A/N: This chapter makes me nervous. Let me once again state that this story is now officially a slight AU to allow for some creative freedom. If something bothers you even after acknowledging that, then please do let me know.
Also, something to add: If I post semi-regular status updates about the progress of the latest chapters as well as random notes about the story, would you guys actually check for and read them? If the answer is honestly no, then that's fine. I'd just like to know.
Also, to clarify, Shikamaru is already a chunin. I thought that was a given unless otherwise stated, so my apologies. Shino will be made chunin in the near future, too.
Enjoy!
Chapter 6: The Howling Wind
Rumors were annoying, Itachi firmly decided. They were possibilities with unknown veracity, creating more work for those tasked with finding the truth.
The rumor that the Fourth Hokage had returned spread rapidly following Orochimaru's defeat. Such a possibility was incredible, and Itachi switched his priority from scouting Naruto Uzumaki to investigating this rumor.
Interestingly, he'd accomplished both tasks regardless. Alongside the rumor, the stories about how Naruto had defeated Suna's fearsome jinchuuriki and that Orochimaru had assassinated and impersonated the Kazekage were widespread. The snake had been busy, Itachi had idly thought.
When the Hokage had announced (and posted written explanation at key points in Konoha so the stories would stay accurate) the truth behind the rumor, Itachi had been in the village as well.
It was an interesting turn of events, but it also meant that going after the Kyuubi jinchuuriki would be ill-advised. As valuable as the information was, the risk was no longer worth the reward. All he and Kisame had to do was walk out of the village and hope not to attract too much attention until they were in the clear.
Unfortunately, the attention of Kakashi Hatake was exactly the wrong kind. A jounin of that caliber was highly perceptive, intelligent, and informed. Luckily, he was able to break line-of-sight long enough to give the famous Copy Ninja a false trail to follow.
From that point on, their time until Konoha was on high alert would be quite limited. Most shinobi in that situation would treat it like a race.
Itachi would turn the situation to his advantage, with little effort. A third shadow clone to draw the focus of the search away, even if briefly, would be perfect.
The results would be fascinating.
Of course, he couldn't forget the special treat waiting for him—Sasuke.
His spare eyes, the most critical step on his road to power, were evolving into what he needed them to be. Soon, he would know how far along they were.
And how far along Sasuke was. He didn't often consciously admit it, but he still loved his brother, in an odd sense. Unlike the arrogant fools of his former clan, Sasuke worked hard for the recognition of his loved ones, not for status, rank, or petty pride. And now Sasuke knew true pain, and the price of that arrogance, that pride.
It was that aloofness that drove nations to war, time and time again. The deaths of thousands for no logical or meaningful reason, all for the sake of pride and arrogance. The Uchiha clan represented the epitome of that rot and cancer that brings the hell of war down upon the world. The only way to rid the world of that hell would be to kill that cancer entirely and ruthlessly.
But Sasuke was an exception. He was still untainted by the Uchiha's disease when that night arrived. Even if he were not, Sasuke's eyes were extremely valuable. With the power of the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, he could take his power to a new level. He could, along with the rest of Akatsuki, bring a new dawn to the world.
Within two minutes of the explosions, Konoha's Village Internal Defense Division was searching for any transformed shadow clones using intricate seals and equipment. Unfortunately, the gap between sensing their location from VIDD headquarters and taking down the clones without casualties was significant. But for Konoha, which had gained a reputation for its resilience and adaptability, developing a system for responding to intruders and surprise attacks on extremely short notice was a necessity. Few knew about its full capabilities—not even the ANBU captains had entered VIDD's more sensitive rooms.
With the constantly maintained detection barrier, one of the only ways to sneak into Konoha without alerting anyone was to use the cover of an attack; a break in the barrier was not itself significant when dozens were flowing through already.
Itachi and Kisame had entered the village undetected, believing the village weakened and disorganized after the attack. They hadn't considered the outlandish possibility that getting out would be significantly harder than getting in.
Minato saw the ANBU (and many conventional shinobi) start moving with purpose after the explosions. Normally, such loud noises weren't a big deal in a shinobi village. Training of various kinds, testing of equipment and jutsu, and accidents accounted for a vast majority of such disturbances.
But hearing several explosions from the central district of the village was not a good sign. Seeing other shinobi act with alarm was all Minato needed for confirmation.
