I don't own Naruto. Big surprise.

Naruto couldn't help but look back once more towards their previous location. His mind seemed to be struggling with what he'd witnessed. Wild animals, possessing the skills of ninja…Yet still human.

And he killed one of them. The person that thing once was, was now gone; by his hands. That person that once had friends and a family, a childhood, a dream, hobbies and passions.

He cast a wary glance towards the rest of the team. They looked relatively unperturbed for people that had just taken several lives. Raido had used his kunai to pierce one of them in the skull. Kakashi had used some kind of rockwall to crush one, and used his bare hands to rip the other one apart not even a few seconds after.

He had to be saved. Again. But why? He was strong. Much stronger than those things were. So why was he having so much trouble staying focused?

That was a stupid question. He knew why. Until he dealt with whatever it was that's been happening with him since that fateful day, he would never be back to 100%. It was like his body wanted to react in time, but his brain struggled to catch up. He felt confused. Indecisive. Conflicted. His mind was lagging behind, as if his shoulders were already carrying too much to bear.

He exhaled a quiet sigh and reached up to ruffle more water out of his hair. The trip towards the village had been quite…Strange so far. The land of the waterfalls didn't have a normal entrance. Instead, they had to navigate through a channel of caves, then dive underwater until they reached a riverbank. Only when they surfaced were they met with the small village of Taki.

It looked way different than Konoha did. While the leaf was surrounded by a forest, this one seemed to BE a forest, with one gigantic tree blocking out the sky and shielding the entirety of the village. There was greenery and water as far as the eye could see and the air felt so pure here.

Masato and Kaoru quickly left the group to receive medical attention, and the rest continued on forward, the blond looking around in slight wonder. There weren't that many houses or shops around, as opposed to the bustling streets of konoha. Then again, this was a minor village. The few villagers that were out and about looked on in curiosity, but no ill-intent was directed at them. Some would whisper, but it wasn't the harsh tones that he was used to. Instead, they would smile and sometimes wave at them and their would-be leader.

"Alright, this is where you all will be staying," said Shibuki. The blond didn't know what to make of him. At first he just seemed like a kind young man. But then… He'd start freaking out over the littlest of things. For being the next in line, he was quite the jumpy character.

"Will two rooms be enough?"

"We'll make do." Kakashi said off-handedly. After exchanging a few more pleasantries and their goodbyes, Shibuki and his guards left them.

"I'm gonna have to share a room with Aoba again, aren't I…?" Raido said with a small groan.

"Hey, what's wrong with sharing a room with me!?"

"You know." He replied with a deapan.

"...Yeah…"

The blond watched them go in puzzlement, before glancing back at his masked sensei who didn't bat an eye from the interaction. Huh, must be a regular occurence. Kakashi walked inside the room he'll be sharing with the Jinchuriki and began un-sealing and unpacking his tools.

Naruto watched him work for a little while before hesitantly opening his mouth.

"Uh…Can I go?"

Kakashi turned towards him sharply. "Go where?"

"Just…Out. I wanna train."

His teacher's eye narrowed slightly.

"I'll be fine, I won't leave the village."

Kakashi looked down and closed his eyes, before sighing and standing up. "You're putting me in a weird position, Naruto." He said, making him blink in confusion.

"Trouble follows you everywhere, for whatever reason. So I have to constantly watch over you to make sure you're not gonna get yourself killed. I won't always be there to save you."

The boy awkwardly looked to the side. Well, it was hard to dispute that.

"...Isn't that why you started training me?"

Kakashi remained silent, then shook his head and turned back towards his things. "You're still in a lot of trouble. Do NOT leave the village, and do not cause any disruption. Got it? The slightest problem and I'm locking you in this room our entire stay."

"Okay…I got it."

—

He decided to go as far away as possible within the perimeter of the village, shielded by the sea of trees. Kakashi had said no trouble, and he seemed serious. And he for one did not want to be stuck inside.

He followed a gentle stream, down a rocky terrain, and decided to settle on a bed of grass, where the freshwater was prominent in the air. This place kinda felt like paradise…He sat down and crossed his legs,taking in nature for a moment, before closing his eyes. His breathing stilled, and soon, his muscles relaxed.

When he opened them again, he was back in a familiar place. Before him stood the massive cage within his seal, keeping the giant glaring fox at bay. Said beast was eyeing him with a cautious yet irritated gaze, and as always seemed unhappy to see him. Some things never changed.

"You again…" Kyuubi said gruffly. "I was wondering when you'd show up."

