Chapter 3: Comforting Companionship

Konoha General Hospital, Konohagakure no Sato (1145 hours August 25, 7 AK)

The girl had no idea where she was. Who she was. Why she was here. The answers to all these important questions seem to escape her whenever she tried deepening her search. She couldn't even remember her own name. Every time she tried to remember those details, she would get a large headache, forcing her to rest her head. It was annoying that she had no idea who she was, but there was nothing she could do about it. There was a word to describe people just like her, but she could not recall that, either.

She decided to explore the little room she was trapped in. She had never seen the machines and contraptions in the room. Then again, she does not even remember her life outside of an hour ago. She just woke up and then blank. She wondered if all people went through what she did when they first came into the world.

There was a small table near her with a mirror, a small cup of water and some flowers. If there were some flowers, then that means someone must have been in this room before. Maybe that person knew who the she was.

She decided to explore her own body and see if there were any clues for her identity. She took off the white gown, becoming naked in the process. For some reason, she felt oddly comfortable completely nude, like she often undressed herself often in the past. Well, this feeling certainly was a start. She was one step closer to finding her own identity.

But what she examined did not help her in the slightest. She was an average-build 6 year old girl, nothing out of the ordinary (whatever that was). Her body structure, because of her relative youth, resembled that of boys and the reason why she assumed she was a girl was because she had a vagina. She did not know why she knew the difference between males and females, but it was oddly fitting, just like her comfort in being nude.

Her breasts were not yet developed. It would have been problematic if she started to develop breasts at the tender age of 6. Yet, as she continued to go down her own body, there was an odd marking on her abdomen. It was merely three dots surrounding her navel that resembled a triangle. Her entire body was free from marks and other designs except for her abdomen. This blatant difference sent signals stating that something did happen to her before she woke up in this weird place. Some event of some sort did occur in the hour before she regained consciousness. Or maybe she was just being paranoid.

The door to her room was opened. One female, oblivious to the current state of the young girl, walked into the room whistling a strangely nostalgic tune. She was wearing a white one-piece dress that went all the way to her upper thighs. It was tightly constricting and brought definition to her buttocks. Her right breast pocket was filled with interesting devices, like a sharp looking knife, a pincer looking device, and some pens and pencils. She had a matching white cap on her head, and she wore stockings. The girl thought that the woman looked very beautiful in her outfit.

As she walked closer to the young girl, she dropped whatever she was holding on her hands. The woman saw the young girl stark naked standing near the window. The little girl seemed unmindful to the potential dangers of her nudity and where she was standing, and she was staring at the older woman innocently.

"Fujibayashi-san, please." She said. "Please do not stand near the window naked like that. There could be people watching you from afar, and you do not want that."

"Fujibayashi-san?" The girl asked. "Is…is that my name?"

"Oh dear." The woman said, putting her hands on her forehead. She walked onto a weird device on the wall and pressed the button. "Doctor, the patient appears to be suffering from amnesia."

Amnesia. That's the word the little girl was looking for. She must have forgotten everything about her life before she woke up, so that made her an amnesiac. From what the woman said, she concluded that she was in a hospital, or some sort of area that specialized in healthcare. The most positive thing that came from this short encounter was that she now knew that she was a Fujibayashi-san. She should probably pry into this tidbit of information a little while longer.

The woman got off the device on the wall and turned to face the girl. She smiled at the little girl. The girl merely stared at her emotionlessly, her eyes gently peeling off the layers of nervousness the woman constructed.

"Fujibayashi-san, please return to your bed. The doctor has notified me that Hokage-sama will be arriving shortly to meet with you."

"Onee-chan," The girl began. "Who am I? Who is Hokage-sama? Why am I here?"

The woman smiled and placed her hand under the girl's chin. She was mesmerized by the girl's stunning sepia eyes, losing herself in the girl's impassive gaze.

"I'm sorry Fujibayashi-san. I was told that I will not the one to disclose all that information to you. I was informed that Hokage-sama has all the answers to your questions, so he would be the better person to ask. Now come on, let's get you back to your hospital gown."

