First Encounter

Onyx and Ivory

Warning: Quite a bit of profanity in this chapter. ye be warned.

"I'm looking for the Akatsuki, I want to join them," Hoshiko stared the man dead in the eye. He didn't flinch when she used the name of the organization, which was a start.

"Don't know where they are," the man stated. He reached for a few cups and dried them with his towel, turned and placed them back on the shelves. "Those type of people aren't welcome around here. Best you keep moving on, little girl."

Hoshiko's eyes narrowed dangerously. Oh, he did not just—what a turd! Men can be so patronizing sometimes. And just because she was tiny for her age and may still look like a young teenager did not mean that she wasn't deadly.

Hoshiko reached into her pocket, and yanked out the small silver ring with ruby backing. The dark skinned man's eyes flicked to it. For the untrained, it was like he had just glanced at it. But for a trained ANBU like Hoshiko, she saw the twitch of his eyebrow, the flick at the corner of his mouth. Oh yes, this man definitely knew what that ring was. It confirmed her suspicions after all.

"See this ring? I killed an Akatsuki member for it. It's what you call their 'right of passage'. I'm worthy to be apart of their organization." Hoshiko dropped the ring into the palm of her hand. The bartender's eyes watched it intently. Hoshiko saw a bead of sweat roll down his neck. "Unfortunately for me. I killed him before he could gurgle out the location of their nearest hideout. Drowned in his own blood. Tragic really." The bartender swallowed loudly. His eyes flicking from hers to the weapons pouch secured to her waist. Hoshiko sighed and leant on the counter again, this time she moved closer to the man.

"You and I both know that the Akatsuki operate out of Stone. I can tell you about the numerous reports that I've read over the years which state this fact." That part was true. During her four years of travel, she had come across rumors that stated this. But, the man didn't need to know that these were rumors…

He still remained tightlipped about the subject. Hoshiko's patience was wearing thin; she knew that this man knew where to find Akatsuki. Maybe he was scared that if he gave them up, they might come looking for him. It was plausible. The Akatsuki weren't really ones to fuck around with.

"Here's my final offer," Hoshiko said, lowering her voice dangerously and death staring the man. She was surprised he hadn't wet himself from her look. "You tell me where I can find them, and I won't mention who I got the information off. Or I burn this shitpile of a village to the ground. I already murdered one Akatsuki member, a village will be like burning a tissue."

The man blanched. His eyes darted around the shop, landing on his few patrons. They snapped back to Hoshiko as she waited patiently, a sickly sweet smile on her face. "Please…don't harm anyone—we've done nothing wrong," his whispered to her under his breath.

"Tell. Me," Hoshiko ordered, clenching her fists on the counter.

He glanced around again. "You won't find them here." Hoshiko sighed in annoyance. The man interpreted it wrong, thinking that she was about to take out her anger on him as he stuttered and held his hands up. "B-But I have heard rumors!"

Hoshiko rolled her wrist at the man. "I'm listening."

"A man came through here once. He spoke about how there's a building in his village, and he always see's the same two members of the Akatsuki come and go from there. No one knows what they do, and it's probably once every three weeks, but they always come back. That's all I know—I swear."

Hoshiko's interest was peaked. What could be so important those Akatsuki members kept on going back to a building. Maybe it was their hideout? No, it couldn't be. He just said it was the same two men. Hoshiko was sure that she had read in one of her Bingo books that the Akatsuki had at least seven or eight members. Well, the information was better then nothing.

"Where's the village?" Hoshiko asked. The man looked like he was tearing apart his own brain trying to remember the name of the village.

"Hōkai iwa, it's near Iwagakure, probably a day's walk from here. The road that leads of out this village will take you to it. There are signposts along the way. When you reach the fork in the road, take the right path."

"Did the man say what building?" Hoshiko asked him.

The bartender shook his head vigorously. "N-No, he did mention that it was the second shop on the right from the west entrance though. I don't know what it could be?"

"You made the right decision," Hoshiko said with a wink to the man. The dark skinned man didn't seem to believe so. He looked like he wanted run away from Hoshiko right now. He was probably nervous that she was about to go back on her word burn his whole village to the ground. It was something that the Akatsuki would likely do to someone.

X

Like the man had said, it had taken her a day to reach the village called Hōkai iwa. The trek to the village had been one for the record. The path had taken her over a mountain and even through them. She had passed quite a few travellers and guessed that the path must be a main one that went through the country.

