I own not Naruto.

Please read the A/N at the end. It contains information.

Chapter XXI: Bijuu vs Guardian

Josh leaned back against the tree and shook off his helmet, spitting out some more blood. "Damn… guy wasn't half bad after all."

At the rustling of leaves coming directly from his front, he raised his rifle, but dropped it when he saw Naruto charging out of the undergrowth. "You hanging in there?"

"Yeah… been pushing pencils more then swords in the last hundred years though. Uncle had the brilliant idea of transferring me and my work to central. I finally got out of it six months ago, but I was about to go on my first reactivation mission when I got called here."

"Bijuu?"

"Idiot. First missions and first reactivation missions after more then a decade can't be bijuu-related. There's too much energy in one place, and it's generally a bad idea to piss them off if you've lost the ability to judge your own energy output. How's the sewing kit?"

"You mean the dairy man?" the blond chuckled, wincing at his cracked ribs. "He gave up after I used the Hyper-Bother on him."

"Can't say I blame the poor man… wait a second. That means…"

Naruto's grin could have lit a campfire. "Yep. Got my memory back. Initial Guardian is now in."

The swordsman sighed and closed his eyes for a few minutes. "That's good. Should make my life a lot easier. Now, let's burn the Jashinist and head for home. I never did get to eat my cow…"

As the blond pulled his friend to his feet and the two turned toward the remains of Hidan, a small trickle of chakra flowed from each of the severed limbs back to the destroyed torso. Josh, with his helmet off, didn't catch it as he covered the Akatsuki's head with napalm and lit it on fire.

"Pre-flight checks complete. Naruto, how's the runway coming?"

"No good. I'm too tired to dig up several hundred stumps and fill the holes in. Go VTOL."

"Roger that. You're paying for the fuel though. Is your cord on tight?"

"Five seconds… You're good. Try not to break the sound barrier before I get back inside. I happen to like my lungs the way they are right now."

"That's a shame. And here I was, wanting to test out my new afterburners. Just get back inside the cargo bay. You have thirty seconds."

"Hai, Hai. Naruto out."

He snapped off his radio, got up from the stubborn stump that had resisted his efforts to remove it for the last five minutes, and tightened his bungee cord just in time for Josh to pull up with his jet and fly back toward Konoha.

Unfortunately, things never go as planned with Naruto.

"I'm getting a strange reading from the cargo bay. Mind checking it out?"

"Do I have to?"

There came no reply except a sharp click indicating that the pilot had just shut down his radio. "Well, you don't have to get angry at me…" he muttered, palming the access hatch and watching as the door melted away, revealing Kakuzu struggling against his bindings.

"Hey, now. There's no point trying to get out of those things. I had to tie up Bee once, and this was the only thing that even partially worked. With your puny strength compared to his, unless you can manifest your bijuu, you're stuck there for a while… Wow, did I just sound smart there! SWEET!"

The ancient man didn't say anything. Then again, it is rather hard to speak when your mouth is tied up and you've got a gag to boot. But actions speak louder then words.

White chakra started leaking from every pore in his body, pooling and gathering around him, creating a silvery sheath that covered him from head to toe.

"Well, son of a bitch. Josh, you there?"

"Reading you loud and clear, considering that you're about thirty feet away from me. Sit-rep?"

"He's going bijuu. Kindly eject us both from the aircraft. I might need some help with this."

"Oh, I've been waiting for this. I'll be back in ten, as soon as I get the others off and into a medical facility. Can you hold him off that long?"

"I don't really have much of a choice, now do I? All right. On three."

"THREE!"

"JOSHYOUSONOFAMOTHERFU-"

Naruto did not get a chance to finish his statement as the bottom of the cargo bay fell out again, throwing them both from the moving aircraft, rapidly dropping out from behind it. Kakuzu let out a feral roar and exploded in a flash of light and energy burst, sending the blond tumbling and pulsing through the transport jet.