"But I don't wanna!" The girl pouted immaturely, betraying her mask of indifference while crossing her hands over her chest. She really enjoyed being nude in the small room. Besides, the hospital gown did not actually cover much, only her torso and upper thighs.

"Fujibayashi-san," The woman said in a soothing, motherly tone. "You must understand that Hokage-sama is a wise and venerable man. It would be rude to appear naked in front of him." She explained, to which Suzu nodded innocently. "Besides, we woman should not be naked in front of everyone. Only to ourselves and the ones we love."

"Why?" She asked curiously. Based off her learned preference, it seemed ridiculous to her that she should not reveal herself to the world in such a way.

"Well…" She said, unsure of how to answer this question. The woman did not want to defile the girl's innocence by revealing the existence of perverts and pedophiles, but she did not want the girl to just nonchalantly walk outside completely bare. "There are bad boys out there that would want to harm you because you are naked. Do you want to be harmed?"

The girl thought about it for a second. While she felt very comfortable in the nude, She really, really did not want to get hurt. Yet, there was something inside of her telling her that she could take care of herself. That she was strong.

"Onee-chan, I can take care of myself!" She exclaimed gleefully, expressing the sudden thoughts that entered her mind. "I'm a strong girl!"

"Fujibayashi-san," She said in a solemn tone, kneeling down to make direct eye contact with the girl. "I believe that you are a strong girl. But there are always people that are stronger than you. You need to know how to be safe, and the hospital gown will help you defend yourself."

The girl looked at her with a stupefied expression. This flimsy piece of paper (it wasn't even cotton) was going to defend her?

Yet, what the woman said was valid. While she believed herself to be strong, it would also be foolhardy to ignore the existence of other, more potentially powerful people. People that could try to hurt her because she was naked, as ludicrous as that sounded.

The girl was reluctant, but she eventually put the gown back on. While she was putting back on her gown, she thought a little about strength. Why did she want to be strong? Why was it an overpowering desire, one that transcended the boundaries of memories? She did not know the answer, but she knew that she wanted to be strong now. She wanted to be strong so that she could do whatever she wanted without being hurt by anyone. But how? How will she go about gaining that strength?

The little girl waited for another hour. She preoccupied herself by looking outside the window (with her clothes on) and watching the sparrows fly. She found the free flight of the tiny sparrows enticing as they moved around the air. She was captivated by how such a small creature can maneuver in such an aerodynamic way. The little girl saw herself as a sparrow. She wanted to be able to move that freely, to take to the skies instead of being caged up in this room.

She had explored every nook and cranny of the room. She practically knew the whole layout of the room in her memory (considering that she did not know much, either). She wanted to know more. She wanted to know more about her predicament and who she was as a person. Hopefully the Hokage would answer all of her questions. Hopefully she'll know who she was at the end of this. Just as she was thinking of the Hokage, the door opened up again and an elderly man entered the room.

The man was wearing a white robe that covered his entire body. He also had a white hat with the Kanji for fire embroidered at the very front. He looked very old, with liver spots and wrinkles scattered throughout his face. Yet, his gaze was warm and receiving. Somehow, the girl felt like she had seen this face before.

The Hokage smiled at the little girl. The girl, despite her earlier apathy, politely returned the smile with a very deep bow. From what the woman (who she found out was a nurse in Konoha General Hospital) told her, the Hokage was the leader of Konohagakure. This village was apparently her hometown, but she would not know for certain until the Hokage explained it to her. She was told to be in her absolute best behavior, and the presence of such a powerful figure actually began to make the girl shiver in anxiety.

"Now, now. Relax little one." The Hokage told the girl. She looked up to meet the Hokage's gaze. It was so warm and inviting, devoid of any hate or malice. She could see nothing wrong with the old man, and decided to trust in his words.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." She said. Slowly, her fidgeting stopped and she managed to normalize her breathing rate.

