A.N: Nope you haven't gone insane. I have actually updated Acknowledgement! And let me explain why…

Over the past five years since I've written this, I have still had many fans asking me "Are you gonna continue writing this story?" or "Why did you stop writing Acknowledgement?" Well this final chapter will serve as to why I cut the adventure short and what is the future.

In short, I stopped writing Acknowledgement because I honestly did not like the direction it was starting to go. There is a saying that an artist's biggest critic is themselves, and I hold true to that adage. Here are the main issues that I had with my own story after Chapter one…

One, this was supposed to be a story about Naruto and Hinata, yet Acknowledgement was Naruto-centric to the point that Hinata was just a tagalong character.

Two, Naruto and Hinata had no personality whatsoever. Naruto was your typical hot-blooded shounen lead, while Hinata was the generic Yamato Nadeshiko girlfriend that supported the male hero but had no depth of her own (even with the subplot concerning her banishment from her clan). Hinata was almost never given a moment to shine, as nearly everything that she did centered around or went back to being about Naruto. Meanwhile Naruto was just dull.

Three, I wanted to improve my writing style and what I had written seemed dated.

Four, Naruto had quickly turned into what we in the fandom like to dub "Strong Naruto". The problem with writing "Strong Naruto" stories is that more often than not, Naruto becomes so strong to the point that literally nothing outside of a god can touch him. Part of reading a good story with a good hero is seeing them overcome the odds. If they are so strong that they have no opposition then what's the point? It's part of the reason why I prefer Batman to Superman. With Superman you already know that unless some kryptonite shows up, nothing can stop the "Man of Steel" but with Batman you actually wonder how he is gonna pull himself out of each adventure he gets into. Will he actually stop the Joker this time? Can his kid sidekicks hang with him or will they be a liability?

These four reasons are why I decided to pull the plug on Acknowledgement. However I still had many fans who wanted to see the adventure continue, and I wanted to write a "better version" of Acknowledgement, so I take some time away to hone my craft. I switch over to my vastly superior first person writing style and three years later Beloved is born. Yet while Beloved quickly became a hit, it wasn't quite the same. Beloved takes several cues from Acknowledgement, but they are two entirely different stories (I consider Acknowledgement to be the "prototype" for Beloved). So I decided to try and rewrite Acknowledgement again. Here are the two drafts I came up with…

Draft 1

"Yosh!" An enthused eighteen year old Uzumaki Naruto shouts as the quartet composed of himself, Hyuuga Hinata, Densetsu no Jiraiya, and Mitarashi Anko stand at the Konoha gates, "It's great to be back home!"

"Speak for yourself…" Hyuuga Hinata, the former eighteen year old heir to the Hyuuga snorts as she pulls out her identification card, "If you remember, not only was I removed from my position as heir to my clan, but banished as well. The only thing that made life worthwhile was you, and I don't necessarily need to be back in this dump to enjoy that."

"Oh how you wound my heart…!" Mitarashi Anko mocks, placing a hand over her chest, "Do you have no love for your sensei that used up her precious time teaching you her craft? Is this my reward for my devotion to your development? Surely there is more than Naruto-kun that you could appreciate about our home…"

"A valid point," Hinata concedes, as the quartet walk through the village, "Except for the fact that we did not become student and teacher until after we left the village. Outside of Kurenai-sensei, Tsunade-sama, and my former teammates, I could care less about Konoha anymore."

"Hinata has really become a miniature version of you…" Jiraiya of the Sannin chimes, "And not just in temperament…"

Jiraiya giggles as he gazes at Hinata's slender and voluptuous body. Hinata's latest attire was composed of a lavender trenchcoat over a mesh bra, and dark blue denim shorts. Instead of the standard footwear assigned to shinobi, Hinata had decided to upgrade to a pair of black sandals. The final change in Hinata's makeover was the addition of lipstick. Hinata considered herself a goddess, and she had no reservations in enlightening the rest of the world about this truth.

"Hinata has definitely grown over the five years that I trained her," Anko notes, as Hinata clocks Jiraiya's face with a backfist, "She has exceeded my expectations."

"Humph! I refused to be a simple damsel in distress any longer!" Hinata scowled, "I was kicked out of my clan because I was weak! And though I now hate the clan with every fiber of my being, I understood why they abandoned me! In this world, you are either strong or weak! And only the strong survive!"

"Hinata…" Naruto soothes, placing a hand on Hinata's left cheek, "You were never weak. You were always strong. The weak ones were the Hyuuga for turning their back on you! And outside of Neji, I hope that I never have to work alongside one!"

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata pants, placing her palm on Naruto's fingers. For this brief moment, Hinata resembled the eloquent, timid, sweet girl of the past, complete with a shortness of breath and rosy red cheeks, "Thank you…thank you for accepting me…even when I lacked the strength to fight for what I believed in, you never turned your back on me. For that, I am eternally grateful…"

As you can see, this is a fusion of what I was originally going to write for chapter 7 along with a bit of "Road to Ninja". This draft was meant to address issue #2, the lack of personality in my protagonists. But while Hinata finally got some development, Naruto still felt dull. Not to mention that problem #4 still existed (strong Naruto), so this is where draft #2 came in.

Draft 2

"You'll never stop me!" The bandit leader known as Akakuma said, "I'm invincible!"

"There's a first time for everything!" The eighteen year old Hyuga said as she did some hand signs, "Raihebi!"

A thunder snake comes out of Hinata's sleeve and strikes Akakuma in his left shoulder, temporarily paralyzing it.

"You'll pay for that!" Akakuma curses as he holds his shoulder in pain.

"I don't think so!" An eighteen year old blond says as he charges towards Akakuma, "Tsuchiken!"

Naruto strikes Akakuma in the jaw with a fist of stone, knocking him out cold.

"Let's get out of here!" Akakuma's second in command shouts.

"I'll take care of the bandits," Naruto says as he runs off.

"And I'll tie Akakuma up until the authorities arrive," Hinata says.

"I don't believe that Akakuma could be so stupid!" Akakuma's second says as he runs away, "We heard rumors that they would be here, but he still wanted to come anyway! But that's ok, we'll regroup and then I'll lead everybody into victory!"

"Sorry…" Naruto says, standing directly in front, "But you aren't going anywhere!"

"We might have lost Akakuma, but you're exhausted from fighting!" Akakuma's second barks, "You can't defeat me and the remaining twenty of us by yourself! Come on everyone! He doesn't stand a chance!"

"I finally get a chance to show off the new and improved version of the Naruto Tatsumaki!" Naruto says as he charges wind chakra into his kunai.

"Nothing you do can stop us now!" Akakuma's second yells, "Prepare to die!"

"For my precious people…" Naruto says as he swings his kunai to the right, creating a massive tornado that takes out all 21 bandits, "I will not fall! Fuuton! Naruto Tatsumaki!"

*yawn…*

"Dattebayo, what a weird dream…! I dreamed that Baa-chan disbanded all of the teams and created new ones, Hinata was disowned by her family and adopted by that crazy snake lady from the Chuunin exams, and I was stuck on some crazy frog mountain with Ero-sennin for five years without ramen! "

Draft 2 was going to retcon the entire road trip into a dream sequence. But I decided that I didn't like that option, so I finally decided that Acknowledgement was done for good.

So yes, Acknowledgement is finished, however I do have good news for those of you who still want more goodness. Check out Beloved and Coveted. While they aren't set in the same universe as Acknowledgement, they do share most of the same themes and some of the plots that I had planned for Acknowledgement (such as Hanabi and Sasuke) have been transplanted into the other fics. I hope you have enjoyed this ride. It's not over, just time to jump to a different train.