After using a couple more bursts from his points to stabilize his flight, he keyed his radio while the jet was still in range. "Josh, anything wrong with the aircraft?"

Nothing came back except feedback from the recent energy pulse at first. Then, a static-filled transmission came back. "-Superstructure is largely intact, though I can't say the same for my avionics. Fried beyond repair. That means I can't get my landing gear down and engage VTOL. I'll have to do an old-fashioned crash-landing on main street. Luckily, I still have basic control over the flaps and engines, so it should work… barely. Extend that return time to twenty minutes, or whenever I can get the fighter ready. Meet me at-"

At that point, he moved out of range of Naruto's short range radio. He promptly ripped it from his ear, threw it away, and chomped on a solder pill, trying to refill his tank. "Well, great. A bijuu, and I can't even remember how to do Orange Lightning. Fudgepops."

A clone shot up, looked around, and started to go back down before spotting his boss. "… Boss, we've got a problem."

Naruto facepalmed and groaned. "Great. Just fucking great. What is it this time?"

"… Hidan's alive, going bijuu, and is pissed off beyond measure. Oh, and he's yelling about Jashin nonstop."

"SON OF A BITCH! JOSH! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Meanwhile, zooming away in a smoking transport jet, whistling to himself, when all of a sudden, Josh sneezed. "Huh… Naruto must be pissed at me."

Tsunade sat in her office, slowly sipping sake. Since Shizune had been requested on Naruto's mission, there was nobody to make her work. "Slacking off is so nice…" she mused to herself. Unfortunately, that was about to come to a screeching halt. Literally.

To the average civilian's ears, the humming sound that came from the south side of the village would have been unnoticeable. Even Tsunade wouldn't have picked it up had her ceiling fan not been off. But before long, that humming noise grew louder, and louder, and louder, and louder still, until a small shape could have been seen, flying low and belching smoke.

Nobody knew what the fuck it was. Assuming it was an enemy, as any good ninja should; Tsunade ordered her ANBU to form up on the southern wall and prepare to launch kunai at the target and for all civilians near the shelters to move toward them, and all others to stay inside.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! I've got wounded on board!"

Unfortunately, the radio frequency was not coded properly, so none of the Konoha ANBU, or any of the other shinobi, for that matter, got the message.

"OPEN FIRE!"

The large shape made no attempt to dodge as hundreds of kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags went up to intercept it. In fact, right before it got to the edge of the village, both wings fell off with an explosive report, and the object spiraled and twisted into the village, sliding down the main street, finally leveling the Hokage's Mansion before coming to a screeching stop.

As the special forces, plus any other ninja in the area surrounded the object, weapons drawn, a small hatch at the front popped open. As the ninja tensed to attack, two sets of moving lights cut though the dust cloud, revealing Josh standing up and looking around. "Wow… is it my birthday? I TOLD YOU NOT TO FIRE, YOU INBRED PRICKS!"

He snapped off the lights, popped back into the cockpit, tapped a few buttons, then popped back out, swearing. "I forgot the avionics were fried… all right. Get away from this place while I… you know what, fuck this. Where's my C12?"

Continuing to mutter to himself, Josh took a large can of the foaming explosive off of his belt, sprayed a small amount onto the hull, shaped it into a rough cutting charge, jumped back, and shot it once with his pistol.

The effect, while not as spectacular as a paper bomb would have been, was still enough to cause a small section of the hull to collapse, revealing a highly damaged cargo bay. "Now, if there are any medics around, I've got wounded on board. If you hadn't thrown anything at me, I might have been able to land with the doors facing the right way. But thanks to your idiocy with explosives… anyway, can you get them out? And make it quick. Naruto's kinda fighting a bijuu back there."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah… I kinda promised to be his backup… so could you please hurry so that I can seal this thing away? I'm also really hungry, so the faster we do this, the faster I can go eat."

"Initial Guardian Art: Rasengan!"