Upon entering the village from the west entrance, Hoshiko sought out the second building on the right hand side. When she found it, she halted dead in her tracks and pulled a grimace.

"What…the hell?"

The sign above the door read that it was a bath and teahouse. Hoshiko stepped back and made sure that she had counted right. Even if it was only two…

Apparently it wasn't a mistake, she was at the right place. So apparently the Akatsuki like to keep themselves clean and fed well. Who'd a thunk? And here she was thinking Akatsuki members were dirty criminals who never washed. Mind you, Itachi the betrayer was in Akatsuki, and he had been the most perfect neat freak she'd ever met. She didn't want to think about Itachi right now. The prick didn't deserve that from her. If she did end up seeing him, she punch him right in the nose for everything that he's done. Or kill him. Whatever one came first.

Hoshiko entered the shop. In front of her was a desk with a middle-aged woman behind the counter. Hoshiko saw that over to the right was the teashop part of it. On the left, it branched off into the bathhouse.

"Welcome, what brings you here today?" The woman asked her kindly. Her hair was dark, her skin tanned but not dark like the other mans from the previous village. She wore a pair of glasses that kept sliding down her nose. Every couple of seconds the woman would push them up again. Hoshiko had only been here twenty seconds and she wanted to glue the pair of spectacles to her nose.

Hoshiko shook her head from the mental image of pinning the woman down and thought about her predicament carefully. It seemed that even though people were aware of the Akatsuki roaming around the country, they didn't like to admit it. They were kind of like the black market. Hoshiko couldn't expose herself, no one could know that she was waiting for them, if someone found out, they might get a message to them and they'd never come around. No, it was best if she waited it out. Hopefully it wouldn't be another three weeks before they came by.

Hoshiko looked over to the teashop side of the room. "Just a table, please." The woman gave her smile and rose from the desk. Hoshiko followed her to a small table in the middle of the room that she sat down at. The woman bowed politely to her and retreated back behind the desk.

A waiter soon came over and Hoshiko ordered a pot of green tea. While she waited Hoshiko took the time to observe her surroundings. The shop was homely, small but didn't feel too cramped. If Hoshiko was here longer than a few days she said to herself that she'd totally use the hot springs on the other side. It'd be a waste not to.

Hoshiko spent the entire day there and there was no sign of the Akatsuki. She couldn't feel too annoyed. Her luck wasn't that great. It had been an absolute bore to sit there for the entire day, she had watched patrons come and go and before long the lady at the reception desk and come around and told her that they were closing up shop for the day.

When Hoshiko emerged from the shop, the sun had already set and small gas lamps lit the narrow street. Hoshiko swore in her head, maybe she should have looked for an inn to stay in first before she went into the teashop. There were a few people out at this time, Hoshiko approached the first person she saw and asked where the nearest Inn was. They pointed her in the right direction as she thanked them and headed on her way.

Hoshiko dumped her bag on the floor by her bed and flopped down on it. It felt good to finally be sleeping on a comfortable bed once again. She had used the money that she had collected over the years from doing mercenary work to pay for the room. She only ever used the money for these types of things. The room was small and bare; a small picture hung on the opposite wall as some form of décor. The walls were of course, made of stone and so was the floor. Really, she didn't expect much else. The window was small too and it opened to the outside. She didn't have a washroom but the man at the desk had told her where to find it should she desire to use it.

Hoshiko was suddenly overcome with tiredness as she rustled through her bag to find some clean nightclothes to wear as she changed quickly and slid under the covers. Not before slipping one of her kunai under the pillow with her.

X

A whole week went by with Hoshiko staying in Hōkai Iwa. It was safe to say she had become a regular at the teashop. Every morning she went there to bath in the hot springs and then she would emerge a few hours later to have a pot of green tea. All the while she was waiting to see those distinctive black and red cloaks. She would leave in the mid afternoon time and stake out the teashop from a vantage point. For seven days she did this.

And on the eighth day, Hoshiko finally ran into some luck.

It was late afternoon; the sun wasn't setting for another four hours. Hoshiko had sat herself on top of the roof across from the teashop. She was lying down on her back, soaking up the warm sunrays on her exposed skin from her sleeveless shirt. Her kunai was in her hand as she absentmindedly picked out dirt from under her fingernails with it. That was until she suddenly sensed two pretty powerful chakra signatures approaching the village.