The boy looked up at the giant fox in mild surprise. He hadn't meant to enter his mindscape. He'll have to learn to be able to meditate without entering his seal at some point. He looked back down and sat, crossing his legs before closing his eyes once more.

For his part, kyuubi just narrowed his eyes and watched the child carefully. What was the human doing? More importantly, what has been happening to him ever since that fateful day? He didn't care about humans, not at all. The only one he'd ever respected died a long time ago. But still, this behaviour was quite strange.

His eyes glanced towards a far corner of the big space they were in. Could it have anything to do with the mirrors that had been appearing within the mindscape?

That was another strange occurrence. He didn't know why, but those had been showing up here and there. And they just…Sit there. As far as the giant fox knew, they were just that; regular, basic mirrors.

But what did it mean?

His giant red orbs fell back down at his jailor, who had yet to move from his meditative position.

"What are you doing?"

Naruto's eyes remained closed. "Trying to meditate."

Kyuubi growled, his patience running thin. "Why here?"

"Because everytime I try to do it in the real world, I end up here.

What a dense brat. He had the sudden urge to lash out at him, but a feeling was telling him he wouldn't care.

"Kyuubi?"

The fox growled more and glared at the blond. "What?"

Naruto hesitated for a moment. "Those nightmares, are they real?"

"..."

"Because… They feel real."

."...I have no care for your idiotic questions."

His jailor gave him a wry smile, before slowly pushing himself to his feet.

'I guess I better get started on my training…'

He willed himself out of his mindscape, leaving the fox to stare at the spot that the boy was previously in.

Funny. He'd been asking himself the same thing.

—

He opened the door to the inn they were staying at and fell face first onto his bed. He was tired. It was still taking him a bit of effort to get back into fighting shape, but everyday showed some progress.

His training was basically just him against… Well, himself. A lot of hims. However, no matter what happened; a shadow clone would never be as strong as him. So he'd just make a lot of them. The clones knew his weaknesses, they were him after all, so they would consistently target them and force him to correct them. And everytime that he would get better and stronger; so would the clones in turn, match his progress. This wasn't as intense as Kakashi's training, but it was the next best thing.

He rolled over to his side and tiredly stared up at the ceiling, taking in the silence. Kakashi and the others had gone out, where to, he didn't know. But he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. His eyelids grew heavy and slowly, he drifted off to sleep.

"Come on Naruto, wake up."

He was jostled awake by his teacher, groaning and opening his eyes before squinting and shutting them again. Kakashi watched him unimpressed after noticing the scuff marks all over his clothes and body.

"Did you even wash up when you got back? You stink."

"Mmnng."

"Yeah yeah just get in the shower, we're going out."

He sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position before shuffling towards the bathroom. He knew better than to complain near Kakashi.

He didn't really understand the point of this tour that Kakashi was taking him on. The past hour had just been them two walking around the village, with Kakashi occasionally pointing something out and Naruto silently taking it in. He'd said that this was useful knowledge to know about the ins and outs of the village, just in case. He didn't elaborate any further, but he didn't need to.

In the end, Kakashi took him inside a restaurant that also served breakfast, named 'the four leaf clover'. It was a small and humble thing, with a very 'homely' feel to it, and the quiet chattering of the customers filled the morning air. The duo sat at a booth and took their order, with Naruto having the sweet dumpling and Kakashi going with a serving of Dango.

And it was while he was eating his meal that he heard it. That familiar, hushed tone that cut through the mingling conversations and sent a feeling to his stomach. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as he attempted to zero in on the source.

"I told you, I can't be seen serving you!" One voice said, one of the waiters.

"Come on man, I'm just trying to eat!" A distinct young female voice replied in a huff. The voices were coming from behind him, around a corner of the restaurant.

"I'm sorry, but it's bad for business. Find somewhere else."

The conversation came to a stop, shortly followed by the shuffling of footsteps growing more distant. Naruto turned his head towards the entrance once he heard the door open but only managed to catch a small glimpse of green when it swung close.

The waiter came round the corner and, after a short sigh, walked up to the two and tried his best to give off a friendly smile. "Is everything to your liking?"

"Oh yes, thank you." Kakashi replied. The waiter nodded and moved on to other customers. He turned towards his student when he saw him stand up, an uneasy look on his face.

"...I'm not really hungry anymore…Thanks for the meal."

Of course, the conversation had not been lost on the scarecrow either, which was why he made no move to stop the blond. He closed his eye as his student left, and took a sip from his tea.

