Pre-Chapter AN: Here we go. New chapter, kids. I started a new story because the muse hit me. It's an SI into a Senju, Hashirama's Grandson and Tsunade's Cousin. It's shaping up nicely and you can check it out on my profile.. On another note, the next two chapters of this are up on pa-treon if you want to check that out. Enjoy the chapter, or don't. Just don't tell me about it if you don't.

"Lariat" he screamed as they smashed into each other. For the first time in a while, their strengths were equal. Bee wasn't holding back or not giving it his all to avoid harming his big brother. Ay smiled. It was a short brief smile in the end. Bee overpowered him in one swoop and he was sent flying right back into the steps of Unraikyo. He got back to is feet with words on his tongue, but they stilled as he looked at the tails floating behind Bee. There were six of them. He'd gotten him up to six tails finally.

"Well done, Big Bro" Bee said. Even ten portability abandoning his ridiculous rapping at the achievement. Ay wanted to puff up, to swell with pride. But he remembered. Six was a long way away from Eight. And even worse, this was only in the Version 1 cloak. The second version of the cloak was even stronger, and still had toxic properties. He was nowhere near that level.

"It's not enough Bee. I need to get stronger, faster, better. And I need to do it fast"

"There's no rush, Big Bro. Don't rush. Fool ya Fool"

"Who're you calling a fool, Bee. Better not be me"

His brother let out a sound that definitely wasn't a whimper and turned around to flee.

"No running from the Iron Claw, Bee. Come face your punishment like a man"

XXXXX

She stared at the report with no idea what to do. Two years ago, it was rare for her to come across a situation she was incapable of solving. Now, it happened every other day. Ao was dead. The Byakugan in his skull was gone. Somewhere in between Mangetsu being retrieved and his body being brought back, the Byakugan had gone missing. It had just disappeared. Those were two assets gone. The Six Tails was taken by a group of men with black and red cloaks- Akatsuki, she'd learned. Mist had no Jinchuriki. No Byakugan. And a dead former Anbu Commander, to boot.

There was no way this could be described as anything less than a total clusterfuck. Even worse was the report from their Operatives in Cloud. The village was militarising. Ramping up even more than they already were. Considering Cloud was almost always on wartime levels of militarisation, going even beyond that made one thing clear. They wanted to attack. And they were going to do it soon. This wasn't sustainable in even the most vague terms.

She had to come to terms with that fact. Cloud would wage war by the end of the year, at the very latest. Her best analysts claimed that the present militarisation could only be supported for a few months before they actually had to declare a target and attack. If she were a more hopeful woman, she would deceive herself that there was some other target in Cloud's mind than her own village. Decades of spinsterhood had beaten the hope out of her, however. It was for the best. Hope was an expensive commodity in the Shinobi world. She had to be realistic, and if she were in the Raikage's place, there would be no other target on her radar.

Everything Iwa had that was worth something had been taken by the Kazekage in his attack. Even if there was benefit to be gained, the Raikage was a prideful man. He wouldn't want to be a jackal picking over the carcass of prey killed by another. Konoha was too strong, right now. They were also actively ramping up their own military to support their charge across the continent and help in the Cold War with Suna. Suna was in a desert under the rule of a man who had Desert in his literal name. No one was stupid enough to attack Suna. That only left Kiri. And if she was being honest, they were only a bit stronger than they'd been in the heights of Yagura's madness. She was doing her best, but things took time. Time that it was clear they would never get.

Training swordsmen, getting bloodline clans to return their members to the ninja force, getting their economy back on track, figuring out the situation with the Daimyo and ending that clusterfuck before it built up to another civil war, and another million things were all on the agenda. Even if there seven of her, she still had no chance of getting things on track before they built up into disaster.

She war-gamed it in her head. What would happen if Cloud invaded tomorrow? How would they do it? By sea, obviously. They had the biggest fleet and would use it to send shinobi right at her doorstep. She could probably force them to make shore in Nagasaki, but beyond that? She had no chance. What would happen after that? They'd either clear it Island by Island, or make a straight rush for Kiri's core. The latter would probably appeal more to the Raikage's personality, but it would be the wrong move. Kiri wasn't like the other villages. You could have the Kage Tower and still not hold the village. Power lay in the Islands. If he moved straight for Kiri, they could take him out with guerrilla warfare. Death by a thousand needles. Cut him off from Kumo, destroy his ships, starve him on the Island, things like that were well within Kiri's playbook.