Her reaction was instantaneous; she sheathed her kunai in her hidden weapons pouch. She hadn't been wearing it openly as to not attract attention. She then jumped down the backside of the building so that no one would see her and hurried around to the front and to the shop. The two people were still a few minutes away from the village so it gave her enough time to get settled and ready. She headed into the shop and saw the lady that was there everyday look a little startled at seeing her.

"Back so soon?" she was inquiring but was happy to see her.

"Couldn't get enough of the green tea," Hoshiko said with a smile. "Table?"

The lady complied and brought Hoshiko into the tearoom, she was about to give her the normal table in the middle but Hoshiko grabbed her arm. "Oh, can I have this one?" Hoshiko pointed to the table that was in the corner but had a view of the door.

"Of course, shall I order the usual?"

"Yes please," Hoshiko said. Her attention focused on the door. The woman called out to the waiter as she returned to her desk. Hoshiko tried not to look anxious as she calmed down her heart and began to slowly mask her chakra a little more; she didn't want anything to tip off the Akatsuki members that she was nothing more than a patron.

She could feel them approaching and was relieved. For a while there, she had been worried that the information that the man back in that small village had given her false information just to get her out of there. But no, he was right.

The waiter came with her tea as Hoshiko thanked him and quickly poured a cup. She brought it up to her lips just as two people entered the shop. One was remarkably tall, freakishly tall even. From her seat she swore that he had weird green eyes. She couldn't see much of his face as it was covered up with a material that went around his neck and mouth. He even had a grey bandana covering his head; the dark and intimidating black cloak covered the rest of his body.

The other man, slightly shorter but still tall didn't have anything covering his face. His hair was silvery, slicked back with either grease or water. Hoshiko couldn't make out the colour of his eyes. The thing that stood out most to her was the large, triple bladed scythe strapped to his back. Well, if they wanted to be inconspicuous, they were going about it the wrong way.

They approached the desk and the woman jumped up as if she had been zapped, she bowed respectfully. "You're early this time, Kakuzu-san, Hidan-san."

The one with the covered up face lifted up a case that he had been holding. "I have my bounty, where is he?"

"He's in the back, come right through please," the woman bowed once more and began walking passed Hoshiko and into the kitchen. The two men followed.

"This better not take too fucking long, Kakuzu," the one with silver hair—Hidan, said.

The one named Kakuzu didn't turn to face his companion. "You got your kill, Hidan. Now it's my turn, stop complaining."

"Tch. Whatever," Hidan rolled his eyes. Hoshiko watched them pass her by discreetly. The teacup never left her lips as she followed them with her eyes. They walked passed the waiter who looked like he was about to wet himself from their presence as they disappeared into the kitchen. It was around two minutes later when the woman returned and looked insanely relieved to be out of there. She returned to her desk and began acting like everything was normal once again.

Hoshiko quickly downed the rest of her tea, she left the correct amount of money on the table for the waiter to collect as she hurried out of the teashop. Once out in the street she quickly hid around the corner and waited for the two Akatsuki members to come out again.

She waited around ten more minutes before they emerged together, the one with silver hair arguing with his companion about how bored he was. Kakuzu didn't reply to him as the two began to leave the village the way they had come. Hoshiko knew that this was her chance; she masked her chakra and began to follow them into the forest.

The two kept the path, a steady walk. Hoshiko wondered why they were so laid back? They were two S-class missing Nin's out in the open. They would probably be in all of the bingo books across the world. Were all the Akatsuki members all like this? Then again, they were some of the most powerful Shinobi in the world, what would they have to be scared about.

Hoshiko leapt to the next tree, keeping her tail on the two men. She crouched low, one hand against the thick trunk as her silver eyes watched sharply. Hoshiko was about to leap to the next tree when all of a sudden Hidan, the one with the triple bladed scythe spun around, launching his weapon up at her in the tree.

"Found you, bastard!"

Hoshiko's eyes widened as she dove out of the tree just in the nick of time, the scythe imbedded into the branch where she had been standing just milliseconds before. As she fell through the air, she brandished a kunai and threw it at Hidan's head. Hoshiko hadn't expected his weapon to be long range, but in those few seconds, she had seen a long cable attached to the scythe. The cable reached Hidan's hand. It was a disadvantage to him, as Hoshiko did most of her work close range, and with such a bulky weapon it would be hard for him to dodge her quick attacks.

