Chapter 13 – From Small Beginnings Come Great Things

May 1st

Choza, Shibi, and Raido began a final sweep of Konoha's western border. They'd been searching out this mysterious intruder with a Konoha hitai-ite for three weeks now, and had only one sighting to report. They'd given chase but to no avail; the unknown ninja had practically vanished. This morning they'd gotten a messenger bird ordering them back to the village, apparently the Iwa nin on the northern border were no longer content to remain within their own jurisdiction and had begun raiding unprotected towns in Kusagakure. The grass shinobi already spread thin after years of war, were ill equipped to handle the attacks and were asking Fire country for help.

Already engaged in skirmishes with Amegakure in the west and Kirigakure in the south, Konoha needed all of its able-bodied ninja ready for battle and suddenly this one strange shinobi had fallen to the back of the line in terms of importance.

Choza couldn't be happier. The same messenger bird had also brought news that his wife had gone into labor just this morning. Since it was their first child he knew the birth could go on all day, and if they hurried he might make it back for his daughter's birth. Shibi on the other hand was less than thrilled, he'd hoped to catch the sneaky ninja, the fact that the man had escaped was a bone of contention for the man who hadn't failed a mission in over five years. In addition, the bug user had some crazy theory about the man summoning demons. In their search they had come across a clearing with a still smoking camp fire shortly after sighting the enemy ninja. Shibi had noticed an excess of wax in the remains of the fire pit as well as some small animal bones he'd identified as fox remains. That, coupled with what appeared to be blood splattered on rocks in the area had led the man to his absurd conclusion. Choza humored the Aburame and helped collect the samples he wanted, but inwardly he'd scoffed, how ludicrous could he be?

And yet Shibi's batty demon conjecture seemed tame in comparison to Raido's speculation. The three of them were the only ones to have gotten a good look at the ninja in question; Choza guessed the man had been only 20 feet away at most when he'd fled his pursuers and they had managed to get a good look at his face. They could all agree he'd had long black hair, he'd held it back only with a Konoha forehead protector, handsome angular features, and a strong jaw line. His eyes were where the group's description's diverged. Choza had seen dark eyes, possibly even black they'd been so dark; nothing extraordinary. Raido agreed that they had been black, but when the man noticed the incoming trio he claimed they'd turned red. Choza noted no such thing, but strong in his belief, Raido argued that since Choza had been on the right side of their formation he would have been unable to see the man's eyes as he'd turned away. Raido having been on the left flank had a longer opportunity to observe the man's face since the man had turned toward him as he fled. Shibi had been in the center, and while he himself had not seen the red eyes, he did not discount Raido's testimony and actually agreed that Choza's line of site would not have allowed him to see them if they had been red. To top off the ridiculousness Raido alleged that the man was in fact one of Konoha's founding fathers, Uchiha Madara.

Choza had pointed out the preposterousness of it all to be met with a blank stare from Shibi (well it might have been a blank stare, who could tell when the guy never took off those damn sunglasses), and complete denial from Raido. The teenager had argued passionately and even gone so far as to tell him the reason he didn't recognize the man was due to the fact that he was old.

"Look, you're an older shinobi, and that comes with many years of experience and a lot of fights under that big belt of yours. So it's understandable that with that influx of all that new knowledge and information you get with every battle, you could forget the little things we're taught in the academy. Don't take offense, I'm just saying that while it's only been a few years out for me, and I can clearly remember the faces of Konoha's founders looking out at me from that giant boring history book, for you it's been what like 20 years? The point is it's been forever, so you probably can't remember. I on the other hand can recall it exactly, and that was Uchiha Madara."

Choza believed he had shown a good bit of restraint by not throttling the cocky teenager, but when Shibi had quietly agreed that he also saw a resemblance it had taken every ounce of willpower that he possessed not to use his Baika-no-Jutsu and squish them both flat. This was the last time he took a mission outside of the usual Ino-Shika-Cho formation. These two whack jobs had him questioning his own sanity. He could not get home fast enough.

Done with the final sweep they turned home, and with the thought of his baby girl Choza's sore muscles suddenly had more to give. He made sure to gradually increase their pace towards home so as not to alert his teammates to the rush, but he really wanted to be there to welcome his little girl into the world. Upon noticing a familiar tree, he knew they were only an hour from Konoha's gates at most and the speed in his steps increased accordingly. He still had to report to the Hokage and document his account of the mission before he could rush to the hospital and it felt like he would never make it on time.