"Now, before we begin, I should introduce myself." The Hokage said with a smile. "My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen, and I am the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." He ended his introduction with a nod. Although he wanted to politely bow, the Hokage was the highest ranking position in the village, and a Hokage bowing to a mere child would cause all sorts of turmoil to unfold in the political sphere. He is being watched, after all.

The young girl nodded enthusiastically to Hiruzen's introduction. "I am pleased to make your a…acq…accounts!"

Hiruzen chuckled. He probably should not have used such a big word on a child. "It's 'acquaintance' little one. It means that you are a person that I know." He smiled brightly at the girl, who enthusiastically nodded in understanding.

"I learned a new word!" She said in childish glee. But then her expression changed to solemnity. "Hokage-sama…who am I?"

"That is the reason why I am here. I rushed in here as soon as I found out that you were awake. I still have some unfinished paperwork, but I need to let you know who you are." Hiruzen said. "Your name is Fujibayashi Suzu. You are a civilian of Konohagakure. Recently your parents have passed away, and you were so fully of shock that your body tried to forget everything."

"My…my parents are dead…?" The girl known now as Suzu asked. She understood the concept of parenthood, from what little she did remember. To have been told that her parents died right after learning of her name; she was at a loss of thought.

"Yes, little one. I apologize for your regretful loss." He said, placing his hand on her shoulder. Suzu shook her head several times, trying to deny what she had learned. It was too much for the little girl, and she began to cry. She hugged Hiruzen tightly, and began to bawl on his robe. Hiruzen did not mind. This was all so that she can have a new lease on her life, and helping her through her "ordeal" was something he needed to do as a Hokage.

"W…why…why me…" She sniffed. It all seemed too unfair to her. She lost her memory, and now her parents were dead. She does not even remember all the time she spent with her mother and father. She did not even know who they were.

"Do not cry, little one." Hiruzen said calmly. "It is not befitting of a shinobi to cry. Your mother and father would want you to mourn their loss, but they would not want you to cry."

"R…really?" Suzu asked.

"Yes." Hiruzen said. "I knew your mother and father. They were fine shinobi, some of the finest in the village. Your mother could have become the Hokage, if she wanted too."

Suzu was surprised. Her parents were really strong? Maybe that's where she got her innate desire to grow stronger from.

"Suzu-chan," He said, to which she looked into his face. "Your mother was a fine kunoichi, and she wanted more than anything else for her beloved daughter to follow the same path. Do you want to be a shinobi, Suzu-chan?"

She nodded without thinking. If her mother and father were shinobi, and powerful ones at that, then she should honor their memory by following their lifestyle. That is how she will get the power to defend herself; by becoming a shinobi.

"If you want to become a shinobi, then you must not cry Suzu. That is the way of the shinobi, our Nindo. Shinobi cannot express their emotions, even in times of tragedy. We can only protect what we love with all of our power in order to prevent such tragedies from occurring. Do you understand?"

Cannot express emotions? Suzu could not cry? Is this what was needed to become stronger? Did her mother, too, stop crying to become stronger? It all felt so wrong for young Suzu, but the more she thought about it, the stronger her desire became.

"Yes…Hokage-sama." Suzu answered, trying to stop the tears from rolling down her face.

"That is not to say you can't cry now." Hiruzen said reassuringly. "You are still young, and you still have your childhood to enjoy. Make sure you laugh, cry, and enjoy all of your emotions while you still can. Your parents would want you to enjoy your childhood. What's past is prologue, after all."

"P…Pro…Prologue?" Suzu asked innocently.

"Yes, prologue. It's the beginning of a book you know." Hiruzen explained. "Your past is only the beginning. Even if you don't know anything about it you can still move on through the chapters of your life."

Suzu looked at the venerable old man in awe. He said such amazing things, and it all made perfect sense to the young, confused girl.

"Make your parents proud, little one." Hiruzen said. "Let the story of your life be worthy of your children and grandchildren. That is what your parents would want from you, is it not, little one?"