Yep. Life is unfair.

—

His mood now soured, Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets and frowned down at the ground as he walked through the streets of Taki, the conversation from earlier replaying in his head.

'It's bad for business. Find somewhere else.'

He didn't know the context for whatever warranted such a reply. But what he did know is that he knew how much it stung. To be spoken to that way, to feel like you're worth less than everybody else. He didn't know what that person did to deserve this reaction, but everybody should have the ability to eat if they wanted to.

A bit of training would cool his head. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. Some wind training at one of the many waterfalls, followed by an all out battle against his clones.

With his goal in mind, he quickened his pace, his previous thoughts already leaving his mind.

Hiruzen read his reports with a grave frown fixed onto his face. This was not good, not good at all. What the team that he'd sent to Taki had uncovered from the base had terrible news written all over it. The notes recorded mentioned data about a few of his experiments. Enough to understand a few words here and there, enough to make him afraid, but…Not enough for him to understand, much less prepare for it. It was like Orochimaru was taunting them.

This was similar to the reports he'd received from Kakashi all these years ago. His student was trying to play god, and he did not like it one bit. And if that wasn't enough, there were mentions about the rogue group that the snake charmer had joined; Akatsuki.

He'd known about Akatsuki before, thanks to Jiraiya and Itachi. A group of hardened old hands, each possessing the strength to destroy an entire village all by their lonesome. But their leader had always remained a mystery.

Until now.

Pain, a man referring to himself as "God". The idea would have made the old monkey scoff, but a word in these notes had made his blood run cold.

Rinnegan. The eyes of the sage that gave humans chakra and taught them Ninshu. The messiah that ushered a new age for mankind. The one that split the demon known as the ten tails, and created the moon on his death-bed. If anybody deserved the title of "god", it was him. And this man Pain harboured the same eyes. Was he a descendant? Some kind of reincarnation? Or perhaps a grave robber?

Orochimaru knew that they would find this. He knew his student to be too clever to make such a deliberate mistake. So why leave behind such valuable information? Could it be that he wanted them to find it?

He gently placed the papers down and with shaky hands, ignited his pipe before taking in a big breath. This was bad. So very very bad. And the cherry on top, Naruto escaped the village with no authorization, and is now away from the village's safety.

He spun his chair and cast weary eyes to the pictures of the previous Hokage. It was moments like these that he regretted taking back the mantle.

"Hashirama-sensei…Tobirama-sensei…Minato. What would you do in my position?"

'I'm tired…' Naruto complained to himself. All he wanted right now was to limp his way home and sleep. It was nearing nightfall and he didn't want to have Kakashi go off on him again for coming home too late.

Placing a hand on his stomach, he looked around through half-lidded eyes for a food stand. He wasn't hungry. He hadn't really felt hungry in a long time. But he supposed that he should eat something nonetheless to rehabilitate himself into fighting condition.

'I guess takoyaki's fine.'

After getting himself a small plate and paying for his food, he continued on along the road, idly nibbling at one of the skewers. They were good. He had better in the past though. Hmm…Now that he thought about it, when was the last time he'd eaten this dish?

His thoughts derailed when he noticed a lone figure, sitting on one of the public benches along the path. The colour of their hair caught his attention. This must be the girl from this morning at the restaurant. She seemed to be reading some kind of book…

Looking at her up close, there didn't look to be anything wrong with the girl. She appeared to be nine, maybe ten years old. Orange eyes frowned in concentration at the book in her hands while her pupils followed the lines of the book with intensity. Why was she being treated that way? Was she some kind of outcast? He wondered. It could be a number of different things, hatred could take on many shapes after all.

He stiffened up when he realised that her eyes were no longer on her book, but now locked onto him. His shoulders raised slightly in a defensive manner as he looked away and quickened his pace out of her line of sight. Why had he been staring that way? He could feel a slight sense of familiarity about her, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

The girl on the bench stared at his retreating back before scratching her cheek in confusion. 'I wonder what that was about.'

She looked back down at her book, but the smell of fried goods distracted her and made its way to her nose. She blinked and glanced down beside her. A small plate of takoyaki was sitting there.

"Huh?"

She stood up and looked around, looking for the owner of this plate, but nobody seemed to stand out from the crowd of people that were all minding their own business and going about their daily lives. She picked the plate up and gave one more look around her, but still found no signs of anyone. Her stomach grumbled, making her look back down at the plate of yummy food.