From his right side Raid laughed, "Choza, I have never seen you move so fast, not even for the last chip dude. Why don't you just go straight over to the maternity ward? Shibi and I can give the mission report, besides your mind won't be on it anyway."

"But—," Choza began, only to be cut off by Shibi.

"Don't worry, we will not fail to not your objection to our theories on the intruder, your good name will not be sullied by our outlandish deductions."

"Thank you so much," the giant shinobi gushed. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Don't worry about it, and stop getting all mushy on us," Raido answered. "Just get on over there and make sure you say hello to your little girl for us."

"You got it," he said happily. "See you later."

With those parting words Choza pushed all of his remaining chakra to his feet and took off for the hospital. Maybe those guys were a little crazy, it was par for the course in this line of work, okay, maybe they were even a little crazier than most, bat shit insane even, but that didn't mean they weren't great guys. From that moment on Choza would hold a soft spot in his heart for the two of them.

Flying through the trees led to hopping over roof tops which then ended when he skidded to a halt outside the hospital. Pushing open the glass doors he strode through the building like a man possessed, almost knocking over a few nurses in the process. When he finally got to the maternity ward he practically accosted the woman at the nursing center.

"Akamichi Umeko," he gasped, now that he wasn't running the exertion and abuse of chakra was catching up to him.

"Room 237," the nurse said, having been around for all the pre-birth planning she was aware he was the woman's husband, and knowing how few ninja actually got to be around for the birth of their children she let him in without the customary paperwork. "It's the third door on the right."

"Ume-chan! I'm here!" he shouted as he busted into the delivery room.

His wife barely managed a smile before she grimaced in pain and pushed for all she was worth. Choza moved to her bed side and reached out to hold her hand. She quickly grabbed hold of him squeezing tightly enough to grind his bones together, leaving him wishing he hadn't used all of his chakra as he could sure have used some to reinforce his skeleton right now.

"One more push sweetie," the doctor urged. "Come on you can do it."

His wife pushed again and suddenly their baby's cries filled the room. Choza watched with awe on his face as the doctor cut the umbilical cord and the nurse swept his daughter away to clean her off before he could even see her. Holding his wife's hand he smiled down at her, "I told you I'd be here for you."

"I never doubted that," she answered with tears in her eyes.

Moments later the nurse was back, handing over their daughter, who was now cleaned up and wrapped in a soft blue blanket. Reaching out his arms the doctor presented Choza with his baby.

"Akamichi-san, say hello to your new son."

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July 7

Tsume stretched her legs out to grab the coffee table with her toes in an attempt to pull it over for use as a foot stool. Across her living room Izumo and Kotetsu lounged on the floor playing with Kaijin, Kumari, and Heisui. Rikku sat next her on the sofa stroking Kuromaru's thick black fur; far too dignified to play on the floor with the Haimaru Sankyodai he was still not above being pet (especially if it was by Rikku doing the petting, while he wouldn't admit it out loud Tsume knew she was always his favorite of the three, he was not Izumo's biggest fan but that was a whole other story). For once Hana was not under foot; instead she had actually gone down for her nap, allowing the very pregnant Tsume some much needed rest. This was only possible because her Izumo-kun had suggested it and even deigned to tuck her in if she promised to give her nap a good try, proving that maybe Izumo did have some uses after all. The jury was still out on Rikku and Kotetsu, but Tsume was hopeful.

Over nine months pregnant, and due any moment now, her team had been under the tutelage of the placid Kawano Teruo for four months now and they missed their brash sensei something fierce. In just the past month she had seen more of them then she had when she was actually training them, which she had to admit she was actually grateful for. They'd been great, helping with household chores, grocery shopping, dog grooming, and even cooking for Hana, all without her even asking. If they noticed something needed doing, one of them did it. Tsume had never seen them as cohesive or so helpful; if they weren't training or sleeping they were home with her, and occasionally even slept there as well.