However, she couldn't assume that he'd fail to take all that into account just because she wished he did. There was every chance that he was thorough and surgical about it. Tear apart Island after Island. A mad rush for Kiri would only be essential if he didn't have the manpower and quality for a continuous push. She knew he did. One kiri shinobi might be worth three clouds, but it wouldn't matter when they had them outnumbered 10 to 1. Every calculation she ran had her coming out the loser if Cloud waged the war with any intelligence. She couldn't bet the entirety of her village on the hope that their enemy would be stupid.

She needed an alliance. She needed someone strong to stand with her. To give Kiri the illusion of strength to ward off their enemies. Her first thought was Konoha, but she remembered Ao's words- "Danzo Shimura is the last person you should ever trust. He is called the Darkness of the Shinobi world for a reason. Invite him in and he won't leave. Ever". That wasn't an option. She'd rather surrender to Ay than Danzo. Iwa was an option- two weakened villages coming together to equal one strong one.

The only problem was that that might make the Raikage even more likely to test his mettle against them. Take two for the price of one. She would give them good odds against the Raikage, but it was still 50-50. Those were fighting odds, not deterring ones. The only other option was a man she didn't have the best relationship with. Suna was strong. Strong enough that she knew that if they worked together, Kumo would fall. Her operatives in the village were also clear on one thing- Suna was on the ascendancy. Gaara of the Desert, had somehow become a fuinjutsu master without peer. Everything in the village was enhanced with fuinjutsu on some level. Their ninja were equipped with weapons she could only vaguely imagine. An alliance with a power like that would be just what the Doctor ordered.

The only problem - he'd destroyed an Island. A minor one, but still a whole Island. He was part of her village's weakness, even if a minor one. But at the end of the day, between Shimura Danzo and Gaara of the Desert, there was only one choice.

'But was there?' Her mind betrayed her by asking.

There was another option she hadn't even considered- Akatsuki. The organisation of S-ranked missing nin. Sure, they'd taken the Six tails, but there had been no guarantee that Utakata would have ever come into the fold. Perhaps the source of her problems would help with the solution. Perhaps allying with them was just what she needed. And even better, Kisame Hoshigaki was a member. Returning the most powerful of the swords to the village was another benefit. The best part was that the fact that they weren't a major power of their own meant that the alliance had every chance of being an equal partnership that she would have eminence in.

It had to be done.

Mei Terumi never noticed the red eye in the shadowy corner of the room that spun menacingly. Its wielder smiled with sadistic pleasure before disappearing without leaving a trace for any to find.

XXXXX

"How do you want to approach this?" He asked the two S-ranked shinobi sitting in his office as he stared out through the glass window at the view of Sunagakure in all of its newfound glory.

"We have an associate who will lead an attack on KOnoha's walls to draw out as much of the village as possible. Jiraiya will get us through the barrier, and we take out whatever Danzo has in store before separating his head from the rest of is body."

"Associate?" I asked, giving them a serious look. It was ridiculous that they would even consider that I didn't know who exactly they were speaking of.

"Yes an associate of ours-"

"Orochimaru, you mean. My father's killer" I said with faked outrage. If Orochimaru hadn't killed Rasa then I might have been forced to do the job myself.

"Our teammate yes. We trust there won't be a problem"

"A problem with you working with my father's killer and expecting me to do the same? Why the hell would I have such a thing" The sarcasm in my voice was biting.

"Well, you're going to have to stomach it. That's the way of alliances." For a Spymaster, Jiraiya was terrible at negotiating

"I'll kill him" I threatened.

"As if you could" He scoffed in reply.

I visibly bristled, making to stand up. He matched my motion, until Tsunade placed a hand on his arm.

"Nobody will be killing anyone. Whether you could or not. We ask you to forgive Orochimaru's actions in much the same way the Village Hidden in the Leaves is saying nothing about the eye spinning beneath that hair or yours. We know when Kakashi was killed. It was well during our alliance. We are willing to forgive the fact that you broke faith with our sensei in exchange for this small allowance." She said.

"Rasa was a Kazekage. My father. Both things are not equal" I said.