—

"There you are."

Naruto shut the door behind him and nodded, making his way to his bed before beginning to take his sandals off.

"We're leaving tomorrow before noon, so make sure you have your stuff ready by then.

"Alright." The blond replied.

The four of them had been staying here longer than he'd anticipated. After tomorrow, it will have been three days since they left Konoha. They were pretty much stuck here until Shibuki and Hiruzen worked something out, Probably because Taki wanted something in exchange for the valuable information they allowed Konoha to gain from this. Unfortunately, that meant that they had to stay here in the meantime as an 'incentive'. They must have finally worked something out.

Oh well, he liked this place so that was fine by him.

The blond tightened the straps of his backpack as he and the rest of the team walked along the edge of the river. This path ran all through Takigakure leading up to the entrance and the underwater cave systems.. He really wasn't looking forward to going back inside those tunnels; he felt a little claustrophobic in them.

"Heeyy, waaaiit!"

The group turned in surprise, Naruto most of all, when they saw a young girl run after them. He recognized her; it was that girl from yesterday on the bench. Why was she here? Said girl skidded to a stop in front of them and doubled over, hands on her knees as she attempted to catch her breath.

"Um…Can we help you…?" Raido asked in confusion. The girl quickly straightened back up and gave them a wide smile.

"Yes! Sorry, I just needed to confirm something!" The scarred man raised an eyebrow as she turned towards Naruto, making him recoil slightly. "It was you wasn't it!? You're the one that gave me the food right!?"

Kakashi watched the scene with intrigue. His eye curved upwards before he turned around and motioned for the other two Chunin to continue on forward, which they did begrudgingly. Naruto glanced back at their retreating form as he sweated nervously, the girl still boring holes into him with her eyes.

"Uh…I think you got the wrong person…"

"Don't try to deny it! I saw you, you're the only one that even bothered looking at me yesterday, so who else could it be?"

Naruto did his best to maintain eye contact, but ended up averting them. He wasn't used to anyone looking at him with such interest.

"How did you even find me?"

"I knew it!" The girl exclaimed in excitement, completely ignoring his question. "Can you tell me your name?"

"...It's Naruto…"

Her smile seemed to stretch even further as she leaned forward a bit closer. "Naruto? It's nice to meet you! My name's-" She stopped when she noticed his headband, and her smile turned into a look of wonder. "Oh, are you from Konoha?"

Naruto nodded slowly, wondering if he should be divulging any of this information to this strange girl. But then again, the symbol was displayed on his forehead, so it didn't really matter.

"We're going back today."

Her mouth opened in surprise, and her smile deflated considerably at that. But she quickly tried to muster up another one again regardless. "Oh, I see." He could see it in her eyes how dejected she was now. Poor girl. She probably had trouble making friends because of this status she seemed to be holding. "Well, I wanted to say that I'm…Grateful. Thank you for giving me that food. It meant a lot."

Naruto nodded his head. "It's no problem."

She looked to be having an internal debate as she fiddled with her hands, before raising one of them up to offer a handshake. "Well, I hope you have safe travels then!" She said with a smile. Naruto looked at her hand with caution before hesitantly raising his up and meeting hers in the middle.

"Thank you."

As soon as their hands met, the space around them changed. Everything was white, and the girl was gone, leaving his hand hanging in mid-air. Before he could comprehend what was happening, a terrifying roar echoed within the space. He turned and saw the nine tails in all of his glory, the usual metal bars somehow absent.

The nine tails launched forward and swiped its hand at…A giant armoured beetle? The beetle buzzed and rolled some distance before quickly straightening up and flying up high out of reach. The kyuubi snarled and stared up at the insect in anger.

"Well isn't this quite the greeting, brother. It's been some time." The beetle buzzed out, making the fox growl even more.

"Wh-What the…!?" Naruto turned around, his eyes widening as he saw the girl with green hair, looking at the scene with terrified eyes. Where on earth was he? What was this creature? And why was the girl here as well?"

He turned and looked up at the giant insect again. That…That's Nanabi, the seven tails. And if he and Kyuubi were here, that meant that Nanabi and that girl were…

"Hey! You get away from Chomei!" She exclaimed as she rushed to her Bijuu's side. Kyuubi glared down at her, as if she was but an insect. He raised his hand and brought it down to squash her, but she was quickly tackled out of the way at the last moment by Naruto.

"Fuu!" Chomei crashed down in front of them, using her body to shield the two out of harm's way from the eyes of the fox. Kyuubi glared at the bug with his eyes filled with anger.