The spiral sphere of energy drilled briefly into the Nibi's back before a tail of pure demonic chakra came up and smacked Naruto away, burning briefly before turning into a poof of smoke. "Another Kage Bunshin… peh."

Between a hammer-shaped rock and a platform, under a very large piece of granite, Naruto and Uzu peered upward at the two Bijuu rampaging around. "… Well, this sucks."

"Nice observation YOU IDIOT!"

"… No need to get pissed at me. I was only stating the obvious."

"Well, it's called the obvious for a fucking reason. No need to restate it. Anything?"

Uzu looked even less interested then usual- a feat that took some skill to enact. "… No. We can't go beyond Initial Guardian right now, and all of our strongest techniques require something beyond that. I would recommend hiding here until Josh gets back, but they're getting rather close to this hammer and anvil."

Perhaps an explanation of how they got into this situation would be more helpful then various expressive sayings involving metalworking.

After Uzu had given him the situation report on the two bijuu and their hosts, they had landed in the forest and ducked through trees, both of them making Kage Bunshin along the way, which scattered throughout the forest, powering up.

"HAHAHA! WHERE ARE YOU! I WILL HAVE JASHIN-SAMA SMITE YOU!"

"…Looks like Hidan's back in one piece…"

"Well no shit, Sherlock. Keep on digging, Watson!" he barked at a clone who was indeed digging a hole for a trap.

The Kage Bunshin stuck his tongue out at him and blew a raspberry at the original, which rolled his eyes back in return.

"…Look, a rock and a hard place. Let's hide between the two."

"I wish you had said that differently…"

"…Ok… let's hide between the hammer and the anvil."

"Oh, nice going. That really makes me feel better."

"… Would you rather be paste under the Nibi's toes?"

"Point. Let's go hide."

So we get to the present. And trouble.

"FOUND YOU! JASHIN-SAMA WILL SMITE YOU!"

"FUCKNUTS! RUN FOR IT!"

"…Too late…"

"What? It's never too late to run away! I've learned that from the fangirls!"

"…It is this time. Look ahead."

He didn't really need to. The enormous burst of energy flaring of Kakuzu's Rokubi form would have given him more then enough warning.

"We're really in a barrel of pickles."

"DID SOMEONE ASK FOR A PICKLE! PICKLE! PICKLE!"

"… Oww…"

With that brief transmission, Uzu's earpiece exploded from the sheer volume of the yelling.

A few seconds later, two huge explosions blossomed on both bijuus' back, causing them to look up. "What is that?"

"The Silver Swordsman is back! RIFLE! RIFLE! RIFLE! RIFLE!"

As the two bijuu incarnate roared and spat fire up at the sky, a silvery jet twirled by, rotary cannons blazing into life, spraying the two chakra beings with high explosive rounds. But that wasn't the important part.

For those of you who don't know, the Brevity Code 'Rifle' indicated a guided air-to-ground missile launch, generally a AGM-65 Maverick, but it goes for any air-to-ground attack. Of course, for an attack like this, Josh would have never swooped to use a conventional warhead.

"Dark Bunker Buster, BITCH!"

Four huge explosions rocked the night, tearing holes in the living chakra. The same warhead that had split the moon into five pieces had distracted the two just long enough for the swordsman to land and seal away his jet.

"Nice, Naruto. Way to hide between a rock and a hard place. I thought you had gotten smarter over the last couple of years, but apparently not. When engaging in guerilla warfare-"

Two huge tails of chakra interrupted the three as they smacked down on the rock, completely destroying it and forcing the three guardians to flee. "Is now really the time for a lecture on tactics?"

"I suppose not." Josh admitted, drawing his regular sword and his combat knife. "I got left, you two got right?"

"… Do you really think your normal sword is enough to take down a bijuu? From what I remember-"

"It's been twelve hundred years. You honestly believe that I haven't been making upgrades? I used to break these things every six months." He smirked as he flipped his visor up. "Now I break them after every fight."