"Fine, then. We will ask for a moratorium. Stay your hand on any action you intend to take against him until Konoha is freed from Danzo's rule. After that point, the both - nay, the three of you- are free to duel to your heart's content" She said, and I smiled at her negotiation ability.

She believed if I picked a fight with Jiraiya and Orochimaru, I would lose. I could see where that kind of idea might come from, but I wasn't the same person that almost lost to Roshi. I wasn't even the same man I'd been when I used the sharingan to hypnotise the nine tails not too long ago. Having a tailed beast under my full control was one hell of an equaliser.

"We leave at dawn tomorrow" I said, silently accepting her proposal, not expressing the fact that I knew I'd come out better in that exchange. Rasa mattered little to me. I'd have to kill Orochimaru to maintain my rule, as it had all begun on the premise of killing the snake the first time around, but that was just business. Jiraiya was annoying, so I would be legitimately pleased if he decided to stand next to his buddy. They'd both die.

The two older ninja walked out of my office and I faded into sand, returning my chakra to the boss.

XXXXX

The seal was an interesting thing at the end of the day. Endless hours of work, altering the seal I'd already made ahead of time to include the things I learned from the Eight Trigrams Seal had been a pleasure. It was the kind of thorough academic work I could sink my teeth into. It was perfect. What was not perfect was the pain of actually removing my old seal and replacing it with this new one. Drawing a seal on yourself was not easy. Using a clone didn't make it much easier either. The chakra networks being virtually identical could have all sorts of wonky effects.

Fuinjutsu was like that sometimes. The best metaphor I'd been able to think of was that fuinjutsu was identical to programming, except you were programming reality itself and every once in a while the rules of mathematics would change slightly. You just had to be sensitive enough to tell in which situations you'd be working with a completely different set of rules. If not, well… There's a reason there are so few Fuinjutsu masters kicking about. Anyone talented enough had a fair chance of killing themself before they made it to the level where that danger was virtually gone. As an Uzumaki, halfling that I was, I had the unique luck of just knowing what would work and what wouldn't.

It was almost like genetic memory. It was the thing that told me designing this seal with anything less than 64 prongs would not work. Fuinjutsu wasn't entirely programming, there were several symbolic elements that had to be taken into account. Gyogo Fuin worked because it had five prongs, one for each element. The Eight Trigrams seal worked because it had eight prongs, one for each gate. The seal I was creating would only work with sixty four prongs, one for each of the body's major tenketsu. The prongs would then be centred on the gates. The seal I intended to create was only a fraction more complex than the Eight Trigrams but it would be a whole order of magnitude more complex.

And what would the seal do? Everything. Everything. Firstly, it would finally shield my mind from the Ichibi. I'd only get into his head if I wanted to, and he had no chance of getting into mine. Secondly, it gave me unfiltered access to his chakra when I wanted it. Even better, it also gave me another funnel for chakra from the Ichibi. I created to outlets for chakra to leave the seal. The first was for tailed beast chakra. Pure unfiltered tailed beast chakra. It would allow me access the version 1 and 2 states and all that, but as the jinchuriki of the weakest tailed beast, it wasn't much of a force amplifier when used like that. When used to power my already impressive ninjutsu arsenal, however, it meant that I could use whatever jutsu I wanted at whatever scale with almost no chance of running out of chakra. It also let me make tailed bast bombs that was only a theory for now. I was yet to try.

The second outlet would function to let a second type of chakra out. Natural chakra. Yup. All the tailed beasts knew about nature energy. Rifling through Shukaku's mind was easy as he was under my genjutsu. He knew how to gather and stabilise nature energy to make nature chakra. That was what the second outlet was for. I tested it with a small amount at first and found that since he already did the hard part of mixing the nature energy with his own chakra, then I could use it as I pleased. Sage mode for free was one hell of a benefit. Constant sage mode as well. I saw no reason to give Shukaku more space to move, and under genjutsu, he'd basically be a source of infinite nature chakra. It was perfect. The third purpose I added to the seal, and the most difficult, was the ability to power my Blessed Seal of Theótita. That meant that the extra chakra was being sent into another seal. My very own Byakuya seal powered by both tailed beast and human chakra. Since tailed beast chakra made regeneration easy when it wanted to, I could achieve more with less, so to speak.