Hidan pulled the cable up to block the kunai that Hoshiko had thrown at him as she landed on the ground a few meters away from the two. Her eyes flicked between the two. Kakuzu didn't seem interested in her; he stood a meter back from Hidan, assessing the situation but didn't have his guard up. Was he not going to fight her too?

"What's a tiny bitch like you doing following us, eh?" Hidan bellowed at her. Hoshiko turned her eyes back to him.

"I wanted to talk," she said simply.

Hidan laughed. He tugged on his cable; Hoshiko heard the unmistakable sound of his weapon swooshing right for her. She felt the wind shift behind her as she leapt, torso twisting in the air and landed on her feet as Hidan caught his weapon in his hand.

"Ain't got no time for talking! If you want to fight, I can give you that," Hidan licked his lips excitedly as Hoshiko shook her head.

"I don't want to fight, I want to join you."

Hidan pulled a face and looked over his shoulder at his companion, "Oi, Kakuzu, you deal with the mouthy bitch." Hoshiko looked to Kakuzu as the green-eyed man narrowed his eyes slightly at her.

"We've no time for this. Our next bounty is over in Cloud; it'll take us weeks to get there already. Kill her, Hidan."

Hidan swung his head around, a grin on his face. "My pleasure. I'll take great pride in tearing up that little body of yours, bitch."

Hoshiko rolled her eyes at him. Hidan saw this and grew excited, he screamed with glee and swung his scythe towards her. Hoshiko made no move to dodge as the scythe impaled her body—and then went right through a puff of smoke.

"EH? What the fuck?"

Kakuzu didn't flinch when he felt the tip of a kunai poised at his back, right over one of his five hearts. Hoshiko stood there with a smirk as Kakuzu turned his head to look over his shoulder.

"I'm listening," Kakuzu muttered. Hoshiko removed the kunai and took a step back as Hidan finally realized that she had been behind them the whole time. He started shouting profanities at her but both Hoshiko and Kakuzu tuned them out.

Hoshiko sheathed her kunai back in her weapons pouch. "I told you, I don't want to fight. I just want to talk."

"You're wasting my time, brat," Kakuzu growled. Hoshiko narrowed her eyes at him.

"You underestimated me the first time. I could have just pierced your heart and thought nothing of it. You would do well to not underestimate me again. Now," Hoshiko went into her pocket and pulled out the ring, "I believe you recognize this."

Kakuzu's eyes went to it but he gave nothing away until he spoke.

"Orochimaru's ring."

"Yes," Hoshiko nodded. "I stole it from him. Thought it was a piece of junk but then I realized I had seen them before in the bingo books."

Kakuzu seemed to look her up and down. "What village do you come from, you wear no Hitai-ate."

Hoshiko paused for a moment. "Konoha, but I defected four years ago. That's not the point. The point is—I know that Orochimaru used to be one of you, and the bastard has been hunting me for years. I know the locations of many of his bases around the world." There was a slight quirk of Kakuzu's eyebrow. He finally seemed intrigued. "Now I'm no criminal mastermind," her eyes flicked to Hidan, "Or a raging lunatic but I'm pretty sure that he didn't leave on good terms, am I right?"

Kakuzu remained silent. Hidan was behind him, muttering about how he so desperately wanted to kill her. If his silence was anything to go by, Hoshiko knew she was right.

"And I know for a fact that he tried to kill one of your members—"

"BAH!" Hidan exclaimed loudly. "That stuck up Uchiha son of a bitch had it coming!" Hoshiko didn't react to his words.

"If you want the information that I have on him, I want to speak to your leader. I'll tell him and no one else."

"Kakuzu," Hidan whined loudly, "Let's just kill her and be done with it."

"Are you always this annoying?" Hoshiko rounded on him with a glare. Hidan fixated his gaze on her as he bared his teeth at her.

"Fight me and we'll see."

"Hidan," Kakuzu said sternly. The man in command turned to stare at Hidan for a moment before looking at Hoshiko. "We're leaving, this girl is of no use to us."

"What?" Both Hoshiko and Hidan exclaimed in unison.