"… I see…"

"I hate to interrupt your little chat about pieces of sharpened metal, but can we please get back to the two towering and angry bijuu that will gut us if we don't do something about them?"

"… Yeah… that actually might be a wise idea…"

"Wait, Naruto had a wise idea? Holy fuc-"

He never got to complete that sentence, as one of the Rokubi's tails came down and flattened him. "ISN'T THIS JUST FUCKING TYPICAL!"

"… Did I do that?"

"Not now, Uzu… Now's not the time…"

"… I suppose. Should we take the right?"

"Well, two rights don't make a wrong."

Uzu nodded. "… so… what?"

"Let's take it to the limit…"

"… one more time?"

"You read my mind. Ready?"

Uzu nodded again. "Mark?"

"MARK! TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

A thousand clones, five hundred each from Naruto and Uzu, appeared before the two bijuu, all of them scowling at the two energy beings. "Not bad, you two. I expected something more, but considering what you've done already, not too shabby. Now it's my turn."

"Your turn?" The thousand blond jonin replied.

"Yep." He assumed his power-up pose again. "By the power granted to me, I call upon thee: DARK GUARDIAN!"

The sheath surrounding Josh fizzled and changed, changing from a bright light to a darker covering, coating his armor and transforming him from silver knight to nightmare tempest in a few seconds. "Well, how do you like me now, boys? I'm ten times stronger and faster then I was before."

"… show-off."

"Hey, hey, you know what? Fuck you!"

"… Such civilized language. Comon… I want a nice long nap after this."

"Hey, I'm all up for it. By the power granted to me, I call upon thee: INITIAL HOLY GUARDIAN!"

As the two Akatsuki members watched, all of the Kage Bunshin powered up as well, leaving them to face a thousand and one majorly pissed off guardians, one thousand of which were forming Rasengans, the other of which was busy chanting while tracing two fingers up and down the length of his blade.

"Are you ready!"

"HELL NO!" the horde of Narutos replied.

"Ah, fuck it. CHARGE!"

"HOORAH!" As one, all of the Narutos kicked off of the ground, toting Initial Guardian Rasengans, the lone black figure wielding a blade of purest white in contrast to his armor.

"INITIAL GUARDIAN ART: RASENGAN!"

"DARK GUARDIAN ART: HURRICANE BLADE!"

One thousand and one Enhanced Rasengans dug into Kakuzu's Rokubi form, causing it to screech in pain. Hidan merely shrugged off the loss of his front limbs, doing a massive face-plant into the ground, destroying another huge swath of forest. If anyone bothered to come to the area after the battle, the land would resemble a middle-aged man's head; missing patches of material.

"Hmm?"

"… is there a problem?" Uzu asked, flipping back from a writhing Kakuzu.

"Yeah… there is a problem. Their power levels aren't going down at all. They would usually have lost part of their power countering those techniques, but their power hasn't changed a single point. I think our attacks were redirected. One more go?"

Naruto landed on one knee, breathing heavily. "No… way… Nowhere near… enough energy…"

"Wow… Naruto Uzumaki, actually running out of energy. I thought the day would never come where I would actually have more energy then the fabled Orange Lightning…"

"Shut up and give me a Senzu Bean."

"Now, now. Where are your manners?"

"I left them in the back of your jet, after you dropped me out without giving me enough warning. Now, a bean, or I'll castrate you in the next life."

"You know that this is it? If I die, it's over for me. There won't be a next life for me."

"… You know what the boss means. Two Senzu Beans, if you please."

"… Fine… fine… two Senzu Beans, coming right up." From a small dispenser that materialized from his belt, he plucked two small beans, flicking one at each of the two original blonds, who bit down in relief, feeling strength flow back into their muscles.

"That's better. KAGE BUNSHIN! ATTEN-HUT!"

"I didn't know you used military commands."

"… I didn't know either."

"I don't. That was bullshit."

"That would explain a lot… but I think I know why our attacks aren't affecting them."

"… shoot."