"Kushina," Minato called out. She was starting to notice that something was amiss, but she quickly refocused her attention on her husband. "Stay here and protect Naruto," he ordered, accompanying it with a hard look that conveyed his meaning well enough on its own.
It wasn't just out of a desire to keep his family safe that he ordered her to stay with Naruto; their son was a jinchuuriki, and thus a valuable village asset. And a prime target, he bitterly added.
He made it to the scene of the incident quickly by following the crowd, so to speak. Most of the shinobi stood back, knowing that if their assistance was needed, they would be ordered into action. Furthermore, they were spread out significantly due to constantly shouted orders. Recently arriving shinobi noticed the pattern and followed suit, which made any other activity suspicious. Minato hoped they wouldn't attack him before he reached the center.
Of course, the fact that he was the very recently back-from-the-dead Fourth Hokage made getting answers easier, too. "It was Itachi Uchiha," one of the ANBU explained. "Two of his shadow clones engaged two jounin-led genin teams and then exploded. No one was seriously injured. However, there could be other such exploding shadow clones in the village, transformed to look like anyone else."
Minato understood the implications immediately. He also recognized the name—he'd known about the Uchiha Massacre both from Hiruzen's explanation and Naruto's memories. "Anything else?"
"Kakashi Hatake reported that Itachi was likely using this threat to escape without a fight. If so, he'll likely be using other shadow clones to draw our search away from himself."
The analysis was sound, Minato reasoned. Nodding, he added: "Have VIDD contact me as soon as they have a lead."
"Yes sir!"
He teleported back to Kushina, instructing her to erect a barrier around Ichiraku's and keep it up until he personally gave the all clear. He knew she wanted answers—her hard, questioning look said more than enough. "No time," he gave as explanation, and he was gone again, off to the Hokage Tower. He could still see Naruto's highly confused expression in his mind's eye, and felt much more at ease with his family safe.
VIDD was responsible for coordinating village defense in case of an attack or threat, and utilized technologies in conjunction with seals and jutsu to communicate across vast distances mentally. Certain members of ANBU were favored for being able to use this skill without any special equipment. Combining the two facts, Minato figured he'd be notified of a target within the minute.
He wasn't wrong. "Hokage-sama, this is VIDD. Target sighted at a general civilian market in the eastern district. Target appears to be female, has shoulder length hair, standard chunin shinobi attire, and is five feet, two inches tall. I will guide you to the target."
Using a transformation of his own, he followed the instructions to the market and the target itself.
'She' was browsing through food stands in an open market. It wasn't quite as crowded as it could have been, as people were out at lunch, but there were far too many left for an explosion to be allowed to go off here. He did his best not to look out of place as he stalked the target. He would have to destroy that clone before it got a chance to go off.
Minato should have realized why Itachi picked a civilian market—civilians would not notice suspicious behavior, even if they weren't too busy browsing for goods themselves. As such, Itachi had free reign to look at all of his surroundings whenever he wanted.
Itachi being Itachi, however, the clone didn't even take advantage of that until Minato closed to within a couple meters of the 'woman.' When their eyes met, Minato froze. The gaze held, and what would have followed would have been a split-second race that would determine the fate of many innocent people.
Would have, because Minato went against his instinct to attack and did something that surprised him even as he did it. He smiled, slouching his head down sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head nervously. He timidly walked forward, trying to act like someone who had been caught staring at a beautiful member of the opposite sex. "H-Hi," he said unsteadily, not making eye contact. "I'm sorry, I just saw how beautiful you were and couldn't help mys—," he went from nervous bachelor to lightning-fast shinobi faster than the eye could blink, shoving his fist straight through center mass.
Minato was rewarded with a satisfying pop as the clone dissipated. He didn't move for a second, still very tense, adjusting to the fact that he had not been blown up. Exhaling a breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding, he turned to the confused onlookers. "Shinobi business, sorry for disturbing you."
He waited until he was back on the rooftops before undoing his transformation, to avoid the stares. "Great work, Hokage-sama. So far we have not identified any other targets. Given that Itachi Uchiha has already used at least three shadow clones, the likelihood of there being more is slim. We will keep you updated with any new leads."