Originally she had been afraid the break in their training would affect their relationship, that maybe she'd lose them to a new sensei who would better understand them, Tsume had no delusions, she was quite aware that she could be difficult at times, and it wouldn't be the first time a maternity leave had cost a kunoichi her genin squad. Fortunately Kawano-san had managed to ensure that would not be the case. As far as her students were concerned they could not have gotten a worse instructor. A scraping from the bottom of the barrel, Teruo was apparently nothing in comparison to Tsume. Allegedly his training tactics were piss poor and he hadn't even bothered to learn his new student's signature jutsu's, even after four months as their sensei, he didn't get any of their jokes, walked around with a toothpick in his mouth (which Rikku believed was a poor attempt to mimic the sexy Shiranui Genma who never went anywhere without a senbon between his lips), and refused to acknowledge that he was short, which was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak, and the worst thing the poor jonin could have possibly done. Evidently this was a huge deal to her team, as the three of them had all brought the incident to her attention on separate occasions and even now it was the current topic of conversation.

"I just can't even believe it, sensei," Rikku griped. "He just won't admit he's short. Like we didn't totally see it or something."

"He knows nothing about us, maybe he thinks we're blind," Izumo offered.

"Its ridiculous sensei," Kotetsu chimed in. "He was so drained of chakra after that battle he couldn't hold his genjutsu anymore, right, and it was like he just shrunk. It was like he became a chibi, and I wanted to go pinch his cheeks. One minute he was 6 foot 2, the next he was 5 foot 1. "

"If that, Tsu-chan," Izumo interrupted (the boy refused to call her sensei while she was off duty, reasoning that if he was going to marry his Hana-chan they were going to have to be a lot less formal, Tsume refused to dignify that with an answer, even just to say that he would marry her daughter over her cold dead corpse). "He might not even be that tall, he is a little dude. I bet if he stood behind Rikku you wouldn't even be able to see him. He should start wearing those high heeled geta like Tsunade-hime."

"There is nothing wrong with being short, neither Rikku nor I are very tall," Tsume scolded, half heartedly defending the man.

"Sensei, him being short is not the issue," Rikku stressed. "The problem is that he won't admit it. I told him he didn't have to waste his chakra around us because we already knew how short he is, and he was just like I don't know what you're talking about. And I was like, seriously? Are you kidding me dude? How can I have respect for this idiot?"

"He's a moron," Izumo added. "I want to just grab him and shake him, and say, Dude, its okay to be a little guy, size doesn't matter."

"Except it totally does," Rikku threw in for good measure.

"I just don't know what you're talking about children," Kotetsu mimicked in an extremely cheery and effeminate voice. "Why don't we go skip rocks and sing around the campfire? Then we can play with the pretty Pegasus and unicorns, and maybe we'll even see a rainbow!"

"Then I can follow it all the way to the end and find my pot of gold," Izumo continued in an equally hilarious voice.

"Ugh," Rikku groaned. "Not only is he a short liar, his voice is like nails on a chalkboard. And does he always have to be so damn cheesy? He's just the worst sensei ever, Sensei. We might as well go on missions alone, nobody is afraid of his pansy ass. Intimidation is not even an option with him around. You were way better at it."

"Rikku, what the hell did you expect from a guy whose name means 'shining man'? I mean it's almost like he has to be an okama," Kotetsu commented.

The three of them sat their laughing like hyenas at poor Kawano's expense and though she knew she should, Tsume couldn't bring herself to even care, let alone reprimand them, to be honest she'd thought Teruo to be a pompous sniveling twit in their genin days. Besides those voices her boys had used to mock the man's speech pattern were extremely funny. Giving in, Tsume joined them in their uproarious merriment and succumbed to the infectious good humor flooding the room. Laughter breeds more of the same and pretty soon the four of them were laughing so hard it hurt. A few minutes later when they'd calmed down; Tsume noticed her pants felt damp. Cursing her pregnancies effect on her now weak bladder, she thought, Great, I can't even have a good time without pissing my pants.

Lumbering to her feet Tsume managed to stand for a full two seconds before a contraction hit and she was knocked to her knees. Like a shot all three of her genin were at her side; Kotetsu and Izumo lifting her to her seat and Rikku beginning a medical scan of her vitals.

"I'm okay guys," Tsume assured them. "My water just broke, it's not a problem, and actually it's a blessing. It's going to be fine. Izumo wake up Hana, Rikku go to my bedroom and grab the packed brown suitcase that's in my closet. Kotetsu help me up, we're going to the hospital, and I'll be back to being your sensei in no time."