All these functions in a single seal, along with all the basic functions of not letting the Ichibi out and all that meant that the seal was bound to be incredibly complex. Even more complex was the last secret I added in. The Byakuya seal I created was partitioned. One half of it was for healing, but the other was to simply store as much tailed beast chakra as possible. It had a failsafe in that if it ever detected that I had spent more than two minutes without having any of the Ichibi's chakra in my system, then it would pump it into my body.

It was my failsafe for if the Akatsuki ever did manage to take me out and unseal my tailed beast. It was unlikely. More than unlikely even. I was certain I was the strongest shinobi in the world at the moment, but that was only if everything was as it had been in the anime, but judging by Danzo's acquisition of the Kage hat on the back of an army of Edo Tensei shinobi, then it was very possible that I'd fucked up the timeline beyond all recognition. In that case, I just had to be prepared to deal with whatever came for me. Ready and willing to do whatever it took.

Finally done with drawing the seal on my still and very naked body, my clone stepped back to allow Inasa, the head of the seal corps activate the seal. It was the easy step. He just had to front the minuscule amount of chakra needed to get the gears spinning so to speak. He walked forward, slammed a hand on my stomach and screamed, "Fuin". With that word, everything changed.

In the shadows of the village hidden in the Leaves, they stood. They stood waiting and watching. Orochimaru had promised. He'd promised, and she trusted him to deliver. That sentence was insane in her mind. That she would still put her trust in Orochimaru after all he'd done was impressive. But that was what I mean to be in the same team as someone. From Six years old, she'd lived with and surrounded by the two of them. They were as much her brothers as Nawaki had been. And wasn't that one hell of a mind fuck. Really put that crush she'd had on the Snake in their early years into perspective. Luckily, she'd outgrown that particular madness quickly.

"Any second now" Jiraiya said, cloaked from view by his Meisaigakure no jutsu. He'd boasted that he was the greatest user of the technique under the sun and she was beginning to believe him. This was one hell of a cloak, and the fact that she had to legitimately focus to tell him apart even when she knew he was there was something else. Naruto was by her side, cloaked in his inferior version of the technique, but there was little chance any one with any possibility of spotting them would show up here. It was an intentional blindspot in Konoha's defences that Sarutobi-sensei had left for his own use.

They heard a massive crashing sound, and took it as the signal it was. Jiraiya ran up to the wall and weaved a key of 12 seals that temporarily disabled the sensing barrier around this part of the walls. She jumped clear over Konoha's high walls with Naruto underarm and the Kazekage joined her in her jump with his weird sand transformation jutsu. She'd noticed the changes in him. There was a confidence in him that hadn't existed when he'd first greeted them at his village's border. Good. He'd need it to face down Danzo and whatever tricks and traps he had waiting for them in there.

XXXXXX- KARIN UZUMAKI

"Is she outside, Konan?" She heard a weak voice ask from within the room. She waited with a tingling feeling running down her spine. Within the room was the strongest chakra signature she had ever felt in her life. They had even more chakra than Orochimaru-sama at the peak of his powers. The Konan lady was strong and scary enough, but the fact that she answered to someone who was even stronger, and thus scarier was doing things to her mind. She was sure that the only reason she hadn't passed out from the fear running through her was because of how the chakra signature felt.

It was dark and menacing, for sure. But it was also a lot of things. It was resolute and determined like nothing else she'd ever felt. Whatever that person wanted, they wanted it bad. Bad enough that they'd give everything, she suspected. But the one silver lining was that the chakra signature was familiar. It felt like home. She'd only felt this twice before. Once with her mother and the other with the blonde kid that had been on Sasuke-kun's team. Both of them had been good people, trustworthy. She had faith that this would be the same.

Not like there was much of a choice in her hands in the first place. It was either have faith or give into despair. When the woman with the paper jutsu had appeared at the hideout, she'd almost had a conniption at the power in her chakra. She was as strong as Orochimaru-sama was. And she showed it, slaughtering every single one of the formerly imprisoned cursed seal abominations Orochimaru had made with ease. Her paper shuriken sliced through skin that was supposed to be as hard as stone with ease.

After a display like that, when the woman had instructed Karin to follow her, she had no way to say no. There would be no outrunning someone who could fly, and even though she'd pretended that Karin had the choice to decide not to follow her, her chakra did not lie. Karin would have been brought here whether she wanted or not. It was just more convenient to include the illusion of choice. It was something karin couldn't do much about, so she took it on the chin and adapted. The same way she'd adapted when the Kusa nin killed her mother and expected her to replace her. The same way she'd adapted when Orochimaru-sama saved her life and decided to use her in much the same way the Kusa nin had. Well, not much the same way. He'd been a notable step up. She just hoped this ended up being a step up as well.