Despite knowing that the person on the other end of the mental communication had no way of seeing it, Minato nodded. He closed his eyes, taking slow, deep breaths to ease the tension. Reasonably calm, he teleported back to the unofficial gathering point, ignoring the awed looks of the surrounding shinobi, including those of Naruto's former classmates.
As expected, the ANBU agents present already knew that Minato had taken out a clone. "Excellent job, Hokage-sama!" one of them said.
"Thank you." He said it reflexively out of an ingrained habit of politeness. He turned to the ANBU agent that he had spoken to earlier. "Do we know why Itachi was here?"
"He...he said he was after your legacy, Hokage-sama," Kurenai answered for the ANBU. She looked nervous, though Minato couldn't tell if it was from speaking to a previously-dead legend or something else. "And we have reason to believe that he is working with some kind of organization. Kisame Hoshigake, a missing-nin from Kiri, is also a member."
It took a moment to understand what she meant by "legacy," but when he did, he only showed mild surprise. Several things made sense now, including the nature of this possible organization. That masked man—Madara Uchiha, potentially—wanted the power of the Kyuubi.
Minato tightened his fists hard enough for his nails to bite into his skin. That monster tried to kill his son, had killed his wife, many villagers, and tried to destroy all of Konoha. He would keep trying until he was ended, for good.
But now Madara—he decided to call him that for the sake of convenience, and because it was the most logical answer—was working with other highly dangerous shinobi.
They would be hunted and brought down ruthlessly, Minato decided, even if he had to do it himself.
Kurenai must have noticed Minato's silent rage, because her posture and voice become noticeably uneasy. "Hokage-sama?"
Minato forced himself to take a breath and calm down. There would be a time and a place for unrefined anger, but right now it was not productive. "Any further word from VIDD?" he asked the ANBU.
"Not yet," he answered. "They've done a sweep of the populated areas, are now looking for any other shadow clones."
There probably weren't any others, Minato concluded. Shadow clones were costly, chakra-wise. A common misconception among most shinobi was that making a shadow clone consumed exactly half of the user's chakra. While it was actually true for most shinobi, those with uncommonly high chakra reserves were not affected in quite the same way—the amount of chakra flowing in their chakra circulatory system was divided in half, but the original could call on reserves from within to refill the circulation.
Even if Itachi did have exceptionally high reserves (not an impossibility, for a shinobi of his caliber), using more than three shadow clones would be a waste of chakra. And if Itachi's goal was to get out of the danger Konoha posed, conserving chakra was important. Extra clones could be easily tracked down and taken out by other shinobi, now that the needed defense network was being set up.
Minato's focus shifted elsewhere. "Have we started searching for the originals outside the village?"
"Third-sama ordered that the outer patrols be notified," the ANBU explained. "If the intruders are detected, we'll defin—"
It didn't take a genius to understand that the ANBU had just been mentally contacted by the VIDD.
Nor did it take a genius to understand what Minato wanted, ASAP. "They left the village, heading southwest, but they're probably miles away by now. Our external tracking stations haven't picked anything up yet."
The tone of the order carried malice, but those present knew exactly who it was aimed at. "Move out."
She was able to form the barrier without trouble, but she still felt the need to understand what was going on. There wasn't nearly enough noise for it to be an attack, but if Minato had instructed her to make a barrier...
"Uh, m-...mom?" Kushina noticed that he said the word with uncertainty and unfamiliarity, and it stung. "What's going on?"
Turning back to face him (and Teuchi, Ayame, and the genin that had been instructed to guard Ichiraku's), she stifled the maelstrom of emotion that had been plaguing her for a while. "I don't know," she said, her voice not nearly as steady as she hoped.
She couldn't help but focus on the fact that Naruto's facial expression returned to its emotional, contemplative expression from earlier.
And then it hit her, like a slap in the face, except that her brain felt the impact, not the face, and the slap was more like an emotional torque than a physical impact. Not bothering to make sense out of that stupid subconscious simile, she walked forward to her son and embraced him tightly.
How had she been so stupid? How had she not realized—
After everything that had happened, and everything that Naruto had just learned, they took him out for ramen? Like they were old friends catching up over lunch? He knew almost nothing about them, and he didn't know what their relationship was supposed to be like.
She and Minato had been such idiots, she thought. "I'm sorry, Naruto," she said, eyes beginning to tear up. "I know you don't really know us, and we're messing things up. I'm sorry..."