Suzu nodded once again. If she wanted to be a shinobi, she needed to release her hold on emotions. She could no longer cry, she concluded, for it would hinder her growth.

"Very good then." Hiruzen said. "If there is anything else you need, I'll be in my office at Hokage Tower. I'll let you know of any and everything you wish to know about your parents and your background. I wish I can stay longer and discuss these things with you, but I am a very busy man, and I need to get back to my office as soon as I can."

"B-but, Hokage-sama…" Suzu said in a pleading manner. She did not want the old man to leave. She felt like she could truly bond with the man. She wanted him to be her first friend in this new life of hers. But she also understood that Hiruzen had a lot of work to do, from what the nurse told her. She would be very selfish if she tried to keep him all to herself. She let go of his robe and looked down towards the ground. "I understand." She said sorrowfully. "I'll be a good girl, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen smiled before putting his hands on her head. "You will, Suzu-chan. I won't disappear from your life. Promise you will come and visit me often, okay?"

She nodded. She was excited to see Hiruzen again after she left the hospital.

"Excellent." Hiruzen said, standing up and getting ready to go. Before he left, he placed a paper on Suzu's table, right next to her mirror. "This is the directions to the orphanage you will be living in until you graduate from the Academy. When you have graduated, I'll allow you to live in the Fujibayashi Estate. I wish you the best of luck, and I pray that you can find a lot of friends." Hiruzen smiled at her before promptly leaving the room.

Suzu took a look at the paper that Hiruzen left her. She was apparently going to stay at an orphanage called "Komatsuzaki Homes." The whole idea of living in an orphanage brought her back to the harsh reality she was living in. She was all alone, with no father or mother to protect her as she grew older. The Hokage was a nice person, but he could not be relied on to grant her the comfort that only a loved one could provide. There was always that mystery person that left her flowers when she woke up. But she did not want to go through the effort to locate him. Besides, if the person left flowers without staying, then the person probably did not truly care that much about her.

She was all on her own from here on in. She recognized that, and it hurt her. But she won't cry. Not anymore. She did not know why she was in this predicament, but she realizes that it is useless to complain about things you have no control over. All she could do was looking towards the future. It's never too early to begin.

Komatsuzaki Homes, Konohagakure no Sato (1638 hours, September 11, 7 AK)

Suzu returned home very tired after her visit with Hiruzen. She decided to visit him every Monday following his hospital visit. Mondays were the least busy days for Hiruzen, since it was the beginning of the week. The clientele usually came in full spades on Tuesday and Wednesday and those days would be very hectic for him.

Suzu decided that she wanted to help her "Jiji-chan," what she now affectionately called Hiruzen, as best as she could. So she volunteered to file and sort paperwork in his office. Hiruzen was quite relieved when Suzu offered her services; anything that would reduce the amount of stress of his job was greatly welcomed and appreciated.

Suzu found sorting the paperwork to be very easy. It was never mundane, since she would always talk to Hiruzen while working on her assignment, and Hiruzen was more than happy to converse back.

Hiruzen told all of these amazing stories about her mother. Her mother's name was Fujibayashi Shiina, and she was a very powerful ninja during the Third Shinobi World War. Her infamy was widespread and she earned herself the nickname, "Crimson Slash" after the outfit she wore in battle. She used to wear a red haori with a long sleeve fishnet shirt underneath. She wore red gloves with a protective layer of light iron over her knuckles, making her punches more lethal than without her gloves. Her red hakama pants went over her stomach and were tightened in place by an obi she wore over her haori. Unlike common shinobi attire (which used standard issue open toe sandals), Shiina used to wear brown, closed toe, heavy-terrain boots. She also had a yellow scarf over her neck, which complimented the red and brown very well.

Suzu, in an attempt to emulate her mother, began to wear red. She was not going to emulate her exact attire until she graduated and became a genin, but she wanted to get comfortable with the color. She wore red cargo pants and a short sleeve black t-shirt with a picture of a sparrow coated on her back.