Five minutes later everyone was ready to go and they set out for Konoha General. The further they got from the house the more intense Tsume's contractions felt. As far as she could remember things hadn't gone so quickly when she'd had Hana, but she had heard that the second child was usually easier then the first. If her contractions were any indication though, this one seemed like it would be far worse. Every contraction hurt worse than the one before, and she was starting to get worried. Each step was getting harder and harder to make, the dutiful Kotetsu was now pretty much carrying her into town, and she noticed that blood had started to seep down her leg.

"Sensei? Sensei!" Rin shouted at her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fi—, "Tsume had begun to answer before she collapsed into the waiting arms of Kotetsu.

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The next thing Tsume knew she was lying in a hospital bed, Hana was curled up asleep at her feet, and a strange man was snoring from the chair at her bedside. As her clouded mind began to clear she wondered who he was. He shared similar features with Kotetsu; maybe he had an older brother? But that wouldn't make any sense. Would it? Why would Kotetsu's brother be visiting her at the hospital? Why would she even be in the hospi – oh sweet Kami! She looked down at her now barren womb and let out a terrified gasp. Where was her baby? What had happened?

Tears began streaming down her face and she uncharacteristically shrieked, "Where's my baby? What happened to my baby?"

Her panicked cries woke the snoring man instantly and he quickly stood to grab her flailing arms and attempt to calm her down.

"It's okay sensei, calm down. Everything is going to be okay," he soothed.

"Who the fuck are you? Get your hands off me. Where is my baby? What did you do with my baby?" she growled, hysterically slapping his hands away.

"Kaasan, why you hit Tetsu? Was he a bad ninja?" Hana asked drowsily, having just been woken up by the tussle.

"Kotetsu?" Tsume stopped her incessant beating of the man so she could get a better look at him.

"Hehe… yeah, they wouldn't let any of us in because none of us were related to you, and we didn't want you to be alone, so I might have, ummm… you know, lied a little," he said sheepishly.

"About what?" she asked, still sniffling. "What happened? Where is my child?"

"Well the henge obviously, I… uhh... I told them I was the baby's father so they would let me in."

"What!?" Tsume questioned fiercely.

"Well actually, you know it turned out to be a good thing, because after they got the baby out he was turning blue. Apparently he'd gotten tangled up on his way out and he wasn't getting enough air. They needed permission to hook him up to oxygen and with you out cold only his father could do it. Luckily I was here to save the day and told them to do it."

"So he's okay? My baby's okay?" Tsume sobbed with relief into the arms of her baby's "daddy" as he comfortingly embraced her. Finally she felt like she could breathe again.

"Kotetsu, where is he? Can I see him? I want to see him before I give him a name."

"Too late! Haha!" Hana announced, giggling madly.

Tsume's face fell. "What does she mean by too late, Kotetsu? I thought you said he was okay."

"Shhh… he is okay sensei," he tried calming her again, while Hana continued snickering.

"Don't shush me boy. What is she talking about?"

Stepping back away from his irate sensei, his hand scratching the back of his head self consciously, guilt written all over his face, he answered apologetically, "Well, ummm… for the baby, so before they can do anything, you know, like the oxygen, for the baby, you know the father has to sign, so it's okay… ummm, and the hospital had like, ummm… all this paperwork, so yeah, for the baby I filled it out, and you know for the baby."

"Kotetsu, you have 30 seconds to tell me what the hell is going on before I castrate you."

Instantly straightening up his act, the genin explained clearly, "Before they could put the baby on oxygen I had to fill out his paperwork. To do so I had to give him a name."

"You named my baby?"

"No! Wrong!" Hana yelled loudly in her ear. "Hana-chan named the baby! I named him Kaasan! I told Tetsu, I his onee-chan so I name him."

Hana was now standing proudly atop the bed, her chest puffed out grandly, while she pointed animatedly at herself. The giant self-satisfied grin she wore gloriously had Tsume wondering if she even really wanted to know her son's name.

"Well what did you name him Hana?" she asked calmly, while dreading the response. Memories of goldfish named Foof, Dirty Butt, and Pooper flashed through her head.

"Hana named him Fang, Kaasan!" she crowed.

"Fang?" Tsume cringed inwardly. Hana had named her new baby brother after her father's nin-dog, and Tsume just didn't think that was something she could live with.

