So as you may have noticed, the chapter and word count just jumped dramatically. Why? Because I posted all the chapters I've been fiddling with for months. Yeah… I'm discontinuing this story. It'll be left up, because people seem to like it so much. I want those who may not have looked at it in a while to see all that I'm posting today. But I just thought you guys had the right to know what I had been playing with and trying to work, even if I'm not entirely content with this.
I'm just not happy with the direction Sayuri has taken. When I first started this, I was really happy with her character and her team and all I wanted to do with them. Really, I think the core of it is lack of planning. I just took some characters and dumped them into a setting and started writing with no idea of where I was going. I wish I'd structured the story differently, I wish I'd spent more time developing Miyako, Kiyomi, Satoru, and Ayano. I wish I'd done a lot different.
Maybe one day I'll come back and rework this story, maybe not. From the beginning though, this was just something for me to play with, not a really serious project. It was something to write when I had spare time and inclination, and maybe one day I'd get all the way through the series, maybe I'd stop half-way through, who knew? But over time I got less and less inclined until it almost seemed like a chore to sit down and try and make something happen in the story. And it shouldn't be that way. So I decided this is it. For now, at least.
That's not to say I'm done writing in Naruto. I love the fandom so much, it's such a wonderfully intricate story. When my interest in Sayuri started waning, I started to get new idea for new stories. In fact, I intend to post the first chapter of a story after I've finished uploading these. It will be a sort of do-over. Again with that story, I'll be writing on it when I have time and inclination, and we'll see how it goes. But this time I plan to take my time with characters, to plan more, to develop their lives better. Some elements from Sayuri may find there way into that story, I don't know.
If you have any questions about where I planned to go with this story, any aspects you're curious about, I have no problem answering them. Just let me know in a review or PM me, and I'll try and asnwer if I can.
Again, I hope you're not too upset, and I hope you'll at least give the first chapter of my new story a look, even if it doesn't seem like your cup of tea. Thanks to everyone who reviewed this story – 160 of you guys, oh my gosh! – and extra thanks to those who reviewed every chapter. You guys are the reason I got this far.
Special hugs and cuddles to December 25th, Himeno kazehito, and Sleep Arypsure for designing some characters for me… I encourage you to take those characters and give them more justice than I did, because they're great ideas!