"You've debased yourself to giving your name to a mere mortal? Have you no dignity left, you pathetic beetle?"

If Chomei had any discernible features on her face, she'd be giving Kyuubi a disapproving look.

"I'm not a brute, like you. I've decided to put my trust in this child. This is what father would have wanted, for us to co-exist with the humans."

"And yet here you are, imprisoned inside of one like a slave." Kyuubi snarled.

"You're not better off than me." Chomei replied, making the nine tails roar in anger.

"You are forgetting your place, you piteous insect…It seems after all this time, you've forgotten who the strongest among us is. Let me remind you" Kyuubi opened his maw wide as blue and red energy began to gather inside his mouth.

'Is he going to…?' Chomei thought in distress. Meanwhile, Fuu and Naruto watched the exchange, with Fuu having her eyes open wide with fear. She finally seemed to take notice of the other person here with her after a few seconds. "Naruto!? What's going on here!? What's happening!?"

"Tch…" Naruto frowned in annoyance as the wind picked up.. He pushed himself up and slowly made his way forward, gaining the attention of Chomei.

"Get out of the way boy, this is not your fight!"

"Kyuubi…" Naruto said. But the nine tails ignored him.

"Kyuubi!" He repeated louder. But still, the nine tails ignore him. The orb of energy was now getting bigger and stronger, nearly ready to be launched at them. Chomei buzzed in agitation and prepared herself, making sure that her jailer was completely hidden behind her.

Naruto's eyes widened in anger. He raised his hand, and a thick golden chain followed his action. It shot forward and wrapped itself tightly around the fox's mid-section, making it stagger backwards slightly. Another one shot up and wrapped tightly around the beast's maw, making it snap shut and disrupting the purple ball. It seemed to lose stability as the orb wavered, but the fox didn't stop there. Spurred on by the rage of seeing these chains again, it let out an earth shaking roar that made Fuu stumble back.

But Naruto kept his eyes glued onto his demon, never allowing himself to budge even an inch. The fox thrashed about, but more golden chains shot up. Two wrapped around his back legs, making him topple over. The energy ball lost its power and shattered into a million pieces. It seemed that within this strange place, he did not feel any drain from his chakra expenditures.

Kyuubi pushed his upper body up using his two hands and furiously glared down at the blond. It raised one hand, ready to lash out at his jailer…

"That's enough, KURAMA!"

The fox froze in mid air, all movements ceasing. Behind him, Chomei's breath caught in her throat as she stared down at the human standing before the mightiest of all bijuu.

'This boy… He knows Kurama's name?'

Kurama remained still, arm still in midair while staring down at the blond in a mixture of shock and fury. After seeing no movement from the fox, the chains loosened and disintegrated into particles.

Naruto stared up into the fox's eyes, unflinching. He walked forward and placed his hand on the fox's fur. He could tell that Kyuubi was furious. Perhaps it was best to cut this short.

"I'm sorry…" He muttered. But only the nine tails heard him. He raised his head and looked behind at the other pair. "I…I'm sorry about this."

The space distorted, and the empty void was no more. His vision swam as he found himself back in the real world. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw Fuu collapse onto her hands and knees as she attempted to catch her breath. He wobbled a little bit and pressed a hand to his head.

'Ugh…I won't ever get used to this…'

"Are you alright?"

Fuu looked up in surprise, and her eyes widened when she took notice of the blond again. "Naruto! You…You're a…"

"..." Naruto said nothing and stared down at the ground. So Fuu was a Jinchuuriki, just like he was. He felt…Almost happy. An emotion he hadn't felt much recently. Fuu's eyes brightened at the unspoken answer.

"H-Haah. Woah, I never thought I'd ever meet someone like me! That's so cool! And, um…" Her face suddenly paled a little bit and said in a hushed voice. "Your bijuu is scary…"

"..." Naruto closed his eyes and shook his head. "He's mad at me…But he's my friend. One of my only friends."

Fuu gave him a smile in reply. "Mhm! I get that. Chomei is my friend as well. Although, I've never seen her as angry as yours was."

Naruto's lips twitched upwards slightly. "He has a lot to be angry about…" He looked behind him, noting that the rest of his team was still walking away from the two of them.

'Does time not move inside our mind?'

"I…I have to go…" He said. The mint haired girl looked up and chewed on her lip, but did her best to smile in acceptance. "But we'll see each other again. Soon. I promise."

