Whaz up ladies, gents and other! It's-uh...-It's been a bit since last I spoke with ya'll on this end. So, before I get into the meat of this author's note, this is what's been going on for the entirety of my career as a fanfiction author: I start a story, I roll with it until I struggle to make more chapters, take a few breaks while working on a few other projects, and I enjoy this hobby of mine. And that's been a wonderful, effective method of writing for me. Just look at this story so far; 41 story-based chapters(Plus the exert at the bottom from my original 42nd chapter idea)!
Here's the thing, though, the manner by which I've gotten by can't continue to be the way I update. Not only is it going to cause more disjointed story-telling but it's unfair to all of the work that I've put into this story and it's especially not fair to those who enjoy this story, reading the chapters and giving me constructive criticism. I'm not saying that I'll stop writing, I'd never be able to do that, but what I am saying is that I need to reevaluate how I update, how I write and how I progress these stories.
For a long time, I've wondered why fanfictions never seem to have more than thirty chapters on average, and I'm only now beginning to understand why. It's probably why some anime or manga or other such media don't have incredibly lengthy, in-the-works, colossal plotlines: the more you put out, the more it comes back to you. Now that sounds stupid, and it is, but please hear me out before someone calls me a 'hippy retard' or a 'pretentious fucker'. What I mean is that, with each new chapter I've put out and improved my craft, I've found that the pressure builds on both ends.
As I wrote-for myself and or the reviews is dependent on the story-I put more and more pressure on myself to create better and better works, usually taking shape as more coherent stories, and ya'll quite possibly began anticipating similar results of these chapters. To an extent, that's fine, but after several chapters and prolonged hiatuses, the heart that's been driving your story begins to die down and you have to force yourself to create the continuation you'd planned.
Not all of us use our free time wisely and we pay for it, and that's why I'm making this A/N: I'm not finished writing, but I'm not gonna let people who might find even some modicum of enjoyment in my writing, wait for an update that might never come because I had thought I'd 'be the first fanfic author to write a 100-chapter story' or some shit. Naruto's existence isn't finished, and I'm not done using him, but he won't be the center of attention anymore. I've branched out into other stories that I can work with because there's fresh ideas available and a want to write with a drive pushing it forward, but in expanding this universe I've been making in my other works, I've left other stories in the dust because they aren't in the limelight in my mind even though I've dreamed of finishing their plotlines for as long as I've written on this site!
Some of you are no doubt probably confused because there's no consistent trail I'm taking with this A/N, but the short and skinny of it's that The Youki Chronicles is going to rest as a horrible, 'completed' work from here on out so I'm not chaining myself down with stories that I actually can't finish without making worse than they are. If that makes you hate me, I'm sorry, but this is part of the process. Look at Naruto's canon: they wanted to continue, but they couldn't do so in the same way or in the same place in a well-made story we could enjoy. How do I mean that? Naruto ended, we all know this, when Jiraiya took the knucklehead on that 3 year trip before Shippuden came at us and continued what we wanted to see!
So, think of this as the cliff-hanger to a hopefully better succeeding story. The Youki Chronicles are literally my Naruto, and the story that sequels it will be my Shippuden; don't think it'll actually be Shippuden or Naruto, though, because this universe I'm making isn't made of just the Big Three. Before someone asks me what I consider the Big Three, I'll tell you.
The Big Three, for me at least, have always been Naruto, Bleach and Fairy Tail. The protagonist has bright hair, dead parents, a dark/gasp-worthy reveal to the source of their power/history and they always changed from a seemingly harmless, light-grit opening into a heavy, world-altering finale. The Youki Chronicles have been the first, kinda-successful long-running story. Ichigo's Hollow Life has been the second with recently-arising negative feedback as it continues to sit and fester. And, finally, Ongoing Slayer Wars is my third and probably best-received story outta the three.
TL;DR The Youki Chronicles are over, will be succeeded by a different, hopefully-better story and there are no words to express how sorry I am for the radio silence that's left this story unfinished, immobile and horrendous! If I haven't lost all of you just from making this A/N, I hope more than anything as an author to see you in the next one.
Before I wrap this up, I'm gonna answer as many reviews as I can so I can give the cliff from which you'll hang and I hope that'll at least lighten the burns I'll be receiving soon as it simultaneously wards off one or two of the inevitable death threats I'll get from someone with a self-invented vendetta. So, what questions are in the reviews that I haven't already tried and failed to answer? *Looks around the reviews tediously* Hmm, I see...Okay. First question I'm gonna answer is if I speak English, and the answer is a positive no. I don't speak English, it's not my first language, Jibberish is.
I might speak English as an actual language, but that doesn't mean I'm any good at it due to neurological disorder(s). Another question: Why'd I take away most of Naruto's strength in chapter 8? I took away Naruto's strength because he's over-powered and if he's too strong, none of the fights would be engaging because they'd either be over too quickly, would be too engaging with how he toys with his opponents or it'd just get monotonous and he'd end up weakening himself so he can have a thrill from fighting.