Naruto relaxed into her arms, holding his mother tighter now that he was finally sure how he felt about something. "It's okay." His voice was quiet, but certain. "I don't know how things are supposed to be or what I'm supposed to do, but I know you guys care—that you love me, so I don't care. I don't care—I'm just happy...that you're here."
She was definitely crying now, but she didn't care—it just felt so right and Naruto was such an incredible person, better than she deserved—
Teuchi and Ayame looked on silently, beaming. Ayame really wished she had a camera to capture the moment, and was tempted to somehow quietly ask that genin standing awkwardly off to the side.
As soon as they were out of sight from the gates, Itachi and Kisame abandoned their normal pace. Even with their combined might, the literal army that Konoha could launch at them on short notice would be very dangerous. The Fourth Hokage was especially frightening—had they known that he was truly back from the dead, they would never have entered Konoha in the first place.
Still, as long as they exited the village before Konoha was on to their trail, even the Fourth wouldn't be able to catch up. He would need to be able to teleport miles away, at a location far outside the village yet close enough to intercept them.
Itachi was slightly annoyed that two of his clones had started a confrontation a little sooner than necessary, but it was worth it to see how Sasuke (and his eyes) had progressed.
But the person who took out his third clone was a bizarre mystery. That whole situation was weird, but he didn't have the time to ponder it, because something far more important now occupied his attention.
To almost anyone else, it would have been a blur of blue, green, and yellow.
To Itachi, it was a clear (if insanely fast) attack that wasn't moving in quite the right direction to be aimed at him.
To Kisame, it was a punch straight to the gut, with enough force to send him hurtling into the branches of a nearby tree.
Later, Itachi reflected on this turn of events with a cold, logical thought process.
It must have been extremely bad luck that allowed the Yellow Flash to find and catch up to them so quickly, Itachi reasoned. No, not just luck, he decided. Konoha's internal defenses and detection must have been much more advanced than he had believed. A detection barrier was expected, encountered, and bypassed, but apparently the village had some way of actively detecting specific individuals inside it very quickly.
Such a system would have been extremely difficult to design and utilize. What could have triggered such a normally unnecessary investment?
And that was where his deduction reached a dead end, to be left for another time when more information was available.
Itachi threw a few shuriken to buy a little time and disrupt the Fourth's actions. Unfortunately, it did neither, as Minato turned around, already having finished the seals for a wind release jutsu.
Wind Release: Shattering Bullet, Itachi recognized. He countered with a Fire Release: Grand Fireball jutsu, countering the attack elementally. His opponent's jutsu had far more kinetic force, however, forcing him to dodge as soon as he could.
A three-pronged kunai flew at him slightly off target, missing him by a couple feet.
But well within the range needed to teleport inside his guard, Itachi knew. Sure enough, the Yellow Flash, donned in standard Konoha shinobi attire, appeared out of thin air, kunai thrusting towards Itachi's stomach.
The Uchiha deflected the kunai with his hand, pushing against the dull side of the weapon. With the immediate threat dealt with, he cast an illusion using his free index finger.
Minato saw Itachi dodge the follow up punch by ducking straight down. In reality, Itachi strafed left, drawing a kunai and thrusting into Minato's gut in a fluid, barely perceptible motion.
The armored jacket prevented the kunai from going in too deep, but Minato didn't even flinch as he grabbed Itachi's wrist with his free hand, dropped the kunai in the other in exchange for a Rasengan that slammed into Itachi's head.
The remainder of Itachi's body burst into black crows as Minato turned into a puff of smoke.
Itachi landed on a nearby branch, thankful that his double-layered illusion had worked.
Minato performed a chakra-assisted burst of high speed, known amongst shinobi as a shunshin, aiming a kunai at Itachi's back.
Itachi rotated his body clockwise, dodging to the left. Minato didn't make eye contact, making a quick illusion impossible. That was rather unfortunate for the missing-nin, because Minato formed a small, miniature Rasengan in his other hand, swiping out with it like a club.
A relatively wide line of red was visible on Itachi, running diagonally from the right pectoral to just below the shoulder. The wound wasn't deep enough to be incapacitating, but it was not something that could be ignored.
Using the momentum of the outward swing, Minato twisted in the air, throwing the kunai at Itachi, who was too dazed and not in a stable enough stance to dodge. The kunai embedded itself into his torso.