Her eyes watered as she sniffled and brought her sleeve up to wipe them dry. "Okay. I'll hold you to that Naruto!" She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around him, bringing him into a hug. The blond froze, but did his best not to tense up too much. Instead, he awkwardly brought his arm up and patted her on her back.

The girl pulled away and gave him one last smile before turning around and hurrying away. Before she rounded the corner, she turned back to him and cupped one hand on the side of her mouth to project her voice further. "By the way! My name is Fuu!"

She turned and disappeared from his line of sight. Naruto blinked and stared at the spot she'd just been in. He'd already heard her name within the mindscape. Did she forget? Or maybe she just wanted to introduce herself more formally?

He shook his head and caught up with his team. As he approached them, Kakashi looked back at him with a knowing eye smile.

"Everything in order?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched slightly as he turned the other cheek, refusing to dignify that with a response. Curse that all-knowing scarecrow.

Each step he took felt like he was marching ever closer to his doom. The further they got to Taki, the more the realisation of what he'd done would set in. But he'd made that choice off of his own volition, so it was time to face the music.

And face it he did. The air was almost palpable. Since they'd come in, Sarutobi had been deathly quiet, fingers steepled over his mouth and eyes as sharp as steel, choosing to listen to the report instead.

"And that about sums it up." Kakashi finished. The third hokage nodded once.

"Raido, Aoba, you two may go."

"Yes-sir!" They were all too happy to high tail it out of the room, leaving only the trio behind. Sarutobi continued to observe the two, while Naruto and Kakashi chose to keep quiet. And so, the three sat in silence.

"Since you seem unwilling to argue your case," Sarutobi began, "allow me to share my thoughts with you."

He got up and walked to his window, staring out at the village. "Naruto…I realise that I have been much too lenient with you. You have made a mockery of what this village stands for. Trust, and loyalty, that is our will of fire. And yet…"

The hokage turned and fixed the blond with a stare. "You've decided to discard the notion completely and act of your own free will."

"..."

"What you did equates to borderline treason. Once you take on this headband, you take on the responsibility of what it means to be a ninja."

Naruto frowned and stared down at the ground. He was aware of what he'd done, but wasn't this a bit of an overreaction? Kakashi meanwhile watched the interaction with a small frown on his face.

"I don't think it was that bad…All I did was leave the village for a few days."

Well, that's certainly not what Sarutobi wanted to hear. "This is not a question of the severity of your actions, it's the fact that you did it. There are rules that everybody has to follow with no exception. If somebody breaks those rules and we turn a blind eye, then where does it end? First, someone leaves the village for a few days. Then someone steals information. Then someone kills an ally, someone gives information to other nations, where do we draw the line? It is your duty as a Shinobi to be picture perfect. Those rules have always been in place. However, those rules apply to you doubly so as our Jinchuriki."

Hiruzen slowly approached the two and stood in front of the Uzumaki. "You have shown me today that you are not yet ready to bear this responsibility." Hiruzen reached up to Naruto's headband and, much to the surprise of the two, wrapped his fingers around the material and pulled it off his forehead, making Naruto's eyes widen in shock.

"Naruto Uzumaki, I hereby revoke your status as a Genin of Konoha."

Hey there! It's been a while!

A lot has happened since I last uploaded. First of all Merry Christmas and happy New Year! Hope everybody is staying safe.

I actually have some good reasons why this chapter came out so late. I got a job which takes most of my time and energy. It's hard work and the only thing I wanna do when I get home is just collapse in bed. So I've been trying to write whenever I have some free time and when my brain isn't fried.

Then I got a new PC. Was really stoked about this, but new PC meant having to log in my account again, and surprise surprise, I forgot the pass and moderation for this website is absolute trash. It took me a few months to get an automated reply for a password change and that was after I spammed the 'send email" button continuously until it finally sent me one.

Once I managed to log in, I realized that my new PC didn't have google word installed in it, and I haven't exactly gone around to buying it again yet. Not to worry though, I've started writing on Google Drive instead. I don't really like it as much but it'll do until I get Word and Excel again.

And last but not least, (this one is my fault) I've been obsessing over Elden Ring. Man what a good game that was. But hey, with all of this out of the way, with me being able to access my account again, having a reliable writing platform and getting back into some sort of a rhythm, the next chapter will come much faster. Believe me, no one hates those 5 month long hiatus more than me.

If you're still reading this story after all this time, then again, thank you. You're very special.

Now what are you waiting for? Review, or I'll throw you off a cliff.