Next one: why were all of the foreign ninja entering Konoha? Honestly, I probably had some bullshit excuse like 'Mei was trying to get help from other villages so that her village's issue with Yagura' or 'Guren was trying to kidnap Naruto', but as I think on those I realize that those only make sense on the surface but wouldn't hold up if you were to think on it for longer than five minutes. The rest of the questions were rhetorical, but I'll answer this small one because it makes me feel kinda bad: Am I an orphan? No, no I'm not, but I do suffer from a neurological disorder(s) that has the wonderful, added benefit of chronic depression.
Finally, I'm going to give all of you the cliff that I'm trying to hang this story from. And, even while I'm writing this, I can't stress how fucking sorry I am that I couldn't make this story more emotional, funnier, cooler or better in general because all of you deserve something better than whatever this horseshit story's become. Originally it's just a shit story with an angsty Naruto and some cobbled together plot that was meant to lead to something more epic and instead...you got this, with one of you actually thinking this story's better than canon. I actually feel kinda sick knowing that I'm letting people down by finishing so anti-climatically, after all I'd planned and all I'd wanted to do. Knowing that people follow and read this for enjoyment, hoping I'll update soon, it makes this even harder.
Truly, it's better to be recognize a wound when it's there instead of letting it fester because you're scared to acknowledge its existence. This is my wound, my failure to fix and my hoping that it'll heal into a memorable scar.
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"It's been a while," The new voice said. "Loki. It's about time we catch up on what's happened in the last seven decades since you were broken into pieces..." The voice was male, worn yet strong from millennia of service to those that had made the torso now resting in an indentation in the wall. In that indent, not that the torso could see, there were other extremities. Two arms and two legs were placed there too, all silent and all clueless as to what was going on.
What's going on? The torso asked itself, aware that its thoughts were audible to this man that had brought them together. Who am I? Why am I here? What am I a part of?! More questions flooded the torso's thoughts, each one more desperate for answers than the last. The limbs began chiming in after that. Can we be whole again?! Will we ever be complete?! Should we be together?! How can we communicate?! How can we think?! Whose memories are these?!
"Enough," The man began, his tone final and commanding. "I will answer all of these things, but first you must be calm. You must be calm and listen, to not only me but yourself, Loki." None of the body parts spoke after that, awaiting his words to entrance them with his knowledge. "Thank you. I'm a Dax, servant-guard of the Orokin empire and one of the few remaining in some semblance of life, as you'd know if you were whole. As we speak, we're heading to the Twin Queens so that they might consume you in order to fulfill Continuity."
Suddenly, without warning, a new presence came into being before both the Dax and the body parts. This presence, strange and familiar, was like that of a fellow one would see in the crowd wherever they went, bumping into them regularly but never exchanging any words other than an occasion salutation. This presence, strange and familiar, was one of warped age and a disconnect between one reality and the next. There was a violent anger about this presence, one that stemmed from nowhere and everywhere. "Loki Prime," The presence spoke, male voice making its solidity known even if its vocalization was warped and odd compared to the male that had been speaking earlier. "Your Lotus will watch you perish!"
The presence, strange and familiar, took up space that the body parts could feel the distortion of. Where once nothing had stood was now a tall, thin male being with a tailcoat. A withered, wrinkled helmet took the place of what had improved on the tall frame's height before, a pentagonal pattern forming around a small, exposed orifice of sorts. Colors meant nothing to the body parts at that point, but the grooves on the frame would imply a ball being danced by white and grey
The Dax who'd been speaking had gone silent, the feeling of air being disturbed alerting the body parts to the movement of a slim blade making an arch towards the presence only for said blade to pass right through the presence's form without any harm coming to it. "What are you, Tenno?!" Demanded the Dax, soon after finding a rapier through his skull, his body falling to the floor of their accommodations limply.
"I am no Tenno," Began the presence, stroking his blade against the limbless torso to remove the blood from it. "But I was once a Dax, myself, so I've granted you a swift death unlike what Loki Prime will experience..." Turning to the body parts, eyes invisible to those with sight, approached them with a head in hand. "Prepare for a Continuity, Mania, for your new body awaits your ownership..." Finished speaking, the presence pulled the torso off the shelf and placed the head in between the shoulders on the stump that was the neck, causing an agonized scream to permeate the torso's mind as the head began leaking tendrils of infection that pierced the neck where they began to take root and corrupt. However, it appeared that the presence wasn't the only one in its body, as one of the thin frame's arms reached out and into the torso's core to pull out a glowing orb. "DON'T YOU DARE, YOU BEAST!" Shrieked the presence, finding the orb to be expelled through time and space. "NOOOOOOOO! YOU DAMNED BEAST I'LL PULL YOUR GUTS OUT THROUGH YOUR TOP HAT, YOU ABOMINATION OF SCIENCE!"
The presence's shouts were deafening to all that had ears, but outside the accommodations, no sound could be heard. For in space, there's no atmosphere for anyone to hear you scream in.