"Send her in" The weak voice said, and the woman was at the doorway in less time than it took Karin to realise she was the one being referred to.

"Go on in" She said with a smile on her face. A smile meant to disarm. It had the exact opposite effect, because she could feel the sharpness in the woman's chakra. She could feel that she didn't want her to go in. She could feel that the woman was almost completely on edge. She'd kill her in a second if she misstepped.

"Come in, Cousin" She heard the weak voice again. This time, it was addressing her. She walked in, shocked. Cousin? When she came face to face with the source of strong chakra, she wanted to curl in on herself. What was this? A man, emaciated as all hell, with rods sticking out of his back, connected to some sort of device. She could feel how his chakra was sent out by the rods. They were acting as Chakra transmitters. Powerful ones. The receivers weren't all within her range, but she could feel two of them. They were higher on in the tower. This was some sort of basement level.

"Uzumaki. Karin. That is your name right?"

She nodded, not trusting her mouth to speak clearly in the present situation.

"Good. I am Uzumaki Nagato. Your cousin"

Her mouth dropped open. It wasn't possible. All the Uzumaki were dead. Mother had told her a million times when she hoped and prayed that they would come and save them from Kusa. When she laid awake at night despairing at her mother's screams of pain. The nights when they would return her mother to her, tired and on death's doorstep, and then somehow return to take her in the morning. All those times. She wished for some Uzumaki to save her. There were none.

"You're lying" She said without thinking, overcome by such fury that her red cheeks were no concern to her. That her hair rose in on itself, animated with her chakra.

"You're a liar." She said for emphasis, on the edge of screaming.

"Never" He said in reply, removing one of his hands from the device it was in, and stretching it out to her.

She felt his chakra. She felt the truth in it. Chakra never lied. He wasn't lying.

"C-Cousin?" She damned her stutter a million times. Why? It didn't matter that he was her cousin. He was just like the rest. She knew why he'd brought her here.

"Yes. Karin Uzumaki. I searched and sought after one who shared the blood for decades. I found a few, but none like me. None like us. A pureblooded Uzumaki is a rare thing these days. I am happy to meet you."

"Where were you all this time, then?" Where were you when my mother died, she wanted to ask.

"Here. Kusa hid your existence well. It was only Orochimaru's death and our subsequent dismantling of his operations that allowed us find any mention of you. If I had known about you earlier, I would have spared no means to see you freed and brought to my side. An Uzumaki alone in the world is a terrible thing." He said. Once more, he was telling the truth. He only wanted her because she was family. She wanted to cry. She was already crying, she amended as the first sob left her lips. She folded in on herself with a hand on her chest. Weeping. Family.

She had no idea how long she remained crying for, until she felt arms wrap around her. Weak, bony arms, but arms all the same. She felt his chakra cloak her. The way it covered her completely. She sunk into his grasp. She memorised the feeling with all her strength and held on to it, hoping it would never leave. Hoping it would never stop.

She'd told herself that it was impossible. That there was no way anyone would ever want her for who she was, rather than her ability. Kusa hadn't. Orochimaru for sure, hadn't. No one had. Not since her mother died, and not since Sasuke-kun saved her with no idea of her ability. Not until now at least. She'd thought it was a trick- some sort of long con to get her to drop her guard and not watch out for what she was sure was coming. The whole thing about being family- she was sure it was a trick to get her to heal him.

And he sure did need healing. Nagato Uzumaki was sick. The only thing keeping him alive was the Uzumaki family vitality and his massive and dense chakra. The problem with that was that both things were too busy keeping him alive that they didn't have the room to heal him. That was where she'd thought he would have expected her to step in and help him, but she had learnt that he actually didn't seem to care about being healed. They'd spoken about her ability before. He knew about it for sure. He was also intelligent enough that she knew he'd have figured out that her ability could help him. There were few things she couldn't heal. Whatever he' done to himself wasn't one of them. But even as they spoke about her ability, his interest was almost entirely academic. He was more concerned with using the ability to trace her family tree and figure out just what branch of the family she'd spawned from rather than worrying about using it to heal himself. Part of her wanted to ask, but she wasn't sure she'd like the answer. That was what she told herself for years.