"Well not exactly," Kotetsu whispered, giving her some last vestige of hope. "While I did humor her, I also remembered that Fang is their dead beat good-for-nothing father's dog's name."

The boy slipped her a piece of paper which she identified as her baby's birth certificate, and there she saw:

Name: Inuzuka Kiba

Date of Birth: July 7

Mother: Inuzuka Tsume

Father: Hagane Kotetsu

"Kiba?" she looked at her baby's "father" and smiled, she could live with Kiba.

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July 23

In the heart of Fire Country in the middle of summer unbearable heat is par for the course. Feeling the effects of the inhumane heat sweat dripped down his back soaking his shirt, and his pants clung to his legs in an unsightly manner but he pushed the discomfort from his mind. A ninja should not be affected by his outside environment. Now six years old he would be entering the academy in less than two months and if he hoped to make his father proud enough to forget his involvement in the whole Obito debacle he needed to train more, a lot more. Launching his small body through the air, he flipped end over end shooting 6 of the 8 kunai he held in his hands.

Landing in a crouched position his arms flew out from his sides propelling the remaining kunai at their intended marks. Leaping to his feet he ran over to examine the targets. 5 of the 8 projectiles were firmly lodged dead center in the target. Of the remaining three one was also a bulls-eye, but barely stuck at all, his aim had been true but he hadn't put enough force behind the throw. The other two were deeply embedded in the wood but just outside the center, both slightly off to the right.

The off-center kunai had been the first two he threw. He hypothesized that he had concentrated too thoroughly on the physical gymnastics of the move and hadn't managed to memorize the targets location. This particular move was difficult because it was a blind skill. When done correctly the shinobi would know the location of the enemy before beginning the flip and fling his kunai based on memory, as it was too difficult to land the punch front flip if your eyes were focused on something else. After dislodging his weapons, he moved the targets again for another attempt. Most shinobi would have left them where they were but Itachi wasn't most shinobi, even if it was only practice he wanted it as close to the real situation as he could get. In a combat situation he would only have seconds to locate and memorize his mark. Leaving the targets as is would only build familiarity with that formation, effectively rendering the exercise useless.

Shimmying up a tall bamboo to place his final target, Itachi glanced around the clearing looking for any stray kunai before hopping down to give it one last attempt before returning home for supper. Midway through his leap he noticed something was horribly wrong, and held onto all four of the remaining projectiles. Upon landing he spun and hurled every one of them at the darkly cloaked figure.

A futile task indeed; the applause greeting his ears brought a lump to his throat and a sinking to his gut. Completely helpless against this opponent Itachi forced himself not to try and run away. He'd learned from experience that it was useless anyway, there was no way he could outrun this man. There was absolutely nothing he could do against a foe of his caliber and that knowledge was debilitating to the young Uchiha.

"What do you want?" he managed to whisper through his fear.

"Hahaha," the man laughed menacingly. "Oh Itachi-kun, what makes you think I want anything? Can't a man just stop by for a social call with his family?"

"We're not family," Itachi denied the man's claim.

"Oh you say that, but you don't mean it Itachi-kun," he said mockingly. "After all you are wearing my crest emblazoned on the back of your shirt."

Ripping the shirt from his tiny body Itachi threw it on the ground. "We're not family!" he repeated, spitting on the offending garment for punctuation.

"Oh but you wound me Itachi-kun," he said, and suddenly he was beside the boy speaking directly in his ear, his voice low and ominous. "And you certainly wouldn't want to do that now, would you?"

"What do you want?" Itachi asked again, his voice trembling along with his body.

"Oh fine, you got me. I didn't just come for a social visit. You're getting good my boy," he said wagging his finger back and forth in the young boy's face.

"How is Obito doing?"

"He is fine," Itachi answered, cautiously, unsure as to where this was going, that man was always up to something, and nothing he was up to was ever good.

"How is that eye we gave him working out?"

"I wouldn't know I'm not even in the academy yet. I can't go on missions."

"Don't play games with me Itachi-kun. It would not be wise. I promise you that I'll win. I know you know how he is doing. You've been spending quite a bit of time with our little friend."

"He's not your friend," Itachi hissed.

"Oh but he is, he just doesn't know it yet. I gave him a precious gift and I think it's about time he thanked me for it. Don't you?"