"The IG Rasengan is a penetrating-type attack, great at crushing and grinding away tough armor. The Hurricane Blade is a damaging attack, but since it relies upon soft wind as the power source, it has very little anti-armor capabilities. My attack bounced off, thanks to the sheath, and your attacks lack the range to do any lasting damage to him."

"So now what?"

"… Slingshot approach?"

"No. Nowhere near enough speed. For the Hurricane Blade to have any sort of useful penetrating power, I would need to hit a target at about Mach Four. To get through that skin, I would need something closer to Mach Seven. I don't have that sort of speed, time, or energy right now. I normally would need you to power up to Dark Guardian, but with the amount of memory you have, all you would get is a fizzle and a runaway explosion."

"Your internal boosters-"

"Are good for short bursts and Mach Two at most. We're going with Plan B."

"… Which would be…?"

"First of all," Josh quipped as he dodged another tail from Hidan. "Let's take this conversation up a few thousand feet. I really don't need them knowing what I'm planning."

"All right. You heard the man! UP, UP, AND AWAY!"

"…Anything?"

"Here's what I think…"

Hidan and Kakuzu, each in their respective bijuu forms, were still thrashing around on the ground, heading toward Konoha. The consensus was that if they got close enough, the two guardians would drop out of the sky and actually fight them. So far, there had been nothing.

"HEY, DUMBASSES! LOOK UP!"

The two S-ranked criminals looked up in time to see Josh falling through the air; a larger-than-should-be-allowed rocket launcher fit snuggly over his shoulder, lining up a shot.

"HA! MADE YA LOOK! DARK GUARDIAN ART:" he yelled, reaching back and manually pulling down the safety. "FLARE NUKE!"

With a blast of air and exhaust fumes, Josh cartwheeled in midair to negate his momentum, the warhead streaked groundward, and detonated in a blinding flash of light. He engaged his boosters, meeting a flock of Narutos descending from the upper atmosphere, IG Rasengans in tow.

"Good luck. See you in two."

"Yeah… have the seals ready. We'll do the rest."

"… Yeah… we don't want to fight two angry bijuu. Been there, done that, didn't like the results."

"Just make sure you bring the sheath down. Operation Seesaw – COMMENSE!"

As Josh continued to soar up, he pulled out his sword, traced two fingers down the length of the blade again, chanting all the while. While he was going up, the flock of Narutos were going down, the original giving the commands.

"All right, boys. Our job is to take these Rasengan and take out the defenses of those bijuu. Fifty to a big scary demon, scatter formation, and after the attack wears off, dissipate and return any leftover energy to me. I have a feeling that I'm going to need it. Uzu, you're exempt. LET'S MOVE!"

The group of descending blonds split up, half aiming at each bijuu, some getting swatted out of the air as they got within range of the tails.

"INITIAL GUARDIAN ART: RASENGAN!"

Out of the major dust cloud that just formed from the collision of energy on energy, two figures spun out and retreated upward just as Josh descended, his blade white again. "Good work, you two! Now, watch and learn! Dark Guardian Art: Hurricane Blade!"

This time, instead of directly attacking either of the bijuu, struck the ground between them, sending tendrils of wind energy blasting in both directions. They cut through multiple layers of natural protection, severing the hamstrings underneath. Bijuu are so large and complex beings that their energy have formed actual bodily systems, and they rely upon those systems. Take out a hamstring, and they've lost the ability to walk.

"Dark Guardian Art: Thousand Moonbeam Seal!"

Hundreds of beams of light shot from the end, encircling the two bijuu, roping them together like a cowboy would with a rope. "Now, NARUTO!"

"Initial Guardian Art: ODAMA RASENGAN!"

"… Initial Guardian Art: Futon: Rasenshuriken…"

"Say it with more feeling, damn it!"

Feeling or not, the resulting explosion was enough to level any trees still standing in the surrounding area, the energy pulse extending out several miles, roaring past Konoha with mass confusion in its wake, knocking out all unshielded electronics.\

"Right! Timing is crucial! Catch!" Josh yelled as he threw a sheathed dagger at Naruto, who plucked it out of the air.