She has grown very fond of sparrows and decided to make it her motif (though she herself did not know the true meaning of the word). When she left Hokage Tower from her volunteering, she went to the nearby park to watch the sparrows go about with their lives. She found comfort in their playful activities, but she also longed to have companions in the same way as these sparrows.

Whenever she returned back to the orphanage from her day at work, she would be eyed weirdly by the kids and adults of the orphanage. She did not understand why they gave her all these strange looks. Yes, she was rather asocial. She found it very difficult to communicate with the other kids in the orphanage. Conversations would not last longer than 3 minutes before the awkward silence commenced. She grew used to this, and avoided other children to prevent those situations from occurring in the first place.

If that was not awkward enough, one day one of the workers began to gossip. She was there, reading her book about kenjutsu (which she found interest in several weeks back) when the gossiping started. After it finished, both of the workers eyed Suzu in a bizarre way. When Suzu tried to ask what that was about, the workers would hurriedly rush away from the area. Soon, kids also began to eye Suzu awkwardly too. They walked away quickly when she approached a group of kids, and they stared at her with looks of…contempt? Or what Suzu observed to be contempt. It was as if she did something wrong.

Suzu was all alone again. She was always alone, since the Sandaime left her in the hospital room weeks ago. She wanted to get used to it, but humans long for some sort of camaraderie and companionship in their lives. Most days it would not faze her in the slightest, and others she found herself sitting in fetal position, longing for someone's comfort.

Many of the children were like that. Most, she learned from conversations back when the kids were open and friendly, lost their families during the Kyuubi attack 7 years ago. There were kids here who had to endure 7 years of what Suzu has been feeling for the last 2 weeks. She admired that strength, but it made her wonder why they were so willing to shun her presence.

At least she had it lucky. There was one other kid in the orphanage, a short blonde child with weird whisker marks on his face, that was constantly picked on by the other children. She did not understand the orphan's hatred for this one child. The kid was upbeat and happy, always laughing and pranking the other children. Sure he would get in trouble for his pranks, but Suzu knew that his prankster activities were not intentionally malicious. Sometimes, Suzu even found his jokes pretty funny.

No one in the orphanage wanted to hang out with the child. They all stood away from him and looked at him with such scorn. The pure, unadulterated hatred they pierced the boy with were leagues above the petty looks she got. It was as if he was the one who had killed the previous Hokage. She couldn't understand the children's malice towards the poor kid. All he wanted was attention, and he was getting tons of it; tons of negative, undesirable attention. Ultimately, the kid was lonely, just as lonely, if not more so than Suzu was. So Suzu decided to observe the child. She wanted to see what exactly he did that made him so hated by everyone around them. Once she saw enough, she decided that she indeed wanted to befriend the boy.

Suzu was not sure of what she should do in these kinds of situations. She never took the initiative in trying to make friends. People always came to her when they had questions or wanted to make small talk. But she decided to just go for it.

She knew from her observations of the boy that he attended the Academy. She was a bit envious of that fact, since she could not attend the Academy until the start of the school year in April. The blonde boy had been attending the Academy for about a year and a half. He had two years more of experience then she did, and yet that did not appear to impress the other children of the orphanage.

The blonde seemed to be a part of the "Go Home" club, since he always came at around this time. She would think that he wanted to stay longer in the school, considering the harsh atmosphere towards him. But it would appear that it was the same in the Academy as well.

Suzu herself often stayed longer in Hiruzen's office to escape the stares of the children and the workers. She even stayed at the local park for several hours, just watching the sparrows play gleefully. But the blonde boy seemed to have it far worse than she did. He had nowhere to go, because everywhere he went someone hated him. Well, misery loves company. Suzu decided that today was that she and the boy talked.