Minato teleported behind Itachi using the recently thrown kunai, hoping for a killing blow.
He barely had time to register the sound of flame, but he teleported to where his first kunai landed in time to prevent being set alight by black flames.
Itachi yanked the three-pronged kunai out of his body, throwing it clear before Minato could take advantage. Kisame jumped near Itachi, already forming seals. "Blue pool!" the Kiri traitor yelled. The Uchiha must have understood, because he jumped up and slightly away from his partner.
A massive amount of water burst from Kisame's mouth, creating a surging wave that stood several times taller than its caster.
The water obviously grew from itself and retained some kind of form, as the forest quickly began flooding. Readying a Rasengan, Minato decided enough was enough and teleported behind Kisame using the Hiraishin seal he had placed on Kisame with the punch.
He obliterated Kisame's head, but was only rewarded with even more water.
Water clone, Minato realized. Reaching out and feeling for the other Hiraishin seal (hopefully on the real Kisame this time), he found it relatively nearby. Repeating the maneuver, he ended up destroying nothing but a black-and-red cloak, finding himself completely submerged in water.
Either Kisame had known about the seal-planting and discarded the cloak after setting up the clone, or he'd discarded the cloak for some other, unrelated reason.
He was rewarded with the answer in the form of a shark-man-hybrid thing swimming at him quite fast.
Minato met the sudden attack head on, allowing Kisame to grab Minato in exchange for getting a decent grip himself.
He planted the seal and then teleported them both several miles away, thankful that his split-second decision had paid off.
The water technique Kisame had used centered a large body of water around its user. With the user suddenly transported very far away, the water couldn't keep up, breaking the connection between the water and the creator and ending the technique.
There was just one slight problem, though.
Minato was shocked to find that he was almost out of chakra, despite the maneuver itself not being intensive. Had Kisame mastered a powerful chakra absorption technique? He knew about Samehada's chakra-stealing ability, but the sword hadn't been in sight. He tried to get up from his face-down position inside of the underground bunker, but even that was a struggle. Just as he tried to look up, Kisame slammed a hard kick into his side. Now feeling utterly exhausted, Minato took consolation in the fact that at least he could now see his enemy.
"Heh," Kisame scoffed, looking down at his opponent. "Compared to you, that Kyuubi brat is going to be pretty easy."
Anger that Minato had suppressed before began to surge back with a vengeance. Images of his family's suffering emerged in his mind's eye. Kushina dying, having had the most powerful of monsters forcibly ripped out of her body. Naruto's lonely childhood as the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. Madara ordering him to choose between his newborn baby and his wife.
"Nothing personal," Kisame continued, "but you're in the way between me and my objective."
He had had enough of people threatening his family. Now that they were finally together, he would destroy those who would seek to break them apart. He was literally seeing red, feeling a new, potent energy rush through his veins. It was like a euphoric high was feeding his fury. Delicious, energizing rage was bubbling from his skin. He didn't remember getting to his feet in an instant or wrapping his hand around the hybrid's neck. The power was flowing through him faster than it was being drained away by the shark's strange ability, but the only thought that clearly registered to him was KILL. Raw, volatile chakra powered his adrenaline-fueled muscles.
Minato didn't even think about Kisame's shocked expression as he ripped out the blue man's throat, following it up with a large, red Rasengan to the face.
The shower of blood and gore was like music to his ears. As a weird, spiked, tubular thing started emerging out of the corpse, Minato formed a larger Rasengan than he had ever made in battle and smashed it down, making a bloody crater in the stone floor.
As quiet settled, the satisfaction began to wane. His rage subsided, and the red tint that covered everything faded.
Looking back on it, Minato knew exactly what had happened, but was still so shocked that he had to physically confirm it.
Unzipping his flak jacket, he reached down and pulled his shirt up to reveal a familiar black seal.
Oh. Fuck.
He had forgot, in all that had happened, about the fact that he had technically sealed the Kyuubi's Yin chakra within himself. The plan was that the chakra would be sealed away with his death-by-Shinigami, but since he was now back amongst the living...
Of course...
His first thought about it was that the power would be immensely useful. Then the irony hit him: he and Naruto were Kyuubi jinchuuriki, while Kushina was not.