"On three?"

"Yeah! Wait, on three, or three then go?"

"On three! It's faster that way. THREE!"

"Initial Guardian Art-"

"Dark Guardian Art-"

"DEMON SEALING BLADE!" The two yelled together has they cut across the quivering shapes, drawing them into the crystals embedded in the hilt. The technique, one essential to the working guardian, forced bijuu back into their primordial chakra forms and stored that mass of energy away until a more permanent solution could be devised. Of course, this usually broke the previous container, should the sealing have been a temporary one. A more permanent container, like Naruto, would just snort and flick you flying. Using that technique against them was just ineffective and foolhardy.

However, against temporary containers, it worked just fine, and it was super effective against a released and unsealed bijuu, once you got past the protective sheath.

Just like now.

"Boom sucker!" Josh yelled as he powered back down, panting slightly. Holding Protoguardian status, also known as Protoguardian Streaming, was extremely tiring for a guardian, and doubly so for Josh, who only had above-average energy levels, whereas Naruto could have held it all day.

Holding anything above Sacred Guardian for an hour save the Original Seven would be akin to suicide. As it was, ten minutes of Dark Guardian while doing combat was enough to wind Josh.

"… Right. Let's take them out."

"That shouldn't be too hard, considering that they're both on the ground, trying to breathe." Josh mused as he slipped the dagger away, drawing his regular sword.

"Keep them alive. Secondary orders. We can get information out of them. I've only had the misfortune of engaging Pain twice, and I spent three months recovering from each after only just getting away. I know his six paths, but I have no idea of what a bijuu will do to them. They may have some ideas, and in any case, if we can raid their central headquarters with them away, the bijuu can be freed and they'll be set back indefinitely."

"… Nice words, Boss."

"Yeah. You almost sounded smart for a second there. You actually used 'indefinitely' in a good way."

"Shut the fuck up and pick these guys up. Is your fighter still around?"

"… You know, this isn't exactly what I planned when we were talking about flying back home."

"I suppose that they have to ride in the extra passenger seat, since they've got the information. But why are we in the bomb bay?"

"Would you rather I put you out on the missile rack?" Josh's voice blasted through the speakers. "Be glad that you've got some wind protection. If I hadn't used the Bunker Busters, you would have been out on the ends. Quit your bitching."

"… Gee, what crawled up his ass and died?"

"That would be the cow that I never got to eat, thanks to your little siege and this mess. You had better fucking buy me a herd when I get back."

"Yes, yes. You're the big hero. Fucking showoff."

Josh didn't reply. Instead, he punched open his bomb bay doors, causing the two swearing blonds to fall out into the night sky.

Just as the sun started to rise over Konoha, a lone silhouette stumbled and collapsed at the front gate, making the person sitting cross-legged there, roasting a cow leg over a roaring bonfire. "Well, look what the cat dragged in."

Naruto had just enough energy to spit on the fire.

As things had turned out, the emergency drop, plus all of the unexpected resistance had given our blond hero's chakra tubes quite a scorching. Nothing fatal, but extremely painful and exhausting. Dropping down from seventy thousand feet, fighting two bijuu, and creating several thousand shadow clones tended to take quite a toll on you.

And so we cut to the hospital, where our story continues.

"Fail, man. Fail. You already scorched your tubes? That's pathetic. You used to do a lot more then that and not even break a sweat."

"Alright then, smartass. Next time, why don't you strip your armor off and try the same thing? I guarantee you'll destroy your entire system."

"Nah. I have a brain. I know my limits. You never did."

"Call me stupid again. I dare you."

"Hey, you're the one in the hospital bed, with your chakra tubes scorched. I'm the one eating roast beef."

"THAT'S IT! YOU ARE DEAD!"

As soon as he tried to sit up, a restraining harness collapsed around him and five nurses, plus Tsunade poured into the room.