"I will not trouble our leader with trivial nonsense like this. Come, Hidan, we've already wasted enough time."

"Not even a little scratch?" Hidan grumbled. One look from Kakuzu had him mumbling profanities once again under his breath and shuffling off. As he passed Hoshiko he leered at her. "You got lucky, bitch. If I see you again, you're mine."

Hoshiko returned his glower with one of her own. "Try me, you won't be able to land a mark on my face."

Hidan made a move to lunge at her, he growled at her but Kakuzu barked his name forcefully and the silver haired man followed after. Hoshiko watched them go, she could've tried to fight them and make her point, but she was stupid. She wouldn't have been able to take them both on by herself. No, she would wait again. In three weeks when they returned, she would confront them again. And if it didn't work again, she keep on going, or she'd follow them until they finally caved in. She knew how to be annoying, and by god she could do it well.

Hoshiko returned to the inn and collected her things, there was no point in her staying around any longer. She had found the Akatsuki had they had rejected her. For some reason, she had thought that a bunch of criminals would've welcomed another in their ranks. Not be picky assholes with tempers that could rival her own.

Before leaving town she headed to one of the few convenience stores and bought a few packet meals that she could eat on the road, she didn't expect to be staying in a village for another couple of weeks.

Realistically she could have followed Hidan and Kakuzu, but Hidan had already seen through her masked chakra, he would be able to do it again. And as she thought before, if it came down to it, she wouldn't be so lucky if they crossed paths.

She headed out into the forest, her destination unknown. She was just walking. She had remembered to buy a map while in Hōkai Iwa; it had the layout of the whole country. If she continued west, she would hit the hidden village. She wouldn't enter the village, but maybe she could find a few jobs around the outlying villages until she returned back to confront Hidan and Kakuzu once more. Again, she was anything if not persistent.

She made camp a few hours into her walk. She spent time setting up her perimeter traps and then rolling out her small futon. She collected firewood and created a small fire in the center and then performed a small fire jutsu to get it going. She sat back on her futon and stared into the flames. They danced in the encroaching darkness, casting twisting shadows over the lumps of rock and dirt. It was the one thing Hoshiko hated, dirt—mud. It was gross and stuck to your skin. When it dried it became itchy and you'd have to scrub your skin raw just to get it all off.

Now grass, that was heaven. It was lovely to lie on, it could be itchy sometimes but if you were lying on a futon you wouldn't be able to tell. And when the wind blew the grass, the sound always managed to soothe her to sleep. It always sounded like water, like a soft waterfall, or rain.

Here, the dirt was everywhere. Hoshiko didn't know how she would've managed to live in Stone country with her clan had they not partaken in the war. Would she have still disliked mud and dirt? Or would she have embraced it?

Then that got her thinking onto how her life might have turned out had she never left. Well for one, none of this would've happened to her, that's for damn sure. Her father would still be alive; she wouldn't be on the run, trying to convince a criminally insane organization to let her join. She wouldn't have had to separate from her mother, and she never would have become a Shinobi. She could have lived a peaceful and blissful life with her family and her clan. She also would've never met Itachi. That would've been a bonus.

But then she never would have met Shisui, or Sasuke or Kakashi. Or even Jiraiya for that matter. Would it have been better? She wondered. Her thoughts kept on repeating the 'if's' and 'but's' of her life. It probably wasn't healthy to dwell on things that she couldn't change, but well—she had done a lot of things in her life that wasn't healthy. Why was she going to start now? She had approached two Akatsuki members' head on and lived to tell the tale. To her, her luck was improving.

It could only go up from now.

A blur of red came zooming out from the trees in front of her. Hoshiko fell to the side, not before feeling a slight sting to her cheek. She had dodged the brunt of the weapon, but had still got hit. She felt the trickle of blood run down her cheek as she looked over her shoulder.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she spotted Hidan's scythe. Oh great, he had come back to finish the job. Hoshiko saw the tug of the cable as the scythe jerked out of the ground and zoomed back into the forest. Hoshiko had to duck once more to avoid getting hit again. As she looked back, Hidan and Kakuzu both emerged from the darkness.

Hoshiko glared at them both, they had managed to get passed her traps undetected. She rose to her feet, instantly on her guard. If they were here to finish the job, she most certainly wasn't going to make it easy for them.