He laughed at the realization, feeling the tension of the past couple days leave his body. It was also so insane, so unreal that he doubled over, unable to stop the laughter. It was so unlike him, but it was a comforting kind of insanity.
A minute later, he finally calmed down, wiping the tears from his eyes. It was the most bizarre catharsis he had ever heard of, but he would take what he could get.
Shino had noticed how Sasuke seethed with anger ever since things had calmed down. Even after a medic-nin had come by and healed his arm, the scowl never left his face. Normally, Shino wouldn't have interjected himself into such intense emotion, but Sasuke was his comrade.
The meaning of that word had only recently become truly understood. "Why are you angry?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
Sasuke glared at him with a look that gave him pause. He'd heard the cliche "if glares could kill," but now he actually realized why it existed in the first place. "You are upset about the difference in power between you two," Shino observed. "How do I know this? It is the most logical conclusion."
The Uchiha didn't say anything, but his features softened slightly. "You are mistaken," Shino stated, earning a shocked expression as reply. "Itachi, as an individual, is far stronger than you at the moment. But your power is not just the chakra in your body, or the intelligence in your mind. It is the bonds you share, and the loyalties you inspire. Itachi stands alone, powerful. You stand with all of Konoha, the might of thousands all seeking to bring Itachi to justice."
Seeing no change in Sasuke's features, Shino continued. "Because you maintain strong bonds with those around you, their strength is also yours. How do I know this? Because that is the logic of a team. We are stronger as a whole than the raw sum of our power individually."
"Very well put, Shino," Kurenai-sensei commented, smiling. "Itachi is the enemy of all of Konoha, and we will all work together to bring him down."
"Yeah," Sakura added, drawing their attention. "You're not going to do this by yourself, Sasuke-kun." Feeling rather brave, Sakura placed a reassuring hand on Sasuke's shoulder. To her surprise, he didn't shrug it off or even look uncomfortable about it.
He looked at her, jaw slack and eyes open in a way that she had never seen before. She smiled at him, hoping that she could convey what she was feeling. Sakura wouldn't let him face something like that alone, even if it killed her.
The realization almost scared her, but she didn't care. Sasuke-kun was worth it, both as a teammate and a person. They were a team, along with Kakashi-sensei and Naruto.
"...thank you."
His smile was feint, but so genuine that shivers ran down her spine. He didn't meet anyone's eyes; he was more visually focused on the ground. But she could tell that he understood, and that made her spirits soar higher than they had in a long time.
A/N: Well, yes, I actually did that.
Did Kisame get to go all out? No. But I'm not sticking to typical shonen formula for abilities. It's a fight to the death where bigger is often not better, and sometimes random circumstances can render a powerful ability moot. In this case, it was a sudden surge of volatile chakra that was being replenished faster than it was being drained for the brief window Minato needed.
I also understand that VIDD's capabilities seem overpowered. However, considering what kind of threats shinobi villages face, NOT having that kind of security would be extremely risky. It also adds the kind of defense that Konoha would need for Tobi to not bring the village to its knees within a couple days.
Itachi is powerful, but he is slower than Minato, and you should NEVER underestimate the utility of Hiraishin. Itachi was significantly wounded, but definitely not beaten. If you didn't get it, he obviously escaped. As for why Itachi and Kisame didn't see Minato coming: Minato can use the forest for cover, is EXTREMELY fast, and can teleport silently. Wind in Itachi's ears drown out subtle sounds, so they couldn't hear it coming, either.
The change about the shadow clone mechanics was something I felt necessary; Naruto was stated to have something like four times as much chakra as Kakashi in part 2. Considering his ability to spam clones over and over and not rely on Kyuubi chakra, something doesn't add up. Part 1 Naruto throwing away two dozen clones as an OPENING ATTACK wouldn't make sense if it was all completely evenly divided, either. Naruto also drawing on a TON of chakra during the Gaara fight (just before massive ass-kicking) follows my theory as well.
Please review! It motivates me to write and gives me inspiration! I love hearing from you guys :)
Some questions if you want to answer them:
1) Was the fight, and the circumstances surrounding it, believable?
2) How was the Kushina/Naruto interaction?
3) How was the whole scene with Sasuke?
4) Did VIDD bother you in any way?
5) Favorite part(s)?
6) Least favorite part(s)?
7) Things you'd like to see, or other constructive criticism?
Thank you so much!