Josh just sat back, took another bite of meat, and chuckled as they worked on him.

"I swear to god, when I get out of this cast, I'm gonna rip your balls off and throw them into a lava pit."

"Hey, I'm all for it. If you can catch me. You always were a bit on the slow side, mentally and physically."

Unable to move due to the full-body cast and energy-suppressing seals absorbing what little chakra he could emit, Naruto had to settle for insults and threats for the moment.

"That's it, keep on laughing. We'll see who's laughing when I rip your legs off and stick them on your head."

"Tsk, tsk. Threatening me before you even get out of bed? What bold words. Here, why I don't give you something to eat? After all, hospital food sucks." And with that, shoved a cow's leg bone in Naruto's mouth, patted his head, and jumped out the window.

The blond spat it out and shouted after him. "THAT'S RIGHT! YOU HAD BETTER RUN!"

Josh just laughed and popped a can of beer, lighting his boots to the hulk of his wrecked transport jet.

Fuming silently in his cast, his mouth gagged after his shouting affair with Josh, Naruto lay there, thinking about all the ways that he could hurt and torture the silver-clad guardian. Nothing seemed to be possible at the current moment, though. Not while he was locked up like this.

Initial Guardian Art… Fuck, that hurt. He thought as he tried to flare his energy to crack the seals. Guess the only thing I can do right now is sit tight and wait… great, now I'm out of patience. This sucks…

As he stewed there, minute after minute ticked by, the sun slowly rising, peaking, and then setting in the room. He didn't need to eat since he was being fed via IV, so calling in a nurse was redundant. What to do…

When the sun had finally completely disappeared and the only lights in the room were from the medical instruments and the spillage from the street outside, his door slowly creaked open, revealing a glint of metal…

Author's Note.

Yo.

Long two months?

Yeah, sorry as always for my LONG-ass update times. But with my Beta and I both running through our respective finals right now, not to mention AP and prep for college, time has been limited, to say the least.

So, as of right now, i will not have a timetable for the next release. However, rest assured that there will be a mass update on my birthday, which is incidentally the same day as the publishing of Orange Lightning.

I am also very pleased to announce two new projects.

Now, you may be thinking, "WTF? He's already slow on updates! What is this going to do to him!"

I have an answer.

Writer's block is settling in, and if i dont cancel it out ASAP, all projects may end up abandoned.

Spreading it out over several new projects makes it much harder to block.

Just the way i work.

Now, as to the new projects.

The first of them is called "Scar of Lightning, Lightning Scar." If you havn't guessed by the title, yes, it is a prequel to this story, the same class as Orange Lightning, and is a Harry Potter/Naruto Crossover. Expect mass chaos as Josh and Naruto drop in on Hogwarts and are angry at having their vacation interrupted. For the two of you trying to figure out where this takes place, it occurs after Orange Lightning but before Timeless. It also occurs after the second of the two pieces i'm introducing.

The second of them is called "Silver Precurser". No, there is no "Lightning" in the title. The word "Silver" in the title means that Josh is the focus character, while Naruto plays a sidekick role. I havn't decided what to cross this over with yet, but this will be released on the same day as Orange Lightning and the others.

Now, to the ranting part.

For the last two chapters, i have had a combined THREE reviews.

Not encouraging, people.

Two of them have come from the same person.

That person will be the first to have me identify them

Thank you, Brokenfromthepast, for sticking with this old cow as he churns out content.

And to Chronomitsurugi, for leaving me a very encouraging review.

I hope that everyone follows their example and LEAVES ME A REVIEW. That little button down there. Just leave me some sign you've been here. Even a good job would be appreciated. I hate preaching to a empty church.

Ahem. To the announcer part.

"Hidan and Kakuzu are defeated. However, the fight has left Naruto in poor shape. What is coming through that door? Find out next time, on Timeless, a Naruto Fanon."

And that's a wrap.

See you all in a bit.

Xingster