She waited in front of the gate of the orphanage, watching kids come and go every so often. The kids of the orphanage were allowed to go outside of the grounds so long as they returned promptly at the curfew time of 1900 hours. The boy always came around 1700 hours and rushed into his room. Most kids in the orphanage lived in rooms with a roommate. But she and Naruto were given rooms of their own. This was not favoritism by the orphanage staff; there were reasons for the rooming accommodations. For Suzu's case, it was arranged by the Sandaime Hokage as a precaution with the Headmaster. She did not know why it was a precaution, but she did not argue against it. The kids were slowly distancing themselves from her anyways.

For the boy, nobody wanted to room with him. They avoided him like he was the plague. He was given the accommodations for the safety of all of the tenants of the orphanage.

As the clock approached 1700 hours, she caught sight of the familiar blonde head. He was walking faster than normally and as she approached him with her hand raised, he made eye contact with her before walking even faster and avoiding her entirely. She was rather angry with that rude display. She only wanted to be friends with him. She hated being lonely as much as he did! She puffed her chest forward in anger and began to march to his room.

Boys and girls lived in different floors of the dormitory. Komatsuzaki Homes was a very small orphanage and could not afford multiple buildings to house the children. Boys lived in the 4th and 5th floors and girls lived in the 2nd and 3rd floors. She did not understand why girls lived closer to the ground floor than the boys did. She complained about it earlier, but the orphanage staff merely laughed at her. They told her not to complain about such trivialities, and that she should be grateful.

Since floor plans for the home were virtually identical in each floor, Suzu assumed that all the single rooms were located in the same general vicinity. So all she had to do was check the floors directly above hers (she lived in the 3rd floor) and hopefully she would have found the blonde's room.

To her surprise, the boy did not live in any of the single rooms on the 4th or even the 5th floors. She knocked on every single door, and every one gave her that strange look that she was growing to hate. Those look of contempt…and pity…

She decided to ask one of the staff on the ground floor where the boy lived. Hopefully they would be able to answer her question.

"Excuse me, sir." Suzu asked a male staff member she met on the way down. "Would you happen to know what room the blonde boy lives in?"

"Which blonde boy?" The man asked in an irritated tone. "We have plenty of blondes living in this orphanage. You should have guessed that."

"The one with the strange marks on his cheeks." She clarified. "I'm sorry. I don't know his name…"

"What?!" He exclaimed. "You want to know where the demon lives? Why would you care about it?" He was genuinely baffled at the girl's curiosity towards the boy he called a 'demon.'

"Um…" She said, getting nervous from his harsh tone. "B-because he seems lonely, and I want to be friends with him."

The man started to laugh. "You? Friends with the thing? It must've possessed you or something if you are thinking such thoughts!"

"Um…I'm perfectly fine, sir." She said, confused. Honestly, why was he so hostile to the boy? He's done nothing wrong to anyone from what she saw of the kid. "So are you going tell me where he lives?"

"No." He said with finality. "Why do you even wanna be friends with that…abomination any ways? The brat doesn't deserve any friends. What it deserves is a smiting!"

"Well, if you are not going to tell me," Suzu said. "I guess I'll go to the headmaster. I'm sure she'll give me the proper directions."

"Don't bother girl." The man said. "Headmaster hates the brat. She wouldn't shake a stick at it to save her life."

"Okay, sir." She said. "I'll go anyways. I'll also put in a good word for you too, since you've been so helpful."

The last statement elicited a response from the male worker. A drop of sweat rolled from his face as he began to weigh his options. His sudden nervousness confused Suzu. She honestly was going to give a good word for him. Why would he be shaking up at her statement?

"Okay runt fine…" He said in a defeatist manner. "I'll escort you to its room. Just don't tell the headmaster what I said. How am I going to pay for next week's date if I've been fired…AGAIN…"

Suzu bowed deeply. "Thank you very much sir. I really do appreciate it."

The two of them walked a distance away from the center dormitory of the orphanage. Suzu was genuinely surprised at the size of the so-called "small" orphanage; it certainly was larger than it seemed to be.

