitated, observing as an orange blur single-handedly fended off swords and nailed-boards that they had fashioned into weapons for the occasion. 'Damn, where are those others?! That Tazuna said this would be easy, ah! He better no—'

However, the loud boom of "Doton: Shinjū Zanshu," severed the unfortunate assailant's train of thought. Unable to react, they stood stunned as three hands shot up from the ground beneath them, capturing hold of their legs, and yanking them down into the rigid earth. Now before them, stood a tall ninja of Konoha. "Where shall I begin, hm?" he grinned, eliciting a terrified sweat from his prisoners...

Naruto ripped through the enemy line, having summoned two more clones for assistance in mid-leap at one point or another. He jabbed and kicked and flung shuriken every which way, professionally dodging the various sloppy lobs and slashes aimed at him.

'Damn, I can't keep this up—where's Sasuke on his end?!' Naruto frantically looked about, trying to juggle dodging strikes with his new task. "Sasuke!" he called, "Sasuke, where are you!"

Kakashi turned, looking back to see Naruto handling the eleven attackers on his own. 'What? Where did Sasuke go?' His eyes shifted from right to left, before he caught a dash of blue, casually observing the fray from a distance. 'That boy...—and Naruto, why is he still trying to—'

"Ah!" Naruto called, just barely managing to avoid having his leg cleaved off by a viciously swung sabre; he tumbled backwards loosing focus and accidentally letting the clones dissipate, leaving him all but helpless on his own.

Sasuke smiled. "Finally," he muttered; raising a gleaming kunai before himself, he charged forward, propelling himself from the ground in a burst. He somersaulted over the mob that hovered above Naruto, gliding squarely over the blond ninja as he delivered a split-kick to the two enemies adjacent them. Following up cleanly, he doubled over and split his kunai, and using a basic shadowing technique flung two forms straight into the chests of unwary opponents.

He quickly landed in a crouch, leaning forward on his left knee; then, splitting some wire that he had wrapped around his wrist, he promptly tied it betwixt the forward stanced thugs, knotting their legs at the knee and sweeping them all with one tug of his cable. Not giving the remaining three a chance to escape he rewound a spool of wire about his left hand before pulling down with his index finger several shuriken which he had sent airborne undetected towards the beginning of his speedy assault; with smug poise, he flipped through handsigns that had become second nature, setting the wired shuriken ablaze and forth upon the fleeing three. "Hōsenka," he spat out in a petulant laugh. He sneered, watching the desperate men wriggle on the ground, trying to rid themselves of the fiery blades.

At an awkward stumble first, then with truculent indignation, Naruto leapt forward from his compromising spread across the dirt. He feverishly began to dust himself off with one hand, emphasizing his position. "What the hell, Sasuke?!" He jabbed his finger first, into the only now-turning Uchiha's chest; "You were supposed to be part of that formation! I expected you! Hinata expected you!... Kakashi-sensei expected you to help!"

"And I did," he said, smirking.

"You almost got me killed!"

"That's beside the point, Uzumaki. It was your plan, I expected you to be a bit more professional. I don't need your opinion." He brushed the livid boy's gesture aside, turning as he walked over to Kakashi.

Having taken care to silence the imprisoned men behind him, Kakashi focused solely on the approaching Sasuke, regarding him with a tired stare, but exchanging no words.

In turn, Sasuke said nothing, kicking at a few patches of grass along the way. He glanced at the heads protruding from the earth, but thought nothing more of it. As he passed, he eyed Kakashi's still exposed Sharingan intently.

It was not long before, disrupting the accumulating tension, Hinata burst forth from the left side of the path's forest, sweating, and holding onto her shoulder, bracing the ache. "K...Kakashi-sensei," she said, panting heavily between words, "T-Tazuna...Tazuna-san ran away..."

Kakashi clenched his teeth, but still hid the reflex from his students, absentmindedly thankful for the mask covering his face. He washed his expression over with his usual poker-face, making an effort to restore some normallacy to the mission at hand.

"We'll have to look for him then; though we do not have many hours left until dark, so we'll meet one hundred meters north of this spot"—he threw down the kunai that had still been in his hand, right between his two feet—"... you three return here, and Hinata will lead you to the spot afterwards... understood?"

They all nodded, exchanging varied looks.

Her breathing back under control, Hinata spared a look at Naruto, only briefly making eye contact. She had hoped to communicate some modicum of happiness to him, but instead only ended up adopting his forlorn frown. She bowed her head, looking away, and then back to Kakashi.

"Scatter," he said, waving his arm in time to their scattered leap into the bordering trees.

'I was right... they won't find him out there though.' Kakashi reached his hand up, recovering his Sharingan. 'I'll see you soon, and we'll find out what you really want, bridge builder.'

Kakashi turned, taking one last look back at the men that still lay sprawled, and the kunai marking their deed. 'We've started something here.'