She looked across the library. There he was. Not in person, of course. In the form of one of his puppets- his paths. She'd deduced the jutsu a while ago. The chakra rods acted as receivers and transmitters across long distances. He sent chakra through the rods, and his puppets used that chakra to carry out his will. Said will was also transmitted with the chakra. He could also feel and see everything his puppets did. It was a much better technique than what Suna had, and this was a much better library and any one she'd ever been in. Nagato had told her that he had gathered the greatest collection of Uzumaki texts in the world, and she was beginning to believe him. Even Orochimaru hadn't been able to get any scrolls on the adamantium sealing chains, an ancient technique of her clan and arguably the most powerful, but Nagato had nearly a dozen. She read them all- devoured them, really.

She could do it now, she felt. Focusing on her chakra for a few seconds was rewarded with a single glowing chain making its way from her back to wrap around her arm. She didn't know any barrier techniques so the sections of the scrolls that went on about using the scrolls as an avenue for using fuinjutsu techniques like that didn't really apply to her.

She stared at the chain. So focused on it, that she didn't even notice the puppet move until it was right in front of her. She eeped and the chain disappeared into nothingness as the chakra maintaining it slipped past her guide. "Beautiful work, Karin" Nagato spoke through his puppet and she smiled at him. Maybe it was the joy at getting the technique down, or maybe her curiosity had finally gotten the better of her common sense but she turned to him and asked, "Why haven't you asked me to heal you?" She asked. He stared at her with those ringed purple eyes of his. She could feel the weight of his gaze though the puppet.

"I don't need you to" He finally replied, and if there was one response that threw her for a loop, it was that one.

"What do you mean? I've seen your real body, Nagato. Your chakra can only keep you alive for so long. You need a healthy body." She retorted.

"Yes, at present rates, I will be dead in the next seven years. But that matters little. I would have achieved my goal by then" He said in reply.

"Surely, you can't be serious."

"I am"

And that was the end of the conversation.

XXXXXXX

It took her a week to find Konan, and gain the courage to speak with her. It had gone from a situation where she feared being used and wanted only for her ability, to realising that the one person who wanted her for her had a clock on his life, and she could help but he wouldn't let her help. Part of her had wished that he'd turn out to be some sort of asshole or something. Something that would make this situation less scary. But he wasn't. He was a visionary who saw the world in his own way. A man who wanted to build a world where suffering like what happened to her mother would not exist. A world of shared pain leading to shared understanding.

When she explained her worries, she hadn't expected the infuriated look on the woman's face. Hadn't expected the woman to question her over and over again on whether she was sure she could heal him. And when the woman was satisfied, she collapsed in paper.

That night, she hadn't seen any of Nagato's paths around. She didn't see Konan either. In fact, she saw neither of them for a week, until she was suddenly accosted on her way to the library. "Follow me. Nagato has seen the error of his ways" was all the woman had said.

That sentence brought no small amount of joy to Karin's heart. They took the stairs down to the basement level, and there Nagato was. He looked even more tired than usual. In fact, he looked positively exhausted. When his eyes fell upon her, it was almost like he was looking through but not at her. She wondered what it was like. What she looked like through those eyes. The eyes of God.

"Help him, please" Konan asked, while Nagato remained silent.

Nevertheless, when she walked forwards and placed her wrist in front of his mouth, he obediently bit down. Almost immediately, she felt a drain she'd never felt before. But even as her head began to lighten, and her feet began to become unresponsive, she noted the changes that began in him. It started with his hair. Down from his roots, his hair darkened from the dead grey they'd previously been to the same blood red she'd shared with her mother. His body also changed, swelling and shifting. His thin frame filled out in no time.

When she felt his healing complete itself, she fell to the floor, exhausted. The voice that screamed her name was much stronger than it had ever been. She smiled, even as darkness encroached on her vision.

A/N; End of the chapter. Yeah, Nagato is getting a massive buff. He's going to need it. I think it's really funny how I have done no clarification on the timeline at all and I just have like a dozen things going on on different timelines. Hopefully, everything makes sense when all the actors find themselves brought together by fate and plot. If it doesn't, you have my permission to smack me over the head. Next two chapters available on the place of pa-tro-ns (same username as here and link in Profile)