"No! He doesn't know it's from you, as far as he's concerned I got it for him."

"So you're taking all the credit for my present? Do you really think that's fair when I went through so much trouble for him?"

"What trouble?" Itachi yelled, his anger and his desire to protect his new and only friend Obito winning out over his fear of the dangerous shinobi in front of him. "I did everything, and I'm the one who is in trouble for it. You didn't do anything."

"Hahaha," the man laughed as if they were in on a private joke and it made Itachi want to throw up. "You are quite amusing Itachi-kun. Always good for a laugh."

"I hate you," the boy answered indignantly despite his nightmare turned flesh standing before his eyes.

"Now it's time to listen," the man said, suddenly serious, making Itachi wonder if his confession would have been better kept to himself. "You will arrange a meeting between myself and our young friend. I'm sure Obito will have much greater appreciation for me than you. Ungrateful brat that you are. I've chosen you for greatness and you remain unappreciative of the honor I've bestowed upon you. Unlike you, he will know a great opportunity when he sees it."

"You're wrong. He'll hate you even more than I do," Itachi shouted in Obito's defense. He knew the older boy would want nothing to do with this ancient monster. Obito's moral compass was by far superior to any other Uchiha Itachi had encountered, and he knew anything this man wanted could only be bad for Konoha. Obito would never be interested in helping him out.

"Be that as it may, you will bring him here two weeks from now or I promise that you won't like the things I'll make you do."

Winking evilly at Itachi the man disappeared and Itachi collapsed to the ground in tears. This was just too much for him to handle. At just 6 years old he couldn't hope to compete with someone even half as powerful as that man, and he couldn't think of a way out of the mess he was already in. Calming himself and stopping his tears, Itachi thought that maybe involving Obito might be a good think after all. Conceivably, together they could come up with a plan to be rid of him. Even if that was impossibility, Itachi guiltily felt a little thankful that regardless of the outcome, in another two weeks this wouldn't be his burden to shoulder alone.

Getting up and dusting the dirt from his shorts, Itachi turned to head home. He knew he was going to catch hell for the state of his attire and the complete lack of a shirt, but he couldn't bring himself to care. There was no way he was putting that shirt back on, in fact from this day forward he absolved to never wear anything that bore an Uchiha crest again; he wouldn't allow that man the satisfaction. Defiantly he headed home proudly baring his naked torso.

Walking up to the Uchiha manor Itachi noticed from a distance that something was awry. Several of his older uncles and cousins were standing outside, cigars in hand, chatting jovially with his father whose perpetual scowl seemed somehow less pronounced, and the sound of loud women chatting excitedly carried out of the house and down to the front courtyard. Even catching sight of Itachi's unkempt appearance didn't seem to dull his father's mood, and when the boy got close enough he clapped him on the back cheerfully.

"Musuko, why don't you go inside? Your mother has a surprise for you."

Feeling pretty positive he knew what the surprise was, Itachi wasn't the great hope of the Uchiha clan for nothing, he walked in to the house and headed back to the newly finished nursery. As he'd suspected his mother was sitting quietly with the new baby rocking back and forth in the same antique wooden rocker she'd rocked Itachi in.

"Itachi," she said softly, smiling sweetly at her now oldest son. "Come here, meet your otouto. His name is Sasuke, and he's going to love you so much."

When he reached his mother's side she held the baby out, gently placing the sleeping infant into his arms. Hugging him close, being careful not to drop him, Itachi could feel the warmth coming from his petite body, and the soft beating of his tiny heart.

"Sasuke?" he said reverently, looking into his otouto's peaceful face.

"Sasuke," his mother repeated. "He's going to need you to help him figure out his place in the world Itachi-kun. I know you'll do your best to help him out and that you're going to be the best big brother anyone could hope for."

Gazing at the innocent face of his baby brother, his otouto, Itachi vowed to be the best brother he could be; as long as he was around nobody would ever harm Uchiha Sasuke.

A/N: Thank you NS4ever and EtoileEyes for your kind reviews. I have decided not to do a time skip of any great length just yet, though one might come up in the future. Begging for reviews didn't do me any good last time so maybe if I just ask politely. Excuse me kind readers, would you please leave me a review? I would appreciate it ever so much. Thank you all for reading!