They all sat, evenly dispersed around the meager campfire, observing the pop and flicker of the living light with a critical fascination. They had searched the surrounding area for hours, carefully, so as to not breach the border without their charge, but had found nothing. This only led Kakashi to suspect that Tazuna was indeed across the border; but despite his suspicion chose to leave his students bewildered.

"You all failed today," he said, looking around slowly to measure their reactions; to his dismay, they all seemed unfazed. 'I knew it,' he mentally sighed.

"You all failed... but you all had your own successes...—If it means anything, Hinata was today's 'MVP,'" he said, smiling in her direction. Thankfully, she received the smile, and shone a nascent one of her own. "We started something here today. What that is—I'm unsure of... but you all have the potential to succeed here, I promise. I will lead you"—he looked to all three of them—"if you'll follow through."

The young squad looked up in unison to this. They all looked at each other once, chastely, before directing their attention to Kakashi. "Yes, sensei," they agreed.

He nodded. "Thank you. Now... you may all get some rest. I'll take the first watch," he smiled, bidding them off.

As they all headed to their respective sheets, a fair distance from the meeting circle, Hinata changed course, heading over beside Naruto. She stopped him as he stepped, with a gentle tap on his shoulder.

"Naruto-kun..." she began.

"Hinata—..." he stopped, turning to look at her; as much as he tried to conceal it, his eyes always bore his true mood—tonight they gleamed a dim sapphire against the moonlight—"really, I'm fine." He did his best impression of his ordinary laugh, even though he knew it wouldn't fool her. It was more of a reflex now, than anything else.

She nodded in understanding. "W-We...—Let me know when you'd like to talk, Naruto-kun."

"You know it, -ttebayo!" he promised, flashing his teeth. This was something he could promise.

Knowing that she had made her best friend's day a little brighter was enough to tide her over for now; with that in mind, she let a gentler mood grace her face, before turning to depart to sleep.

"Goodnight," they exchanged, beneath the eternally waxing moon's shine.

It was the pitch of night. The sky swallowing all sound and sight into an inky blackness, leaving all who stood beneath it devoid of distraction.

Kakashi sat, depressing his spot on the old log, still idly toying with the diminishing fire as he felt the cool wind downcast from the far-off harbor nip at his skin, constantly reminding him of his mission—of their mission—of Tazuna.

Almost as if cued by Kakashi's remembrance, the nearby brush briskly broke away, as a bashful form bungled his way through it, with little yelps of 'youch,' and 'owiee' piercing the tepid night. "Oh! Kakashi-san! What a relief to see you, my friend!" called Tazuna, unusually boisterous.

"Have you been drinking again, haha?..." Kakashi mulled, letting his eye scan the figure that now hobbled towards him. 'Certainly.' A light sound of the fleshing of paper against fabric caught the sensitive ear of the trained Jōnin, which alerted him to a small red edge extending from behind the hem of Tazuna's thin shirt. '….'

"SO! So," Tazuna started, plopping himself down on an appropriately angled stump, not two meters away from Kakashi, "I just—heheh—got so scared! All the explosions, and dirt... my old heart couldn't take it, you hear what I mean?!"

"Mmm," Kakashi muttered into mask; "Tell me, Tazuna... we looked for several hours for you, but weren't able to find you—what exactly happened?"

"Well, the young lady in your group just couldn't convince me not to worry as I'd worried—worry, worry, worry!—so, you know, I just hid, I guess," he said.

"Hid? From a group of four trained ninja of Konohagakure? A elderly man in his sixties with an 'old heart' hid?" Kakashi insisted, leaning forward.

Tazuna frowned. 'Rats, this one is sure clever...'

"Well, you see...—" he began...—"Did I upset you, or violate some sort of rule," he said, with a grave shift in intonation.

Kakashi noticed, quickly adjusting the tone of his impromptu interrogation.

"No, no... not at all. I was just curious is all it was," he equivocated; "...But that does bring to mind something else I was curious about, Tazuna-san, if you please."

"What might that be?"

"And Naruto-san mentioned this to me, too, but how is it that the bottle cap you happened to find—the one you added to your collection earlier—was exactly the same as the one you had used earlier in the day, when we first met you? I mean—what are the odds that you'd find two of the... same... one, right?!" Kakashi smiled, affronting him with wild curiosity, his eye reflecting his grin.

"Oh-ho, well... that's just simple, you see..." he finagled, carefully breaking a small stick off of his seat, and feeding its tip to the open fire; he reached it back, aiming directly for the bakuhatsu-fuda vest that stuck tightly to him beneath his coat...

Well! That was something, eh folks? I hope you liked that, and if you did, I know you'll love the rest of this arc, and the next one, and the next one... It's Summer now and I'm BACK; even though I do have a new job... several projects... college registration... and not to mention the book I'm writing (to begin my career)... I'll do my best to keep bringing you new installments of this story.

Next Time: Chapter 11 – Therein Lies the Mist