A good 15 minute walk from the center orphanage, the two came across what appeared to be an abandoned tool shack. It was not very large and did not look like it would be an ideal shelter for anybody, much less a 6 year old orphan. But the man had escorted her all the way to the shack and told her that this was her destination. He bolted as soon as he was done, mumbling the phrase "damned demon" repeatedly.

Suzu was nervous. She started sweating from her palms as she began to reconsider her actions. But she came this far, so why would she turn back now? She hesitantly knocked on the door several times, waiting for a response.

The door creaked open eerily. Suzu stared into the blue eyes of the person who opened the door and was amazed at such beauty. She seemed to recall seeing such magnificent blue eyes before, but from where she could not grasp. She was so captivated by the boy's blue eyes that she could not say anything.

"Um, HELLO!" He said, waving his hand in front of Suzu's face, snapping her from her stupor. "What do you want? I'm busy!"

"U-um…well…I-I just…" She stammered before trailing off. This was harder than she thought. There was no way anyone else could have been as introverted as she was.

Somewhere in Konohagakure, a young girl with striking lavender eyes sneezed, dropping her cinnamon roll on the ground. She cried for twenty minutes before her attendees replaced her now defiled roll with a new one.

She inhaled deeply, regaining her calm before she spoke to the boy again. "I just…I just wanted to open up with you. I wanted to be your friend." She said. The boy's eyes widened at the revelation. "My name is Fujibayashi Suzu. It's nice to meet you." She concluded her introduction with a very low bow. "What's your name?"

He stood silent, thinking about what he should do. This was the first time someone had willingly tried to open a friendship with him and he was feeling somewhat awkward. He saw Suzu here and there around the orphanage, and he made eye contact with her earlier. But he thought she was going to play a trick on him. It appeared that he was wrong. He decided to put his trust in the seemingly polite girl and introduce himself.

"I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

Hey Y'all!

HAPPY BELATED FOURTH OF JULY! Or for those who live in countries outside of the United States and do not allocate a holiday for the Fourth of July, I hope you enjoyed your Thursday.

I apologize for the lack of activity these last couple of days. My laptop charger, like the chap that it is, decided to break down. I had to order a new one, and I wasn't able to type during that period. I ended up writing on a note pad, but I couldn't count words, and Chapter 8 (now Chapter 9) of Finding Conviction ended up being a hell of a lot longer than originally planned. Not that I don't mind, but still.

I ended up watching a lot of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit during that time, and I could not find the time to concentrate solely on my story. My desire to speed run also renewed, so now I find myself not having enough time to concentrate on my stories. So I need to come up with a new schedule. So here it is.

I'll be switching between True Paths to Power and Finding Conviction every other week. That way, I'll have a full week to work on them as opposed to the original two to three days. But they will now be biweekly, as opposed to weekly. I apologize. They will be released every Thursday.

Phact Phantasia will still be regularly scheduled every first and third Saturday of the month. Release from Pain, on the other hand, will now have a monthly release as opposed to a biweekly release. I won't give up on any of my stories, so don't worry about me dying out. Release from Pain will be released on the last Saturday of the month from here on in.

I want to make this Author's Note longer, but I have plans to speed run Tales of Graces f at 1:30PM EST today, so I'll cut things short. By the way, I completed my first run on Thursday, 7/4/2013 and I got a final time of 8 hours, 24 minutes and 41 seconds! Lambda Angelus can be a fucking bitch. Stupid Mystic Arte killing me instantly and shit...

Now for Update Number 2: 2 Followers, 2 Favorites, and 68 Views!

No Questions for now.

Now if you excuse me, I'm going to exact my revenge against Lambda Angelus. Sub 8, YOU SHALL BE MINE!

-Blackrazgriz 7/6/2013 1:15PM EST

Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto. Tales of Phantasia is owned by Namco Bandai Games Inc. Blackrazgriz does not reserve any rights to the characters and stories of the respective franchises.

NOTE (3/19/2014 10:17PM EST): Updated entire chapter, replacing errors and mistakes.