Hidan swung his scythe onto his shoulder, making it look like the weapon only weighed a few pounds. Hoshiko saw one of the spikes thinly coated in her blood. "Told you I'd get you next time, bitch. You're just a lucky pile of shit right now."

"The hell you talking about?" Hoshiko barked out, her gaze flicking between the two crazed lunatics. Kakuzu stepped towards her; Hoshiko noticed he had something in his hand. With a flick of the tall mans wrist he threw the paper at her. Hoshiko caught it between two fingers.

"That is you, is it not, Ginyoru Hoshiko?"

Hoshiko's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she gazed down at the paper in her hand. Her mouth parted in a small gasp of surprise as she looked down at one of her old ANBU photos. It was definitely her; it was the photo that they had on record in Konoha. Hoshiko couldn't fathom how Kakuzu got his hands on this. She looked so little in the photo, only fourteen at the time.

She met Kakuzu's green orbs. "And what if it is?"

"Then my leader will be most pleased to meet with you. If you decline, you have a pretty big bounty on your head—considering the world thinks you're dead."

"And I'll be doing the honors!" Hidan called excitedly.

Hoshiko quirked an eyebrow at the men. "So you're only taking me seriously now because you figured out my name, typical," she muttered stubbornly, "So if I had just said who I was from the beginning, all of this could have been avoided?"

"Most likely," Kakuzu agreed shortly.

Hoshiko smacked her hands together. "Well then, take me to your leader!" The humor was lost on the two men as Hoshiko rolled her eyes at them. Tough crowd.

"Hidan," Kakuzu motioned his head towards her. "Try not to kill her."

Hidan stalked towards her. "You like pain, bitch?" Hoshiko took one step back.

"You mean in the hair pulling kind, or the 'oh dear I've been impaled'?"

"Any pain is good pain," Hidan grinned. He swung his scythe around so that the hilt was facing up and the blades were near the floor. Hoshiko saw where this was going.

"Oh, I see. Knocking me out so I can't figure out where your hideout is. Typical criminal work."

"Hidan, hurry up. Her running mouth is costing us time," Kakuzu called out as he turned on his heel and started marching away.

Hidan raised his weapon as Hoshiko shrunk back and held up her hands. "Wait! Just not the face, it's my only good asset!"

Hidan gritted his teeth at her. "I wish I could fucking kill you."

Hoshiko grinned cheekily. "Get in line, there's been a shit-ton of people trying to do that for years." Hoshiko could've sworn that there was a bemused glint behind Hidan's eye. But maybe that was just the mix of blinding pain she felt when Hidan cracked his weapon round the back of her head. She had remained conscious for a few more seconds, slurred some sort of profanity and then face planted the ground.

OK well i think i've found my favourite new character to write! Holy shit i had so much fun writing Hidan in this. I do really hope I have portrayed them as close to canon as i can in this chapter. I mean, we really didn't get much screen time with them to actually know them as well as some of the others but I tried my best. I was actually going to drag out Hoshiko not getting to go with them for another chapter but i thought nahh cause guess what.

ITACHI REUNION NEXT CHAPTER!

akjbhdfjkahfgud im excited to write this! Their reunion has been something that first sparked this story and honestly I can't wait. Also little bit of self promoting here. I recently started up and Attack on Titan story, it's only three chapters so far as i stopped to write chapters for this one and my bleach one. But if you're a fan of AOT like me and love some Levi/oc stuff go give it some love please! You dont have to, I'm not being pushy!

Anywhoo thanks so much guys and see you next time!

REPLIES

DoctorBoo24 - Aww thanks! Hope you enjoyed this one!

AugustRush - Thank you! Hope this one was good too!

Warga - Wasn't super quick but not as long as last time! At least this one wasnt as bloody depressing!

GreyMoonHuntress - Yeah her mum really got the short end of the stick, but fear not, she is not forgotten within this story. Hahah ikr, no one guessed it wouldve been kakashi to come and get her xD i was like oh fuck i hope no ones gonna get pissed at me xD Itachi is coming soon, Ive missed his crazy ass.

toibin - Aw thank you! That's ok! At least you're here now! Hope you enjoyed :)

Guest - Oh thank you! Means a lot to me :)

DuangKitty - Kudos for power reading! Sorry for dragging you behind on your studies! Dont become tardy and forget them, school is important! He's returning next chapter FINALLY! It's been a long time coming for this!